No longer can we hope that our secret super sleeper, or our slow starting star, will burst onto the scene. Short of one or two more surprises, the season seems set to go right? Ha, yeah right. We all know the season's just getting started but seriously, we need some trades to spice this guy up. Someone trade!
Truffle Shuffle (80.60) vs Nacho (76.54)I realized that Mark's team is one of only two teams not to have been covered yet so we had to give them some love after a squeaker of a win over former roommate Andy this week. After posting a strong opening week, the Truffle Shuffles lost two games in a row -- facing tough games to be sure, both opponents went well over the century mark -- but behind the tough running of Adrian Peterson (20.10 pts) and a nice push by K Rob Bironas (13.00), Mark got a much needed win to get back to 0.500.
On the season, Mark's team hasn't been bad at all. They have a strong running game behind Peterson and Michael Turner, a prime time QB in Philip Rivers, and a very strong defense and kicking game. The big hole in the lineup has been the receivers. Santonio Holmes, Ike Hilliard, Heath Miller, Michael Jenkins, Derrick Mason, and Devery Henderson are all weak options for Rivers to throw to. With the recent waiving of the underachieving Braylon Edwards, there's hardly a name on the roster to put fear into opponent's secondaries. I guess it'll be All Day and The Burner facing stacked defenses all season long unless GM Mark can get his receiving options sorted out.
After last week's pitiful showing, Nacho must be glad to have just come out and played a competitive game. Then again, are they even paying attention? Once again they had four players with no points or near zeros (TE Donald Lee had 0.60 pts) and since they had good showings by Greg Jennings (23.90) and Edgerrin James (20.60), they easily could have won by just playing someone who would have gotten some points. Then again, in all fairness, the rest of their team was on bye and nobody racked up any points anyway. It's okay Andy, keep watering those plants, water will make them (and hopefully your football team) grow.
Can I Kick It (114.56) vs Fishtorious (109.40)Well this was certainly a high powered matchup. Fishtorious was a league leader in scoring entering WK4 but Can I Kick It really stepped it up and came out with both fists flying. Well, maybe just one fist. Larry Johnson followed up his strong WK3 performance with 30.80 points to lead Ryan's team to glory and that included nice showings by RB Chris Johnson (19.50) and WR Lee Evans (16.80). The only player who really took a dump was RB Ryan Grant (-0.40 pts), who might soon be out of a starting job if he keeps this up.
Then again, why worry when Ryan was forced to sub out Brandon Jacobs and Calvin Johnson due to byes, but still put up their best performance of the season? Looking over their roster, they have a good mix of young and old players at every position (add in Tony Gonzalez, the newly acquired Braylon Edwards, the struggling Torry Holt, and under the radar TE Anthony Fasano) except quarterback. If only Ryan could only find someone to lead his team, he might be moving up the charts instead of paddling to stay even. Brian Griese, Jake Delhomme, and Jason Campbell (plus Marc Bulger earlier) haven't been able to provide a steady hand. Somebody trade this team a QB!
As for the Fishies, they won a very close one last week and lost this one by five points. What goes around comes around. Tony Romo asserted himself with 30.70 points and led a balanced group that included TE Jason Witten, timely subbed in RBs Deuce McAllister (14.30) and Michael Bush (12.80). Chris Chamber stunk up the joint but he'll be forgiven for his heroics last week. The Fish are still strong contenders and only one of three teams to score 100+ twice so far (the others are Canadian Bacon and Dirty Birds).
MJD Fanclub (69.58) vs Oopeikralc (68.58)You can't not cover a one point game between first place and last place! Olivia's team has been much maligned -- it's not personal, really -- but they really came out this week and showed the world that dreams do come true. Who would have thought that they had a chance against number one ranked Oopeikralc? I mean, this team had JaMarcus Russell at the controls, no solid RB or WR play, and their kicker, Jeff Reed, is the third highest scorer on the team. The backup kicker ain't doing so bad either, ranked sixth in total points compared to everyone else on the roster.
Clark's team was coming off of three straight wins -- albeit declining steadily in scoring each time -- and featured the high scoring tandem of Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens. Plus, it's not like Clinton Portis and Darren McFadden are anything to sneeze at anyway. It looked like Donovan and Co. were getting ready to steamroll to four wins but hey, that's why they play the game!
Heading into Monday night, MJD Fanclub were short about twenty points. Donovan, Terrell, and Clinton had combined for only forty or so points and nobody else on Oopeikralc had really done much of note. The door was open for a thrilling come from behind victory after Laveranues Coles single handedly wrecked the Cardinals defense for three touchdowns and 29.50 points. Remember that team leading kicker we were talking about earlier? Well, Jeff Reed went out and booted his way to 13.00 points while Willis McGahee got just enough yards against the Steelers to trudge out 6.10 points before leaving with an injury. End of the day, MJD Fanclub got a huge win. Yes, a win! And just like that there are no more winless teams in the league, just like there are no more lossless ones (I mean, undefeated. All in one fell swoop.
It's not like all the problems are solved for MJD Fanclub after four weeks with less than stellar scores (37, 37, 73, 69) but now they're in the win column, it's a brand new month, and Olivia's ready to take her team to the top. Or at least the middle-ish somewhere. Go team go!
