The Ballers entered into the PQBFL with a bang, stunning the
competition to be the first expansion team ever to win week #1.
It was even more surprising that the Ballers did so without much
contribution from QB Watson who was limited to 11 pts and R Wilson 24
pts on the bench. The first two picks Ju Jones and ODB both got
the job done with 19 pts and 16.5 pts while RB Chris Thompson was used
a lot as a receiver and ended the game with 16.5 pts despite Adrian
Peterson having the bulk of carries. Rookie Tremaine Edumnds was
busy against the Ravens with 17 pts and scored almost as much as S
Barkley and S Darnold but at a much cheaper cost. Ball’s highest
scorer was on defense with Myles Jack scoring a TD and finishing the
game with 22 pts.
WaxOnWaxOff finished a satisfying 2nd to open the season, led by 30.75
pts from Aaron Rodgers. However Wax is more concerned about the
future than the week #1 result because it is currently unclear how
healthy Rodgers is after being banged up in that game. Antonio
Brown was his normal self with 21.5 pts despite less than ideal weather
conditions and the Rams D was dominant as expected and scored 14
pts. RB Joe Mixon was the 5th highest RB scorer this week with
17.25 pts which is a very good sign of things to come for Wax given the
precarious RB situation of Wax’s roster. Gio Bernard was hardly
used which is music to Wax’s ears, if he can hear anything due to
wax. L Fitz started and scored an ok 10.75 pts but the coach
benched Mike Evans who exploded for 22.25 pts in the trashing of the
Saints. That call cost Wax 1st place.
Similar to Wax, Dec had a reasonable week #1 finish with 3rd place but
the result was more sour than sweet given that Dec came to just 0.25 pt
of Wax and was possibly more affected by injuries than Wax, at least
for this week. First off, DB K Neal was injured early in the game
and left after scoring only 2 pts. For sure without this injury
Dec was going to beat Wax, and possibly Ball as well. Then we
heard the news that Neal is out for the year which is a big blow to
Dec’s defense because Neal was a tier-1 DB along with R Jones (Beaud)
and L Collins (Beaud). To make matters worse, LB Deion Jones had
a good game with 15.5 pts but he is also now injured and was placed on
IR. Unlike Neal however, he is expected to come back to health
later in the season. Rookie Darnold was efficient and scored 18.5
pts to help Dec this week and at the opposite end of the spectrum
defense was an unmitigated disaster with the Saints scoring negative 4
pts. Those 4 pts alone were the difference between 1st place and
3rd place.
The Admirals finished in the first half of the standings to open the
season on a decent note but same as for Wax and Dec, week #1 was
painful with an injury to TE Greg Olsen who will miss significant
time. The only good news is that backup Ebron was good this week
with 13.5 pts on the bench. Admirals’s top player this week was M
Thomas who caught an eye popping 16 passes out of 17 targets and
finished the game with 27 pts. If the Saints defense continues to
suck like in week #1, Thomas might very well finish the season WR1 in
the entire PQBFL. The Vikings defense was also productive with a
TD and 17.5 pts in a solid game vs the 49ers. The major
underperformer of the week for Adm was Alex Collins who only had 7
carries for 13 yards in the blowout win against the Bills and was
outrushed by Dixon, L Jackson, and J Allen. Only a short TD saved
Collins’ stats but he also lost a fumble.
FlyingElvis got a rough season start but it could have been worse,
finishing narrowly ahead of Beaud and Old in 5th place. Before
the first snap things were already not going well for FE with L Bell’s
decision to stay home with no warning, unlike last year where he
reported in time for week #1. Nobody could have seen this coming
and it will cost big time for FE especially since Bell’s absence does
not even come along with injury points. D Freeman did not do much
with only 4 pts and T Coleman got more carries than him. Similar
issue in Miami: FE’s K Drake scored only 5.5 pts and was hampered by F
Gore rushing for 61 yards compared to Drake’s 48 pts. It will be
difficult to score starter-level points with so much sharing and FE is
looking at a problem situation at RB until L Bell comes back. QB
Cousins was the top scorer with 23 pts, followed by rookie Barkley 18.5
pts, Gronk 17 pts, and the Jags defense 14 pts. In other words,
all the FE top guns produced, at least those that showed up to
play. Individual defenders are not expected to be a team strength
and week #1 was a good sign of it. DB Karl Joseph did not even
get a tackle and DL B Graham only scored 2 pts.
Similar to Wax, Dec, and Adm, the BeaudoinBrothers had an injury issue
with 1st pick overall Fournette leaving the game early after only 4.5
pts. If that had not happened Beaud would have beat FE but would
most likely not have been enough to finish in the first half of the
standings so it was a down week, injury or not. Beaud waited
before drafting a QB and QB was problematic this week. Stafford
got the start and with an adequate performance he could have pulled the
Bros in the top half of the standings but instead he fell flat on his
face with 4 INTs on MNF against the lowly Jets. The Bros would
have done better by starting Luck instead who scored 20 pts vs Stafford
5 pts. The other coaching mistake was benching K Mack because
rumors were that he was going to be on a snap count. M Ingram
started and had a 4-point dud compared to Mack’s dominant 23 pts
including a TD. Not to mention R Jones scoring 17 pts on the
bench with starter L Collins only scoring 6.5 pts.
OldNo7 started the year on the wrong foot and came up just short of
beating FE and Beaud with only 117 pts. M Ryan was a
disappointment with only 4.75 pts on TNF so the return of Wentz is
urgent for Old. At WR, both Thielen and D Thomas scored double
digits, but Cobb was benched with 24 pts. Franchise RB Gordon had
a productive day with 15.75 pts and fellow RB D Cook had over 100 yards
from scrimmage but no TD and a fumble lost limited his scoring to less
than 5 pts which hurt Old. On defense, in a rare bright spot DL
Garrett was all over the field against the Steelers and scored 21.5 pts
with 2 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and 2 QB hits.
The GloriousBastards looked like the expansion team this week rather
than the Ballers, finishing a distant last with 104.5 pts. Brady
and D Adams outscored their weekly projection with 24 pts and 15.25
pts, and E Elliott was close with 12 pts. However Bas was sunk by
4 pts from K Hunt, 2.5 pts from Hogan, and 1.75 pts from TE
Burton. At least backup TE Kittle scored double digits so he
might be the starting TE for Bas sooner rather than later, but at RB
nobody will take over Hunt as the starter so he just needs to
produce. On defense the Chargers were dreadful and scored -2.5
pts against the Chiefs, surrendering 38 pts on defense. At DB Bas
also started the wrong player, T White was limited to 4 pts while M
Peters returned an INT for a TD.
