Week 5

This is probably best viewed on desktop....but whatevs..

Wow, where has the time gone! We are 38% done with the regular season (38% is the rating given to X-Men Origins... how? I have no idea... again, how?!). The league as a whole bounced back after last weeks shoddy performance, as shown by the above graphs. The league average score was up 35% over last week at almost 102 pts/team and there were seven teams that beat their projected score by 10% or more (week 3 was the best at eight teams). The highest score this year was recorded by Ben at 158.52, who beat his projected score by 55.04 points or 153.19%, and improved by ~82% over last week. But it was more a separation week for those on top, with Mustache Salad and Kaeptivating flexing their strength and brains. Let us all start with the games of the week.

Wataaaaah! v In Russ We Trust
Tip of the cap to In Russ We Trust who picked up Rawls back on October 9 and knew Lynch would not be ready to play this week. Was Rawls 28.90 pts out of the ordinary? In a word, yes. His previous outings he tailed 4.80 and 11.40, respectively and Cincy has given up the 13th fewest fantasy points vs the running back position. Obviously an ideal matchup for Rawls to show his powers, like Deadpool vs a group of diamond smugglers. Wataaaah! will be sure to put his trust in Bell, who ripped off 20+, but as he has serious issues at the QB position and too much inconsistency at the WR position to really feel good about this week or the next... It was a big win for In Russ We Trust who moves 3-2 and breaks his losing streak.

Rolling Gazelems v Persian Lives Matter 
Was awfully close, but it came down to team management. Rhetorical question: If you had a player that scored 16+ the last two weeks and was going up against the Tampa Bay Bucs, who aren't exactly known for shutting people down, would you sit him? Or would you play him? Use Persia as your example of what to do - you should play him. Play Hurns. Play him. And another thing, Jimmy Graham isn't going to be the monster he was in New Orleans. The Seahawks threw the ball 200 x's LESS than the Saints last year. Throwing the ball a ton isn't the Seahawks offense, which is unfortunate for Jimmy. The great thing here for Persia is that Gates is back (and yes, I think Gates will ROLL as well as the experts)!

With the win Rolling Gazelems improves to 2-0 against the other Rookies and will look to continue his winning ways as hosts Luchesse's Cousin next week. Persian Lives Matter will face off against myself and will be looking to break up my improbably win streak.

Let me break from the action for a minute. I know all of you are veraciously reading every word I write, so I hope this doesn't distract you from the rest of the column. I watched the MNF game between my Niners and the Giants. I had gone all in on the Giants manhandling my team. I had Vereen and Donell starting. Shoot, in another league I picked up the Giants DEF. Then the Niners took the lead in the fourth quarter and looked as if they might win. I on the other hand was losing to Christie at this point. I needed just a few more points. The Giants would utilize Vereen on short throws to get into the redzone. It was then I realized that my team was more than likely going to lose, but here I was hoping that Vareen or Donell would score so I could beat Christie... I was a very weird experience. Rooting for, even betting, that your team will lose. 

Mustache Salad v Quiddity of Luck
I do not want to play Mustache Salad (and I won't) as he has two of the hottest players in fantasy right now - Devonta Freeman and Denver's DEF. Freeman is averaging 34+ over the past three games and Denver's DEF having scored below 10 all year and are averaging 19.5 pts/game. Quiddity of Luck couldn't get his WRs to show up in this matchup, but the bright pickup for Luck is Barnidge, who went for 20+ this year, topping his performance from last week of 14+. Luck has missed his projected score the past two weeks.

Bayo'wolf v Luchesse's Cousin
So.... as Jesse played two players that had bye's, I'm going to take a bye here and not comment further on this game.... other than saying, abysmal.

Cobra Kai v All Day Some Days
Cobra made a big statement by blowing the doors off of All Day Some Days (formerly Tuesdays with Megatron - teams are now 2-1 in the first week after changing their name). This was truly uncharacteristic of Cobra who had huge games from his QB (33) WR2 (19), RBs (18 and 35) and TE (21). The mighty hamster, Doug Martin, backed up his performance last week and put up 333% more than his projected score. It was also nice to see that DeMarco Murray finally got involved in the offense in Philly. This was all after All Day Some Days beat his projected score by 15 pts (his second week in a row of beating his projected score by 15).

Kaeptivating v StraitOuttaGronkton
These two teams are a stark contrast from each other. Its like looking at a diamond against a black velvet backdrop. Kaep shines bright against the saggy Gronkton team. Gronkton is the second worst scoring team in the league, averaging 80.81 pts/game, has beaten his projected score just once, and has scored over 100 just once. This is going to be a rough year for Gronk...

However, Gronk doesn't need to look farther than his opponent of week five to see where he can go! The recent successes are new to Kaeptivating, who just matched his total wins last year with the win over Gronk this week and is now 8-13 since 2014.