Week #5

FlyingElvis finally exited the mediocrity of weeks #1-4 with their first win of the season.  FE remains in 5th place in the standings but they are now closer to first place (5 rank points) than 6th place (9 rank points).  One big difference this week is that rookie Bryce Young finally did something notable, after a slow start with an average of 7.1 pts per game, this week had 3 TDs for 18.25 pts but he was still held back by 2 INTs.  The top three scorers for FE all had 25+: Josh Allen was a bit inconsistent but similar to B Young he had 3 TDs for 26.75 pts, in that same game Etienne crushed his projection with 27.25 pts, and Kittle was equally effective with 25.25 pts when all three of his receptions were TDs.  On defense TJ Watt had a critical sack to seal the Steelers win and ended the game with 14.5 pts.  It seems his week #4 off game (only 3 pts) was an aberration because he has now returned in double-digit territory like he's done in every other week.  He ranks LB2 in the PQBFL so far. 

The GloriousBastards benefited from struggles by both Prof and Beaud to jump up to first place by finishing second this year despite Ju Herbert being on bye and only having one active RB so it could not have been a better result in the circumstances.  In what will probably be one of his rare starts of the year, Ju Fields scored 40 pts which was perfect timing for Bas.  But even his 40 pts were outdone by J Chase who had only scored 43 pts in the first 4 weeks combined but he exploded for almost the same number of points this week alone with 42.5 pts.  He was languishing as WR22 in the league before this week but now he’s a more respectable WR5, more in line with what a franchise player should be.  His co-WR D Smith did not do nearly as well in fact he almost posted a goose egg with a very weak 1 reception for 6 yds.  On defense for the first time of the season Bas’ fortunes were not aligned with the Dallas defense because Bas finished in the blue despite DAL getting smoked by the 49ers and only scoring 1.5 pt.  The rest of Bas’ defense was much better led by 20 pts from Warner and none of the individual defenders scoring less than 8 pts; Josh Sweat at DL is the one who had the lowest score but it was nonetheless more than his projection.

After four straight weeks in the red the Decepticons rose from the ashes to a third place to move up from 9th to 7th in the standings.  Rookie Achane started for the first time because rookie TE LaPorta has been graduated to the TE position so now Dec can start both.  Achane responded to the call with a 76-yard TD and 18.75 pts and moved up to ROO3 in the league but is now injured so the excitement might be short-lived.  LaPorta is a rare rookie TE who performs like a veteran despite lots of previous rookie TEs struggling in their first season.  LaPorta scored 2 more TDs this week for 17.25 pts and his rank of ROO5 translates to TE2 right behind Kelce.  Amazing for a green rookie at a position which is hard to learn, as Kyle Pitts and others can attest.  Similar to Achane, Breece Hall also had a long TD of 72 yds and scored 24 pts.  Could it be that next year Dec will franchise a pair of young RBs leaving Mahomes in the dust?  Mahomes has not been bad but he’s not dominant either.  This week he scored 19.25 pts which fell short of his projection and he only ranks QB10 so far, even being outscored by Tua Tago (QB4).  D Montgomery is another of Dec’s runners who scored a long one with a 42-yd TD for 18.75 pts. 

OldNo7 finished 4th this week to maintain grab of 4th place in the standings.  Old did not have a college player to start this week due to having only drafted one offensive college player, the other one being a LB so he did not accrue points this week which was a head wind Old had to deal with.  Ty Hill was the team leader once again with another huge stat line 8-181 plus a long TD for 25 pts.  He is the non-QB who has scored the most points in the PQBFL so far.  Another significant contribution came from the 49ers defense who was solid against the Cowboys with 4 turnovers and 4 sacks for 19.5 pts, far in excess of their projection.  At QB Old stuck with Cousins ever after his subpar week #4 game when the Vikings won, and Cousins responded with an adequate 19.5 pts this week which almost matched his projection but the Vikes lost again.  The more they throw the more they lose, that’s how it goes.  Old could have finished higher if CMC had a better game - he scored a short TD but considering his team scored 6 TDs, more would have been expected of him.  Also CMC was limited to only 78 total yards and he lost a fumble so 8.5 pts was his worst game of the season. 

After the last place finish in week #1, WaxOnWaxOff has finished in the middle of the pack (4-5-6th) every week including this week with 5th place so at first glance things have stabilized but as soon as we could expect Barkley to come back from injury, now Ju Jefferson has been lost for many weeks to injury which will hurt Wax as much as missing Barkley, if not more.  This week Jefferson exited after scoring only 4.25 pts and even Hockenson could not pick up the slack with only 7.5 pts.  In Barkley’s continued absence both starting RBs Herbert and Warren did not do much with 6.25 pts and 6.5 pts, respectively.  Rookie Stroud had a hot stretch from weeks 2-4 with scores in the 20s each week but he moderately slowed down this week with 14.25 pts which is nonetheless higher than most rookies in the league especially considering that they are currently dropping like flies either via injury or graduation.  The biggest positive change of the week for Wax was Burrow who showed signs of life with 26 pts which is exactly the total he scored in all first 4 weeks combined.  Defense was also fairly solid with double digit scores by N Bosa, Okereke, and Deablo, while the Pats were a big disappointment by losing big against the Saints.

ProfMJ finished a season-low 6th place with a disappointing 129.75 pt effort.  The QB situation for Prof is not that great to begin with and with Geno Smith on bye it was even worse and forced the coach to start D Jones again who stunk with 5.75 pts.  Franchise player Pollard was terrible with only 2.25 pts; he did not have the look and feel of a franchise player before the season started and those concerns are materializing because he only ranks RB16 in the league.  The coach also benched Conner and Swift in favor of B Robinson, thinking that the latter would benefit from a juicy matchup against the Bears but it was not so.  Robinson was useless with 6 rushes for 10 yards.  With K Allen on bye the coach started CD Lamb who is quite a luxury backup to have but he did not deliver this week with only 6.25 pts.  The only player on offense who beat his projection was rookie Addison and that was probably helped considerably by Jefferson’s injury.  Prof was able to avoid finishing in the red mostly due to defense with the Jets scoring a TD and 19.5 pts, J Allen making M Garrett’s bye week a non-issue by scoring 12 pts, and LB E Jones scoring 18 pts. 

The Ballers finished in the red for the third time in 5 weeks and got passed by Dec in the standings.  L Jax had a toothless performance against the Steelers – no TD, 1 INT, 1 fumble lost, and a road loss.  His total score of 6.5 pts paled in comparison to 29.75 pts from Goff on the bench who dismantled the Panthers and now leads Jackson 20.5 to 16.5 pts per game.  At WR Kupp came back from injury and even outscored his projection with 15.25 pts but the Ballers’ coach was careful and benched him due to the uncertainty, Deebo started instead and scored a modest 7.25 pts.  Regular starter Diggs was much better but it was in a losing effort with 18 pts and he lost his cool on the sidelines.  With Javonte and Jeff Wilson missing one more week to injury, Ball was forced to start Cordarrelle who was barely used and scored 0.5 pt.  College QB Penix was on bye so it was another dark spot in the Ball lineup because backup Perkins is a college LB and therefore scored zero.  One small good news was that rookie WR Rashee Rice scored a TD and 10.5 pts to help beat the Bros.  The Bengals defense also had a hand in that result thanks to a TD and 17 pts. 

The BeaudoinBrothers had their worse week of the season with 8th place and promptly fell from first to third and the outlook is not better due to injuries.  Anthony Richardson got knocked out early – again.  He seems to be the very definition of injury prone only this time he’s not coming back soon not to mention that the Bros don’t have anybody viable behind him: backups are ROO19-25-26.  Kelce scored but got banged up so there was a cloud above his 18.25 pt game.  James Cook seemed jet lagged in the game in London with his negative yardage on the ground and only 1.75 pts - not great as a replacement for Ken Walker who was on bye.  WR D Adams is also playing banged up and had a modest 4-45-0 on MNF but Pittman on the bench did not do much better so it did not really matter.  The other starter Aiyuk was also below average with only 6.75 pts.  Hurts had an ok game but 23 pts was his projection so not something that could carry the Bros out of the doldrums.  Defense was also poor with the Bills who could not stop the Jaguars all day (474 yds allowed), and Q Walker + Dugger both having pedestrian stats with no big play for a total of 5 pts and 6 pts, respectively.

The Admirals finished last for the second time in three weeks and with a season-low 101.5 pts.  When the top offensive players on a team are the rookie and the college player, then it’s a sign that something is seriously wrong and such was the case for Adm this week.  As unbelievable as it is, the top offensive score was college QB Frank Harris with 8.75 pts and the second best was right behind with 8.5 pts from Zay Flowers.  Nobody else on offense did better than Olave with 7.5 pts which was quite below his projection.  D Henry did nothing special and finished the game with only 5 pts, Tannehill was as bad with 6.75 pts so this Titans duo was completely muzzled by the Colts defense which is not a top defense.  D Harris, K Toney, Knox, and kicker Tucker were the other starters who combined for a measly 14 pts.  Defense was the only bright spot with 4 of them outscoring everybody on offense including the college QB: DL Hutchinson was the best of the bunch with 13 pts and his DL teammate Crosby was almost as good with 12 pts.  The Packers did not win but it was not because of their defense which kept them in the game and scored 12 pts due to one blocked kick and 4 sacks. 




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