I'm not the only one in the league that thinks this is an off year, right? Matt has alluded to this many times, but this has been the worst scoring year to date, as it is 5 average points per week below the lowest year of all time, 2013 (the year Josh Gordon, Knowshon Moreno, and Jamaal Charles were in the top 10 of players and Eddie Lacy won ORoY). Our scoring average is also about 8.3 average points below the highest scoring year, 2016, indicating the usually narrow distribution of average scores year-to-year. We haven't seen many high scoring weeks, most people don't bother cracking the three-digit mark, and there have been a slew of injuries to high-profile players that almost single-handedly destroy both NFL and fantasy teams.
But this week seems different. No, its not only because I had a good week, its because our average this week was 89.71 points, which still is lower than the averages for all the other years, but only by 0.36! We are doing something people! Keep finding those diamonds in the rough! Keep playing people from the Houston/Seattle game! Play the defenses that play the Browns and the Giants! Sam, pick the good people to play! Don't be in the Old Grandad Division, which is holding everyone else down!
I can prove that.
Through 8 weeks, the 3rd and 2nd highest divisions in average points for are Pappy and Jack, with 683.03 and 684.13 points, respectively. Obviously, Evan is the highest, with 725.49 average points for. The lowest? Old Grandad, with a measly 649.44 average points for. But I'm not here to try to kick them out of the league because believe it or not, we actually need them. They have far and away the highest average points against (707.91), meaning when we see Hunter, Basil, or Jared's teams, we get angry. In case anyone else is wondering, 2nd is Jack (686.49), 3rd is Evan (674.83) and 4th is Pappy (672.85, primarily because of Sawyer).
This one had me sweating until Matt Prater kicked 5 field goals on Sunday night. In what could have been the last game Zeke plays for me until the playoffs, he had a terrific game, with 2 TDs and 150 yards despite a fumble on his first touch. Gonna miss you dude. I have viable players on my bench that can fill in, such as White or Collins, but they aren't gonna carry the rock 33 times in one game. Melvin bounced back in a big way this week, with almost as many yards as Zeke and one fewer TD. Kamara also joined in the TD clique, with more receiving yards that rushing yards, as per usual. I'm not exactly sure what to do with Kirk since his starting O-line, backup O-line and third-string O-linemen are all injured. Maybe just put up one of those high school posters that the football team runs through and hope the other team trips. Matt had a great week, with Deandre Hopkins scoring the most out of anyone in the matchup. Seriously, his receiving yards were only 39 yards fewer than what Cousins threw for, and 22 yards more than what Alex Smith threw for. Ingram barely scored lower than Kamara, but it was because of the two fumbles. Almost everyone else on Matt's team did decent with only three people scoring lower than their projections: Alex Smith, who didn't need to do much to beat Denver, TY Hilton, who should basically sit on the bench until Luck comes back, and Ameer Abdullah, who rushed for 27 yards despite 11 carries. The good news is that both Gurley and AP were on bye, so next week should be even better for Matt.
Ah, the good ol' Jared bye week. Jared had 2 people score negative points: Oakland, who allowed 34 points to Buffalo, and QuaJizz Rodgers, who got only 1 rushing yard and -5 receiving yards. Add that to Dallas needing to throw only 22 times, and you don't have a lot of points spread out over your team. Vinatieri was the only one to score in double digits, but Ertz was close with 34 yards and a TD. The roughest part here is that the combined WR point total was only 6 points, and the combined RB total was only 5.3 points. Getting 11.3 points from your four most prominent players besides the QB is really rough. Jared will need the three people on bye to return fresh if he wants to beat Ean next week. Willis had a below average week, but he could have only started three people on his team and still would have beaten Jared. His best player was Jimmy Graham, the red-zone monster, catching 2 TDs. The only other TDs from people on his team came from Derek Carr, who didn't do great, and Cincinnati D because they were playing Indy. He only got 10.9 points combined from Hunt and Ajayi, most definitely the worst combined output of the season, but if Ajayi fits in to the Eagles offense, Willis' team might go back to looking scary. Four people return from bye next week for Willis, who needs all the help he can get to separate himself from the pack that is the Jack Daniels division. Fun fact: Willis has had the most wins every odd year ('11, '13, '15). He'll have to step it up for the trend to continue.
In a matchup that was the highest scoring of the week, Chaz emptied his pent-up rage all over Basil, going for 119.66 points despite a player only getting 0.2 points. How? Well Jerick McKinnon made the Browns look like Vanderbilt, LeSean McCoy made the Raiders look like Kentucky, and Kansas City changed their name to Pick City with 3 interceptions against Denver. Those three players alone scored 63.5 points, enough to beat 2, almost 3 teams in the league. Matt Ryan had a decent day besides two fumbles, Alshon put up big numbers, and his whole team put up 7 TDs total, including one defensive. The scariest thing was that his bench looked as solid as his starters. This was a crucial win for Chaz who is only one win behind Willis and Matt for the division lead despite the rough record. Basil had a great day behind Baltimore D, scoring 2 TDs and blanking Miami on Thursday night. (I'm not gonna say shit about his RBs, I'm not gonna say shit about his RBs, I'm not gonna say shit about his RBs). Wentz had a down game from the way he has been playing lately, but still managed to put up 18.14 points, and Adam Thielen (great white hope) almost got 100 yards and a TD. Basil's got to be frustrated for who he chose to start, as he left Will Fuller, who got 24.5 points, on the bench. If he has substituted Fuller for Landry he still wouldn't have won, but it would have been a little closer. By the way, Fuller has scored in double digits every single game he has played so far this season. Good pickup.
In a matchup that was eerily similar to Chaz and Basil's, Trevor came within a single point of scoring the highest this week with 118.78 points. 6/9 players scored in double figures for him, with Deshawn Watson leading the way with 35.78 points. Yeah, 400 yards, 4TDs and 70 yards rushing will do that. The most impressive thing about this point total was that he had 3 good starters on bye. Elsewhere on his roster, Trevor's K/D combined for 27 points, Lamar scored twice, Gronk had a good day, and Coleman amassed some serious yardage. The weakest spot would be WR, where Funchess only hauled in 2 of his 6 targets for 11 yards, but Crabtree managed to get 83 yards in a blowout loss. Scary team, Trevor. Scary team. Especially if Funchess plays like a #1 now that Kelvin is gone and Gronk stays healthy. Sawyer actually had his third highest scoring week with 90.56 points, but needed his TE and D to step up and do something. Yes he had 5 people on bye, including two people on the IR, and it was still impressive that Miami D managed to get a point since they gave up 40 points to a less-than-decent Baltimore offense. Sawyer chose to ride with Cam as his only QB, but he only threw for 154 yards, his lowest of the season, and Diggs disappointed in his return from injury. He will definitely come back better than ever after his bye week. Making up for Diggs was the man so nice they named him thrice, JuJu Smith-Schuster, who put up QB like numbers with 193 yards and a TD. Sanu also looked good, and did the RB duo of Howard and Martin, who need to score TDs next week against Basil.
I really didn't want to write a recap for this shitty matchup, but it actually was really entertaining. Going into Monday night, Sam simply needed Tyreke Hill to outscore a kicker. Easy right? Well, not if that kicker has the game of his life and makes 5 field goals. Throw in Tyreke Hill throwing an interception on a terrible trick play, and yeah, Hunter won. Just for fun, go look at Hill's points every week. It is literally a rollercoaster and I'm sure that Sam can determine which weeks to sit him without doing a bit of math. So yeah, thats pretty much it. It was a kicker vs. Tom Brady, and the kicker won. The only other people that did anything in this matchup was LeVeon Bell, who had a nice game, Sam's kicker, and Joe Mixon, who converted three catches to 91 yards. There were 4 people that scored under 2 points (one negative) and only two players in this matchup scored above their projected points. I now get why Sam complains that he is unlucky, because the 6 players on his bench would have beaten Hunter by themselves. Seriously, 5 of them in double figures when Sam only had Tom Brady score in double digits out of the people he started. Suck for Saquon or too early?
Well, looks like Ross will always get a win against Ean regardless of how bad his team is. Seriously, Ean had a great week top to bottom, with Kelce going ham against Denver and his K/D putting up a combined 25 points. I bet he closed his eyes and randomly picked between Jameis and the Red Rocket, but it was a very good decision to choose Dalton since Winston didn't even get to six points. His RBs were definitely below average, only scoring a combined 9.9 points, but Darren McFadden will probably take over in the Dallas backfield next week, so Ean should be set. On the other side, Ross had his highest scoring week this season (of course, because it was against Ean), and he really only needed three people: Russell Wilson, who went for 452, 4TDs, and 30 yards rushing (jeeeeeez), Jack Doyle, who shredded the Bengals' secondary, and Philadelphia D, who has been sneaky good this season. Five out of his remaining six players had between 6-6.8 points, which was strange, but the most glaring thing about this team is that his two keepers, Dez and Demaryious, just haven't been worth the picks he gave up. Ean has got to be happy that Ross didn't embarrass him this week, but it was yet another loss when he would have beaten seven other teams in the league.