Week 10 - sprouts dominance continues!

Where has the scoring gone?  With only 729 points scored this week, it ranks as the 4th lowest scoring week of all-time, and the lowest score since Week 15, 2018 when only 691 points were scored.  But it wasn’t due to poor team management, the players simply scored less this week.  The highest individual score was 31 (by Tom Brady), which is the lowest high score of the season so far.  Across all players in the NFL this week, there were 2,088 fantasy points scored, which is lower than the weekly average by 390 points.  For comparison in Week 2 of this season, there were a total of 2,724 fantasy points scored including 6 players scoring 31 points or more.  Even last week, there were 2,398 points scored and 4 players over 30 points.  We need more points!

In spite of low scores, one team continues to pour it on week after week, and that team is sprouts!  Russ demolished his opponent, Vandelay Industries, by 50 points, and beat the next highest scoring team, Joe’s Pats, by 20.  He had big games from Kyler Murray (29 points), Alvin Kamara (27 points) and Deandre Hopkins (18 points) to finish with 127 and claim a 4th Weekly High Score Prize this season!  Russ gets extra props on this one because it was an optimal High Score…there were no bench point improvements to be had on his roster.  sprouts owns the league’s best record, 8-2, and leads the league in scoring (1,050 points scored… the only team over 1,000).  Excellent work Russ!

The league standings are as tight as ever behind sprouts with five teams tied at 6-4 and one team at 5-5.  Four teams are still alive to take the North Division title, and the wild card spots are shaping up to be tight battles.  It is more important than ever right now to get your waiver claims in, and make sure your roster is set every week.  

This week we will check in on the surging All Unwanteds, get caught up on last week’s What Do You Know?! Bowl, and hand out two Best Benches…(spoiler alert – only 1 team gets called out in the Best Bench section).  Onward!

BIG TIME

• Tom Brady, QB – Joe’s Pats – 31 pts – After his dismal outing last week versus the Saints (3 interceptions and only 2 points scored), TB12 bounced back with a phenomenal game… 341 yards, 3 passing TD’s and 1 rushing TD!
• Kyler Murray, QB – sprouts – 29 pts – Over the last 5 weeks, Murray has scored no less than 28 points in any week and is averaging a crazy 32.4 points per game over that span.
• Alvin Kamara, RB – sprouts – 27 pts – Kamara only had 98 total yards (83 receiving and 15 rushing), but made the most of it by getting into the endzone three times!

COME ON MAN

• J.K. Dobbins, RB – American BadAss – 1 pt – Dobbins only got 5 carries in the crowded Baltimore backfield.  
• T.J. Hockenson, TE – Big Sack No TD’s – 1 pt – A hurt toe limited his production as he only caught 2 passes for 13 yards.
• Baltimore, DEF – Longshanks – 1 pt – Ravens were the top defense coming into the week, and had a favorable matchup against New England.  But they ended up giving up 23 points (3rd most they’ve surrendered this season), recorded no turnovers (for the first time this season) and only registered 1 sack. What in the flux capacitor is going on?
• Travis Fulgham, WR – Longshanks – 0 pts – Fulgham was completely lost in the shuffle with Philadelphia getting 3 injured players back.  He finished with just 1 dumb catch for 8 pathetic yards.
• Julio Jones, WR – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 0 pts – It is hard for a guy to score points when he doesn’t have a game!  Check your roster Shawn!
• Todd Gurley, RB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 0 pts – It is hard for a guy to score points when he doesn’t have a game!  Check your roster Shawn!!
• Philip Lindsay, RB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 0 pts – Lindsay did play this week, but barely.  He carried the ball 4 times for a whopping 2 yards.  Check your roster Shawn!!!!
• Jared Cook, TE – Attack of Mahomes – 0 pts – Timmy only needs a back-up tight end for one week, and Cook goes out and lays an egg.  Just how in the hell does that happen? 

WHAT DO YOU KNOW?! BOWL

The “What Do YOU Know”?! Bowl is the annual meeting between the Coors Light Drunk Guys and whatever team name Jens is going by.  Some years we have been blessed with two WDYK?! Bowl games, but it looks like this will be the only one this season.  

In last week’s meeting, the Drunk Guys dominated, led by Aaron Rodgers with 28 points and DK Metcalf with 16 to finish with a solid 89 points.  Big Sack struggled with only three players in double figures (led by R. Tannehill with 14), and finished with just 59 points.  The 30-point victory by Shawn marks the 3rd largest margin of victory in WDYK?! Bowl history.  Congrats on the victory Shawn!

Historically speaking, Jens still leads in total wins, 12-9, but Shawn has now taken the lead in total points scored, 1,717 to 1,698.  Until next year… What do YOU know?!?!?

ALL UNWANTEDS

After a rough start to the season, the AUW’s have hit their stride and now own a three-game winning streak!  Last week they finished with 83 points, which narrowly edged the league average (82.3), and this week they absolutely destroyed:

QB Alex Smith WSH  - 18
WR Keelan Cole JAX - 18
WR Cam Sims WSH - 5
RB Antonio Gibson WSH - 18
RB James Robinson JAX - 10
TE Logan Thomas WSH - 6
DEF Jacksonville JAX - 15
K Dustin Hopkins WSH - 10
TOTAL = 100

With the league average only 72.9 this week, this was an easy victory, moving their record to 4-5.  (They have one fewer game because the Jags & Potatoes were both on byes in Week 8).  Side note: The All Unwanteds – a team comprised solely of undrafted Jacksonville and Washington players – outscored my team by 63 points this week.  Just wanted to point that out in case you missed it.

PLAYOFFS?  DON’T TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS!  PLAYOFFS??!!

Only three regular season games left before playoffs begin.  As always, the top six teams will advance to the playoffs starting in Week 14.  The top two teams in each division automatically qualify with the top team in each division receiving a first round bye.  The next two highest ranked teams receive Wildcards.  Wildcards are not division specific…both can come from the same division.

Teams that do not qualify for the playoffs are still eligible to win the Weekly High Score prize, but do not compete in head-to-head games.  Final standings at end of regular season determines the teams that finish in 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th place.

Here are the criteria used for Divisional and Wildcard rankings:

Divisional standing ranking
Overall record
Division record
Head-to-head record
Points scored
Coin flip

Wildcard standing ranking/tiebreakers
Overall record
Head-to-head record
Points scored
Coin flip

Tune in next week for playoff scenarios!

BEST BENCH(ES)

The Best Bench has been dominated by one team in recent weeks.  In fact, one team has owned the Best Bench for the last three weeks!  The point improvement totals haven’t been a whole lot to speak of… 26 points in Week 8, 27 points in Week 9, and now 35 points in Week 10.  But getting three in a row is a pretty rare event.  Not since the Drunk Guys took 3 in a row back in 2015 have we seen such command of the Best Bench.  All of these totals belong to… Young Guns!!  Just as it hasn't been a lot of points, John hasn't needed many players to do it.  Last week, he needed only two player swaps to get to it:  J. Allen for J. Herbert +15 and J. McKinnon for J. Jackson +12.  Again this week, just two roster moves to get there:  R. Jones II for D. Johnson +21 and A. Thielen for A.J. Brown +14.

Four teams have yet to claim a Best Bench this season, and one manager still has a five year streak of no Best Benches working!  Make sure to check your roster every week...

Time to get ready for Week 11!!