Tuesday Review v2.3What a week it was in the PPFFL! The most prolific week of scoring in league history saw a team go from worst to first and the rest of the league become compressed to the point that only 46 points separate the top from the bottom.
The Maestro posted a point total second only to the 189.25 points the
Cyhawks accumulated during Week 10 of last season, in a week that everyone, with the exception of
The Dominator, scored in the neighborhood of 110 points or higher.
Official Standings (Week 3):The Maestro 376.74 (174.92)The Dragons 374.24 (145.92)Kellogg Krushers 363.42 (112.93)The Bouncers 348.66 (109.16)The Dominator 335.27 (88.97)The Outlaws 330.09 (112.19)If the Big Guy had made one change to his lineup and kept a starter from the first two weeks in there, he would have been well above the 110 point threshhold, garnering him Week 3's "I Sure Wish I Would Have Played That Guy Award".
The Dominator gets it this week for sitting Anquan Boldin (38.05) in favor of Hines Ward (1.45). Who knew that Kurt Warner would relieve Matt Leinart and throw pass after pass to Boldin? Had Boldin been kept in the lineup,
The Dominator would be solidly in 3rd place right now, instead of being just 5 points out of last. A close runner-up for the award this week are the
Kellogg Krushers, who left Ronnie Brown (39.55) out of the lineup in favor of Steven Jackson (13.65). Flip flopping those two would have kept the
KK's in the lead for another week. In all fairness, Jackson didn't exactly stink up the joint, and it's not like Brown has been a fantasy star lately.
Before we get to the weekly summaries, it must be noted that the Competition and Rules Committee for the PPFFL worked late into the night Saturday trying to resolve an issue brought up by none other than Eagles QB Dunnavunn McNabb. His statements on how black quarterbacks are judged differently and not given all the credit white quarterbacks get led The Man (or, as Gary Sheffield calls him, Joe Torre) to contact us about establishing different scoring standards for QBs of color. Hours of deliberation and discussion led to a draft being drawn up where QBs would receive a certain percentage of their total points scored, depending on their skin color and racial background. Everything was ready to be submitted to The Man for approval, but it suddenly became apparent that we couldn't fairly determine what percentage of points a QB who was part black, part Latino, part American Samoan, and part Eskimo should get. At that point, the CRC scrapped the whole thing and decided to leave scoring standards the same for everyone, no matter what McNabb thinks.
Shooting from worst to first with the second best week in league history was
The Maestro. In doing so, our new leader posted the very rare octuple double, placing everyone in the lineup in double figures. Tom Brady (51.32) once again led the way by throwing primarily to the rejuvenated Randy Moss (25.75). Funny how Moss is showing how the new, not so rare, athlete has no problem dogging it for a less than successful team in order to get traded or released, then turns it on when he gets to a situation that is more to his liking. If it's not already happening, 5th graders will soon start dogging it for their last place grade school basketball team as a means to have their parents transfer them to a school with more talent. Joseph Addai (19.55) put up solid numbers again, and was joined by Adrian Peterson (17.50), the Pittsburgh defense (17.00), Jason Witten (16.50), Plaxico Burress (15.30), and Adam Vinatieri (12.00) in double figures. The view is definitely different for yours truly this week, as there has only been one other week where I saw nobody in front of me. Close behind, though, attempting to bump draft are...
...
The Dragons. Things went so well in Philadelphia Sunday morning that a telephone call was placed to league headquarters to see if there was real time scoring that could show current, up to the minute standings. Since there is no such feature offered by Yahoo! for free,
The Dragons had to wait until now to find out that they didn't quite make it to the top. It had to have been really exciting to see Dunnavunn McNabb (51.47) and Brian Westbrook (40.05) play the best games ever recorded by players wearing replica Brazilian soccer uniforms. Terrell Owens (18.25) had a nice game on Sunday night, then gave a very humble post game interview while wearing an Eddie Haskell-esque argyle sweater. LaDainian Tomlinson (13.75) put up decent numbers, but has been a disappointment so far coming off of his 2006 PPFFL MVP season. After that quartet, though, the rest of
The Dragons were a little below average, as Marques Colston (7.40) and Todd Heap (7.00) couldn't find the end zone, the Bears defense (6.00) was on the field for about 58 minutes against Dallas due to Rex Grossman, and Jason Elam (2.00) spent much of the day watching Denver's punter play.
Rounding out the top half of the league at the 3/17th mark are the
Kellogg Krushers. Does anyone enjoy playing the game of football more than Brett Favre (47.93)? Here's a football player that gets after it and gets the job done while having more fun than anybody. If you think he should retire after this season, you're an idiot! At this point, he is easily the MVP, but you can't count out guys like McNabb, Brady, and Lorenzo Neal, who's really getting after it for a team that is struggling right now. So, all of you out there that were calling for #4 to retire last year, relax and enjoy the work of such a great quarterback and an even better human being, because Brett Favre might only bless us with another 2 or 3 years of his greatness! Sorry, Sean Salisbury hijacked the summary for a minute. Joining Favre in leading our Iowa entry this week was Reggie Bush (20.25), who benefitted from an injury to Deuce McAllister and got into the end zone a couple of times, even though he didn't do much else. Steven Jackson (13.65) improved over his first couple of weeks and Dallas Clark (12.90) was second out of the helmet for Peyton Manning Sunday morning. Those guys masked the invisibility of the receivers the
KK's ran out there. Javon Walker (2.40) had his first dose this season of what it can be like to depend on Jay Cutler for the ball, while Steve Smith (1.80) was trash talked and shut down by De'Angelo Hall. I guess the earth will now start spinning backward, Travis Henry will start supporting all of his kids, and Sac State will become a D-1AA power.
Solidly situated between 3rd and 5th place, we have
The Bouncers. Franchise cornerstone Peyton Manning (26.96) had a solid week against Houston, but nothing like the QBs of the 3 teams above them. T.J. Houshmanzadeh (26.20) continued to wrest the #1 receiver in Cincy tag away from Ocho Cinco. Running backs Marshawn Lynch (12.00) and Shaun Alexander (10.40) managed to find the end zone in games that were otherwise struggles for them. Bunched together just under double figures were the Baltimore defense (9.00), Jeremy Shockey (8.95), Marvin Harrison (8.65), and Mason Crosby (7.00). A couple more solid weeks like this, and it will be more than apparent that the young guys are here to stay. Rumors are swirling about some roster tinkering, so we'll see what happens the next week or two. Let's hope they don't let a sense of panic set in, as they've been over 100 points every week so far, but have slid from 1st to 4th since Week 1.
As mentioned earlier, one roster maneuver kept
The Dominator from cracking the top half of the standings. Feeling that Hines Ward (1.45) was ready for a breakout week, he neglected the fact that Hines would be facing the rejuvenated (at least for about 3 quarters) 49ers defense. Also dragging the team down was Marc Bulger (8.82), who has easily been the PPFFL's worst QB three weeks into the season. Picking up the slack were Antonio Gates (19.65), dog fighting afficianado Clinton Portis (16.85), Deion Branch (15.85), and Neil Rackers (14.00), who was very busy against the Ravens. It's becoming apparent that there might be some changes at QB for this squad, as Bulger has been less than stellar all season and Matt Leinart was pulled in favor of Kurt Warner against the Ravens...a move that could become more permanent if Leinart keeps playing like fellow Heisman winner Jason White. Maybe karma would change for him if the millionaire started paying a little attention to his kid and it's mother, or maybe picked up the tab occasionally when he breaks bread with his parents. Nah, why do that stuff when you can spend your time hanging out with guys from boy bands and C-list celebrities?
A myriad of changes led to a pretty good week for
The Outlaws, but still has them in last place because of the huge week posted by
The Maestro. Carson Palmer (30.79) was solid and Roy Williams (28.20) was a stud going up against Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, and Kaka. Chris Chambers (14.05), in one of the most unlikely things to happen all season, cracked double figures as a Dolphin receiver. The situation on offense is so bad in Miami that 290 pound defensive end Jason Taylor took a few snaps at receiver on Sunday. Jeff Reed (14.00) was a nice acquisition, posting great numbers for a kicker, slightly offsetting the stink bombs thrown up by Rudi Johnson (3.10) and the Chargers defense (1.00). It will be interesting to see what happens this week with this team. Will the front office roll with what was a solid lineup for Week 3, or look at being in last place and make some more changes? Not to get involved in other teams' roster maneuvers, but something points toward Kevin Curtis playing for these guys in Week 4.
Notes:- Waiver claim order for this week is The Outlaws, The Dominator, The Bouncers, Kellogg Krushers, The Dragons, and The Maestro.
- As predicted, giddyness abounded on Sports 1140 yesterday between 4-7. Raider fans were psyched over the win, particulary over the fact that Culpepper was in the game at the end. Most callers pointed out that the Silver and Black would be 2-1 if not for the late timeout Mike Shanahan called in Denver, completely forgetting or ignoring the fact that Lane Kiffin did the same exact thing on Sunday. And, yes, Mike Lamb did state on at least one occasion that this team has as good a chance as anyone to win the AFC West. Man, who knew a narrow victory over the Browns was enough to propel you toward the division title when you haven't beaten anyone in your division in 3 years?
- In listening to Fox Sports Radio most of Sunday, it was comical to hear the top of the hour updates, that FSR puts a strict time limit on. It got to be funny as the the update guy tried to cram 13 football scores, 14 baseball scores, and various other updates into about a 15 second window. Not only did the guy get cut off mid-sentence every single time, he also got stuck giving no scores in one segment because of "computer problems" and spent another giving only soccer and horse racing results, no doubt to spite the narcissist that only gave him about 1/100th of the time necessary to tell us everyting going on in sports.
That's about all there is for this week, or more accurately, that's all I have. Get your changes requested by Thursday and your lineups in by Friday morning.
Have a super week and do great things, gentlemen.
The Commish
