My brother asked me the other day if the changes to roster positions was why the point totals seemed higher.I responded with "There were no changes. This is the same as it was last season."
Point totals seem higher because QB plays has been much better. Defenses haven't played well — and it may have to do with the lockout — and thus QBs have been taking advantage of it.
The QBs averaged 24.8 points per matchup last season in the first three weeks. This season, the average is 26.4 over the first three weeks. That doesn't seem like that much, but if you think about how the higher scorers have to account for the lower scorers, that's a decent jump.
Add in the fact that there have been some wild WR totals, too, and it's easy to see why some of the point totals have been higher — for some.
This week, six QBs scored better than 30 points. Two of them were in head-to-had matchups, so two unfortunate owners had QBs lead the way only to watch their team lose.
Graybill's Generals 124.2, Channel 4 News Team 111.9
I think Murphy's Law applied for the News Team this weekend — and heck, he still scored 111.9 points. Had he been playing a few other teams in the JFL, he would have shockingly won.
Arian Foster, out. Peyton Hillis, out. Beanie Wells, out. Miles Austin, out. All of their NFL teams missed them this week, but for the News Team to lose the four starters, that was huge — and new to me. I've never seen a team have four starters of that caliber all be declared inactive in the same week.
It's just unheard of. It's just unlucky. And for the Graybill's Generals, it was huge, pushing him to a 2-0 lead in the division.
And as it been in his first three matchups, his big star has been LeSean McCoy, posting his third straight 20-point week. Joe Flacco came through with another big week, posting 41.9 points in a big win over St. Louis.
Flacco has been solid two out of three weeks, and if he does what I think he will this season, he'll have more weeks like this.
And the Generals will need that now that he lost Kenny Britt for the season. No more suspension worries. He tore both his ACL and MCL (ouch) early in the game Sunday and will be out for the season. That is a huge blow to the Generals, who really doesn't have a big-time wideout now. That position will let him down for the rest of the season, and should make it tough to string together a bunch of wins.
Nevertheless, at 2-1 with a nice pad in the division, the Generals are in the right spot.
The News Team's injuries shouldn't be as serious and he should get things going here soon, and with his rival Organ Thieves in the cellar at 0-3, he at least knows there's a chance to dig out of his 1-2 hole.
Dottsville Toasters 144.1, T-Money 85.5
Well, the running backs let the Toasters down — including Chris Johnson again — with a combined 40 yards rushing from three backs, but fortunately Matt Schaub, Calvin Johnson and the Ravens defense took care of business.
Can't say I didn't tell you about Calvin Johnson — mainly because it's well documented in my blog posts. Johnson is having a helluva year. Six touchdowns in three games, and finally he got his first 100-yard game. I don't expect this to stop as long as Stafford is in the lineup.
Schaub should continue to put up the numbers, too, so if the Toasters can get Chris Johnson on track, he'll be in good shape.
The problem is, Johnson hasn't done anything worth talking about this season. He's rushed 24 yards, 53, and 21 yards in his first three games of the season. (Maybe he should have showed up to camp. Or, maybe the Titans shouldn't have paid him.
Right now, the Toasters have to be wondering whether or not he should have kept him. The good thing was, his other keeper option was Calvin Johnson, and fortunately for him, he drafted him.
He'll need Jahvid Best to take off if Chris Johnson doesn't, and with just 9.8 points this week, consistency may be an issue with the speedy back. He had only 14 yards rushing, but he caught enough passes to get close to double-digits.
T-Money can only hope to get more consistency from his RB Frank Gore, too. Only 2.2 points Sunday and he hasn't cracked 60 yards rushing in a game this season. It's been a very rough go for the 49ers back, and one has to wonder if it's over for Gore. He's been around for a long time and it's about that time for him to fade and let the new back take over. It might be Kendell Hunter or Anthony Dixon in San Francisco very soon.
It's also going to be Tony Romo time again next week. T-Money had to start Jason Campbell due to the questionable status of Romo for Monday night's game, but even had he known that Romo would have started, it wouldn't have made a difference. He would have trailed by about 70 points, and Romo didn't and will never get that.
He certainly won't get that the next time these two teams meet, when the Toasters should be in a heated battle with Team Boyer for the division title.
Real Houserville 145.6, Team Boyer 114.7
Houserville is flexing his muscles after this weekend. Darren McFadden is making him look like a genius and Mike Wallace is living up to his No. 1 pick. That, and Week 1 and 2 backup bench high scorers Cam Newton and Rob Gronkowski kept it going.
Yeah, Big Ben scored more, but Newton still had 18.2 points and may of had more if the game wasn't being played in a monsoon. Gronkowski scored his fourth and fifth TDs of the season and he's proving to be a very valuable fantasy piece for Houserville, who appears to have his team cruising toward a division title — an unexpected title according to the preseason poll.
Wallace continues to break big plays, going for 144 yards and a TD Sunday night. He just tells Big Ben to throw it and says he'll catch up to it and grab it — no lie. That's what he did again Sunday, and now he's had 10 100-yard games since the start of last season.
For Boyer, it was Brady again doing most of the work, scoring 39.5 points in yet another high-yardage game. Brady is actually on pace to pass for 7,000 yards, which is crazy. It won't happen, but the fact that he's on pace for it after three games is ridiculous.
Losing some paces this week were Michael Turner and LeGarrette Blount. Both had great Week 4 starts, but combined for just 11.6 points this week. Add that with Antonio Gates being declared inactive at the last second on Sunday, and Boyer was in trouble.
Especially after Darren McFadden went for 171 yards and two TDs. What a keeper selection this has been. Ranked No. 1 in fantasy backs with 73.9 points in three games, including his 32.4 from last week, McFadden has surprised me to say the least. It's not that I never thought he was a good back; it's just that the Raiders have always had this knack to time-share. But now, McFadden is getting points, even when Michael Bush is playing vulture and scoring a TD like he has done the past two Sundays.
But it hasn't hurt Houserville because McFadden has been over 20 points in both of those weeks.
Time will tell if this remains true after 16 weeks, but for right now, Houserville proved me wrong.
Jimmy Jammers 136.3, Sunday Slackers 122
parker dunbar (Sep 25 1:07 PM): Branch is in the RED ZONE
parker dunbar (Sep 25 1:07 PM): Green, 18 yards, He's going to have a HUGE day
Well, that was pretty much it for Parker. Green finished with 29 yards and 3.7 points, and Deion Branch didn't catch a single pass. His other wideout, Santana Moss — his potential saving grace on Monday Night Football — came up with just 8.0 fantasy points.
If it weren't for TE Jermichael Finley catching three TDs and having 85 yards, it would have been a rather disappointing day for the Slackers.
Matt Forte rushed for two more yards than I did sitting on my couch, leaving Drew Brees and Ray Rice to do all the hard work. They tried their best, but Rice was kept out of the end zone for 17.4 points, and Brees posted a big 38.4 points to make the matchup close heading into the 4 p.m. games.
But Matthew Stafford closed the gap even more with his overtime points — completing a huge pass to Calvin Johnson — and Larry Fitzgerald Ryan Mathews combined to tack on 40 points to give the Jammers a decent lead heading into Monday Night.
Mathews has been rather impressive and worth his first-round selection, ranking No. 5 in fantasy backs with 60.1 points through three weeks. With Darren Sproles ranked No. 6 with 58.9, the Jammers is one of three teams to have two backs ranked in the top 10 — go figure.
Oddly enough, the other two teams with top-10 backs are his division rivals, Slackers (Rice and Forte) and Jawz (Jones-Drew and Fred Jackson).
The Slackers' backs were predicted to be a top tandem in the JFL, but the other two pairs were not.
It's certainly a big reason why the Jammers is sitting happy at 3-0. And this week, it's the reason he quelled Parker's early Sunday rants.
World of Noise 124.1, Fear and Loathing 71.2
You are what you eat. Or, in fantasy, you are what your QB does.
For Fear, a 1-2 mark is representative of his QB. Vick plays well Week 1, he wins. Vick leaves the game early in Week 2 and 3, he loses.
This is a rollercoaster everyone is jealous of when Vick plays and it's one that every is happy they're not a part of when he's injured.
Even still, the 10.6 points from Vick this week was one of the higher point totals on his team. His two RBs, three WRs and TE all scored less than 7.2 points.
It was a rough day.
And now, it may be a rough road ahead because of injuries.
Injuries have made it tough for World of Noise, too. He managed 124.1 points, but it was thanks to a surprise performance by LaDainian Tomlinson — my good, ole pal. (Boy I miss 2006).
Tomlinson went for 22.4 points, which would have been a down day in 2006, and really gave the Noise a lift. He may also get a lift this weekend with Marques Colston reportedly ready to return to the lineup after breaking his collarbone. That will be a big help.
Still, it won't help his RB situation. He only has two on the roster, and that will have to be fixed very soon.
Otherwise, this will be one of the few wins Noise gets.
Jawz Attack 149.1, Chinese Organ Thieves 75.1
I said that Jawz could win this matchup if Maurice Jones-Drew had a big day, and I was right about that.
But who knew that Wes Welker, Fred Jackson and Roddy White would all be studs this weekend, especially Welker who had 16 catches for 217 yards and two TDs. It's lines like that that make me happy that when I decided to got to a PPR that I made it 0.2 points per catch. You know, a little reward for making catches. In actual PPRs, Welker was worth better than 50 points. Ridiculous.
This was a big win for Jawz, who had decent weeks, but couldn't outscore his opponent.
This week, he had no trouble doing that.
The Thieves put up just 75.1 points, not that an extra 50 points would have helped him. So far, he's been unlucky in that he's faced point totals of 157.1, 165.6 and 149.1. Ouch. That's just unfair.
And there's no end in sight either with the high scoring Slackers coming to town.
…. And let's talk about the Houserville trade. Oh has that worked out for the Attack. He gives up Big Ben and gets a WR who has two huge weeks.
It translated into a win this week and the way things are going, it will likely translate into a few more wins for the Attack. Especially with dynamic guys like D-Jack, Roddy White and Fred Jackson on the roster.
Watch out Slackers.
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