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!!