We're eight weeks in, and I have spent a lot of time recapping JFL matchups.
This week, it’s time to look toward the future.
No, not toward my Super Bowl championship, nor are we looking ahead to see Choo’s championship loss in baseball in 2016 (he’s lost three straight for you JFLers who are not in baseball).
That’s all too far in the future.
Rather, we’re going to look at Week 10, when the matchups of the conference leaders could occur.
In the AFC, it’s a given. No matter what happens this weekend, the Jerk and Houserville will meet in Week 10 boasting the best records in the AFC, and the JFL for that matter.
The Jerk is 7-1 and two games ahead of the Jammers for the AFC East crown, and Houserville is also 7-1 with a three-game lead in the AFC Middle East.
In the NFC, it’s not as absolute as the AFC, but if both the Chalupa Batman and Jersey Bombers win this weekend, they’ll face each other with matching 6-3 records and leads in their respective divisions.
It could be one hell of a Week 10, one that could determine home-field advantage throughout the conference brackets — and we know how badly Houserville doesn’t want to have two points go on the board of his opponent.
But before we can get to the mighty Week 10, we have the almost-as-interesting Week 9 matchups between the top four teams in the AFC, and the top two in the NFC.
In the AFC, it’s a bit of a cross-divisional matchup as the leaders play the opposing division’s second-place team.
And in Week 9, it will be all about the brothers teaming up to help each other’s cause. They worked together a few weeks ago in preparation for this week when the Noise upgraded his Week 10 bye QB from Nick Foles to Brian Hoyer, and the Jammers upgraded his Week 9 bye QB from ___________ to Nick Foles.
Now, the Jammers will look to upend Houserville and keep him from winning an eighth straight contest.
If Houserville gets even half the performance he got from Eli Manning, he should be well on his way to that victory. Manning threw for six TDs and scored 55.5 points to lead five Villains in double-digits in a 116.7-88.6 win over the Steaks. For Philly Cheese, he can only wonder what his lineup would have been like without the Carson Palmer trade.
Palmer, who scored 44.1 points last week, and Eric Decker, who had 13.2 points, were sent away for Chris Ivory (4.7) and Dez Bryant (1.6). Whoops. That’s a big mistake right now as it cost him a win. By my calculations, based on the lineup he would have started without the trade, Steaks would have beat Houserville 128.7-116.7.
As I said to Chalupa the day after the deadline, sometimes the best deals you make are the ones you do not make.
Jerk was trying to make some deals at the deadline, but he may be lucky he didn’t go all out like the Steaks did. I don’t know all the names that were mentioned in deals, but he has to be happy he still has the JFL's No. 2 RB, Mark Ingram.
Everyone take a moment to allow Noise to make a painful “Peter-Griffin-banged-his-knee” sigh.
Eh, let’s give him a few more seconds to do it repeatedly, because every week, Ingram makes him feel the pain of a third-round mistake he may never ever forget.
Now, he can get up this week and fight that Jerkin’ who gave him a bad coupon?
Jerk used the 12.7 points from Ingram, added 20 from A.J. Green and 18.7 from Stefon Diggs, who has been quite the pickup for the Jerk. Three straight weeks of double-digits, and since Week 4, he’s totaled 25 catches for 419 yards and two TDs in four games. Not bad for a guy I never heard of.
Despite scoring 94 points, the Jerk did luck out a bit with Boyer getting 43.6 from Tom Brady and nothing from everyone else. It’s yet another week where Boyer’s total is less than double what Brady scored. Team Brady?
Still, he’s 5-3 and tied for first in the NFC West with the Bombers and he has a huge matchup against 5-3 Chalupa this week.
The Batman also is coming off a loss where his QB did most of the legwork as Philip Rivers scored 35 of his 71 points in a setback to the World of Noise. His trade acquisitions backfired in Week 8 as Mike Evans and T.Y. Hilton combined for 7.6 points, and Matt Forte scored 7.7 before going down with an injury that will keep him out for a while.
The other big wins to touch on belong to the Choo, Jawz and the Toasters.
The Slackers also won with Drew Brees on the bench, which is rather amazing considering he scored 68.1 points by himself, and the Slackers' starting lineup scored just 68.9. It didn’t matter against the News Team, though, as kicker Nick Folk was the team’s high scorer with 9 points.
But if we’re going to talk high scorers, let’s look to the Choo, who got 44.1 from Palmer, 18.4 from Dion Lewis (the free agent pickup of the year at this point in my mind) and 34.6 from Odell Beckham, who caught three of Eli Manning’s six TDs. Julian Edelman also had 23 points, and he’s quietly put up a season worthy of a No. 6 ranking among JFL wideouts. His team is amazing, says he, and by his math skills, his point differential outweighs his 4-4 record which has him on the cusp of the playoffs.
Jawz won to keep himself within shouting distances of the playoff race, but if Peyton Manning is going to continue to be the 27th best QB in the JFL, also know as the sixth worst among the 32 starters, Jawz will find it tough to make a run for a wild card spot.
The Toasters don’t have a problem at starting QB, but he has to be looking at the success of Derek Carr on the bench and wondering if it’s worthy of a start in the near future. He won a low-scoring matchup this week, surviving an 18.7-point week from Russell Wilson, but against several other teams in the JFL, he would have needed Derek Car’s 44.3 points added on to his total to win.
Against the News Team, he would have just needed Derek Carr and a kicker, take your pick.
Yeah, I know that hurts, Nikish, so join Craig on the sidewalk.
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