2018 - Week 4

Week 4 Recap

Jono vs Mat
Just like my QB1, Tom Brady, I came up against an undefeated team. And like him, I reminded everyone that I'm the best in the business and exposed the opposing team. Jono's 3-0 team is a paper tiger that I quickly turned into a crying tiger (that's Jono's AIM screen name from high school for those that don't know). Jono needed 60 pts after the Sunday day games with Pat Mahomes, John Brown, and JuJu yet to play, so there was a serious possibility of him winning still. Mahomes and Brown put up solid efforts but JuJu only scored single digits for the first time this season to hand me my victory. Jono's WR1 and WR2 under performed in general, but that's to be expected when the two of them belong to two of the worst teams in the league. As for me, somehow Michael Thomas puts up 7 pts but the trade for Julio is starting to pay dividends. Now if he'd only catch some touchdowns.

Brad vs Justin
Brad is starting to look like a powerhouse with his third win in a row. He got lucky with the rookie RB lottery landing Sony Michel (pronounced like Sony/Playstation Michelle/Obama), who will probably be up there competing with Kerryon Johnson and Saquon Barkley by the end of the season. He did play the wrong 40 pt QB this week and we can only hope that he plays the wrong player in every position for the rest of the season. Julian Edelman comes back from suspension this week and Freeman will be back soon too, so at least we know he'll be struggling with which superstar to start each week. Poor Brad. Justin put up a pretty good fight with almost double digits across the board but he's hurting at QB. He's holding 3 QBs and somehow getting no performance out of the position. Also, why is he holding 3 QBs? Also, why is one of them Nick Foles? I can only imagine it's some weird Chinese gambler's superstition.

Dylan vs Sak
Wow, talk about 2 teams in free fall. I guess someone has to hit the bottom first. I'm not sure what Sak's strategy is but his bench almost doubled his starter's points. After landing the hottest waiver add this week (Calvin Ridley), he decides not to start him in a game that was destined to be a shoot out. He also left Kupp and Alshon Jeffery on his bench, who both also had huge weeks. While I can see the logic behind that move, we're using hindsight here so we all get to tsk tsk at him. His consolation prize here is that he has talent on his team, he just needs to tinker. Dylan, on the other hand, is lacking talent but somehow pulled out the win. I'm not sure which one is worse. He also left a lot of points on his bench, but the players that did well are back up players who will not repeat this performance week to week. He can ride Yeldon as long as Fournette remains out, which at this rate might be a gamble all season. Not a situation I'd want to be in.

Fuki vs Mike
Fuki and his hilarious team logo popped off this week and ended up with the biggest beat down of the week. Fuki beats Mike by almost 60 pts. I can't believe I lost to Mike last week. Fuki's team excelled at every position except for QB. He smartly benched Russell Wilson who only scored 8 pts, but it's too bad the QB he started (Fitz) scored only 4 pts before he was benched for Jameis Winston. Fuki has 2 receivers from the Rams. Somehow their offense is able to sustain 3 top notch WRs and the best RB in the league. If Fuki was smart he'd pick up Jared Goff quick like and milk that sweet sweet QB-WR1-WR2 stack. Put all your eggs in one basket, do it. Mike is back to form, with his entire bench and starters combining to score less than Fuki's WRs and RBs. I tried really hard to find some redeeming thing to say about his team, but it really is a mess.

Lee vs Brent
Brent's team continues to roll behind Alvin Kamara and Kareem Hunt, who both have seen more touches and more points every week. Most of his team actually scored single digits but he still broke 130 pts. I'd say that's a bad sign, but he's got Ingram coming back next week so the the good times may never end. He's got a few WRs who are going to be hit or miss each week, so he'll need to pick carefully. Lee's team did about as well, and as bad, as was expected. Really not over performing or under performing. He stubbornly continues to use Josh Gordon, who finally saw some action this week with a sweet 4.20 (blaze it fgt). He left a bunch of points on his bench with Kittle and Shepard, but no one would have blamed him for either of those sits this week. Except us, because again we're using hindsight.

Matty K's Power Rankings

With the season a quarter of the way over and things starting to shake out, it's time for our first power ranking.

Early Contenders

These guys have an obvious leg up on the rest of the league in points for and/or record. They're the ones to beat.

1. Brad - He's on a 3 game winning streak and will have more studs than he knows what to do with now that Edelman and Freeman are coming back. Is this really your first time Brad?
2. Jono - He was just on a 3 game winning streak and his team is still stacked, but I couldn't give him the top spot this week with him losing to yours truly.
3. Justin - His lack of QB production moves him out of contender status but the rest of his team is looking solid for a run.

Wild Card

The 4 middle of the pack 2-2's are pretty much on even footing. I only rank myself highest because of unrepentant bias.

4. Mat - My team is finally coming together but my bench is still a bit lacking. Any major injury would put me in a bad spot.
5. Brent - Brent's been winning games with very strong RB play but will need some help from his other positions to break into the top 4.
6. Fuki - Fuki is suddenly without his ace up the sleeve now that Fitzmagic has been benched for Jameis. The rest of his team still looks good, he can easily move up the rankings with a few wins.
7. Lee - Lee has a good team on paper but they are under performing too consistently. He'll have to make something happen with this FLEX spot to improve.

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Everything above this line is still anyone's game and you can be sure that injuries will move these ranks around quite a bit. The difference between 1 and 7 is much smaller than you'd think.

Tacos

These guys are already in a hole and will have an uphill battle to get out. Dylan is only 2-2 because he played Sak last week.

Mike/Dylan/Sak - All three of these guys have scored less than 400 points through 4 weeks and are equally destitute. They'll need to work the waiver wire hard to turn things around before the next power ranking.