Week 7 - The Return of the (Sofa)King

The scoring slide continues.  Since the record-setting Week 2 scores this season, we have seen a decrease in scoring every single week.  In Week 2, there was a total of 1,034 points scored (with 6 teams scoring >100), last week there were only 812 scored, and now this week there were only a total of 804.  Maybe this point decline is a result of all the injuries we’ve been seeing this season, or maybe it’s the result of owners leaving 30- and 40-point scoring players on their benches?!  Come on, man!  More on that in the Best Bench section…

Week 6 was dominated by Vandelay Industries, who were the only team able to score in triple digits finishing with a monstrous 123-43 over my Longshanks boys.  Rob got a huge performance from Derrick Henry (41 pts) as well as Lamar Jackson (27 pts), and also had strong games from the Miami defense (19 pts) and George Kittle (16 pts).  This was Rob’s first Weekly High Score this season, and the 80-point margin of victory goes down as the 8th largest margin of victory in Sacred Sundays history.  Nice work senor!

This week was almost a mirror image of last week, with only one team able to score over 100 points, and that team absolutely destroying their opponent.  This time it was Sofa King American laying the smack down on American BadAss, 121-37, which ties for the 5th largest margin of victory all time (84 pts)!  James had solid performances all around with all but one player recording double digits, led by Davante Adams-WR (34 pts) and Deshaun Watson-QB (23 pts).  This is James’ first Weekly High Score Prize this season, and marks the 5th different team to win a prize so far.  Nice work MAJOR!!

BIG TIME

• Tyler Lockett, WR – American BadAss – 41 pts – Amazing day from Lockett, catching 15 passes for 200 yards and 3 TD’s!  This is the best single week performance we have seen from a wide receiver this season, and puts Lockett in a tie with Calvin Ridley for highest scoring WR so far.
• Tom Brady, QB – Longshanks – 39 pts – For anyone doubting the power of TB12, this was his 2nd game this season scoring >35 points, he is currently the 5th highest scoring player in all fantasy, and he has his team sitting at 5-2 on top of the NFC South.  Impressive.
• Kyler Murray, QB – sprouts – 39 pts – Here is your current top dog in fantasy!  Kyler has amassed 195 points on the season thus far, with his lowest score being a 20 in Week 3, and now this week scoring in the 30’s for the second time.  He’s 19 points ahead of 2nd place Russell Wilson.  (In 2019, the highest scoring player through 7 weeks (Lamar Jackson) had scored just 171 points.)
• Davante Adams, WR – Sofa King American – 34 pts – When he’s healthy, he is putting up big numbers as he did this week with 16 catches for 196 yards and 2 TD’s.

COME ON MAN

• Jerick McKinnon, RB – Young Guns – 0 pts – The Niners “rested” McKinnon and only gave him 3 carries, which he didn’t do much with.
• Jonnu Smith, TE – Young Guns – 0 pts – The dreaded 1 catch for 9 yards day.
• CeeDee Lamb, WR – American BadAss – 0 pts – Nary a catch to be had for Mr. Lamb.
• Cam Newton, QB – Joe’s Pats – -2 pts – Just 98 yards and 3 interceptions leading to him being benched.  Belichick swears Newton is “absolutely” the starter.  Right, Bill… we’ll see.

BAD FANTASIES

There have been a lot of terrible fantasy performances over the years, and Cam Newton’s this week was certainly up there with the stinkers.  Getting -2 points, as Cam did this weekend, is shameful but it's not nearly the worst score I've ever seen.  To get there you’ve got to go even lower, throw a few more interceptions, and get all the way down to -8!  And amazingly, it has happened twice..two dudes have managed a single week score of -8. The first was John Skelton (QB, ARI) back in Week 14, 2012 and more recently Nathan Peterman (QB, BUF) did it in Week 11, 2017.  In both cases, both quarterbacks threw for less than 100 yards (74 and 66, respectively) and both had a total of 5 turnovers!  Skelton had 4 interceptions and 1 fumble, while Peterman simply threw 5 picks.

But hey, even a legend can have a stinker of a game… look no further than Peyton Manning in Week 10, 2015, where he finished a game with only 35 yards passing and 4 interceptions for a total of -7. 

JOKE OF THE WEEK

I was going to tell a COVID joke here, but there is a 99.696% chance you won’t get it.

ALL UNWANTEDS

2020 has not been kind thus far to those who shalln’t be drafted, as they came into Week 7 at 1-5 and on a 5 game losing streak.  But things were clicking for them this week, in a roster comprised half & half of Jaguars and Football Players:

Look at that!  Five players in double digits, and a final score of 110.  This is their highest score of the season, and was well above the league average (80.4), so the All Unwanteds improve their record to 2-5.

 TOP 5 SUMMARIES

Quick breakdown of the top 5 players at each position, and their scores by week:

• Attack of Mahomes leads the way with 7 players represented above.  (Timmy is dominating with two Kickers in the top 5 AND two Defenses in the Top 5.)
• sprouts has six players above, with a player in every category except Kicker.
• Joe's Pats, Young Guns and Longshanks each have four players represented.
• Vandelay Industries has two players represented.
•  The two American teams (American BadAss and Sofa King American) each only have a single player represented above.
• This year’s “What Do You Know? Bowl” (coming up in Week 9!) is not looking to be a star-studded event, as neither team (Coors Light Drunk Guys and Big Sack No TD’s) has any players represented above.

 

NFL FANTASY SCORES BY TEAM

Through 7 weeks of play, the team which has produced the most total fantasy points is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  The Bucs have scored a total of 670 fantasy points this season.   Across every position (QB, RB, WR, TE, K, D), the Buccaneers rank in the top 10 for total fantasy points produced.  Their two highest spots are Defense (2^nd most points) and Tight End (4^th most points).  The rest of the top five highest scoring teams are:  KC (667 pts), ARI (653 pts), SEA (646 pts) and ATL (619 pts).

The lowest scoring team is the New York Jets, who have only totaled 340, barely half of Tampa’s total.  They rank 30^th or 31^st in four categories (QB, RB, TE and K).  The two ‘All Unwanteds’ teams (WSH & JAX) currently rank 28^th and 22^nd, respectively in total fantasy points scored.

Probably the most surprising team is the New England Patriots who currently rank 31^st in fantasy points scored.  They appear to really be missing Brady-Gronkowski, as they currently rank 26^th in quarterback production and dead last in tight end point production.  Get this: Patriot tight ends have scored a total of 4 points this season.  Four points!  In seven games!! 

 

BEST BENCH(ES)

Double dose of Best Benches to dole out this week, and we will start with last week’s.  Last week’s Best Bench was very unique because it only involved 1 player.  A single swap, if you will.  I searched back through my records and did not find another Single Swap Best Bench until way back in Week 9 of 2011!  And because shit is better when it is crazy than not, it was the EXACT SAME TEAM who got it last time as this time!  So, with his second Single Swap Best Bench in the last 9 years, the Week 6 Best Bench goes to… sprouts!  Russ needed to only swap J. Jefferson for D. Parker to get a 30-point improvement last week.  This is the first Best Bench for sprouts this season.  (In case you are wondering, back in 2011 Russ claimed the Single Swap Best Bench with a W. McGahee for L. Blount swap to get a 24-point improvement.)  

Now, as mentioned at the beginning of this post it’s hard to avoid getting a Best Bench when you have a player on your bench score in the 40’s.  Chances become even greater when the active players on your roster for the same position both post zero points.  This is the situation experienced by the Week 7 Best Bench winner, where not one but four roster moves could have improved the final score by a very solid 58 points!  Without further adieu, and claiming his 2nd Best Bench this season, the Week 7 Best Bench goes to… American BadAss!  Jason got nothing from his active receivers this week (OBJ=IR, CeeDee Lamb=terrible), but had Tyler Lockett post 41 on his bench.  The other moves were:  R. Gronkowski for J. Graham (+9), D. Samuel for O. Beckham (+6) and D. Carr for J. Goff (+2).

 

Hard to believe we are nearing the halfway point of the season and it is already time for midterms!!  Get to studying… grades will be posted next week!

Sprouts is back on top!

 Second place is the first loser.  Wow, I mean in a seriously unprecedented occurrence, for a third week in a row, the 2nd highest scoring team lost to the highest scoring team in the weekly matchups.  This week’s victim was Joe’s Pats who posted a respectable 104 points only to lose to the Week 5 high score of 109 points from sprouts!  Russ had all but one of his players score in double digits, led by Kyler Murray-QB (29 pts), Deandre Hopkins-WR (19 pts) and Will Lutz-K (15 pts).  This is Russ’ third Weekly High Score Prize this season, and keeps him alive as the only undefeated team in the league.  Excellent work sir!

In other league action, the North Division continues to lead in terms of total wins (14-11), while the South Division leads in total points scored (2,369 to 2,326).  Remember that the top two teams in each division automatically qualify for the playoffs plus two wild card teams qualify.  See below for my 2020 Playoff Predictions.

Also, I just want to point out – Yahoo has been sending updates regarding all the COVID rescheduling and how point adjustments will be calculated and when waivers will be processed.  Whatever decisions they make on these issues are basically out of my control, so please pay attention to the alerts and follow what they say.  

Along with Playoff Predictions this week, we hand out a 62.5% Best Bench as the winning team this week needed to swap 5 of 8 players!  Lets go!

BIG TIME

• Chase Claypool, WR – Free Agent – 35 pts – Allow me to introduce you to this week’s hottest waiver wire pickup.  In case you didn’t hear about this guy, he had 4 TD’s (3 receiving, 1 rushing) to go along with 110 yards.  
• Ryan Fitzpatrick, QB – Free Agent – 30 pts – The power of the beard!  The Dolphins came out and stunned the 49ers, with Fitzy going off for 350 yards and 3 TD’s!
• Kyler Murray, QB – sprouts – 29 pts – 380 passing yards, 1 passing and 1 rushing TD.  Murray is becoming a real fantasy asset, currently the 5th highest scoring QB.
• Baltimore, DEF – Joe’s Pats – 28 pts – The Ravens just walloped the Bengals, as they registered 7 sacks, 2 fumble recoveries, 1 interception, 1 defensive TD and a 4th down stop, all while only surrendering 3 points.  This ties the single week highest score for a defense this season (IND scored 28 in Week 3).  

COME ON MAN

• Hayden Hurst, TE – Big Sack – 0 pts – Two catches for 8 yards was all Mr. Hurst had to offer this week.
• Dalton Schultz, TE – American BadAss – 0 pts – One catch for 6 yards.  Weak.
• Zach Ertz, TE – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 0 pts – What the hell is going on with tight ends this week?  Geez another 1 catch, 6 yard performance.
• Kansas City, DEF – Attack of Mahomes – -1 pts – The KC defense snagged 1 INT and got a sack, but they gave up 40 points to the Raiders.  The freakin’ Raiders!!
• San Francisco, DEF – Sofa King American – -2 pts – They gave up 43 points to the Dolphins, and all they did to offset it was register 2 sacks.  This is the worst score for a defense this season.  Plus this is the first week where there were multiple negative scoring defenses.

JOKE OF THE WEEK

Why don't blind people eat fish?  Because it's sea food.

PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS

It is time once again to break out the crystal ball and do some prognosticating.  The factors which went into these playoff predictions are: overall record, total points scored, utilization and schedule difficulty. Among any of these categories the highest probability to qualify for the playoffs is within the ‘points scored’ category.  The highest scoring team through 5 weeks has qualified for the playoffs 100% of the time and the 2nd highest scoring team has qualified 92.3% of the time.  (Not super surprising as scoring a lot of points helps you get into the playoffs.)  

From a wins and losses perspective, an undefeated record of 5-0 has a qualification percentage of 83%.  (Five of six teams who started 5-0 qualified for the playoffs.  And the one team to start 5-0 and not qualify was way back in 2007.)  Meanwhile teams at 3-2 and 2-3 qualify at 69% and 61% respectively.  And unfortunately for winless teams, an 0-5 start has never been overcome to make the playoffs.  Six teams have started off 0-5, and not one of them has made the playoffs.  Can Big Sack become the exception to the rule?!  What do you know?!  

Taking all categories into consideration here are the 2020 Sacred Sundays Week 5 Playoff Predictions:

• sprouts – Sprouts lead the way in points scored and overall record, plus are tops in bench utilization and have the easiest schedule going forward.  Russ has had great production from Kyler Murray at QB, and Alvin Kamara and Aaron Jones at running back.  
• Longshanks – A 4-1 record has qualified for the playoffs 75% of the time, and the 2nd highest scoring team has qualified 92.3% of the time.  I also currently rank 2nd in bench utilization and have the 3rd easiest schedule remaining.
• Joe’s Pats – The Pats have scored the 3rd most thru the first five weeks, which has a 71.4% playoff qualification rate, and their record, 3-2, has qualified 69% of the time. Joe also ranks 4th in bench utilization and has the 2nd easiest schedule remaining.
• Sofa King American – The King currently ranks 7th in points scored which, interestingly, has historical playoff qualification rate of 60%.  James also ranks 5th in bench utilization and 5th in schedule difficulty.
• Young Guns – Currently rank as the 5th highest scoring team, which has qualified for the playoffs 80% of the time historically.  John’s record of 3-2 qualifies at 69%, but he does has the 2nd hardest schedule remaining.

The final spot was a tough one to pick.  Vandelay Industries has a good record (3-2), but is 9th in scoring and have the hardest schedule remaining.  American BadAss is currently 4th in scoring, but have a hole to climb out of with a 1-4 record.  The Coors Light Drunk Guys have two wins so far (2-3), but rank 8th in scoring.  Big Sack, having yet to register a victory this season, is a long shot to make it in.  Thus, my final prediction for the 2020 playoffs is:

• Attack of Mahomes – The record of 2-3 qualifies for the playoffs 61% of the time, and Timmy ties with James for having the 5th easiest schedule from here on out.  In terms of total points scored AOM ranks 6th, which is concerning because the 6th ranked team after 5 weeks only qualifies for the playoffs 38.5% of the time.  But I’ve got confidence in the big play ability of Mahomes, so I think Timmy will make it in!

In only 8 short weeks we will know how accurate these predictions were.  The last two seasons I’ve been correct on 5 of 6 teams.

BEST BENCH

Big Sack made a strong push this week to claim a 3rd Best Bench, but his 37-point improvement possibility was not enough to top this week’s winner.  With more than a 50% roster swap, and a solid 44-point improvement possibility (2nd highest this season), the Week 5 Best Bench goes to…. American BadAss!  Jason needed to swap 5(!) players to get there:  J. Goff for D. Prescott (+13), H. Ruggs III for O. Beckham Jr. (+12), C. Lamb for T. Lockett (+8), Indianapolis for Seattle (+6) and R. Gronkowski for D. Schultz (+5).  BadAss is now the fifth team to snag a Best Bench this season.

Already closing in on Week 6!  No Thursday Night game this week, and teams on byes are the Seahawks, Chargers, Saints and Raiders.

Longshanks throws out the competition in Week 4!

 

Matchups have been brutal this season!  Again we see a team score over 100 points yet lose.  This has happened 5 times this season (out of 16 occurrences), so 100+ scores are winning at just 68.8% this season.  On top of that, the last two weeks have seen the 2nd highest scoring team lose to the highest scoring team…brutal!

On the delivering end of the brutal defeat this week were my Longshanks boys who had 4 players score in double digits, led by my new favorite player, Green Bay Packer tight end Robert Tonyan who finished with 27 points thanks to 98 receiving yards and 3 TD catches on Monday night!  Also scoring in the twenties were Dalvin Cook (26 pts), Russell Wilson (23 pts) and DJ Chark (21 pts).  It all added up to 144 points and a 29-point victory over American BadAss, the aforementioned second highest scoring team.  Perhaps it is fantasy karma as BadAss was tops last week, beating the 2nd highest scoring team, Big Sack.  Weirdly enough, my Week 5 opponent is Big Sack, so if this trend holds Jens should be the highest scoring team in Week 5 and I’ll finish 2nd.

In league standings, sprouts still remains as the sole undefeated team at 4-0 and Big Sack is still the only team yet to win.  At 4-0 sprouts has a 71.4% likelihood to make the playoffs and a victory this week increases the likelihood to 80%.  For Big Sack, an 0-4 start only has a 12.5% likelihood to make the playoffs, but a victory this week (1-4) increases the likelihood to 40%.  An 0-5 start, however would not be good, as that has never resulted in a playoff berth in Sacred Sundays history.  Tune in next week for the full annual Playoff Predictions!  

Just a few items to get to this week including a Best Bench that is the biggest one since Week 14, 2018.  Let’s go!

BIG TIME

• Dak Prescott, QB – American Bad Ass – 40 pts – Dak’s arm is going to fall off soon!  He has thrown for over 450 yards in each of the last 3 weeks, the most for any quarterback over a 3 week span in NFL history!  This week he threw for over 500 yards (502!!), 4 TD’s and 1 interception.  He is the current top scoring player in fantasy, with 128 total points and two games of 40+.
• Joe Mixon, RB – Big Sack – 39 pts – Mixon’s production this week more than doubled what he had done in the first three weeks of the season combined!  He came into the week having scored only 17 points total, but then went wild for 151 yards and 2 TD’s on the ground, plus 30 yards and another TD receiving.
• Tom Brady, QB – Longshanks – 35 pts – Brady threw 5 TD passes to 5 different players.  Brady is showing he can still get it done, as he is the 7th ranked QB and has even scored more points than Lamar Jackson so far.
• Odell Beckham Jr, WR – American BadAss – 33 pts – This was the kind of day you expect from OBJ… 5 catches for 81 yards and 2 TD’s, plus a 50-yard rushing TD on an end around!  Nice!
• Aaron Rodgers, QB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 29 pts – Superb night for Rodgers throwing for 327 yards and 4 TD’s!  On the season he has thrown 13 TD’s with zero interceptions. 
• Robert Tonyan, TE – Longshanks – 27 pts – How about this for a waiver pickup?  The undrafted Mr. Tonyan caught all six passes thrown his way for 98 yards plus 3 TD’s!  In spite of not scoring any points in Week 1 (he might not have even played), he is currently the top scoring tight end in fantasy with 46 points (T. Kelce is in 2nd place with 41).
• George Kittle, TE – Vandelay Industries – 27 pts – Look at the tight ends this week!  Scoring all these points.  Get this, Kittle was targeted 15 times and he caught every. god. damn. one. of. them.  15-for-15!  That is the way you are supposed to do it!  He finished with a Tony Gonzales-esque stat line of 183 yards and a TD.

COME ON MAN!

• Greg Zuerlein, K – Big Sack – 2 pts – In spite of Dallas scoring 38 pts, ‘The Leg’ only attempted and made 2 extra points.  WTF?
• Robbie Gould, K – Vandelay Industries – 2 pts – Only 2 PAT’s for Gould as well… kickers…what can you do?
• Michael Gallup, WR – Sofa King American – 2 pts – His quarterback throws for 502 yards, but he only manages 29 of those?  That’s weak.
• Arizona, DEF – sprouts – 1 pt – Since the start of the year, here are the Cards' Defense weekly scores: 11, 9, 5, 1.  Based on that trend, they should be scoring -3 or -4 in Week 5.  It’s a sinking ship Russ!  Jump!
• Marvin Jones, WR – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 0 pts – Jones got the whole nine yards in this game.  Literally, 9 yards.  That's all he got. Nine.
• Calvin Ridley, WR – Joe’s Pats – 0 pts – In spite of not catching a pass this week, Ridley is the leading wide receiver in fantasy.  You get that?  Through the first 3 weeks he has scored 58 points, and the second highest scoring wide receiver, DK Metcalf, has now scored 55 points through four weeks of the season.  So maybe he just took this week off to let everyone else catch up...

JOKE OF THE WEEK

It took the United States three months to get COVID, but not China.  China got it right off the bat.

ALL UNWANTEDS

Much better showing for the UnWanteds, as Gardner Minshew and Antonio Gibson had solid games.  Roster composition was back to 6 Jags and 2 Football Players:

QB	Gardner Minshew II	Jax	23
WR	Laviska Shenault Jr.	Jax	8
WR	Keelan Cole	Jax	4
RB	Antonio Gibson	WF	18
RB	James Robinson	Jax	10
TE	Tyler Eifert	Jax	2
DEF	Washington	WF	4
K	Aldrick Rosas	Jax	15
		Total	84

The average league score this week was 89.6, so this goes down as another loss, moving them to 1-3 on the season.  

FANTASY SCORES BY NFL TEAM

Summing together all points scored by NFL teams shows some interesting things.  First off, the NFC has a lot of high scoring teams, (currently owning the top 3, 4 of the top 6, and 6 of the top 10), except for in the NFC East.  Three of the bottom five teams come from the NFC East, with Philadelphia, Washington and the New York Giants all finding themselves at the bottom of the list.

Rank	Team	Points
1	GB	454
2	Sea	445
3	Dal	420
4	Buf	396
5	KC	388
6	TB	377
7	Bal	354
8	Atl	353
9	SF	350
10	Cle	345
28	Phi	269
29	Ten	264
30	Was	256
31	NYJ	206
32	NYG	196

Other notes – 

• Dallas is ranked 3rd, in spite of their defense ranking last with only 6 points scored so far.
• New England is clearly missing Gronk, as the Patriots have only 3 points from the tight end position this season.
• San Francisco has scored the 9th most points overall, yet have the 2nd fewest points from the wide receiver position, with only 31 total points coming from that position this season.
• Tampa Bay is a surprise in the top 10, but they have gotten a boost from their defense who currently ranks 3rd in points scored, and their wide receivers rank 5th overall.

BEST BENCH

Sometimes you’ve done something once, and you just know you can do better, like maybe even twice as good.  That’s what our Best Bench winner did this week, with a doubly good performance for Week 4, and a whopping 60-point improvement possibility!!  Without further adieu, for the second time this season the Best Bench goes to… Big Sack!!  Jens needed to make just three roster swaps to get this big change:  J. Mixon for A. Ekeler (+38), A. Gibson for N. Chubb (+14) and C. Wentz for M. Ryan (+8).  

As mentioned this was the highest Best Bench since American BadAss had a 66-point one in Week 14, 2018, and ties for the 3rd highest in the last 4 seasons.  And also as mentioned, this Best Bench is “doubly” good because not only did Jens double his Best Bench from Week 1 (30 pts to 60 pts), but he also would have more than doubled his score with his bench improvements this week, going from 59 to 119!  What do you know?!?

We’ve made it through the first quarter of the season with only one COVID postponement.  Let’s see how far we can get before the wheels completely come off!  Let's do this!!