Week 7 - Midterms!

Congratulations to sprouts!  For the second week in a row, sprouts has been the only team capable of posting triple digits, this week logging 119 points! (That is the third highest single week total of the season.)  Russ did it with big games from Jordy Nelson, Rob Gronkowski and Josh Freeman, who was just picked up off of waivers this week.  Not bad to pick a guy up off the street and have him score 31 points for you.  Well done Russ!!

The league standings have really changed shape over the last couple weeks, with Joe’s Pats suffering two losses and American BadAss now in the lead in the North.  American BadAss has been looking good each week (averaging 88.1 points per game), but has also benefitted from being the team with the least points scored against them.  Only 462 points have been scored against BadAss, with the next closest team having 552 points against.  The league average for points against is 550.6, so Jason is really doing something to bring out the worst in his opponents.  In the South Division there is only one team with a winning record (Coors Light Drunk Guys at 4-3), so that still looks wide open for division champ.

And of course, I must mention the fact that my Rebels finally are out of the doldrums and logged a victory this week.  Booyah!! There will be no record-setting 0-7 worst-start-ever this season!  Not on my watch!

We are now seven weeks in, so that means one thing… it is time for midterm grades!  I’ve added some new categories for grading teams this year (keeper production, Weekly High Scores), and am following a bell curve this time.  Much more on that below, should be fun… but first, some observations from the week:

BIG TIME

-Chris Johnson, RB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 34 pts – Chris Johnson’s story for the last 3 seasons has been to underwhelm for weeks and weeks, then turn it on when it no longer matters.  Maybe this time he’s turning it on a bit sooner than normal.  He sure looked good going for 195 yards and 2 touchdowns.

-Drew Brees, QB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 32 pts – Brees breezed through the Bucs defense, scorching them for 377 yards and 4 touchdowns.

-Josh Freeman, QB – sprouts – 31 pts – Freeman had to try to keep pace with Brees!  He actually bested Brees’ yardage total by 43, and threw three TD’s of his own.  

-Vincent Jackson, WR – American BadAss – 30 pts – Over half of Freeman’s 420 yards went to Jackson… he finished with 216 yards and 1 touchdown.  And he should’ve had another touchdown, but was caught from behind at the 5-yard line on a long bomb.

YOU KIDDING ME?!

-Anquan Boldin, WR – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 2 pts – Boldin only caught 3 of the eight passes thrown his way, and only gained 24 yards.  He’s only caught one TD pass this year.

-Larry Fitzgerald, WR – Frito Pie – 2 pts – Larry decided to copy his ex-teammate (Boldin) and only scored two points on Sunday (on 29 yards receiving).

-Trent Richardson, RB – BoomGoesTheDynamite – 1 pt – Richardson only managed 8 yards on the ground and 11 yards in the air against the Colts.  That’s not too good.

-Jason Hanson, K – Scottish Rebels – 1 pt – His one extra point was not up to his normal excellence, but I’m sure he’ll bounce back.

-Jermaine Gresham, TE – Frito Pie – 1 pt – Gresham was a non-factor for Cincinnati only gaining 19 yards.

-Dez Bryant, WR – American BadAss – 1 pt – First the good news: Dez caught 66% of the passes thrown his way.  And the bad news: it was only thrown his way 3 times.

-Phil Dawson, K – Joe’s Pats – 1 pt – You can’t expect Browns players to put up many points, so I guess this was not totally out of the blue.

-LeGarrette Blount, RB – Joe’s Pats – 0 pts – LeGarrette had no one but himself to punch in the face after this horrific performance… he rushed for negative (-)2 yards on the day.

-Vernon Davis, TE – Joe’s Pats – 0 pts – Joe’s Pats had a kicker score only 1 point, and had his runningback and tight end shut out.  When it rains, it pours…

-Kyle Rudolph, TE – Gotham’s Reckoning – 0 pts – You gotta catch the ball to score points.  Rudolph was 0-4 in that regard.

MARK TWAIN QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

YOU NEED A KICKER!

The Best Boot for Week 7 belongs to Nick Folk of the New York Jets.  He scored 18 points this week by kicking four field goals (1 from 50+, and 2 from 40+) and two extra points.

Just in time for Thanksgiving: Folk is a direct descendant from the Mayflower, as William Bradford was his mother’s “umpteenth-great grandfather”.

He is waaay better than:  Cam Newton (15 pts), Eli Manning (13 pts), CJ Spiller (10 pts), and Andre Johnson (8 pts).

DO YOU THINK THEY MIGHT BE RELATED?

After 7 weeks of games, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning have both scored 118 points.  That can’t just be a coincidence.

MID-TERM GRADES

So here we go… time to be judged.  I looked at a lot of factors when determining mid-term grades, with more emphasis applied to points scored, keeper production and of course, overall record.  Also, just to make it more fun this year, I followed a strict bell curve on grade assignment.  That means only 1 A, 2 B’s, 4 C’s, 2 D’s and 1 F.   If you don’t like your grade remember that there is still time to improve, and frankly all that matters is who hoists the trophy at the end of the season.

American BadAss - Jason

Current Record: 5-1-1

Points Scored: 617

2012 Weekly High Scores: 0

Last Weekly High Score: Week 1, 2011

Keeper production: 166 pts – Aaron Rodgers (1^st; 155 pts), Laurent Robinson (15^th; 11 pts).

Should have kept:  San Francisco DEF (15^th; 91 pts) instead of Robinson.

Best Move:  Keeping Aaron Rodgers.

Need to re-think: Keeping Laurent Robinson.

Grade:  B

BoomGoesTheDynamite – Jens

Current Record:  2-4-1

Points Scored: 579

2012 Weekly High Scores: 1

Last Weekly High Score: Week 1, 2012

Keeper production: 125 pts – Ray Rice (1^st; 100 pts), Aaron Hernandez (15^th; 25 pts).

Should have kept:  Joe Flacco (11^th; 105 pts) instead of Hernandez.

Highlight:  Dominating in Week 1.

Live in the now!: Jens’ team slogan is still referencing the glory days from Week 1.  It’s Week 8 now… time to move forward.

Grade:  D

Coors Light Drunk Guys – Shawn

Current Record:  4-3

Points Scored: 590

2012 Weekly High Scores: 1

Last Weekly High Score: Week 2, 2012

Keeper production: 213 pts – Drew Brees (1^st; 154 pts), Maurice Jones-Drew (3^rd; 59 pts).

Should have kept:  Marshawn Lynch (15^th; 80 pts) instead of MJD.

Best Move:  Winning the “What Do You Know Bowl” in Week 7.

Need to re-think:  Drafting two wide receivers from Pittsburgh as starters.

Grade:  C

Frito Pie – Rachel

Current Record:  3-4

Points Scored: 539

2012 Weekly High Scores: 0

Last Weekly High Score: Week 14, 2010

Keeper production: 84 pts – Wes Welker (4^th; 76 pts), Beanie Wells (9^th; 8 pts)

Should have kept:  Alex Smith (15^th; 88 pts) instead of Wells.

Best Move:  Drafting A.J. Green in the third round.

Dime-a-dozen: Carrying a back-up kicker is a wasted roster spot.

Grade:  D

Gotham’s Reckoning – Timmy

Current Record:  3-4

Points Scored: 648

2012 Weekly High Scores: 1

Last Weekly High Score: Week 3, 2012

Keeper production: 228 pts – Matt Stafford (10^th; 98 pts), Arian Foster (1^st; 130 pts).

Should have kept: Slight improvement by keeping A.J. Green (11^th; 106 pts) instead of Stafford, but that’s really splitting hairs.

Churning the roster:  Thirteen waiver claims leads the league. 

Note:  Timmy  takes the prize for having the most productive keepers thus far!

Grade:  C

Joe’s Pats – Joe

Current Record:  5-2

Points Scored: 631

2012 Weekly High Scores: 2

Last Weekly High Score: Week 5, 2012

Keeper production: 203 pts – Tom Brady (1^st; 137 pts), LeSean McCoy (1^st; 66 pts).

Should have kept:  Tony Gonzales (9^th; 66 pts) instead of McCoy.  Only a marginal improvement here on draft choices surrendered for equally productive player.

Best Move:  Keeping a death grip on Tom Brady.

Bad luck: Three players combining for 1 point in Week 7.  Ouch.

Grade:  A

Midnight Maulers – Jamie

Current Record:  3-4

Points Scored: 651

2012 Weekly High Scores: 0

Last Weekly High Score: Week 8, 2011

Keeper production: 100 pts – Greg Jennings (1^st; 12 pts), Frank Gore (1^st; 88 pts).

Should have kept:  Carson Palmer (15^th; 97 pts) instead of Jennings.

Best Move:  Drafting Chicago’s defense. 

How’s the weather up there?: The Maulers are the top scoring team in the league!

Grade:  C

Scottish Rebels – Jerry

Current Record:  1-6

Points Scored: 590

2012 Weekly High Scores: 0

Last Weekly High Score: Week 9, 2011

Keeper production: 193 pts – Cam Newton (11^th; 98 pts), Adrian Peterson (1^st; 95 pts).

Should have kept:  Kept players are the most productive from last year’s roster.

Best Move:  Picking up Alfred Morris off the waiver wire.

Need to re-think: Not starting Roddy White in Week 4 when he scored 31 points.

Grade:  F

SOFA KING GOOD – James

Current Record:  3-4

Points Scored: 640

2012 Weekly High Scores: 0

Last Weekly High Score: Week 12, 2011

Keeper production: 150 pts – Victor Cruz (15^th; 104 pts), DeMarco Murray (14^th, 46 pts).

Should have kept:  C.J. Spiller (11^th; 93 pts) instead of Murray.

Best Move:  RG3 .

Note:  James has the unlucky distinction of having had the most points scored against him.

Grade:  C

sprouts – Russ

Current Record:  5-2

Points Scored: 621

2012 Weekly High Scores: 2

Last Weekly High Score: This week!

Keeper production: 138 pts – Willis McGahee (15^th; 69 pts), Rob Gronkowski (13^th, 69 pts).

Should have kept:  Kept players are the most productive from last year’s roster.

Best Move:  Having the confidence to draft Peyton Manning.

Grade:  B

SHAWN-- TRADE BOLDIN TO JAMIE

I just realized that Jamie has almost re-created his 2011 roster in 2012.  The only difference from his ending roster in 2011 was that he had Anquan Boldin as his 2^nd receiver, and this season he has Josh Gordon.  Considering that the Maulers finished last year at 3-10, I’m not sure that it was the best strategy, but it seems to be working so far this season.

FANTASY VS. REALITY

The top five scoring teams in fantasy are:

1)      New England Patriots – 691 pts (Reality #1 – 217 pts)

2)      New York Giants – 681 pts (Reality #3 – 205 pts)

3)      Houston Texans – 642 pts (Reality #2 – 216 pts)

4)      Green Bay Packers – 641 pts (Reality #5 – 184 pts)

5)      Baltimore Ravens – 585 pts (Reality #7 – 174 pts)

The team rankings for reality scoring has been correlating pretty closely to the fantasy points scored by team.  The largest discrepancy is the Detroit Lions who are currently 15^th in Fantasy scoring (501 pts), but rank 21^st in reality scoring (133 pts).  Jacksonville continues to be the worst in both categories, with only 307 fantasy points scored, and 88 reality points scored.

BEST BENCH

While Joe’s Pats and sprouts have both won two Weekly High Score Prizes this season, one team has done even better than that when it comes to the Best Bench.  Taking home their third Best Bench Award this season is… the Coors Light Drunk Guys!!  Shawn previously won the Best Bench in Weeks 1 and 3. This time Shawn could have improved his point total by 44 with three roster changes – C. Johnson for M. Jones-Drew (+34), A. Brown for A. Boldin (+8) and the Cardinals for the Packers (+2). 

Thursday night games and bye weeks continue.  Make sure you have your rosters set!!