Oh so nice to do it twice!

 

Two weeks in a row of utter domination!  Sofa King Great lives up to their name and are sofa king up the competition.  This week James had two (!) 30 point performers (Justin Herbert, 32 points and Davante Adams, 32 points), plus had 5 of 6 remaining players score in double digits (most notably Christian McCaffrey with 17 points), to finish with 132 points!  The King dominated in the head-to-head game winning by a 52-point margin over Big Sack No TD’s, and outscored the next highest scoring team, Wyld Ass Monkeys, by 17 points.  Well done SIR!

In league standings, we have just two undefeated teams remaining (Joe’s Pats and Sofa King Great), and just one winless team (Big Sack No TD’s).  Attack of Mahomes and American BadAss are both 2-1, with the rest of the teams sitting at 1-2.  The North division leads the total win count 8-7, while the South division leads in points scored 1,328 to 1,267.

This week we’ll take a look at the top five from each position, see just how good of a game the Dolphins had from a fantasy perspective, and of course, hand out this week’s Best Bench. 

BIG TIME

• De’Von Achane, RB – Free Agent – 50 pts – An amazing performance from a guy who wasn’t even on anyone’s roster.  In the first two games this year he had all of 1 carry for 5 yards and 1 catch for 4 yards.  Boy did that change on Sunday, when he went off for 203 rushing yards and 2 TD’s, plus 30 yards receiving and another 2 TD’s.  This is the first time a free agent has scored over 50 points, and he joins only 7 other players in league history to score at least that many points.  (The record belongs to Alvin Kamara who scored 55 points in Week 16, 2020).
• Raheem Mostert, RB – 76 – 38 pts – Normally a 38-point runningback performance would be the best on the team.  But there were a lot of points to go around for Miami versus Denver.  Not to be outdone by his teammate, Mostert racked up 82 rushing yards and 3 TD’s, plus 60 receiving yards and 1 TD.  88 points between the two Miami backs is incredible…more on the Dolphins’ score below.
• Buffalo, DEF – American BadAss – 34 pts – The Bills walked all over Washington, giving up only 3 points, plus snagged 4 interceptions, and get this, 9 quarterback sacks! 
• Davante Adams, WR – Sofa King Great – 32 pts – Adams was targeted a crazy 20 times, and hauled in 13 for 172 yards and 2 TD’s.
• Justin Herbert, QB – Sofa King Great – 32 pts – Herbert crossed the 400-yard passing mark (405 yards) plus threw 3 TD’s and had zero interceptions.

COME ON MAN

• Derrick Henry, RB – American BadAss – 2 pts – Through the first half, Henry had -7 yards rushing. That's negative seven yards.  Ultimately he finished with 20 yards on 11 carries, for an awesome 1.8 yard per carry average.  Yucky.
• Dallas, DEF – 76 – 1 pt – The Cowboys looked helpless on Sunday against the Chiefs 49ers Cardinals.  Yes, you read that right…the Cardinals.  The only positive defensive stat registered by Dallas was 2 sacks, while giving up 28 freaking points.  Did I mention this was against the Cardinals?
• Hunter Henry, TE – Joe’s Pats – 1 pt – After finding the endzone in each of the first two weeks, Hunter didn’t have much of an impact this week, catching 2 passes for just 17 yards.
• Jacksonville, DEF – Big Sack No TDs – 0 pts – The Jags defense recorded no defensive stats against Houston en route to losing 37-17. Oof.

TOP FIVES

Three weeks into the season, so it’s time to take a look at the top five from each position.

	Name	Pos	Team	Total	Owner
1	Kirk Cousins	QB	Min	74	Wyld Ass Monkeys
2	Justin Herbert	QB	LAC	74	Sofa King Great
3	Tua Tagovailoa	QB	Mia	68	Young Guns
4	Jordan Love	QB	GB	65	American BadAss
5	Patrick Mahomes	QB	KC	64	Attack of Mahomes

 

	Name	Pos	Team	Total
1	Tyreek Hill	WR	Mia	70	Wyld Ass Monkeys
2	Keenan Allen	WR	LAC	59	American BadAss
3	Justin Jefferson	WR	Min	54	Big Sack No TDs
4	Davante Adams	WR	LV	52	Sofa King Great
5	Mike Evans	WR	TB	50	Sofa King Great

 

	Name	Pos	Team	Total
1	Raheem Mostert	RB	Mia	72	76
2	Christian McCaffrey	RB	SF	60	Sofa King Great
3	De'Von Achane	RB	Mia	50	W (Sep 27)
4	Kenneth Walker III	RB	Sea	49	sprouts
5	Brian Robinson	RB	Was	44	Young Guns

 

	Name	Pos	Team	Total
1	T.J. Hockenson	TE	Min	26	76
2	Sam LaPorta	TE	Det	23	W (Sep 27)
3	Hunter Henry	TE	NE	23	Joe's Pats
4	Travis Kelce	TE	KC	20	Attack of Mahomes
5	Donald Parham Jr.	TE	LAC	20	W (Sep 27)

 

	Name	Pos	Team	Total
1	Dallas	DEF	Dal	57	76
2	Buffalo	DEF	Buf	49	American BadAss
3	Pittsburgh	DEF	Pit	48	Sofa King Great
4	Philadelphia	DEF	Phi	40	sprouts
5	New Orleans	DEF	NO	36	W (Sep 27)

 

	Name	Pos	Team	Total
1	Jake Moody	K	SF	40	Young Guns
2	Jake Elliott	K	Phi	40	Sofa King Great
3	Brett Maher	K	LAR	39	W (Sep 27)
4	Brandon Aubrey	K	Dal	38	76
5	Tyler Bass	K	Buf	36	Wyld Ass Monkeys

 

Definitely some surprises in there, like Kirk Cousins as a top QB, and Raheem Mostert as the top RB.  Plus seeing names like Jordan Love, Kenneth Walker III, De'Von Achane and Sam LaPorta certainly were not expected.  Also there are only five free agents, so none of these players are really slipping through the cracks.

BIENVENIDOS A MIAMI

You probably heard about the massive score run up Miami had this Sunday, defeating the Broncos 70-20.  It ties the third highest score by a team in NFL history (tying a game in 1955), with the record (73) happening way back in 1940, and second place (72) happening in 1966.  But have you heard of the unbelievable fantasy impact this game had?

Total fantasy points scored by Miami this week came out to 189.   189!! Now, this includes scores from 12 players, so that is more than on an active roster.  However, even when you strip out the extra players and put together an active roster of 8 players, they still scored a whopping 173 points.

Check out this roster:

QB	Tua Tagovailoa	28
RB	Raheem Mostert	38
RB	De'Von Achane	50
WR	Robbie Chosen	12
WR	Tyreek Hill	24
TE	Durham Smythe	1
DEF	Miami	10
K	Jason Sanders	10
	Total	173

Keep in mind the single team record for the highest scoring week in Sacred Sundays history is 160, set by Attack of Mahomes in Week 10, 2019. And if you are talking about single week scores for one NFL team, this is far and away the most fantasy points in a single week.  Looking back through prior seasons, and the highest total I was able to find was 147.  This was truly a legendary performance.

 

BEST BENCH

Due to magnificent team management this week (and maybe a few injuries), we had three teams post optimal lineups (i.e. Bench improvement = 0), which were the first of the season.  Those teams were Wyld Ass Monkeys, Joe’s Pats and 76.  Nary a point to be gained through any substitutions.  Then among the rest of the teams, it wasn’t even a close competition for Best Bench this week as the 2^nd highest was +18 which couldn't even compete with this week's winner who posted a very solid 40-point-improvement possibility!  Needing just three roster moves to do it, the Week 3 Best Bench goes to… American BadAss!  The moves Jason needed to make were:  Buffalo for Kansas City +21, A. Mattison for D. Henry +10 and D. Metcalf for D. Smith +9.  This is the first Best Bench for American BadAss this season, and his first since winning it last year, also in Week 3.

 

Get those waiver claims in and get ready for Week 4!!

Sofa King Great dominates Week 2!

For Sofas!!

The King has returned!  For the second week in a row it was a dominating defense which vaulted the high scoring team to the win.  This week it was the Steelers defense who took it to Cleveland, finishing with 6 sacks, 6 turnovers (3 fumbles, 2 4th down stops and 1 INT), and 2 Defensive TD’s, running up 30 fantasy points!  Sofa King Great also got big games from Justin Herbert (22 pts) and Christian McCaffrey (18 pts) to finish with 118 points and net a 64-point victory over Young Guns.  Nice work, Your Majesty!

Across the rest of the league, we have three undefeated teams remaining (Joe’s Pats, Sofa King Great and American BadAss), and three winless teams (Wyld Ass Monkeys, Big Sack No TD’s and sprouts).  The league records for best and worst start both stand at 6, so we still have a ways to go before either of those could be beaten.  

Just a quick update this week which includes the highest Best Bench score in nearly 2 ½ years… 

BIG TIME

-Kurt Cousins, QB – Wyld Ass Monkeys – 31 pts – Cousins had a great outing completing 31 passes for 364 yard and 4 TD’s.  Nearly 44% of the yardage gained went to Justin Jefferson.

-Daniel Jones, QB – Wyld Ass Monkeys – 29 pts – Jones’ career was almost over, after falling behind 0-20 to the inept Cardinals.  But he came back blazing in the 2nd half to finish with 321 yards and 2 TD’s passing, plus 59 yards and rushing TD.

-Brian Robinson, RB – Young Guns – 26 pts – B-Rob continued his hot start to the season, rushing for 87 yards and two TD’s plus 42 receiving yards.  He currently ranks as the 3rd highest scoring runningback in fantasy, just 6 points behind the leader Christian McCaffrey.

-Mike Evans, WR – Sofa King Great – 26 pts – Evans apparently doesn’t need TB12 to still go off in a game. He got 171 yards and a TD on just 6 catches… a per catch average of 28.5 yards!

COME ON MAN

-Kyle Pitts, TE – Big Sack No TDs – 1 pt – Disappointing day (and season) for Pitts, as he caught just 2 of 5 targets for only 15 yards.

-Denver, DEF – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 0 pts – The Broncos gave up 35 pts to Washington, and so the only thing keeping them from a negative score this week was by registering 4 sacks.

-Pat Freiermuth, TE – Wyld Ass Monkeys – 0 pts – Well, at least he caught every pass thrown his way.  Unfortunately, that amounted to 1 catch for 2 yards.  

-New York Giants, DEF – Young Guns – -1 pts – In spite of playing the Arizona Cardinals, the Giants recorded no defensive points.  No sacks, no turnovers… all they did was give up 28 points, and yet they still won the game.  Weird.

BEST BENCH

In the past five years, there have only been 5 Best Bench scores of greater than 50 points.  So to achieve this level of ineptitude is a rare occurrence.  But one team managed to do just that this week, and tally up an improvement just one point shy of the highest Best Bench since Week 7, 2020.  With a whopping 57-point-improvement-possibility, and taking home the Week 2 Best Bench, is my very own 76!  

I needed just three roster moves to get there:  D. Swift for N. Harris +22, R. Mostert for J. Jacobs +19 and N. Collins for B. Aiyuk +16.  If I just make any one of those changes this week, I would have won my game.  What is it with me and running backs the last two seasons?!

Alright, get those waivers in and get ready for Week 2!!!

Sacred Sundays 2023 begins!

Joe's Pats is tops in Week 1!

Week 1 of Sacred Sundays 2023 is in the books!  This marks the start of the 6th season with all of the same owners, and get this, the 20th season overall!  Crazy to think how this league started way back in 2004 in Phil Harvey’s living room.

The big congratulations for this year’s opener go to Joe’s Pats who held off a surging Wyld Ass Monkeys team, the 2nd highest scoring team this week.  Thanks to a ginormous game from the Dallas Defense (41 pts, more on that later), Joe’s Pats pulled off a 107-104 victory to claim the season’s first Weekly High Score Prize!  Joe also had big performances from Austin Ekeler (21 pts) and Deshaun Watson (20 pts).  In other games around the league, Young Guns had a come from behind victory to start their title defense campaign with a victory (88-84 over Big Sack No TD’s) and American BadAss and my 76 managed to win by only scoring 67 and 65 points, respectively.  So 104 points is a loser this week and 65 points is a winner… got it.

This week I’ll give my draft recap and we will hand out the first Best Bench of the season!  

BIG TIME

• Dallas, DEF – Joe’s Pats – 41 pts – To say the Cowboys dominated the G-men would be the understatement of the season.  This was a thorough dismantling.  All told, the Cowboys had 3 turnovers, 2 defensive TD’s, 7 sacks, 1 blocked kick, 2 4th down stops and surrendered zero points.  Simply incredible.  This ties for the 3rd best Defensive performance in league history and is only 4 points shy of the record.  (Seattle scored 45 points way back in Week 14, 2012).
• Tyreek Hill, WR – Wyld Ass Monkeys – 36 pts – Hill is showing he is still the best pass catcher in the league.  He’s off to a tremendous start, catching 11 passes for 215 yards and 2 TD’s.
• Tua Tagovailoa, QB – Young Guns – 29 – pts – What a day for Tua!  He was like the Energizer Bunny and just kept going and going… finished with a whopping 466 yards passing and 3 TDs!
• Christian McCaffrey, RB – Sofa King Great – 25 pts – CMac was masterful in Week 1, rushing 22 times for 152 yards (nearly a 7 yard average) and a TD.

COME ON MAN

• George Kittle, TE – sprouts – 1 pt – For as good as the 49ers looked, Kittle didn’t really have much of an impact.  He tallied just 19 yards on 3 catches.
• Tee Higgins, WR – Attack of Mahomes – 0 pts – The goose egg was not from lack of trying… Higgins was targeted 8 times but finished with zero catches and zero yards.  Oof.
• Dallas Goedert, TE – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 0 pts – Goedert did play, but barely.  He only had 1 ball thrown his way, which he failed to catch.  Yuck.
• Anthony Gibson, RB – Attack of Mahomes – -1 pts – Gibson really made the least of the few opportunities he had.  On four touches he netted 19 yards on three of them, and lost a fumble on the other.

DRAFT RECAP

First off, I’d like to recap the Yahoo! grades and projections for this season.  A few notes about Yahoo!’s grading system… we only had one owner on autodraft (Timmy) and guess who received an A+ grade. Also, for American BadAss, it noted his best draft pick being Brandin Cooks in the 9th round, and also noted his worst draft pick being Brandin Cooks in the 9th round.  In any event, here are the grades and projected records as foretold by Yahoo!:

Team	Owner	Record	Points	Draft Grade
Attack of Mahomes	Timmy	13-1-0	1455	A+
sprouts	Russ	8-5-1	1376	A-
Big Sack No TDs	Jens	8-6-0	1369	B+
Wyld Ass Monkeys	Rob	7-5-2	1390	B+
Sofa King Great	James	7-7-0	1364	C+
CL Drunk Guys	Shawn	6-7-1	1327	D+
Young Guns	John	5-7-2	1336	D+
American BadAss	Jason	5-8-1	1347	D+
76	Jerry	5-8-1	1317	D
Joe's Pats	Joe	2-12	1282	D-

Of course I will track the actual results against this to see how Yahoo! does by the end of the year.

Now on to my breakdown of the draft.  Here are some tidbits:

• Every NFL team had at least one player selected.
• Carolina had the fewest (1), and Arizona only had two selected.
• Kansas City and Philadelphia tied for most selected with 8, while Baltimore, Buffalo and Seattle each had seven selected.
• The highest concentration of any one NFL team picked by one owner was 3.  Big Sack No TD’s selected 3 from the Chiefs, Young Guns selected 3 from the Giants, and Joe’s Pats selected 3 from the Browns and 3 from the Patriots.
• Wide Receivers was the most selected position with 48 picked, followed by Runningbacks with 43.
• There were 20 Quarterbacks selected which is two more than last season.
• There were 15 Tight Ends selected which is one more than last season. 

Top Three picks of the draft* (based on Week 1 results):  *Draft Value DV determined by adding Week 1 score plus round selected in the draft

#1 Dallas, DEF – Joe’s Pats – 9th round selection (DV = 50)

#2 Tyler Algeier, ATL, RB – Coors Light Drunk Guys – 15th round selection (DV = 35)

#3 Jake Elliott, PHI, K – Sofa King Great – 15th round selection (DV = 32)

Worst Three picks of the draft (based on Week 1 results):

#1 Tee Higgins, CIN, WR – Attack of Mahomes – 3rd round selection (DV = 3)

#2 Mark Andrews, BAL, TE – Sofa King Great – 4th round selection (DV = 4)

#3 Ja’Marr Chase, CIN, WR – Wyld Ass Monkeys – 1st round selection (DV = 4)

Teams with the best keepers (based on Week 1 results): 

#1 Wyld Ass Monkeys – Tyreek Hill/Daniel Jones (total pts = 40)

#2 Big Sack No TD’s – Tony Pollard/Justin Jefferson (total pts = 38)

#3 Young Guns – Tua Tagovailoa/Saquon Barkley (total pts = 35)

BEST BENCH

Two of the lowest scoring teams this week had a tight battle for Best Bench.  The Coors Light Drunk Guys put up a valiant effort, with a 30 point-improvement possibility, but doing just a bit better, and finishing with a 31 point-improvement possibility, the Week 1 Best Bench goes to… Attack of Mahomes!  Timmy needed just three roster changes to get there:  M. Pittman for T. Higgins +15, D. Montgomery for A. Gibson +14 and R. Rice for M. Thomas +2.  This was Tim’s first Best Bench since Week 7, 2021.

 Get those waiver claims in and get ready for Week 2!!

Championship Time 2022 - Joe's Pats vs. Young Guns

Will it be the Pats?...

Or the Young Guns?

So it all comes down to this… the 2022 championship will be between the top two seeds going into the playoffs – Joe’s Pats and Young Guns!  In the semi-final games, Joe’s Pats managed to hold on for a 104-102 victory over Attack of Mahomes, while Young Guns won convincingly, 119-67, over sprouts.  The victory was extra sweet for Young Guns, as the 119 points also won the Weekly High Score prize!  For Joe, this will be the 6^th time playing in the championship game (record of 4-1) and for John it is his 2^nd (record of 0-1).  Congratulations to both of you and good luck!

In the battle for 5^th, American BadAss topped Bad Beat 85-80, mostly thanks to George Kittle scoring 21 points. 

Several weeks to get caught up on, so probably the best thing to do is to show the current Weekly High Score Prize tally:

                 

Timmy’s Attack of Mahomes still leads the way with three High Score prizes this season, with one more week left.

Speaking of that… next season I’m thinking we extend the regular season by 1 game and have the playoffs run in Weeks 15, 16 and 17.  That will mean an extra Weekly High Score prize next year, so entry fees will go up.  I’ll work out the details and let everyone know.  As a reminder for this season here are the payouts: 

Weekly High Scores prizes are $50/week, 5th = $50, 4th = $75, 3rd = $100, 2nd = $150, 1st = $325.

BEST BENCH(ES)

The one area where my Scottish Rebels have been competitive on a weekly basis is for Best Bench.  In Week 14, Young Guns took it with a 49-point improvement possibility, but my Rebels were in the hunt with 41.  This week, I managed to rack up a 33-point point improvement, coming just shy of winner.  But with a 34-point improvement possibility, the Week 15 Best Bench goes to… the Coors Light Drunk Guys!  Shawn needed three roster moves to get there:  Indianapolis for Arizona +21, T. Higbee for D. Schultz +7 and A. Dillon for E. Elliott +6.  This was Shawn’s first Best Bench this season, and his first since exactly one year ago, Week 15 of 2021.  The Drunk Guys are the 6th different team to claim a Best Bench.

Four teams have avoided being the Best Bench this season:  Bad Beat, sprouts, Attack of Mahomes and Joe’s Pats.  The longest active streak for avoiding the Best Bench belongs to sprouts, who has gone 31 weeks since last snagging one.

Hard to believe another season has already nearly come to a close... Nineteen seasons of Sacred Sundays, and six with the current group of owners.  Truly amazing!  Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!