Week #16

The GloriousBastards were trailing the Bros by 6 rank-points with two weeks to go and this week they cut that lead in half by beating Beaud by 3.  If Bas can replicate the same next week and if they win the tie-breaker, Bas would end up champions after a season filled with ups and downs.  Even this week was not easy as only 17 pts separated first place Bas (157 pts) and 7th place Wax (140 pts) so if Bas had one or two slip-ups the result would have been quite different.  Several players delivered this week including DB Tyler Nubin scoring a much needed and unexpected TD for 16 pts, and DL Kobie Turner filling in nicely for injured Quinnen Williams with 15.5 pts.  On offense Bijan was the leader with 22.75 pts and rookie Ward was also impressive in the dismantling of the Chiefs with 18.25 pts.  Bas could have crushed everybody if they had started Purdy (34.25 pts) instead of Nix (12.5 pts).  It will be interesting what the coach decides for the season finale because Purdy will face a much tougher test against the Bears defense which is the defense with the most takeaways in the NFL.

FlyingElvis came close to winning but unfortunately had 3/3 DBs injured which was a critical difference and fell short of Bas by 2.5 pts which almost any DB would be able to score.  FE remains theoretically in the race but would need a mini-miracle: FE must finish week #17 first, hope that Beaud finishes last, and Old + Bas must finish no higher than 6th and 7th.  That’s quite a tall order which is extremely unlikely to happen.  The most realistic scenario would be for either Bas or Old to stumble and FE to finish quite high and grab third place from either of them.  This week FE was propelled by rookie Jeanty who scored two long TDs for 34.75 pts to move up to 6th best rookie.  His average of 11.3 pts per game puts him at RB16, not really worth franchise player, but good enough to be cut next year.  FE missed D Adams who was injured but Diggs did better than Adams’ season average with 15.75 pts.  D London came back from injury but he was not his normal self with only 4.25 pts.  On defense despite not having a DB, FE was quite solid with scores ranging from 12 pts to 16 pts from J Simmons, Wagner, and Cashman.

OldNo7 was on the ropes before MNF but franchise player CMC delivered in prime time with 2 TDs for 24.5 pts to edge Beaud by 1.75 pts and cut their lead in the standings from 4 to 3 rank-points rather than fall behind.  Old still has work to do to steal the crown especially with star Amon-Ra being gimpy and playing on Thursday so he would have to play with limited rest.  This week St.Brown only scored 6.5 pts, he was the only core position player to score less than 17.75 pts because everybody else had a good game, from Chase Brown’s three TDs to Caleb’s overtime comeback with a score of 24.25 pts.  JSN also benefited from overtime and scored a TD for the win so those extra minutes benefited Old twice this week.  On defense, Old welcomed back Justin Reid to health and he was fine, providing 10.5 pts which is in contrast with week 15 where Old had no active DB.  Old could have finished higher than 3rd this week if rookie T Henderson did not get injured early in the game and exited after scoring only one point.

The BeaudoinBrothers finished in the middle of a tight pack from 1st to 7th place with 4th place, but lost to both Old and Bas so their lead in first place is looking more shaky.  The Bros need to finish 4th place in week 17 and hold on to the tiebreaker and they will be champions (ie avoid being crushed by a large margin by Old/Bas who might finish first), or finish 3rd to be guaranteed of the title no matter what the result would be from other teams.  Similar to other teams it might not be straightforward due to numerous roster issues, for example Zay Flowers scored 15 pts this week but he hardly caught any balls once Lamar Jackson went out to injury so it’s unclear what the status will be in week #17.  Also rookie McCarthy was injured in the first half and left after scoring only 5.5 pts, arguably if he was still in the game in the second half, Beaud would have beat Old.  McCarthy might not play in week 17.  But clouds are not entirely dark because if T Henderson (Old) misses week 17 to injury, then R Stevenson will be a big beneficiary against the porous Jets defense so Beaud might have a better outlook at the RB position for the final week, which has been a problem most of the year.  This week J Burrow was the top scorer with 31.75 pts but if Beaud had started Stafford as they normally do, Beaud would have tied Old to steal half a rank-point which could be critical considering how tight the standings are.

The Admirals partially bounced back from last place in week 15 to 5th place this week but did not play trouble makers – they could not beat any of the top 4 teams in the standings.  Adm has a shot of beating Prof because now they only trail by 2 so a mid standings finish is still possible.  This week Adm was competitive due to defense with a total of 62 pts from the Texans plus the four individual defenders, none of which scored less than 9 pts.  Offense was far more of a mixed bag, RJ Harvey did well with 19 pts to climb to ROO11 in the league, but the rest of the starters were disappointing particularly Josh Allen only scoring 5.75 pts against the Browns.  His lead as the top QB in the league is now down to only 0.3 pts per game in front of Stafford (Beaud). 

The Ballers finished in the middle three spots for the third straight week which is their longest stretch of avoiding the red.  It was accomplished despite a dreadful score of 3.75 pts from L-Jax who got injured.  Nacua had a monster game in the absence of D Adams with 36.25 pts.  J Cook was not bad himself with 26.25 pts.  On defense the Vikings were air-tight against the Giants by allowing only two FGs and no TD.  Ball were mostly slowed down by poor scores from Hockenson (1 pt) and Brian Thomas (2.75 pts) who has been a huge disappointment and still is, despite the Jaguars’ offense finding a spark recently.

WaxOnWaxOff finished 7th despite scoring 140 pts which was the first time of the season that 140 pts was not enough for at least 6th place.  Wax beat Dec by 2 but still trails by 6 rank points which is unlikely to be overcome in the final week so it looks like Wax will end the season in a disappointing 8th place after winning the league in 2024.  This week Wax was sunk almost single handedly by rookie Dart who stunk beyond belief: 7 completions for 33 yards in a game where the Giants were trailing and had to throw the ball.  Dart will probably finish the season as best rookie nonetheless but he was definitely a let down this week.  Most of the production of the week came from Kittle on MNF with 18.75 pts but it was too little too late.  The top score went to Maye with 26 pts in a comeback win against the Ravens on SNF.

ProfMJ was still in the race a few weeks ago but it’s been a slow descent since week 13 (first place) followed by 3rd place, 6th place, and this week 8th place.  Prof lost 4th place in the standings to red-hot FE and now Prof trails by 4 so it will require a turnaround for Prof to finish in the top half.  This week the problems on offense were numerous with all core position players RB-RB-WR-WR-TE underperformed related to projections and none of them scored more than 8.5 pts.  TE Kincaid was the worst of the lot with a goose egg.  Even some regular stars on defense had some struggles for example M Garrett only scored 3 pts while he had previously been on a tear with an average of 17 pts per game from weeks 11-15.

A few weeks ago Dec was in first place with a 5-rank point lead over anybody else after 10 weeks but with injuries mounting, it was predicted that Dec would not keep up.  The downfall has been swifter than anticipated.  Since then, Dec has finished in the red 5 times out of 6 and the best result was no better than 5th place.  So Dec has fallen from first to 7th in the standings – quite a drastic change.  This week, a rough result was anticipated because Dec only drafted 2 QBs, Mahomes is now out for the year and Tua Tago has been benched so Dec scored a zero at the highest scoring position.  Another GM miscue was to only draft one kicker and Matt Gay has been cut by so that was another avoidable goose egg.  M Harrison played this week but he’s still affected by an injury and he only scored 1.5 pt.  Dec has been hit hard by injuries at the rookie position.  O Hampton recently came back to health but he’s no longer a rookie after having been elevated to RB where Dec does not need another RB, having J Taylor (RB1) and Achane (RB4) which is the best RB duo in the PQBFL.  So another GM fiasco resulted in the only active rookie being kicker T Loop who scored a modest 5 pts, slightly below his average of 6.7 pts.  As ROO16 he should simply be a bye-week filler, not a starter.





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