Week 9: Injuries Suck

So as most of you probably know by now, Deshaun Watson has torn his ACL in practice today and is out for the rest of the year. Injuries suck. As I assume all of you know, I am a Jags fan, and so normally I would root against Houston and any of its players doing well. Yet Deshaun Watson has been outstanding and extremely entertaining to watch. In addition, Watson has shown some true character after the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, giving his first gameday paycheck to some of the cafeteria employees at the Texans facility.

Houston is having some terrible luck with injuries this year, losing J.J. Watt for the rest of the year. It also just seems that everybody is getting injured this year, and not just for a week here and there, but for the season. David Johnson went down early in the year, then Carson Palmer went down. Danny Woodhead went down and so did Kenneth Dixon, which gave way for Alex Collins to show off how explosive he can be. I am really starting to regret dropping Collins. Charles Clay, Greg Olsen, Kevin White, Eifert, even Kickers are not immune to injuries this year! Also get better Zach Miller, I cannot watch the replays of that one.

I think that we can all agree, that none of us want to see anymore injuries this year.

Also, a little tid bit, last week I went 4-2 on my predictions. I got a D! Something Willis would be excited about in college.

Fun Fact of the Week

So we are already to Week 9, half way through the fantasy season. Playoff teams are starting to solidify their spots, possibly. Who knows how Weeks 11, 12, and 13 will shake things up in the divisions. But I digress, Week 9 has been a very good week for teams who are currently on a losing streak. Four teams have had their longest losing streak end on Week 9, including the 3 longest.

So there is hope for Sawyer, Jared, and I that our losing streaks will end this week.

Match-ups


You Feel Lucky Punk? vs Grab Em By The Percy

Another even split, Hunter and I have played a total of 8 games and each of us have won 4, with Hunter taking 4 out of the last 5 games. Yet, I like my chances this week. The scheduling gods have looked favorably upon me this year, like they have most years, and given me Hunter on the Steelers bye week. No Le'Veon Bell, no Big Ben, no Antonio Brown, and no Steelers Defense, so let us see how good Hunter's bench really is. Historically, these games have been a lopsided affair with only 3 games having a point differential of less than 10 points and the average difference is 30.54 points. I like my chances this week with only Kyle Rudolph on a bye week, and I think that I will take this one handily, continuing the trend of large point spreads.


SIN-CLAIRR!!!! vs. Excel-sior

Sam has never had much luck on his side when facing Majors, although he has not really had much luck on his side anyways. But out of the 10 times that these two have played, Majors has 7 wins. Although those wins are typically close with 4 wins being less than 10 point victories, and averaging 13.59 points. That also includes last year, where Majors would have only beaten one other opponent than Sam, thanks Willis. But we have all heard enough about how lucky Majors was last year, I mean Basil would have been undefeated with Majors schedule, so I won't go into that any further. Another interesting stat from these two, Majors has never put up more than 100 points on Sam and Sam has only reached the triple digit marker twice against Majors. Will we have another low scoring game between these two? I think so, now that Zeke will actually have to serve his suspension and Melvin Gordon is on his bye. And the outlook for Sam is not much brighter this week with Brady on his bye week and Sam's only projected 74.66 points... Ouch... I am taking Majors in this one because Sam's team just looks awful this week.


Turd Ferguson vs Le'Veon A Prayer

This is Willis' worst match-up among active teams. Willis and Ross have played 7 games against each other and Ross has taken 5 of them, including their first game in Week 9 of 2013 where Ross destroyed Willis, beating him 126.5-49.94. Ross always baffles me every year, his team is amazing one week and then the next is one of the worst. I don't think Ross has the word consistency in his vocabulary. Ross has got the highest standard deviation of any team with 27.15 points, whereas everyone else is hovering around 19-22 points. So which team will show up this week against Willis? I bet that he is hoping it will be a similar performance to last week against Ean but who knows. I am taking Willis in this one because I think Ajayi will have a nice game, finally getting to work with a competent offense, and I just cannot get myself to believe that Ross will put up back to back big weeks.


It's Frommplicated vs GatorFuckers

Poor Trevor, he was so proud of picking up Deshaun Watson and looking forward to riding his into the playoffs and a possible championship. Sorry bud, but injuries suck. So Chaz and Trevor have only played each other a handful of times, that would be 5 times for those of you who cannot count your fingers. Trevor has the slight upper hand beating Chaz 3 times but Chaz has a glimmer of hope this week because I will take Matt Ryan over Jacoby Brissett anyday. As I am sure all of you would as well. In addition, this has typically been a high scoring match-up, with Chaz reaching the triple digit mark 3 times against Trevor, and Trevor getting over 100 points 3 times as well. In fact, in the last three games they have both reached 100 points. So the loser of this one has been quite bitter, and rightfully so. I am still going to give the edge here to Trevor because Fournette should be back this week and I think that Indy will see a large dose of Lamar Miller this week now that Watson is out.


Premature Punishment vs Don'tMessWithTexas

Basil might want to go back to hating Texas this year because his luck really has not changed at all. Yet, he has not needed luck to dominate Sawyer's bitch ass team. Really, Basil will only need his team to show up and score something because Sawyer is having a bad case of the bye week blues. Sawyer has 4 players on his bench on bye, 2 of them being definite starter with Howard and Diggs, and JuJu being a great flex consideration. Basil is riding high above Sawyer with a 3 game winning streak against him dating back to Week 4 of 2014, and I think that the streak will stay alive as Basil will easily roll behind his Wentz dream and Mike Evans. Although Will Fuller will definitely take a hit with Savage throwing to him now.


DeMarco Polo vs Hairy Palmers

Poor Jared only has a winning record against Trevor. But he has his most wins against Trevor and Ean with 4 wins a piece. Unfortunately Ean has beaten 6 times though. Jared has actually beaten Ean 4 out of the last 5 times that they have played, and that might be due to the fact that Ean only had 10 wins combined in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Although Ean is looking up this year, he has a good chance to pull out another win this week if Carlos Hyde and Travis Kelce continue to have dominate performances. This is probably my favorite match-up this week. Not because it is between the two worst teams in league history. It is due to the fact that this is the matchup of the TE spot. You know the one that Trevor wanted to kill off? Both Ean and Jared have great tight ends with Kelce and Ertz respectively, and usually that can make up some damage against other opponents with weaker tight end spots. Will we see Jared continue to claw his way back to .500 in this series or will Ean continue to have a better year? I am taking Ean in this one because I like Hyde, Baldwin, and old man Larry Fitzgerald this week.