Happy Week 4 everyone! We are right on the cusp of 1/3 through the season. This is where winning stretches become undefeated streaks and continuous losses become cause for depression. Week 4 is also when I learned that the word ‘recap’ is short for ‘recapitulate’ and is, in fact, one word. It is not hyphenated, as I have been spelling it for the last several years. Oh well. We begin of course with a quick sweep.
Housekeeping:
- Please venmo me (@Turner-Manley) if you have not done so! I have been busy with other things but will begin auditing who still owes and who doesn’t. Dues are $30!
- In that vein, we have seen our first penalty for a no-show lineup! Congrats, team Web! Their $15 penalty will be divvied amongst the payouts in proportional fashion. Shouldn’t amount to much to the victors, but this should still act as deterrent against forgetting to set a lineup!
- Matthew and I feel that the website is in great shape right now. Everything is working as desired and no massive changes are coming. In fact, we only plan to add to the site for an enhanced experience. Both Player Performances and the Playoff Watch (with a full 1-36 team ranking) ought to be inbound with next week’s writeup.
- That being stated, we are still eager to hear how we can improve your experience. Please keep the suggestions coming!
On to the fun stuff.
Highest Scorer: Woman in S.P.O.R.T.S (142.98 points)
The Mario Division continues to be the most interesting story in Big League. This division holds 3/4 of the highest scorers, a formerly undefeated team (The Realest), a winless team (team Web) who also sports the lowest total points in the league, all while containing a winless former league champ (Sources) and a perennial contender (Skid Marks). This is all not to mention that half of this league is first timers to this format. Wowie.
Enough about her division rivals, though, this award goes to the Woman in Sports herself, Brooke. She is clearly playing to win every single week, post-season stashes be damned. And this strategy is paying out with her 3-1 record. Once again, Woman in S.P.O.R.T.S opted for a slew of heavy hitters, drafting Pacheco and Derrick Henry to lead the way on the RB front. She had to be giddy every time she saw #10 break one off for a big gain. Furthermore, I’d wager there was pure laughter when Tractorcito threw for a goal line tuddy. This is not to diminish the tour de force that former Titan AJ Brown put on, going for 9-175-2. Those two touchdowns by the way? His only two on the season thus far. Regression was going his way. AR5 kept the ship afloat with his best game of the season, and perhaps the best game by a rookie QB this season! Coming off an injured week where he benchwarmed was risky. But scared money don’t make money, as they say. If Brooke only played these four players, she’d have secured victory early. But of course there was a second course of second fiddles to round out her Week-4-League-High 143 points. Well done. Will Woman in S.P.O.R.T.S repeat last year and secure the division? Who knows!
Biggest Blowout: Scrantonicity 5 vs team Web (108.38 points) & AR5 Fan Club vs Jalen “oh god yes it” Hurts (53.72 points)
The technical answer to this weekly shame query is, yes, Scranton’s finest vs the webbiest team in the nation was the largest blowout. But the spiritual answer to this question is Clay’s smashing of Joe’s squad.
There’s not really a ton to say about Matthew’s triumpth over team Web. Going into SNF I was hopeful that something would be input instead of nine empties. And then going into Monday, I was once again hopeful. But you know what they say about fooling me once and twice. That being said, Scrantonicity 5 would have beat 24 teams with his 108.38 points, so this is not an errant victory.
But the real blowout is Jalen “oh god yes it” Hurts collapse in the face of fellow friend, Clay. This is Joe’s fourth appearance in the writeup in as many weeks. Week 1: Blowout loss. Week 2: Closest Matchup victory. Week 3: Honorable mention for blowout loss. Week 4: Blowout loss. Aside from the aforementioned, team Web, Jalen “oh god yes it” Hurts holds the fewest points in the league and is just a notch above me in the Bowser Division standings. Does Joe invest in penny stocks instead of the S&P? What, exactly, is his strategy here? I suppose there’s upside to any of the players he selected. But I’m not sure anyone could convince me that ANY of his chosen players were sure things. This is in stark contrast to AR5 Fan Club’s assortment of guaranteed producers. Zack Moss and Puka Nacua have had airtight locks on their touches and targets. This easily translated to 40+ points between them. Purdy has yet to throw an interception, thus, neither does Clay at the QB position. Round out this middle-of-the-pack roster with a kicker in a projected high-scoring game and DK Metcalf, and you have a decent ticket to victory. And apparently, a blowout victory. Let’s see if the Hurts can right the ship next week as the season trudges along.
Closest Matchup: Skid Marks vs skol! go yikes (1.62 points) & lansing leopards vs The Realest (1.8 points)
Another two-fer here.
Appearing for the second time in the closest matchup section, Skid Marks falls just shy of Sarah’s yikes. Meanwhile, newcomers leopards and The Realest tilted for a 1.8 point margin of victory.
Normally, I like to do a cross-positional comparisons to see where the loser fell just shy. I could easily do this. The similarities are evident upon scant scanning of these four lineups. Instead though, I want to take us to Monday Night Football where the Seahawks came to Metlife and faced the Giants. This is where hearts were broken in Big League. Skid Marks needed 15.53 points from Kenneth Walker II to win. Undefeated, The Realest held a 7.6 point lead on the lansing leopards. Only the poet Tyler Lockett remained to be played. What happened next may shock you.
Through the first half, Lockett had done next to nothing and Walker had rushed for negative yards multiple times. With the exception of a 31 breakaway and touchdown, Walker looked outmatched by a hot and cold Giants defense that has been discussed in these writeups ad nauseam. However, into the second half, Lockett caught a flurry of passes and doom was spelled for The Realest. They would receive their first loss in all of fantasy football. With this, they may or may not bow out of contention for the title, with plans on solely rostering retired players from this point onward.
While that story was writ, Skid Marks had hopes of at least one more rushing attempt by his sole hope, Kenny Walky. Yet, an unthinkably painful 10 sack and two interception performance by the $160,000,000 man (Danny Dimez) essentially threw a wet blanket on the whole game. Even Peyton and Eli were begging for the game to end. I looked through the play by play and Kenneth Walker II’s negative rushing plays amounted to -17 yards. If those had not occurred, we’d have a different winner.
Congrats to skol! go yikes & the lansing leopards (the only two teams to not use a single capital letter in their names) on the wins! And good luck, licking your wounds, Skid Marks and The Realest.
Biggest Find: Brandon Aiyuk (20.8)
Per Bill Barnwell (ESPN), through the first four weeks of the regular season from 2007-present, here are the two highest yards per route run: 4.9 & 4.6. Randy Moss earned 4.6 with the 2007 Patriots. Brandon Aiyuk is at 4.9 with this years’ 49ers. For quick context, here’s a definition of YPRR: the amount of receiving yards a receiver accumulates divided by the number of routes they have run.
Aiyuk is a freak and he’s showing it every single down that he’s out there. It’s truly a feat to standout in an offense that touts George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, Christian McCaffrey, and of course Brock Purdy (wink wink). But Aiyuk is balling out! The 2020 first round draft pick has already accumulated 320 receiving yards through four weeks. For context, that’s more than Mark Andrews and Travis Kelce combined. And they have all suited up for the same amount of games. Call it luck, call it a breakout, call it whatever you want, but Aiyuk appears to be a thing to stay. Only five league managers have used the talented receiver thus far, but I anticipate he will be one of those select players who will be used by 100% of the league by season’s end.
Biggest Bust: Jameis Winston (-2 points)
This may be cruel and unusual punishment to lay on to a single team like this, but I simply cannot resist. League veteran, The Krusty Krab Pizzas rostered Jameis Winston against his opponent for a resounding -2 points. Ouchie. Arguably the position that can garner you the most points turned into a net negative for this squad. But let’s put on our detective hat and figure out why this happened. To start, it was reported that Saints’ quarterback, Derrick Carr would be inactive with a shoulder injury and Jameis would start against the middling Buccaneers. This makes sense. However, there was a game day change of plans that rendered this news false. Carr will start. However, when the dye was cast and the Saints’ knew they’d lose, Carr was benched with the final two minutes left to play. Jameis finally gets to see the field and, boy, he did what he does best. No, he didn’t steal crab legs. He threw an interception to ice the game. Hilarious. But I’m willing to give Rob the benefit of the doubt. Let’s say he wanted the starting Saints’ QB no matter what. How did Carr do? He completed 23-37 pass attempts for 137 yards. Some quick math: that’s 3.4 yards per throw! Combine that with two sacks, and, that Carr performance would’ve given him a grand total of 3.18 fantasy points against the highest scorer on the week (Woman in S.P.O.R.T.S. This might’ve benefited the Pizzas in the grand scheme of things! At least he can play a different mediocre Derrick Carr performance later down the line!
Weekly Oddity:
- We are down to only one undefeated team! Congrats She Sucks My Boswell you stand atop Mt. Fantasy right now. But be careful – the wind blows highest at the peak.
- Speaking of streaks, we have three winless teams that are managed by 1) the co-commissioner of this whole league; 2) the inaugural winner; 3) an untouched keyboard.
- For the second week in a row, two teams have both played Russell Wilson against each other. Neat.
- We continue our streak of the blowout team winning by at least double the loser’s score.
- Other streaks: selected defenses have scored for both double digits and negative points.
That’s all, folks! Remember to use any TNF players and remember there’s a Jax/Bills game in London on Sunday morning if you wanted to play those fools!
Thanks and have an excellent week!
