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.
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