WaxOnWaxOff won for the first time of the year and took sole
possession of first place in the standings. For once Wax did not
have a meaningful intra game injury so nothing stopped the reigning
champs to top everybody with 167.5 pts. The leader was
surprisingly rookie LB Darius Leonard who got 9 tackles, 4 assists, 2
sacks, 1 pass defended and 2 QB hits for a total of 22.5 pts.
Leonard so far is the top scoring rookie by a wide margin; what a
bargain in the 13th round – a great catch by Wax’s GM. Leonard
was not even the first rookie defender drafted. On offense Wax
got contribution from almost all positions: A Rodgers scored over 20
pts, both Crowell and Jo Howard scored double digits, and the WR duo A
Brown / M Evans each scored on MNF to secure the win.
The BeaudoinBrothers finally got started after a rough weeks #1-2 with
second place behind Wax. The big difference this week was that
rookie Josh Allen emerged as a potent force by surprising the tough
Vikings defense on the road with 26.75 pts. K Mack was dominant
with 2 sacks and a forced fumble while LB Schobert is benefiting from
Kirksey’s injury and he scored 14.5 pts including a key INT late in the
game to seal a rare Browns win. On offense D Johnson scored a
modest 13 pts which is ok but more is expected of a franchise
player. M Lynch’s 13 pts was solid in replacement of Fournette
and Ajayi, both injured. Beaud could have finished first if not
for the unacceptable 3 rec 44 yds from high priced WR K Allen who even
lost a fumble on one of the only three times he touched the ball.
Many teams often follow up a huge win with a subpar week, but Dec
managed to avoid that fate with a decent 3rd place. Things
started rough with S Darnold on TNF scoring in negative territory,
however it got better on Sunday with Mahomes continuing on his torrid
pace with 27.75 pts this week and he had to slow down in the second
half because the game was getting out of hand. Kamara and
McCaffrey did not even need to score to beat their projection, scoring
15.75 pts and 16 pts, respectively. They both fell just short of
a whopping 200 yards from scrimmage. JJ Watt reminded folks that
he is still a dominant force on defense despite his recent injuries
with a strong game including 3 sacks for 24 pts.
After finishing 1st and last, the Ballers settled near the middle with
4th place. Normally 147.75 pts should be worth better than 4th
place but unfortunately Ball missed out on beating Dec and finished way
ahead of Adm in 5th place. D Watson led the way with 22.75 pts
but once again it was in a loss by the Texans. Watson is capable
of doing more – 2 TDs and 1 INT is not at the elite level given what
some other QBs have done so far this year. ODB is not having the
best season start and he did not score this week but at least 9-109 was
good enough to match his projection of 14.25 pts. On MNF TE
McDonald gave a scare to Dec with a long 75 yd TD but he did not do
enough the rest of the game to pull Ball to 3rd place. The worst
dud of the week for Ball was C Thompson who surprisingly did not get
involved in the passing game like he was in the first two weeks of the
year: he only caught one pass for no yardage at all.
The Admirals had their worst week of the season with only 121.5 pts and
should consider themselves lucky that they did not finish lower than
5th. Adm got a big game from C Newton thanks to 4 TDs although
yardage could have been better with only 150 passing yards.
Gurley and M Thomas pulled their weight again with 15 pts and 16.25 pts
but it was a step down from their recent production. Same for
Hopkins who scored 10.25 pts which was below his projection.
However the main problem was outside the key positions of
QB-RB-WR. Defense was porous for Adm this week, with the Vikings
getting whooped by the sorry Bills offense, Byard only scoring 1 pt,
Von Miller 2 pts, and Adm getting zippo from his rookie Pettis and
college QB J Pass. This led to the trade on Tuesday where Adm
shored up both positions by shipping off Tyreek Hill to FE.
OldNo7 scored a season-low 115.25 pts and finished 6th, only beating
Bas and FE. A Thielen and T Kelce were the best on offense with
19.25 pts and 13.5 pts but none of them scored a TD which was the
difference between a good game and a great game. RBs Gordon and
Coleman did the opposite: they both scored but their stats were so-so
therefore their final score was not earth shattering. Old was
anxious to see Wentz back in the lineup and started him, but the result
was a mediocre 11.25 pts. Old should have stuck with M Ryan
against the shitty Saints defense – Ryan exploded for 46.25 pts.
The coach also goofed by starting injured LB P Brown. Those two
calls made a big difference; Old could have finished 3rd and if not 2nd
depending who would have started on defense instead of P Brown.
The GloriousBastards finished near the cellar for the third straight
week and sees them in the basement of the standings at this
point. Not much is going well for this team. First off,
father time has caught up with Brady – he’s not going to have a top 5
season. He did not get anything done against the Lions and
finished with 7.25 pts. After 3 weeks Brady is 13th best QB and
early indications are that he’s not going to turn out being a very good
investment as the first pick of the 3rd round. Then there is the
issue of E Elliott. He’s doing ok but the overall offense is so
bad that it is affecting his production. Elliott did not score a
TD and did not reach double digits this week. K Hunt is having
problems for a different reason: the Chiefs offense is so good that
he’s not getting the chance to grind the clock much. He only got
44 rushing yards, no reception, and 2 short TDs. Then the Bas
coach clearly did not read the summary last week otherwise he would
have known that Zuerlein is injured, but he started again him and left
Hopkins’ 6.5 pts on the bench. The Texans defense has also been a
disappointment, averaging only 2.8 pts per week. This week they
got beat by the toothless Giants.
FlyingElvis stunk this week with only 102 pts and last place. The
only good news is that rumors are ramping up that L Bell will be
traded. Otherwise FE sucks at RB with D Freeman still injured, Ty
Montgomery might only be RB3 on his own team, and K Drake only rushed 5
times for 3 yards in a home win against the Raiders which is deeply
concerning. WRs were decent with 29.5 pts total from C Kupp and M
Jones. The GM pulled off a good trade yesterday by acquiring
Tyreek Hill from Adm, filling a need at WR while paying with FE’s team
strength where Royce Freeman was not really needed given the presence
of Barkley. This will help FE compete better at WR. However
let’s not forget the Pats’ struggles affecting Gronk too who only
scored 6.5 pts this week and none of the 4 defenders for FE scoring
more than 7.5 pts this week. So a trade won’t fix all FE’s issues
by itself.
