2009 Week #10

After an incredibly long drought of 45 straight weeks without finishing first, UJ took week #10 in their first above average week all year . The last time UJ had finished first was week #17 of 2007 but shared first place with Spi, which is why we have to go all the way back to week #15 in 2006 for the last time UJ was first (alone). UJ easily distanced the opposition this week, finishing more than 20 pts ahead of Wax in 2^nd. P Manning was obviously key in this success, by kicking the Patriots’ ass late in the game in a stunning comeback win. First round pick Chris Johnson was not benched for once, and did as well as usual and even better with 32.25 pts. CJ is the top RB in the league so far. It’s unbelievable that he has been benched so often. UJ is still last in the standings, but moved to 2 pts of JB in 7^th place and 1 point behind FE in 8^th place.

WaxOnWaxOff beat Beaud by 4 rank-points this week to move within one rank point of first place and Wax holds the tiebreaker in addition . Vegas promptly moved Wax as league favorite at the moment due to Wax’s momentum and the injury to Michael Turner on Beaud’s side, not counting the fact that Wax has a better team anyway, shown by the higher total points scored so far and better strength of starters. Most of Wax’s players did not have a great week but R Moss carried the team with 30.75 pts on SNF. MJD also did his regular contribution with 19 pts. Rookie Stafford was finally able to avoid turnovers and scored 14.5 pts and moved up to 4^th best rookie in the league so far.

The Spitoons finished in the top three for the third straight week and are now within striking distance of first place . Spi made most of his damage on SNF and MNF, with R Wayne scoring 28.25 pts and the Ravens defense throwing a shutout in Cleveland and adding a TD for 21 pts. This was enough to partially hide Westbrook’s 4.5 pts before he suffered another concussion. This looks like the end of his career. Spi will have another franchise player in 2010. The only RB candidate would be Forte but he has struggled in 2009. At least this week he was able to contribute via the air, getting 120 receiving yards.

The Dugongs finished 4^th for the fourth straight week (!?) and in the middle 3 spots in each of the last 9 weeks . I guess we have been saying the same thing every week, but it just keeps happening. Once again that was not much to get excited about Dug’s lineup this week, Rodgers and Peterson playing well but not cracking 20 pts. The RB2 and WR2 continues to be a weakness for Dug, K Smith scoring 3.25 pts and B Edwards 4.75 pts. Note that with the trade deadline approaching, Dug has been unable or unwilling to pay up to acquire a decent rookie. Dug owns the 20^th and 24^th best rookies out of 28 in the league. Surely someone could have been available for cheap. But it looks like Dug will end the season with their two backup rookie RBs.

FlyingElvis

The BeaudoinBrothers were knocked down this week and their significant first place lead has all but vanished with a disappointing 6^th place . It could have been worse since Beaud beat Old by the slimmest of margin 0.25 pt. What really hurt was Turner’s injury. Not only he might be lost for several weeks, but this week he was heading for a monster game after rushing for over 100 yards in the first quarter and then he got injured. If he had played the other 3 quarters, the BBs would have probably beat FE and Dug, and maybe Spi and Wax if Turner had gotten a couple of TDs or so. But it was not meant to be, and the BBs were dragged down by OchoCinco only catching two passes in the Bengals’ road win in Pittsburgh and the Eagles defense not doing its job in San Diego. The LB position is also a weakness for Beaud as Mayo, Vilma, and Ryans have all been mediocre this year (they rank from 17^th to 23^rd in the league out of 29 LBs).

Old barely lost to the BBs but also barely beat JB in 7^th place. S Jackson had a rare good game with 2 TDs against the Saints, but Matt Ryan threw two INTs in a loss against the Panthers. Old was also slowed down by a rare low scoring game by Jared Allen who only got one tackle, one pass defended, and two QB hits . Old nonetheless moved closer to 5^th in the standings due to the horrible week by Dec.

Only 10 pts separated 4^th place and 8^th place this week, and only 20 pts separated 2^nd place and 8^th place. Unfortunately, JB came out with the short end of the stick in what was a critical week to get easy rank-points without shooting the lights out on the scoreboard . Franchise player Brees was so-so in St.Louis with “only” 14.25 pts. JB expected a huge multi-TD game, but instead got 2 TDs and 2 INTs. All three starting receivers for JB were bad with a total of 13.75 pts for Sa Moss, G Jennings, and H Miller. A rare bright spot with rookie Maclin who continues to impress, catching another TD this week. He is currently the league’s 5^th best rookie.

The Decepticons got crushed with a last place for the second time this year . Dec knew right off the bat on Thursday that they were going to suck because Cutler threw 5 INTs on the Thursday game and did not get a single TD. Because of this, Dec was projected 8^th by Vegas and did even worse. The bye week for Andre Johnson was not kind to Dec who had to start Royal (3 pts). Vincent Jackson has had a great year so far, but not week 10 with only one short catch. V-Jax remains in the top 10 WRs anyway and has been a nice surprise. The Decepticons are have now breached the dreaded 10 rank-points mark away from first place and with 4 other teams ahead of them, chances for the title do not look too good.

Note: sometimes the NFL announces stats changes and according to PQBFL rules, the results are not totally official until Sunday 1pm Eastern.

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