Here's the Week 8 Recap. I will add the Week 9 Podcast tomorrow so look for it if you care to listen.
If you want to know what it's like to get eight touchdowns from your fantasy team on one Sunday, ask the Toasters.
But, I will warn you, when you ask, he might start bragging — because he just blew past the League record for single-game points, more than doubling up his opponent's 82.3 points.
Chris Johnson (228, 2 TD) led the way with 39.9 points and the Bears defense added 34.
Everything was working for the Toasters, even his tight end, Kevin Boss, who was stuck on the wrong side of a rout, but still managed 70 yards and a TD.
Believe it or not, the only one not to score a touchdown for the Toasters was QB Matt Schaub, who managed just 11.7 points. Everyone else on the Toasters scored more than that, aside from the kicker.
Ray Rice continued his great 2009 — see, again I'm praising him — with 84 yards and a TD in the Ravens rout of the Broncos, who I firmly believe are one of the worst teams to ever start 6-0. Now, when I say "worst," I'm not saying they're the Lions or the Rams or anything like that, but I'm saying they're just not a 6-1 team. Realistically, they are a 4-3 team that has gotten lucky. I guarantee they will start to trail off soon.
The Toasters won't, however.
He's got great wideouts — even benched one who had 88 yards and a TD (Greg Jennings) and it didn't hurt. He's got great running backs. This team has great potential.
He also owns a great record — 168.5 points.
World of Noise 103.1, Graybill's Generals 87.8
Noise is 6-2, just like the Toasters, but he didn't earn it. He got lucky.
I guess the Generals are on vacation, which is a bummer, because he didn't do that for the Super Bowl last season. I would have liked that.
Instead, he leaves Kevin Faulk and the Patriots defense in his starting lineup — they were on the BYE — and lost by 15 points.
He backup defense scored that alone.
So, as a result, the Noise is 6-2 and allows the four-way tie for first overall in the League continue.
The bigger surprise with this win for the Basterds was that he was able to score 103 points with his two stud backs going silent Sunday. Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown, who had been averaging well more than 30 combined points per week, scored just 9.7 against the Jets.
Thankfully for Noise, Donovan McNabb had a huge day, throwing for 240 and 3 TDs.
That's enough to ruin any vacation, right Generals?
Jimmy Jammers 83.1, Houserville 68.6
It's tough to survive through all the bye weeks, but somehow, the Jammers managed to extend his winning streak to five.
In the worst of all of the bye weeks for the Jammers — he was missing his trio of Steelers, Big Ben, Santonio Holmes and Heath Miller — a double-digit win still occurred despite scoring just 83.1 points.
The Jammers' defense has completely turned around from 2008, after giving up the most points last season, the Jam has the second-best defense in the League.
It was on display Sunday as Houserville didn't get out of the 40s until Monday night with Roddy White. Even then, he could barely reach half his average.
There were a few reasons for this: The first being that Cedric Benson was on the bye week, so immediately, there's 10-15 points — at least — he was missing out on.
Secondly, and this was the dagger, Steve Slaton fumbled and then was benched, scoring negative-0.9 points.
Ouch.
Mike Sims-Walker had the opposite version of Slaton, positive-0.9 points, while three other skill players combined to score about 14 points. In fact, kicker Matt Stover (13 points) managed to outscore everyone but Peyton Manning (17) and White (18.8).
The Jammers didn't have an excellent week either, but that's because of Jay Cutler — a bum who had just 12.2 points. Thank God, he's a backup to Big Ben.
He was so bad Sunday that the Jammers' RB Joseph Addai was a better QB, tossing one more TD pass than Cutler. He scored more fantasy points, too.
That TD pass hurt Houserville, too. The 22-yard strike to Reggie Wayne was the only Colts' passing score of the game, which is why Manning had such a low total.
Generally, as a fantasy tactic, you like to start someone who your opponent's QB will throw to. It's a bonus when that player throws in his stead — and takes away a touchdown.
It's also a bonus when it leads to a big win over a loud rival.
Channel 4 News Team 119.4, Team Boyer 98.8
For about a half of football, it looked like the News Team had gone with wrong QB.
When all the point totals were added up, it turned out to be true, but no where near as bad as it looked when the Vikings, led by News Team backup QB Brett Favre, held a huge halftime lead.
Rodgers, and the Pack, however, bounced back and he finished with 37.2 fantasy points, just 0.8 short of Favre's total.
That, added with Matt Forte's big week against Cleveland (90 yards, 2 TDs) helped the News Team snag sole possession of first place in the Nittany South Division at 4-4.
DeSean Jackson helped out with 17.3 points — he's now ranked second in WR points — going for another long TD catch against the Giants.
T.O. also scored his first TD of the season, however, it wasn't his normal TD. He ran 29 yards for a score. How does that happen Houston?
That was the only TD allowed by the Texans in a 31-10 win, but if that's how you let them score, you should lose by default.
Still, News Team will take it, for it is about time that his risky pickup of the $25 Million Dollar Man worked out. Maybe next week he'll return a fumble for a TD. That'd be interesting.
Boyer was making things interesting himself, winning two in a row coming into Week 8, but he couldn't keep it up with Tom Brady and Wes Welker on the bye week.
They return and he'll have to make a big run to get back into playoff contention. He's two games out with several tie-breakers not in his favor — so it's more like being three games out.
But it's not impossible.
Add Brady and Welker to Michael Turner, who had 21.1 points last week and has scored touchdowns every week except Week 1, and he's got the core group of fantasy players that can fuel such a run.
Sunday Slackers 154.1, Fear and Loathing 98.7
Ah, finally. Steven Jackson scored a touchdown. And the Rams won a game.
Jeez. To think, all they needed was one listen to the first weekly JimmyJam Football League podcast to get on the right track. (By the way, listen to the second podcast Friday, featuring World of Noise. Yes, I know, shameless plug in the middle of my division rival's recap.)
As I was saying, Jackson showed up to the 2009 party to scored 22.6 points, one of five fantasy slots to earn the Slackers 20 or more points. Two Saints, Drew Brees (23.3) and Pierre Thomas (20) did it — and by the way, what a touchdown run by Thomas Monday night. That move was sick. Barry Sanders anyone?
Reggie Wayne (20.7) caught Addai's TD pass and the Dolphins defense was silly with 39 points — well, actually, it was mostly their special teams. Ted Ginn ran back back-to-back kickoffs for touchdowns, both totaling more than 100 yards. The defense did add a third touchdown for good measure.
The high point total could have been even more if it weren't for the loss of TE Owen Daniels. A stud a week ago finds himself on the IR after tearing his ACL.
This would be a big loss for the Slackers it weren't for the fact that he also owns the No. 2-ranked TE in the JFL. Vernon Davis should fit in well — although, he does have a new QB, the one who didn't throw to him. We'll have to wait and see how that works out in San Fran.
I'm not going to even mention anyone on Fear because it's not worth it. This group of NFL "players" has struggled mightily leaving last year's division winner at 2-6.
T-Money 130.5, Stank 116.6
Frank Gore is back and so is the Money.
Gore ran for 91 and TD against the Colts, scoring 21.4 points for T-Money who avoided a big day from the Stank.
Maurice Jones-Drew continued to show why he is keeper worthy, rushing for 177 and two more TDs Sunday at Tennessee. The Stank also got 17.2 from LeSean McCoy and 10.7 from Brandon Jacobs, totaling 61.2 points from his RBs. The Colts defense added 20.5 and that was it.
T-Money got points from all over his team, including 29.5 from Tony Romo, 14.3 from Patrick Crayton, 13.6 from Dustin Keller and 13 from Thomas Jones. The Vikings defense also chipped in with 22.5.
But the big point total was clearly Romo, outscoring Stank's QB Kyle Orton easily (8.6 points).
His backup QB, Mark Sanchez, had 31.6 points on the bench, which would have been enough to win, but no one can blame Stank for benching him. With how inconsistent Sanchez and the Jets offense have been, there was no reason to think that he was a better start than Orton or other backup Matt Ryan.
Still, it would have been nice for the Stank to have had Sanchez in as the loss to T-Money drops him to 2-6, four games behind division leaders Slackers and Jammers, who are both 6-2.
T-Money, on the other hand, inches closer to his division leader, the Toasters, also 6-2. At 5-3, T-Money is breathing heavy behind the Toasters.
The key for the Money seems to be Tony Romo. Over the years, when Romo wins, T-Money does too. He'll be a Cowboys fan for the remainder of the season, for sure.
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