Week 8 Recap:

Brad (6-2) 172.6 vs. Joe (3-5) 104.2

Brad explodes for 172.6 points for his second highest point total of the season.  Jalen Hurts threw for 4 touchdowns and 28.4 fantasy points, Christian McCaffrey scored a passing touchdown, a rushing touchdown, and a receiving touchdown flexing his potential as a 49er to the tune of 36.1 fantasy points. Jalen Waddle scored 2 touchdowns with 29.6 points.  Nick Chubb scored 2 touchdowns with 27.9 points.  Between those 4 players Brad scored 122 points enough to defeat Joe’s entire team by 17.8 points.  Joe did have a lone bright spot on his team in Tony Pollard.  Pollard rushed for 131 yards and 3 rushing touchdowns against Chicago with Zeke Elliot ruled out due to a knee injury.  Geno Smith was serviceable with 19.0 points and Jerry Jeudy did his thing in London with 6 catches for 63 yards and a touchdown (15.3 points).  Brad just went off, nothing to do about that.

Kenny (3-5) 103.0 vs. Chase (5-3) 150.4

K-Dub got rocked by Chase who was led by D’onta Foreman’s 34.8 fantasy points.  With Chuba Hubbard inactive due to an ankle injury Foreman was free to run wild against the Falcons.  Hopkins looked scary good with 30.9 fantasy points and Dalvin Cook had another nice game with 25.6.  Kenny couldn’t hand despite getting 32.1 from Tua and 22.6 from Amari Cooper.  His peripherals combined for 10.5 points and Adams was shut down by the Saints.  The Raiders were so bad I wondered if the Saints staff replaced their Gatorade with Hurricanes out there.  Yikes.

JD (6-2) 103.3 vs. Mike (4-4) 93.8

Dizzle gets the W.  He was led by Kirk Cousins’ 3 touchdowns, CeeDee Lambs 16.3 and Khalil Herbert’s 15.9 ( I was right about him).  Mike put up a fight with 25.4 from Dak Prescott, but his next top scorer was D/ST with 13.  Josh Jacobs got caught up in that disaster of a game against the Saints and only put up 6.4 fantasy points despite averaging 34.6 fantasy points per game in the 3 weeks prior.   Ouch.

Tommy (7-1) 152.5 vs. Scotty (2-6) 134.2

Shootout!  Tommy gets the W after a monster game from Derrick Henry (40.3) and Tyreek Hill (28.5).  Scotty hung in there with the miraculous catch at the end of the game for DJ Moore (29.5) on a beautifully thrown ball by PJ Walker.  Scotty’s Lions Goff and Williams both got 21.1 points.  And Mike Evans added 18.3 due to his 100 yard receiving day.  In the end it wasn’t enough as every started for Tommy scored a touchdown except for Tyreek and his kicker.  Fournette, Metcalf, Kittle, Auyik, and even Dallas D/ST all got a touchdown this week.  Too much for Scotty.

Trey (2-6) 107.8 vs. Katon (1-7) 106.6

In the Battle of the Bad Trey harrowingly escapes the Katon trap.  He was eld by Travis Etienne Jr. who set a career high in rushing yards with 156 against a decent Denver defense.  He has back to back 100 yard rushing games after the James Robinson trade and is clawing his way back to prove he wasn’t a draft day bust.  Trey also got 21.7 from Lamar Jackson and 13.8 from Miles Sanders.  35.9% of Katons’ points came from Alvin Kamara.  Kamara scored 3 touchdowns against the Raiders in a blowout win.   He also got a solid 22.8 from Stegon Diggs.  Unfortunately 6/9 starters scored in single digits and he loses by 1.2 or Derek Carr’s interception.

Jen (3-5) 111.0 vs. Mustafa (6-2) 146.5

Jen had a new look team, but Moose’s looked just like it did before bye weeks.  He picked up right where he left off scoring 146.5 points on his way to a dominant win.  Jen was disappointed her newly acquired Qb only put up 9 fantasy points, but she should be pleased that Aaron Jones put up 20.7 fantasy points in a tough matchup against Buffalo.  She got a solid 16.6 from Terry McLaurin and 16 from Tyler Allgeier.  Moose had AJ Brown go off for 6 receptions, 156 yards, and 3 touchdowns (39.6).  According to James Palmer from the NFL Network Lane Johnson was asked how they were able to keep their foot on the gas coming out of the bye and his response was “Just throw that Mother F**ker to number 11.”  Moose had 7/9 starters score in double digits.

Week 9 Preview:

Tommy (7-1) vs. Mustafa (5-2)

HUGE Game.  Tommy is #1 of D1 and Moose is #1 of D3.  A 1^st Round Bye in the playoffs could realistically be at stake.  Tommy will be without starting tight end George Kittle and flex play #24 Rb Kareem Hunt. Moose will be without #3 Rb Saquon Barkley.  Tommy has #2 Qb Joe Burrow vs. Carolina while Moose’s #1 Qb Josh Allen gets the division opponent Jets.  Tommy has #2 Rb Derrick Henry vs. KC on SNF and #9 Rb Lenny Fournette vs. LA Rams.  Moose has #15 Rb Dameon Pierce vs. Philly and #8 Rb Rhamondre Stevenson vs. Indy.  Tommy has #2 WR Tyreek Hill vs. Chicago.  Moose has #3 WR Cooper Kupp vs. Tampa Bay.  Kupp sprained his ankle at the end of the game last week and will be worth monitoring this week.  At the WR2 position these guys have two dogs on their team.  Physical Monsters.  Tommy with #24 DK Metcalf vs. Arizona.  A couple weeks ago DK underwhelmed against the Cardinals with only 2 catches for 34 yards, but he had solid 7 targets.  Moose has #7 WR AJ Brown vs. Houston on TNF.  Brown won’t be needed much in this game as it has blowout written all over it.  Moose should hope for enough value in the first half as there’s a chance he doesn’t play much in the second half.  Moose also has TE #7 Dallas Goedert for TNF.  Goedert only has 1 touchdown so far this season and he’s due.  Tommy will turn to #6 TE Tyler Conklin at Tight End in relief of Kittle.  Conklin is coming off of his best game of the season last week where he had 6 catches on 10 targets for 79 yards and 2 touchdowns.  I don’t see that happening against the Bills, but his target share and probability of the Jets playing from behind makes him a solid play this week.  The flexes of these two teams are pretty gross and not worth mentioning.  Will Tommy move to 8-1?  Or will Moose supplant Tommy as Team #1?

Brad (6-2) vs. Kenny (3-5)

Brad has been hit by a bye-maggedon setting this up to be a very close matchup.  Brad will be without #5 Rb Christian McCaffrey, #1 Rb Nick Chubb, and his starting tight end Greg Dulcich.  Kenny will be without WR #8 Amari Cooper.  Looking at Brad’s B squad he will have Qb#5 Jalen Hurts vs. Houston on TNF.  Michael Carter vs. Buffalo.  Isaiah Pacheco vs. Tennessee on SNF.  He does have his WR duo in WR #4 Jaylen Waddle vs. Chicago and WR #5 Justin Jefferson vs. Washington.  Kenny will be starting Qb #15 Tua in that Chicago game, so look for Kenny to be rooting for a big Tyreek Hill game and a quiet Waddle game.  Kenny is hoping to have D’Andre Swift back this week.  His coach said they rushed him back a bit too much last week, despite him only having 10 touches.  Devin Singletary is @ the Jets.  I don’t believe the acquisition of Hines should impact Singletary too much.  It would impact Moss (now a Colt) and Cook’s roles more.  Kenny needs #9 WR Davante Adams to play to his potential, he’ll have a chance versus Jacksonville’s defense.  Kenny has MVS in his flex spot.  Prior to the Chiefs bye MVS had his best game as a Chief with 3 catches, 111 yards and 15.6 fantasy points.  Should be a great game!

Joe (3-5) vs. JD (6-2)

Rivalry game!  Despite this large gap in wins and losses against these two teams JD has only scored 20.7 more points than Joe on the season.  Joe has had 73.7 more points scored against.  Both teams have been impacted by byes this week.  Joe won’t have #11 Rb Tony Pollard or #25 WR Jerry Jeudy or #5 D/ST San Fran.  JD won’t have #13 Wr CeeDee Lamb or Diontae Johnson or #3 Kicker Graham Gano.  With JD in the thick of a playoff hunt and points for mattering this game won’t be a kicker bowl.  Let’s see who they do have.  Joe has #7 Qb Geno Smith facing the Cardinals again.   He underwhelmed in their first meeting this season with only 197 yards passing and no touchdowns for 12.6 fantasy points.  Most of those came from his 48 yards rushing.  JD has Qb #4 Patrick Mahomes vs. Tennessee.  Tennessee was struggling against the pass to start the season giving up 2+ passing touchdowns in every game Weeks 1-5.  But after the bye week they’ve only given up a total of 2 passing touchdowns in the two games.  Has their defense improved that much?  Or is it because they faced Indy and Houston?  We’ll find out this weekend.  Joe has Rb#22 CEH in that SNF game.  Clyde has been efficient with scoring fantasy points, but his issue is volume given Chiefs RBBC.  The real situation this week is #4 Austin Ekeler going up against the Falcons.  D’Onta Foreman just ran all over them to the tune of 118 rushing yards and 3 rushing touchdowns.  With the injuries at WR I can see Ekeler’s workload being higher than normal, making this a very favorable situation to JD in this matchup.  JD also has #23 Rb Raheem Mostert versus the Bears who were just torched by Tony Pollard last week for 3 touchdowns.  The rest of the starting lineups are a hodge podge of nasty.  Joe is starting wideouts that were relevant 3 years ago in Adam Thielen and Robert Woods.  JD is at least going younger with Drake London and Rondale Moore.   In the Flex Joe is turning to some guy named Caleb Huntley.  Maybe.  Patterson might be activated this week.  Meanwhile JD really hopes to have Keenan Allen, but I don’t think they put him in there against the Falcons.

Jen (3-5) vs. Mike (4-4)

There are 5 teams with winning records that are charging ahead towards playoff berths.  Then there is the 7 remaining.  Right now Mike leads the 7 with a 4-4 record.  In comes Jen just 1 game back, but having scored 18.4 more points this season.  Jen will have #9 Qb Daniel Jones out on bye Mike will be without Dak Prescott, Dalton Schultz, and Najee Harris.  Harris being out might actually help Mike’s chances this week.  Jen will have rookie phenom RB #21 Ken Walker III vs. Arizona.  A couple weeks ago Walker ran 21 times for 97 yards and a touchdown against the Cardinals for 18 fantasy points.  Look for him to continue this success.  She’ll also deploy #7 Rb Aaron Jones vs. Detroit.  Mike will have #6 Rb Josh Jacobs who like the rest of the Raiders are hoping for a bounce back game after getting blanked by the Saints last week.  Even Mike’s wonderful kicker Daniel Carlson got 0 last week.  Mike will have to lean on Wr #20 Tee Higgins and Target Vaccum Chris Godwin against the Rams.  A few years ago I sat Chris Godwin because he was questionable against the Rams and then he went off for 12 receptions on 14 targets 172 yards and 2 touchdowns.  So now I always start Godwin when he plays the Rams.  I don’t expect that type of production since the Bucs have looked like garbage lately, but Godwin has 36 targets the last 3 weeks.  Jen will have #19 WR Terry McLaurin against the Vikings and it looks like she will go for the stack with Taylor Heinicke to replace Danny Dimes.  Should be a really good matchup between these two.

Trey (2-6) vs. Chase (5-3)

Another game that looks closer in the details than when you look at record.  A lot of primetime game players in this matchup.  Trey has #18 Rb Miles Sanders against Houston TNF.  Eagles are heavily favored, but they might be so favored that Boston Scott gets a bunch of work in garbage time.  Let’s see if Sanders can get his in the first half.  On Sunday Night Football Chase takes over with #1 Tight End Travis Kelce and JuJu Smith-Schuster.  JuJu owners couldn’t have been excited about the Chiefs adding Kadarious Toney, who appears to be suddenly healthy all of a sudden.  I wonder if Toney was getting bad advice from known cancer Kenny Golladay over there in New York.  Anywho.  Trey will have the last laugh this week with #3 Qb Lamar Jackson and #3 Tight End Taysom Hill.  I have no idea what to expect from Ravens vs. Saints this week, but should be fun to watch.  Who Dat!  Trey will be praying for JT’s ankle to allow him to play this week.  New England has been solid against the run, but a couple teams were able to run on them pretty well.  (GB and Chicago).  #17 Rb Travis Etienne Jr gets a Las Vegas team that just got destroyed by Alvin Kamara.  Smash spot for Etienne who is slowly making up for his draft position which started the season out as a bust.  On the other side Chase has #12 Rb Dalvin Cook who has looked a lot better.  In Weeks 1-4 he averaged 10.3 fantasy points per game.  In his past 3 games he’s averaged 22.5 fantasy points per game.  He faces an average Washington defense this week.  Chase also has D’Onta Foreman.  Since CMC was traded Foreman has rushed for 118 yards in both games.  But last week he added 3 rushing touchdowns.  We’ll have to see if Chuba Hubbard plays this week as that could eat into Foreman’s touchdown potential, but if Hubbard is inactive then Foreman could be in for another huge game.  The Bengals just gave up a 100 yard game to Nick Chubb last week.  At Wideout Trey has Allen Lazard against Detroit and #12 Wr Tyler Lockett vs. the Cardinals.  He stunk it up last time they played.  Chase has the Sun God Lion King Amon-Ra St. Brown against Green Bay.  Where do Hockensen’s targets go?  He’ll also have DeAndre Hopkins who is averaging 24.6 points per game in his two games back from suspension.  For perspective, #1 Wr Stefon Diggs averages 23.3 per game and #3 Wr Cooper Kupp averages 22 per game.   Best of luck gentlemen.

Scotty (2-6) vs. Katon (1-7)

I seriously doubt either of these two read this weekly write up.  Couple things to mention.  Scotty has Herbert vs. Atlanta, Mixon vs. Carolina and newly traded TJ Hockenson against Washington.  DJ Moore has been on fire since the trades of Robbie Anderson and CMC.  He has 21 targets in the last two weeks.  Last game he caught a beautiful hail mary at the end of the game for a 60+ yard touchdown.  PJ Walker slung it and it was awesome.  On Katon’s side Alvin Kamara is looking great.  He has serviceable starters with Diggs, Kirk, and Smith.  Even Evan Engram has been looking good for the Jaguars.  Despite Katon’s record, he isn’t giving wins away this year.  People have to outscore him and earn it.

Thanks for reading and good luck!

-The Commish