Week Four Roundup
The regular refs are back. They’re making bad calls just like the scabs did, but at least they aren’t deciding whole games. This, however, has not helped out my fantasy team one little bit. After four weeks, I’m ranked dead last, below the guy who forgot to substitute out players for the bye weeks. Meanwhile, will the queen remain unbeated? Read all about it after the jump!
The matchup of the week could only have been the undefeated Multiple Scorgasms up against the Not-So-Gentlewomen. Despite a strong showing from Brandon Marshall in the Monday night game, the Scorgasms could not match the balanced attack of the Gentlewomen, and the formerly undefeated Scorgasms join the rest of us in tasting the agony of defeat. They’re still leading the league overall, but with a net points-scored differential of sixteen points separating them from the second-place Dictionary Kids, they are well within striking distance.
Seriously, who’s gonna stop the Falcons? Atlanta was key to three of our games this week. Black Hole edged Heisman Cain‘s 9-9-9 formations and the Best Quarterback On The Planet™ with an off-the-charts showing from Michael Turner, who didn’t even have to carry Atlanta on his back. Why? Because some kid from B.C. put up good numbers too, giving the Dictionary Kids all the breathing room they needed against Bullmoose Revival, based a lot on catches by Roddy White, letting Partisan Warrior administer the beatdown of the week on Fuzzy Dunlop.
The Partisans might not be too proud of themselves — after all, the Dunlops left in two players on bye weeks who, since they were both at home cursing out the Madden ’13 physics engine while playing themselves on their XBOXes, had no opportunity to get any points for their fantasy owners. But out of five wideouts on the Dunlops’ roster, the total, average, median, mode, and mean score put up by that entire receiving corps was zero. Only two Dunlop WR’s put their cleats on a field: Golden Tate, he of the Fail Mary reception last week, caught one pass for seven yards against the Lambs, and Deion Branch put on a uniform, I think, but failed to catch Handsome Tom‘s eye the entire game. So you know what? The Dunlops missed subbing out their players on the bye week, but that oversight woundup having zero impact. Not often something like that happens.
Maybe the Tebow Ghostwriters could; they did stop the Ordinary Marksists despite their unfortunate need to start Blaine Gabbert at QB, which were there any other starters available to them would have been a highly questionable decision. Good thing the Ghostwriters had the San Francisco defense blanking the hapless Jets, who were so stunned by what got served up to them Sunday morning that they ignored every lesson Denver learned so publicly last year, and actually put the ball in Tim Tebow‘s hands. All he does is win, baby! cause quarterback controversies which the coach is immediately obliged to squelch. When the other team’s backup quarterback backup quarterback runs your trademark formation and earns accolades for not running up the score, there’s a word for that, a word I recall using with frequency and pleasure in the seventh grade: “moded.” That’s what happened to the Jets Sunday, they got moded.
The squeaker of the week came down to three players in the Monday night game. Going in to the action, Stoicdread was well behind Legitimate Reception, by a score of 71-36, but the Receptions had no players left in action, while Stoicdread had three: Jay Culter, Miles Austin, and DeMarco Murray. With three players teed up, it got close. Very close. Could the Receptions hold on? Would extra points in garbage time be the difference? No! Let down by Dallas, as the Dallas Cowboys do on a reliable basis to fantasy players worldwide, Stoicdread came up short against Legitimate Reception, by one point.
Rounding out the action, Haulin’ Oats fired on all cylinders past the Unlikely Pseudonyms, placing Your Humble Commissioner firmly in last place overall in the league. Last year, the cry was “Suck for Luck” but since ours isn’t a legacy league, the only reward for finishing where I’m at right now is the booby prize. So, um, yeah. Real proud of myself over here.
Here’s your standings.
Team | W-L | PF | PA | Diff. |
Multiple Scorgasms | 3-1 | 321 | 242 | 79 |
Dictionary Kids | 3-1 | 367 | 304 | 63 |
Black Hole | 3-1 | 302 | 292 | 10 |
Not-so-Gentlewomen | 2-1-1 | 372 | 329 | 43 |
Partisan Warior | 2-1-1 | 321 | 331 | -10 |
Tebow Ghostwriters | 2-2 | 338 | 266 | 72 |
Ordinary Marksists | 2-2 | 392 | 346 | 46 |
Haulin’ Oats | 2-2 | 295 | 289 | 6 |
Bullmoose Revival | 2-2 | 332 | 362 | -30 |
Legitimate Reception | 2-2 | 304 | 351 | -47 |
Heisman Cain | 1-3 | 277 | 235 | 42 |
Fuzzy Dunlop | 1-3 | 290 | 351 | -61 |
Stoicdread | 1-3 | 298 | 390 | -92 |
Unlikely Pseudonyms | 1-3 | 311 | 407 | -96 |
Don’t make the same mistake Fuzzy Dunlop did — mind your byes! Good luck to all next week.
For the record: “unbeated” in the first paragraph was initially a typo. But it’s staying in, because when I try my hand at sportswriting, there seems to be a Yogi Berra-like license to play fast and loose with the language.Report
More Dizzy Dean, really (“He slud into third base.”)Report
Who has the SF defense?
They’re gonna get 20+ points again next week. Mark hates me for saying that, but it’s true anyway.Report
That’s me! I didn’t even mind that they made Sanchez look so bad that they’re going to start Tebow soon!Report
I watched that game (of course). The announcers were pretty good; they talked about football strategy instead of telling us that one team came to play or wanted it more. But at the end of the game, when the Jets were down by about two hundred points and Sanchez was completely ineffective, that is, it’s the classic time to bring in the backup and see if he can do anything, all they could talk about was the politics of the situation: Would it hurt Sanchez’s confidence? Would it start a QB controversy?Report
Tebow doesn’t only change the game, he changes the announcing.Report
Rex Ryan has been pretty firm that Mark Sanchez is his starting quarterback. Sanchez’s problem is that he doesn’t make good decisions with the ball and can’t hit his wide receivers. Tebow has many of these same issues, but he does at least bring the running dimension into the game and he doesn’t fumble when he’s hit. However, Tebow takes a passing attack already on life support and switches off the respirator, making the Jets offense one-dimensional and far easier to stop.
Much of his success in Denver, also, was due in part to good wide receivers like Eric Decker and the tight-end-in-wide-receiver-clothing Demaryius Thomas. He doesn’t have targets like that in New York, and it’s even worse now that Santonio Holmes may be lost for the season. Dustin Keller is a very good tight end, but he won’t be catching many passes from the bench (hamstring).Report
Rex Ryan will break like Tom Brady’s nose.Report
That depends. Was Tebow forced on Ryan by an owner or GM or does Ryan have some say in personnel moves?Report
BC GETS A SHOUT-OUT! WAHOO?Report
I’ll also point out that I was helped a large part by Tom Brady finally playing like Tom Brady.Report
One quarter out of sixteen so far this year isn’t good, but it’s still only the start of the season.
That was also a pretty awesome quarter.Report
I think I used up my entire quotient of luck for the season in the final 3:30 of Monday Night Foosball.Report