2026 MIDTERM GRADES ARE IN!!

Scoring over 100 points is producing a victory just 81% of the time this season, the lowest percentage since 2021 (78.3%), and well below the historical average of 86.8%.  This season there have been 21 teams to score north of 100 points, and the record stands at 17 wins with 4 losses.  This week was a brutal example of matchups as only two teams scored over 100, and as luck would have it, were matched up head-to-head.  In spite of a heroic charge on Monday Night from D'Andre Swift, my Scottish Rebels held off Tip Toeing for a 107-106 victory.  This was my third High Score this season, to go along with Week 1 and Week 4.

Last week (Week 7) sprouts was the only team to score over 100, posting an emphatic 118-80 victory over my Scottish Rebels.  Russ had terrific performances from Joe Burrow (28 pts) and JSN (25 points) to easily cruise to the victory.  It was Russ’ first Weekly High Score prize this season, and made sprouts the sixth different team to snag one this season.  Well done sir!

So I’ve had the high score three times, and two other times the team with the high score was my opponent.  That's five out of eight weeks where the high score has come from the matchup involving my team.  That’s crazy!  Apparently I bring out the best in all of you!  And speaking of the rest of the league, the standings are unbelievably tight with five teams tied atop the win column at 5.  Chief Dredd holds a slight advantage due to a tie game this week, so is the overall league leader right now with only 2 losses.  In the North Division only 2 games separate first place from last place.  Still a lot of football to be played and a lot to be determined.

Week 8 has always marked the point in the season when I hand out midterm grades, and this year is no exception.  Sacred Sundays Midterm grades are celebrating a 10^th anniversary this season, so we have a lot to dig in with that one.  Plus we have two Best Benches to dole out.  Let’s!  Do!  THIS!

 

BIG TIME BABY!

• Joe Burrow, QB – sprouts – 42 points – Burrow scored 42 points in spite of throwing three interceptions!  His crazy stat line was 462 yards passing and 5(!!) touchdowns, plus 10 yards rushing and another TD.  This is the highest single week score from any player this season, topping Drake Maye’s 41 from Week 5.  It puts Burrow as the 2^nd ranked QB, trailing Josh Allen by only 10 points.
• Tyler Allgeier, RB – J LUV U LONG TIME – 30 pts – Dude found plenty of space against the Cowboys defense, gaining 147 yards on just 11 carries (13.4 yards per carry), plus 44 yards receiving, and added both a rushing and receiving TD. 
• Tee Higgins, WR – Scottish Rebels – 30 pts – Higgins was a beneficiary of Burrow’s huge day, or perhaps Burrow was a beneficiary of Higgin's huge day.  Either way he finished with 155 yards on 10 catches, plus found the end zone twice.  He’s scored 50 points in the last two weeks and has moved into 4th place among wide receivers.
• Kirk Cousins, QB – Free Agent – 27 pts – Just a solid day from Cousins, logging 247 passing yards and 3 TDs, plus a rushing TD.  Cousins has quietly moved into 3^rd place in scoring among QBs.
• Bhayshul Tuten, RB – Tip Toeing – 27 pts – Tuten left the game briefly in the first quarter, but then came back in to amass 159 total yards and two touchdowns.  What did they give him in the blue tent?!

COME ON MAN

• Will Reichard, K – sprouts – 1 pt – Reichard came into the week averaging 14.8 points per game across the last five.  He even had one game where he kicked 5 field goals.  But somehow in this one, his entire contribution was one lonely extra point.
• Spencer Shrader, K – Wyld Ass Monkeys – 1 pt – Shrader started the season so strong, averaging 14.8 points per game through the first five weeks.  But since then he's averaged only 5 points through the last three.  The Colts gave him no chances this week, as he also kicked just a single extra point.  Oof.
• Brock Purdy, QB – J LUV U LONG TIME – 0 pts – Purdy is having a fantastic season and scoring a lot of points, when the 49ers have a game!  Check yo roster Shawn!
• TreVeyon Henderson, RB – J LUV U LONG TIME – 0 pts – Henderson was declared out before the game due to illness.  Check yo roster, Shawn!!
• New York Jets, DEF – Chief Dredd – 0 pts – The Jets did about as well as you would expect them to, finishing with a single sack and one fourth down stop, while surrendering a dreadful 38 points.  All added up to a big pile of nothing.  Throw this one on the trash heap, Tim!
• Zay Flowers, WR – American BadAss – 0 pts – Zay failed to catch any of the five balls thrown his way.  Having a third string quarterback behind those throws probably didn’t help...
• Kyle Pitts Sr, TE – sprouts – 0 pts – He caught 2 passes for all of 6 yards.  Yuck.
• D.K. Metcalf, WR – Joe’s Pats – 0 pts – “D.K.” must stand for “Doesn’t KnowHowToCatchAFootball”, because he was just bad.  Like dropping balls that hit him square in the chest bad.
• Drake London, WR – Joe’s Pats – 0 pts – Drake is the kinda guy who will have 6 passes thrown his way but only catch 1 for 8 yards.

 

 

MIDTERM GRADES

Before we get into this year’s midterm grades, let's take a look back at what these grades have actually meant over the years.  Amazingly, I’ve been giving out these midterm grades since 2017, so we have nine years of history to analyze.  Every year I dole out the grades on a strict curve with the top teams receiving A+ and A, then B+ and B and so on with the bottom teams receiving F+ and F.

Looking at playoff qualification, every grade has produced at least one playoff team over the past nine seasons. The F+ grade has been the least successful, producing just one playoff qualifier. Oddly enough, the even lower F grade has done slightly better, sending two teams to the postseason.  On the top side, the A+ team has qualified for the playoffs every single time, being the only grade to do so.  A, B+ and C+ have all qualified 7 teams, which is 2^nd most, coming in with a playoff qualification rate of 77.8%.

In terms of final finish, the A+ team has won 4 championships (44% success rate!), and amazingly the C+ graded team has won THREE championships (33% success rate).  The other two champions received midterm grades of C and D+.  This means five of nine champions have had a grade of C+ or lower.  It’s not how you start it’s how you finish!  On to this season’s mid term grades…

Grading methodology:  Teams are ranked in each of eight categories and points are awarded based on the ranking.  The categories are: Overall Record, Points For, Points Against, Weekly High Scores Won, Best Benches Won, Waivers, Keeper Production and Utilization.  The maximum amount of points in each category is 10, except in the Points Against, Best Bench and Waivers, which are worth a maximum of 5 points each.  For any ties in ranking, points are split evenly between the tied teams.  The maximum possible overall score is 65 points.

 Here are the 2026 Midterm Grades:

Jerry		Pts	Rank
Record:	5-3	7.5	2nd
Points For:	773	10	1st
Pts Against:	767	5	1st
High Scores:	3	10	1st
Best Bench:	1	2.25	5th
Waivers:	9	2	7th
Keepers:	297	10	1st
Utilization:	85.3%	6	5th
Total Points:		52.75
Grade		A+

 

John		Pts	Rank
Record:	5-3	7.5	2nd
Points For:	740	7	4th
Pts Against:	680	2	7th
High Scores:	1	7	2nd
Best Bench:	0	4.25	1st
Waivers:	11	3.5	4th
Keepers:	232	9	2nd
Utilization:	89.6%	9	2nd
Total Points:		49.25
Grade		A

 

Timmy		Pts	Rank
Record:	5-2	10	1st
Points For:	721	6	5th
Pts Against:	621	0.5	10th
High Scores:	1	7	2nd
Best Bench:	0	4.25	1st
Waivers:	25	5	1st
Keepers:	76	2	9th
Utilization:	89.7%	10	1st
Total Points:		44.75
Grade		B+

 

Russ		Pts	Rank
Record:	4-3	5	6th
Points For:	770	9	2nd
Pts Against:	752	4.5	2nd
High Scores:	1	7	2nd
Best Bench:	1	2.25	5th
Waivers:	10	2.75	5th
Keepers:	198	7	4th
Utilization:	86.5%	7	4th
Total Points:		44.50
Grade		B

 

James		Pts	Rank
Record:	5-3	7.5	2nd
Points For:	761	8	3rd
Pts Against:	722	3.5	4th
High Scores:	1	7	2nd
Best Bench:	1	2.25	5th
Waivers:	3	0.75	9th
Keepers:	205	8	3rd
Utilization:	83.9%	3	8th
Total Points:		40
Grade		C+

 

Rob		Pts	Rank
Record:	5-3	7.5	2nd
Points For:	663	4	7th
Pts Against:	649	1.5	8th
High Scores:	1	7	2nd
Best Bench:	0	4.25	1st
Waivers:	5	1.5	8th
Keepers:	137	5	6th
Utilization:	83.9%	4	7th
Total Points:		34.75
Grade		C

 

Joe		Pts	Rank
Record:	3-5	3.5	7th
Points For:	672	5	6th
Pts Against:	706	2.75	5th
High Scores:	0	0	7th
Best Bench:	0	4.25	1st
Waivers:	12	4	3rd
Keepers:	116	4	7th
Utilization:	86.8%	8	3rd
Total Points:		31.5
Grade		D+

 

Jason		Pts	Rank
Record:	2-5	2	9th
Points For:	632	3	8th
Pts Against:	727	4	3rd
High Scores:	0	0	7th
Best Bench:	1	2.25	5th
Waivers:	10	2.75	5th
Keepers:	77	3	8th
Utilization:	80.8%	2	9th
Total Points:		19
Grade		D

 

Shawn		Pts	Rank
Record:	1-6	1	10th
Points For:	616	1	10th
Pts Against:	706	2.75	5th
High Scores:	0	0	7th
Best Bench:	2	0.75	9th
Waivers:	3	0.75	9th
Keepers:	192	6	5th
Utilization:	85.0%	5	6th
Total Points:		17.25
Grade		F+

 

Jens		Pts	Rank
Record:	3-5	3.5	7th
Points For:	624	2	9th
Pts Against:	642	1	9th
High Scores:	0	0	7th
Best Bench:	2	0.75	9th
Waivers:	14	4.5	2nd
Keepers:	74	1	10th
Utilization:	76.8%	1	10th
Total Points:		13.75
Grade		F

 

BEST BENCH

Two Best Benches to give out this week… first going back to Week 7, and it wasn’t even a close one.  The Best Bench winner had 27 more points of improvement than the next closest team.  With an impressive 45-point improvement possibility, Week 7 Best Bench goes to... yours truly, the Scottish Rebels!  I needed to swap half my roster to get there: T. Pollard for C. Hubbard +27, T. Tucker for J. Jefferson +12, Bengals for Seahawks +3, D. Goedert for S. LaPorta +3.  This was my first Best Bench of the season, and my first since Week 6 of last season.

For Week 8, the Best Bench was a much closer battle, as teams had 26, 29 and 31-point improvement possibilities (belonging to Big Sack No TDs, American BadAss, and Joe’s Pats respectively). But there was one team who outdid all of them.  With a solid 34-point improvement possibility, the Week 8 Best Bench goes to J LUV U LONG TIME!!

Shawn needed just two roster moves to get there: T. Allgeier for T. Henderson +30 and D. Moore for J. Downs +4.  (Shawn’s total would have been higher if he actually had a backup QB for Brock Purdy.)  This was his 2^nd Best Bench this season, having also taken one back in Week 3. There are still four teams who have not claimed a Best Bench so far this season…how long can they hold on?

 

Okay, get out and vote, then get those waivers in and get ready for Week 9!!