The Thigh Master

What a week!  In the highest scoring matchup of the season so far, my newly named Christian McCaffrey’s Thigh narrowly edged Attack of Mahomes by four points, 116-112, to claim the Week 3 High Score!  In spite of C Mac only scoring 3 pts (before leaving the game injured), and Dalvin Cook being ruled out pre-game, my QB Josh Allen (39 pts), the Arizona Defense (21 pts) and RB Alexander Mattison (16 pts) came through in the clutch to pull out the tight victory.  Three weeks of the season and already three different High Score winners!  Nice!

Lots of ‘firsts’ happening this week- First victory for Coors Light Drunk Guys… first loss of the season for a team scoring >100 pts… first time there have been 6 teams with a 1-2 record since 2013… and this is the first time my team (Scottish Rebels, Butkus’ Dick, Longshanks, Christian McCaffrey’s Thigh) has started the season with a 3-0 record!  (I have started 0-3 four times though…hahaha!)

In Weeks 1 & 2, there was only one close game each week but this week gave us three nail biters with margins of 4, 3 and 1.  Joe’s Pats pulled out the 3-point victory over Vandelay Industries and the Drunk Guys squeaked out a 1 pointer over Sofa King American to get their first victory.  With that victory it means there are no more winless teams, so no one is even going to come close to breaking my record for worst start of 0-6, which I did in back-to-back seasons (2011-12).

Just a quick update this week which includes a truly historic Best Bench.  Lets do this!

In case you missed any of the 300 re-runs, there's C Mac's thigh

BIG TIME

• Josh Allen, QB – Christian McCaffrey’s Thigh – 39 pts – What a day for Allen, torching Washington for 358 pass yards and 4 TD’s, plus adding a 9-yard scamper for a rushing TD!
• Tom Brady, QB – Sofa King American – 31 pts – Brady put up 432 passing yards and had 2 TD’s (1 passing, 1 rushing) in a losing effort to the Rams.  Get this – he needs just 68 yards next week to become the all-time NFL passing yardage leader.  And guess where he is playing?  Oh yeah, Foxboro. 
• Justin Herbert, QB – Young Guns – 30 pts – This Herbert may be pretty good!  Against the Chiefs he racked up 481 yards and 4 TD’s!

COME ON MAN

• Noah Fant, TE – Sofa King American – 1 pt – Just two catches for 15 yards.  
• TJ Hockensen, TE – Vandelay Industries – 1 pt – Two for two on catches, but for all of 10 yards.
• Tampa Bay, DEF – Vandelay Industries – 1 pt – The Bucs only managed one sack and gave up 34 points to the Rams.
• Kansas City, DEF – Attack of Mahomes – 0 pts – While giving up 30 points to the Chargers, the only defensive stat the Chiefs mustered was a single sack.  Oof.

ALL UNWANTEDS

Not a good week for those who shall’n’t be drafted.  The two teams randomly selected to represent the AUW’s were the New York Jets (less Corey Davis, WR and Michael Carter, RB) and the New Orleans Saints (less Alvin Kamara, RB and Michael Thomas, WR).  However, it hardly made any difference this week as all five of the teams (CHI, HOU, NO, NYG and NYJ) were pretty poor.  

Here was this week’s lineup:

• Jameis Winston, QB NO - 13 pts
• Marquez Callaway, WR NO - 10 pts
• Deonte Harris, WR NO - 3 pts
• Tony Jones Jr, RB NO - 2 pts
• Ty Johnson, RB NYJ - 1 pt
• Tyler Kroft, TE NYJ - 1 pt
• Aldrick Rosas, K NO - 4 pts
• New Orleans, DEF NO - 22 pts
• Total = 56 pts

The paltry 56 points were far below the league average this week (92.8), so this drops the All Unwanteds record to 1-2.  Hey, look at that...another team with a 1-2 record.

PLAYOFFS?  DON’T TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS!!

We are only 2 weeks away from my annual Week 5 Playoff Predictions!  Just a reminder from last season that my playoff picks were 6-for-6, so I’m on a hot streak.  Stay tuned.

BEST BENCH

All streaks eventually come to an end…nothing stands the test of time, not even the Best Bench.  There have been 90 Best Benches handed out since the last time this week’s recipient was bestowed the honor.  More than 5 ½ seasons.  Think about it, the last time this team was Best Bench Donald Trump had not even been elected president!  It was in Week 8 of the 2015 season (which occurred on October 26th, 2015) when the then-named 'SofaKing Lucky' took home the Best Bench with a 23-point-improvement possibility, and now James has crazily enough matched that same total once again, and takes home the Week 3 2021 Best Bench!

For the 23 points, James needed just two roster moves to get there:  K. Hunt for T. Williams +19 and G. Everett for N. Fant +4.  CAP'N, MAJOR, SIR!  James!!  That’s been a helluva run, and not one I’m sure anyone will even come close to matching.  Your roster management skills are second to none. My hat’s off to you senor!  

(For those of you wondering, the longest current streak belongs to Vandelay Industries who last had a Best Bench in Week 5, 2019.)

One last note regarding 2015… perhaps one thing does stand the test of time, that one thing being Tom Brady.  Check out the top 5 QB’s from 2015:

1. Tom Brady NE - QB 342
2. Cam Newton Car - QB 341
3. Carson Palmer Ari - QB 308
4. Blake Bortles Jax - QB 305
5. Drew Brees NO - QB 280

And here are the top 5 right now:

1. Tom Brady QB 90
2. Kyler Murray QB 86
3. Patrick Mahomes QB 77
4. Derek Carr QB 76
5. Kirk Cousins QB 73

The dude at the top is the same, but everyone else is different.  Crazy.

Get those waivers in and get ready for Week 4!!

 

Vandelay dominates Week 2

The latex industry is rocking!  With a solid 67-point improvement over last week, the Week 2 Weekly High Score belongs to Vandelay Industries.  Rob had three players combine to score over 100 (Derrick Henry 44, Tom Brady 31 and Tampa Def 26), and had the other five tack on another 39 to finish with 139 points!   Actually, Rob only needed 6 players to win the WHS as Clyde Edwards-Helaire only scored 2 points, and kicker Jason Sanders laid an egg.  (With just those six players, Vandelay would’ve finished with 137 points and still had 6 points more than Joe’s Pats.)  The 139 points marks the highest point total this season, and is the highest since Sofa King American scored 144 in Week 12 last year.  Nice work Rob!  

Now the league standings are rather interesting as my Longshanks boys are the lone undefeated team at 2-0 and the Coors Light Drunk Guys are the lone winless team at 0-2.  Eight teams sit at 1-1.  Eight teams!  Only two other times have the standings looked like this since 2007:  2013 and 2014.  In those seasons the undefeated team finished 2nd and 5th, while the winless team finished 8th and 9th.  The record for the most undefeated teams after two weeks is 4, which happened in 2010.  (Three teams were 2-0 and one was 1-0-1.) Never in Sacred Sundays history have all teams had a 1-1 record going into Week 3.

Just a quick rundown this week…

BIG TIME

• Derrick Henry, RB, Vandelay Industries – 44 pts – In the top fantasy performance of the season so far, Henry carried the ball 35 times for an impressive 182 yards and 3 TD’s, plus caught 6 passes for 55 yards.  This game vaults Henry back to the top of the NFL rushing leaders.
• Kyler Murray, QB, sprouts – 36 pts – Murray just continues to put on a show, topping 400 yards and tossing 4 TD’s again!  
• Aaron Jones, RB, Joe’s Pats – 34 pts – Good way to bounce back from a 1-point Week 1 showing… He went off for 4 total TD’s (3 receiving and 1 rushing), plus added 115 yards from scrimmage.
• Cooper Kupp, WR, Coors Light Drunk Guys – 31 pts – Two weeks in a row now >100 yards for Coop… this week going for 163 plus two TD’s!  Get this, he is the 2nd ranked wide receiver in fantasy.  (And he was the 12th receiver drafted not counting keepers.)
• Lamar Jackson, QB, Vandelay Industries – 31 pts – Per Yahoo!: “Jackson’s passing has left a lot to be desired through 2 weeks, but he’s made up for it by averaging 97 rushing yards per game.”  He is in 3rd place in rushing yards for the NFL, trailing D Henry by only 47 yards.  That’s crazy!
• Buffalo, DEF, Young Guns – 30 pts – Check out the stat line for the Bills stomping on the Dolphins:  6 sacks, 2 fumbles, 1 interception, 4 4th down stops and ZERO points allowed.  

COME ON MAN

• Tyreek Hill, WR – Sofa King American – 2 pts – Last week’s top receiver got shut down this week, catching only 3 passes for 14 yards and 1 rush for 15 yards.
• George Kittle, TE – Joe’s Pats – 1 pt – Not much for Kittle this week, racking up just 17 yards on 4 catches.
• Antonio Brown, WR – Young Guns – 1 pt – Not enough catches to go around on the Bucs, as he notched a lone catch for 17 yards.
• Tyler Higbee, TE – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 0 pts – After catching 6 passes last week, Higbee had just one pass thrown to him this week (which he caught), but only for 8 yards.
• Jason Sanders, K – Vandelay Industries – 0 pts – No kicks attempted…no extra point tries…just nothing.

7 SEINFELD LIFE LESSONS

1. It's not about taking the reservation, it's about holding the reservation.

2. 95% of the population is undatable.

3. A George divided against itself cannot stand.

4. When you control the mail you control....information.

5. Never double dip a chip.

6. Sometimes the opposite is the best thing to do.

7. Serenity Now!

ALL UNWANTEDS

This week’s contributors to the AUW’s lineup are the Chicago Bears and New York Giants.  (Restricted players are WR-Allen Robinson, RB-David Montgomery, RB-Saquon Barkley and WR-Kenny Golladay).

Because of the restricted players, they had to go with an empty backfield. In other words, there were no RB points scored by any other players.

But in spite of not getting any points from those two players, the Unwanteds outscored the league average by 0.3 pts (92.7), so they join the 8 other teams and also move to 1-1.  That’s what a 22 point scoring kicker will do for you!

BEST BENCH

Not a lot of points left on the bench this week, as the average point improvement for the league was just 11.6.  Five teams had single digit improvement possibilities!  But one team needed to swap just two players to improve their point total by 30 points.  The Week 2 Best Bench goes to… the Coors Light Drunk Guys!  Shawn needed only swap C. Kupp for D. Metcalf (+26) and H. Henry for T. Higbee (+4).

Get your rosters for Week 3!  

Sofa King American Riding High in Week 1!

The King is picking up where he left off last season!  Sofa King American led the league last year with 5 Weekly High Score Prizes (including the impressive three-in-a-row in weeks 11-13), and with 121 points scored takes it for Week 1!  James had big performances from Tom Brady (30 pts), Tyreek Hill (28 pts), and the Pittsburgh Defense (18 pts).  Good way to start the season, Major General!!

Four of the games were blowouts this week (margins of 25, 33, 33 and 54) and one game was settled by just 2 points.  In Week 1 2020, no game had a margin of more than 30 points, with three decided by less than 14 points.  Also, last year in Week 1 a total of 946 points were scored, while this year only 873 points were scored.  In fact, this is the fewest points scored in the opening week since 2017 when only 706 total points were scored.  In that week, Joe’s Pats won the high score with a final score of 95.  Hahaha!

**Important schedule note** – As you have probably heard, the NFL changed to an 18-week 17 game season this year.  However, our fantasy season will remain unchanged from years past… regular season will still go for Weeks 1-13, and playoffs are Weeks 14-16.  

Onward!

BIG TIME

• Kyler Murray, QB – sprouts – 33 pts – Keeper delivers!  Murray had 5 TD’s total (4 passing, 1 rushing) to go along with 289 passing yards and 20 rushing yards.  This is how you like to see your keepers start the season!
• Patrick Mahomes, QB – Attack of Mahomes – 32 pts – Keeper delivers!  The Mahomes train just keeps rolling… he threw for 337 yards and 3 TD’s, plus added 18 yards and a rushing TD.
• Tom Brady, QB – Sofa King American – 30 pts – Brady’s only blemish on the day was having 2 interceptions.  But when you have 379 passing yards and 4 TD's, welllll, I guess we’ll let it slide.
• Dak Prescott, QB – American BadAss – 30 pts – Dak looked surprisingly good, and threw for 403 yards, 3 TD’s and just 1 pick.
• Tyreek Hill, WR – Sofa King American – 28 pts – Keeper delivers!  Hill had 11 catches on 15 targets, which he took for 197 yards and a TD.

COME ON MAN

• Mecole Hardman, WR – Attack of Mahomes – 1 pt – Hardman did catch all the balls thrown his way… unfortunately that only amounted to 3 catches for 19 yards.
• Aaron Rodgers, QB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 1 pt – Rodgers finished with a Blake Bortles-esque stat line – 15 of 28 passes for just 133 yards and 2 interceptions.  This from a guy who was the top scorer in Week 1 last season (33 pts), and averaged 23.2 points per game.  In a pregame interview Rodgers deadpan told Erin Andrews “I’m excited for this season” without the least bit of energy or even change of facial expression.  He almost could have fallen asleep after he said it.  Seems like he carried that same energy to the field.
• Aaron Jones, RB – Joe’s Pats – 1 pt – Jones followed his quarterback's lead, and managed just 9 yards rushing on 5 carries (yuck), and 13 yards receiving on 2 catches (oof).
• Quinn Nordin, K – Joe’s Pats – 0 pts – Bill Belichick pulled the ol’ switcheroo on Joe going with Nick Folk instead of Nordin.  Seriously, how do the Patriots just have two kickers on standby?
• Robert Tonyan, TE – Longshanks – 0 pts – When Aaron Rodgers plays like a worn out sock, his receivers will likewise have crappy days.  Tonyan certainly sucked, catching just 2 balls for a measly 8 yards.

KICKERS – THE LEAST PREDICTABLE POSITION

Now, one week does not a season make, but check out three of the top kickers from Week 1:

#1 – Joey Slye, HOU – 14 points

T3 – Dustin Hopkins, WSH – 12 points

T3 – Chris Boswell, PIT – 12 pts

All three are free agents in our league, and according to Yahoo!, Chris Boswell was the most drafted of those three, having been drafted in a whopping 5% of fantasy leagues…Hopkins was drafted in only 3% of leagues, and el numero uno this week, Joey Slye, is not even among one of the 22 kickers listed as having been drafted in the Yahoo! drafts.  Probably means he is down in the below 1% range.

ALL UNWANTEDS

In this year’s draft, there were 5 teams tied for the fewest players drafted…each with just a pair of players picked:  CHI, HOU, NO, NYG and NYJ.  Since the All Unwanteds have normally been constructed from only one or two teams, I will randomly select two of these teams each week to construct the best team possible.  The two teams selected this week:  New York Jets and Houston Texans:

The league scoring average this week was 87.3 (literally can’t make this stuff up), so by the narrowest of margins, and with a team comprised almost exclusively of Texans, the All Unwanteds start the season 0-1.

BEST BENCH

With Gronk going wild in the first game for 21 points, and my starting TE posting a bagel, the first Best Bench of the season was mine for the taking.  But then out of nowhere, Deebo Samuel posts a big game against the Lions, Ja’Marr Chase catches a big TD pass, and all of a sudden Attack of Mahomes finishes with a 51-point-improvement possibility to take this week’s Best Bench!  

Timmy needed a half roster swap to get there:  D. Samuel for M. Hardman (+24), J. Williams for J. Robinson (+12), D. Swift for D. Singletary (+8) and J. Chase for D. Moore (+7).

Get your rosters ready for Week 2!!

2021 Season is ON!!

 

The 2021 season will mark the 18th season for Sacred Sundays!  And not only that, this season will be the 5th in a row with the same 10 owners!  Pretty impressive!

Every team has played 52 regular season games over the last four seasons, with the winningest team being Timmy’s Attack of Mahomes who have a record of 33-17-2.  Tim-tim also has scored the most points of any team with 4,806.  Rob (Vandelay Industries) and James (Sofa King Something) tie for second best record, 31-21, and have scored 4,664 points (2nd most) and 4,586 points (5th most) respectively.

In terms of championships, Joe’s Pats has the most with 2 (back-to-back in 2017-2018), followed by one each for Longshanks (2019) and Attack of Mahomes (2020).  For top four finishes, Attack of Mahomes is the only team to finish in the top four each of the last four seasons (1 championship, 2 runner-ups and 1 third).  Longshanks has second most with 3 (1 championship and 2 4ths), and Joe’s Pats (2 championships) and Sofa King (2 thirds) each have two.  The only team to not have a top four finish in the last four seasons is Big Sack.  What do you know, Jens?!?  Come on, you got this!  Nowhere to go but up!

Here are the full standings for the last four seasons:

Scoring records for Sacred Sundays have pretty much been set in the last four seasons with the each of the top three scores of all-time occurring in just the last 3 years.  (Sprouts scored 154 in Week 3-2019, American BadAss scored 158 in Week 10-2018, and Attack of Mahomes holds the all-time record with 160 points scored in Week 10-2019.)  Two of the highest scoring weeks have occurred in recent years as well, with the 2nd highest point total, 1,002, occurring in 2018 (Week 6), and the highest scoring week ever, 1,034 points, occurring last season in Week 2.  Additionally, two of the top three largest margins of victory have occurred recently, with the 3rd highest margin (96 points) from Week 12-2020 when Sofa King American defeated American BadAss 140-44, and the highest margin of 99 points from Week 10-2019 when Attack of Mahomes defeated Big Sack 160-61.  Lastly, the highest individual player score of all-time occurred just last season…Week 16 2020, Alvin Kamara had 155 rushing yards, 17 receiving yards and 6 TDs(!!) to finish with 55 fantasy points.  

2021 DRAFT

For the second season in a row every NFL team had at least one player drafted...this season every team had at least two.  Five teams had duos drafted:  New Orleans, NY Giants, Chicago, Houston and the NY Jets.  The All Unwanteds should be strong this season.  The NFL team with the most players drafted was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with 9 players picked!  (Apparently I’m a Bucs fan now as I accounted for three of those.)  The LA Rams had 8 players drafted, and Kansas City and San Francisco each had 7.  

• Wide receivers were the most popular position picked (49) followed by running backs (44).  
• For the most position picks, Young Guns led the way with 7 wide receivers picked, followed by Attack of Mahomes and Big Sack No TD’s who each picked 6 wide receivers.  Sprouts drafted the most running backs (6), and four teams picked 5.
• Three teams only drafted one quarterback. (Young Guns, sprouts and Attack of Mahomes).
• Three teams selected a backup defense. (Coors Light Drunk Guys, American BadAss and Sofa King American)
• Only one team drafted a backup kicker.  (Coors Light Drunk Guys)

YAHOO! PREDICTIONS

The Yahoo! bots compile a draft grade, season prediction and full write up for each team after the draft.  I’ve been tracking the results since 2018, and it would appear that really the only worthwhile pieces of data to come out of these are the trash talking comments:

“Entering the draft with the No. 1 overall pick, expectations were high for Big Sack No TDs. But those expectations faded instantly after they drafted…”

“Despite earning the No. 5 overall pick, Young Guns drafted a roster that may struggle to earn wins. Opponents could enjoy overwhelming them regularly, as this team is projected to finish 10th in Sacred Sundays.”

“CL Drunk Guys was handed a solid draft position, and they fumbled it away.”

“Selecting in the second half of the first round (No. 6 overall), Joe's Pats can attribute this mediocre performance to their late draft position.”

As far as the regular season predictions, in 2018, 2019 and 2020 the team predicted by Yahoo! to finish with the best record actually finished no better than 6th.  The team predicted to finish with the worst record finished 9th last year, 8th in 2019 and 1st in 2018.  Champions in 2018, 2019 and 2020 were ranked 4th, 4th and 5th, respectively.

Looking at playoff qualification predictions, the top six prediction teams have qualified for the playoffs 72.2% of the time across the last three seasons.  Yahoo! correctly predicted 4 playoff teams in 2018, 5 in 2019 and 4 in 2020.  

Here are the 2021 Yahoo! predictions and grades:

• Note 1: This is the first time a team has been predicted to have an undefeated record.
• Note 2: The Sacred Sundays record for the most points in a season is 1,312, yet Yahoo! has all teams smashing that record this year.
• Note 3: Yahoo! graded the CL Drunk Guys with the lowest grade of a C- in spite of the fact that all picks were autopicks.  Way to go Yahoo!

The 2021 season is ready to go!  Make sure you’ve got your roster set!!

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?!?!?

Me after getting an A+ from Yahoo...