2018 - Week 9

Week 9 Recap

Matchups

The top 4 teams have begun to separate themselves from 5th-10th place with a 2 game advantage. Playoff seeding is beginning to take shape.

Mat (3rd 6-3) vs Fuki (8th 3-6)

Same shit different day. Once again I get matched up with the 2nd highest scoring team and I win by scoring the highest. This is getting to be kinda weird how often this happens. Fuki had a solid chance of beating me, jumping out to an early lead on Sunday with CMC doing work. It pretty much came down to a Sunday night battle between Tom Brady and James White. The Patriots ran the shit out of the ball but White had to exit the game for about a quarter with an injury. That tipped the scale in my favor. Going into Monday night, Fuki needed 13 points out of Dallas defense and got 7. I can't even tell if Fuki is just doing it to fuck with us at this point, but he actually went out and grabbed Fitzpatrick after Jameis was benched. And it worked out for him, Fitz put up a nice 26. Don't let your memes be dreams. Fuki's team is actually good, he has the highest points-for from 4th place to 10 place by almost 100 points. Just bad luck on matchups. On my team, Michael Thomas came back in a big way and scored the most points of any player this week. Julio Jones finally scored a touchdown. Melvin Gordon came back from injury and picked up right where he left off. I'm almost sick of bragging about my team. Almost.

Jono (1st 7-2) vs Dylan (7th 4-5)

In the exact opposite of the last matchup. The two lowest scoring teams faced off here. In a battle of underperformance, someone still has to win. And that someone is Jono. Our brave #1 seed put up a very pedestrian 101 pts behind Gurley's season low of 16.9. The Rams playing in their first loss of the season finally cooled Gurley down. Only relatively speaking though, 16.9 would still be an excellent score for a lot of other RB1s. That's just how good he is. Jono hesitated on playing Dalvin Cook on a snap count, but he came back and showed everyone why he's the lead back on the Vikings with a badass 70 yard run. Only getting tripped up about a yard out from the end zone. I don't think Jono will hesitate again when Cook comes back from bye after this week. Dylan is hitting a rough patch, his team scored single digit pretty much across the board except for Nuk and Vikes D. He's once again hurting for RB production. Breida and Cohen put up pitiful numbers even in big wins against bad teams, a situation where RBs usually shine. TJ Yeldon will soon be worthless once Fournette comes back. Phillip Lindsay will pretty much be his RB1. This isn't ideal.

Brad (4th 6-3) vs Mike (6th 4-5)

Brad easily beats Mike behind Drew Brees' 31 point performance. I'm sure Brad feels much better about his QB after last week's 7 point performance. He needs Sony Michel to come back from injury after this week, Latavius Murray's production will nose dive with a healthy Dalvin Cook. Otherwise he'll be leaning on Dion Lewis and the Tennessee offense, which is not an enviable position. Other than that, his team is looking solid for a playoff run if his injured players can all come back. Mike really felt the Bengal's bye week, with Joe Mixon and Andy Dalton out he had to play Matt Stafford and Isaiah Crowell, who combined for 13 points. Tevin Coleman put up a monster 30.1 points and looks like he'll continue to produce in that offense. Ito Smith did steal a TD but I don't think Mike will complain about what he got. He should start to do better after bye weeks. He's got 4 legit #1 options on this team with Antonio Brown, Davate Adams, Tevin Coleman, and Joe Mixon.

Sak (10th 2-7) vs Brent (5th 4-5)

Will Sak ever win again? That's the question that haunts all of us. Copper Kupp came back from injury and picked up right where he left off. Calvin Ridley continues to do well. Nick Chubb is looking like one of the best waiver adds of the year. But Sak just can't buy a win. The Rodgers-Graham stack could be so good, but GB oline is garbage and Rodgers doesn't have the time or space to work. Rodgers is the only thing keeping GB from being a bottom tier team, but he's not going to be able to keep Sak's fantasy team from being one. Fournette should come back next week, which will be a huge boost but we'll see if it's enough. Brent's running backs again put up monster numbers. Kareem and Kamara combined for 63 points. That combo right there might be a league winner in itself. I know I hyped up Mark Ingram a lot leading up to his return from suspension, but it has not panned out. If Ingram can find even a bit of success he had the past 3 seasons, Brent's team will be very scary. However, sitting at 4-5 right now, he'll have to win a few more just to make the play offs.

Justin (2nd 6-3) vs Lee (9th 3-6)

Justin wins his 4th in a row against Lee's team who is on the cusp of being eliminated from playoffs contention. Justin wins this week behind Kelce (25 pts) and Goff (30 pts). He once again wins while half his team scores in single digits. Balanced, his team is not. Every week, someone else pops off and carries him to victory, but if it works it works. I think I've figured his secret out, he's starting a different Raiders player each week as a lucky charm. This week he started Jalen Richard. Will it be Seth Roberts next week? Maybe, he IS losing AJ Green to a long term injury. Like I said last week, Lee's fortune is one with Adrian Petersen. AD did diddily squat this week with the Redskins playing from behind the entire game. Keenan Allen finally put up WR1 numbers, but too little too late. Josh Gordon has finally reached his final form on the Patriots with a monster 130 yd 1 TD game. All that holding and waiting has paid off. Now Lee just needs to translate that performance into nothing but wins for the rest of the season just to compete for a playoff spot. Highly unlikely.