Week #12

The GloriousBastards are the hottest team in the PQBFL right now with a third straight top 2 finish and the team’s 3rd win of the season.  The Bastards were already in good position to win after the Sunday 1pm games; during the 4pm LV-SEA game, both Beaud and Bas got “lucky” because the game went into overtime which gave extra scoring opportunities to DK Metcalf (Beaud) and Josh Jacobs (Bas) and D Adams.  While Metcalf came up empty in OT, it is Jacobs who made the most of the extension of play when he capped his already good game with a long 86-yard TD which allowed Bas to beat Beaud by 10.25 pts.  Without this single play Beaud was going to beat Bas by 5 instead.  Another who had a good game to secure the win on SNF was Aaron Jones with a TD and 15.25 pts, easily beating his projection.  With QB Fields injured Bas went back to Ju Herbert and it turned out well with 3 TDs no turnover for 31 pts which was Herbert’s best game of the year.  On MNF the Bastards had an opportunity to shoot for 200 pts for the week but the trio of Steelers Pickett+Fitzpatrick+Heyward all underperformed compared to projections but enough had been done on Sunday to have a big cushion for the win.  Pickett’s TD-less performance was a bit concerning considering the Steelers scored 24 pts and won, but nonetheless he did better than Rashaad White and Olave on the bench. 

The BeaudoinBrothers were projected to be in a tight matchup with Wax until SNF when Hurts-Sanders-Brown showed up for the Eagles to destroy the Packers.  They combined for 5 TDs and 63.5 pts but the most impressive was 153 rushing yards for Hurts and 143 rushing yards for Sanders.  D Henry did not do as well, he had a reception followed by a long run towards the end zone but he was denied a TD by fumbling near the goal line which deprived the Bros of several points.  WR Metcalf made his first start for the Bros when the coach benched Pittman.  Metcalf did not score a TD but he was heavily involved in the offense with 11 receptions so not a bad game, nonetheless Pittman slightly edged him on the bench by 0.5 pt.  Kelce was the opposite of Metcalf: he scored a TD but he only had 4 receptions which was his lowest of the season.  On defense the Dolphins completely dominated the Texans, leading 30-0 at halftime and scoring a defensive TD, before softening in the second half to end the game with 15 pts and 210 yards allowed.  Individual defenders were quite poor notably Chinn who came back from injury in week #11 and had a good game with boosted the confidence of the coach to start him in week #12, but he bombed out with only one point.  The rookie position has become problematic for Beaud, early on Devin Lloyd was scoring double digits every week but his never-ending slide continued this week with only 2 pts in a game where teammate Oluokun (FE) had 13 tackles and 5 assists so it’s not like the defense was not given opportunities to make plays.  The timing is bad because as soon as WanDale Robinson was starting to emerge to replace Lloyd, he got injured and he’s out for the year. 

FlyingElvis finished 3rd which was a decent outcome but lost ground to both Beaud and Bas, the closest two teams to FE in the standings.  The team leader for FE was rookie Wilson who caught two TDs for 22.5 pts, followed closely by L Jax with 20.5 pts.  Jackson was having a TD-less game until two minutes remaining in the game and he also had a successful 2-point conversion to put the Ravens ahead by 7, but they lost the game anyway.  Too little too late for Jackson who did not do much until that last drive.  WRs Lamb and Cooper had similar games to L Jax, both having good stats 6-106 and 7-94 but they were held out of the end zone which limited their scores to low double digits.  It was the same for Ekeler who ended the game a bit lower than projections but for him it was mostly due to subpar rushing yardage (20 yds) but at least he scored a TD.  On defense as noted above the Ravens collapsed late in the game and lost, finishing with only 5 pts for FE.  Oluokun and D James were stellar with 20 pts and 16 pts while A Donald was a laggard with only 4 pts.  On MNF FE needed a decent game by J Taylor to beat Dec and FE’s franchise player did exactly that with 98 total yards and a TD for 13 pts, while Dec’s N Harris was limited to 8.25 pts in that same game in part due to leaving early to injury and it was key in FE beating Dec by 7 pts this week. 

The Decepticons had the league’s second highest injury points this week (behind Prof) but nonetheless found a way to finish 4th even with N Harris missing part of the game as mentioned above.  With Kupp out, Hopkins continued to do well despite the return to health of M Brown which should limit target opportunities for Hopkins going forward; Hopkins scored 16.25 pts this week.  Injured player replacement WR Meyers’ time in the starting lineup was short lived, he was benched in favor of Lockett who more than doubled him 13.25 pts to 6 pts.  Despite Hopkins and Lockett having good games, the best receiver of the week for Dec was TE Schultz who scored twice on Turkey Day.  Dec’s fourth receiver this week was rookie Burks who did not catch a TD pass but he recovered a fumble in the end zone for a TD to finish with a good game at 14 pts nonetheless.  Dec’s top scorer was Mahomes with 17.5 pts which was far below his weekly projection because he only had 1 TD in a low scoring game and was also hampered by one INT.  On defense pretty much everybody was terrible except for LB Perryman scoring 16 pts, while DB Kearse only scored 5 pts and DL Hendrickson only scored 2 pts. 

The Ballers finished in the middle of the pack and extended their lead over Prof to 8.5 rank-points in 8th place in the standings.  To start the week on Thanksgiving, the coach made the last second decision to start Goff and bench A Rodgers which was a gutsy move considering the Lions were playing the tough Bills defense while the Packers had the potential to be involved in a shootout against the Eagles (and they did).  That starting QB call turned out great for Ball with Goff keeping up with the Bills for most of the game and scored 18 pts while Rodgers was more erratic with 2 TDs but 2 INTs for 11.5 pts so in the end the QB decision was the difference between 5th and 7th place.  Both Ballers’ starting WRs had good games with Diggs scoring 16.75 pts and Higgins doing even better with 19.5 pts in perhaps his last hurrah before J Chase (Bas) comes back to health.  Higgins scored double digits in each of the 4 games missed by Chase but he only did so in 2 of the first 7 weeks of the season when Chase was playing.  Anyway even if Higgins has to be put on the bench by Ball, A St-Brown has not slowed down much and in fact even outscored both Diggs and Higgins this week, with St-Brown scoring 20.25 pts on the bench.  This week both Ballers’ RBs were weak with 5.5 pts from D Cook and 5.75 pts from C Patterson, the better runner being by far rookie Walker who scored 15.25 pts.  On the entire season Walker has been averaging 11.7 pts per game which is best rookie in the league if we ignore injured Breece Hall (Wax), and even ahead of franchise player D Cook (11.5 pts) at RB.

The Admirals finished as low as 6th place despite scoring 136 pts which is not that bad in fact it’s in line with the season-long league average.  Adm was boosted by the return of D Murray who scored 24.75 pts in a game they lost with only seconds remaining when the Chargers gambled and went for two after a TD, and succeeded.  It would have been better for Adm if that game had gone into OT to give more playing time to D Murray.  However there was one Adm player who benefited from overtime, it was Chubb who was not having the best game but his walk-off TD in OT helped him to finish the game with 16 pts.  Adm’s injury problems at RB continued with newly acquired James Robinson being injured, so D Harris started but he also re-injured himself after only getting 5 rushes for 16 yds.  Rookie Watson extended his hot streak after being useless in the first 9 weeks of the season, this week he scored a long TD for 17.5 pts.  Regular receivers (non-rookies) were all poor with D Samuel scoring 5 pts which continues to be quite bad for a high-prized 2nd round pick (WR22 in the league so far), Knox only scoring 2.75 pts with Waller still out to injury so Knox is the only option, and Waddle failed to reach double digits as well.  Defense was generally strong for Adm with 14 pts from Crosby who rarely has an off day, on the entire season he has not scored less than 7.5 pts which is the weekly average of more than half of the PQBFL’s DLs.  LB D White was not bad either with 16.5 pts in a nice bounce back season, he currently ranks LB5 in the league.

WaxOnWaxOff finished in 7th place which was the first time in the red all year for Wax who saw their lead in first place drop from 10 rank-points after 10 weeks, to now down to 3 rank-points after 12 weeks.  It is surprising that Wax could do no better than 7th considering they scored 7 TDs, but the problem was subpar stats and some turnovers.  Josh Allen had a good day with 3 TDs but that only matched his projection, not better, because of one INT.  Ja Williams scored a TD again but lost a fumble so he had the same problem as J Allen.  Barkley also scored but his 52 yards from scrimmage left to be desired, and it was a similar affair for Hockenson who scored a short TD but his 43 receiving yards were pedestrian.  WR Kirk had the worst of both worlds; no TD and uninspiring stats 4-46 plus he had a carry for negative yardage.  The only offensive player who cleanly beat his projection was Ju Jefferson who had a great game with 9-139-1.  Prior to this week Wax had the best two defenses in the league the Pats and Cowboys but this week was far less dominant than normal with Dallas giving up 20 pts and not creating a turnover against the Giants so they dropped to DEF3 after this game.  What hurt Dallas was the Giants’ TD in garbage time with only 8 seconds left.  This TD along with the associated yardage on that drive at the end of the game turned out to be very costly because Wax lost by 2.5 pts against Ball and only 1 pt against Adm so this useless Giants TD cost Wax two ranks which was very frustrating.  The rest of Wax’s defense was so-so with F Warner leading the pack with 14 pts, but Bosa’s 8 pts was a bit below his projection and Baker even more so with only 5 pts. 

OldNo7 finished in the red for the third time in 4 weeks.  After Old won week #8 with a crushing 194 pts, things were looking up for Old who were tied in 3rd place but it’s been downhill since then and Old is now down to 6th place in the standings with Adm not far behind.  One has to wonder whether McCaffrey being traded to SF was a move that doomed Old.  It did not start badly for example McCaffrey scored a dominant 28.75 pts in that season high water mark week #8 for Old.  However since the 49ers bye week in week #9, it seems SF does not intend to use McCaffrey much?  This week CMC hit rock bottom with only 4 pts in a game where he was outrushed 35 to 32 yards by E Mitchell (Dec) despite CMC having more carries (11 to 7) than Mitchell.  Perhaps the recent injury to Mitchell will pave the way for more touches for McCaffrey, time will tell.  Old’s other star RB Kamara was even worse with only 50 total yards, no TD, and two lost fumbles to finish the game with minus 2 pts.  Ty Hill was not very involved in the Dolphins win who scored one TD on the ground and one on defense in the first half, and then moved their foot off the gas pedal and were shut out in the second half because the game was already out of hand which robbed Hill of opportunities.  The coach started WR McLaurin who was poor with only 6.5 pts while regular starter Godwin was benched and he exploded for 12-110-1 so that call alone was the difference between 4th place and 8th place, a painful coaching decision. 

ProfMJ finished last for the 3rd time of the season and in the red for the 9th time in 12 weeks, with the only oasis being weeks #7-8 when Prof finished 2nd and 3rd which is now a distant memory.  ProfMJ let the trade deadline expire without dealing any of their star LBs and the contrast between poor offense and stellar defense could not have been more obvious than this week.  Every starter on offense underperformed relative to projections and on defense it was the complete opposite with everybody outscoring their projection.  Prof did not have an active DB as both were injured, but starting LBs Brooks and Mosley were both excellent with 17.5 pts and 16 pts, even backups on the bench continued to do better than starters in most other PQBFL teams with 12 pts from Hicks and 17 pts from Bolton.  Prof could afford to bench DL Garrett because regular backup Burns is no slouch, and this week both of them scored double digits and Burns was the correct call as the starter with 15.5 pts as he was the better of the two.  Even the Bills had a double digit game on the road against the normally decent Lions offense, thanks in part due to a sack for a safety by Ed Oliver.  Offense is where Prof got crushed.  First off T Etienne got injured early in the game so he cannot be blamed for not matching his projection, but M Evans only scoring 3.5 pts was a big let down as he left Godwin (Old) entirely by himself in the spotlight.  K Allen scored a respectable 12.25 pts but nonetheless a bit below projections because 49 receiving yards was not enough, and TE Everett’s 18 receiving yards was even worse.  Prof’s coach got a reminder that Pollard is a backup RB with only 5 pts and was easily outscored by E Elliott (Wax) while J Conner who is not playing second fiddle on his NFL team behind another RB did much better with 13.5 pts on the bench.  It was so bad for Prof on offense that even the kicker scored in negative territory when the Saints were blanked so no extra-point, and Lutz missed his only FG attempt. 





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