Week 8 final scores
Tundra Icecaps 100.78 – 92.04 Philly Special
Everglade Squatches 169.66 – 136.38 Amazon Piranhas
Sahara Sandstorms 154.60 – 134.03 GalensWinningWinners
Wentz upon a Time 159.51 – 141.16 Fresh Prince of Helaire
Tropical Thunder 136.88 – 70.86 Prairie Dawgz
Intro
Welcome to week 9! Five weeks to go until the playoffs and the race for the top six playoff spots rages on. GWW was handed their first loss in over a month to the Sandstorms, while Philly Special continues to fall out of the mix for strongest team in the league.
On to the matchups!
GalensWinningWinners vs. Amazon Piranhas
GWW was handed a tough lost last week that snapped their winning streak at five games. If we’re being honest though, this team lost to Dalvin Cook and Dalvin Cook alone. GWW could not compensate for the 51 points scored by the Vikings running back. Still scoring over 130 points, they were hampered by starters AJ Green (2.40), Hunter Henry (3.80) and Matt Prater (3.00) who combined for less than 10 points. They finally look to get Christian McCaffrey back this week, which will fill the void left by Todd Gurley, who was dealt in a trade to the Dawgz earlier Tuesday afternoon. This team must be doing their research on defenses this season, as they have yet to start a defense scoring less than 16 points on the year, quite the impressive feat. Despite dropping to third overall in the standings, GWW is still a strong candidate to clinch a first-round bye in the coming weeks.
It keeps getting worse for the Piranhas. Once sitting at 3-1 now find themselves at 3-5 and needing to overhaul the roster. They dropped a crucial divisional matchup with the Squatches last week and are now eighth overall in the standings. Waiver wire pickup Rodrigo Blankenship scored a single point in the kicker position for the Piranhas, along with two points from Dallas Goedert. The trio of Philip Rivers, Tyreek Hill and the Steelers defense combined for over 74 points for this squad, with the rest of the starters totaling for less than 63 points. The Piranhas are looking to make trades though, but as of this press release, no trades have been completed.
Philly Special vs. Everglade Squatches
Also on a losing streak, Philly Special has dropped three straight games to move to 5-3 on the year. Losing Aaron Jones for the last two weeks has not helped, but neither has Ezekiel Elliot who has underachieved lately. Only scoring 92 points, they had six starters in single digits, with one scoring negative points (Tennessee defense -0.50). Clearly rattled by the three-game losing streak, Philly Special made a surprising and baffling move this week when they traded Derek Carr and Melvin Gordon to the Sandstorms to receive Sam Darnold and Philip Lindsay. The league and I certainly did not see the value of that trade, but let’s hope Philly Special does. Otherwise, they could find themselves on the wrong side of history, as no 5-0 team has ever missed the playoffs.
As the highest scorer last week, the Squatches came ready to go and put a beatdown on the Piranhas. Led by Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert, the two combined for over 78 points and the Squatches never looked back. Ryan Succop proved to be a great waiver wire addition this week, as the Tampa Bay kicker provided 16.80 points for the squad. Trouble lies ahead this week though, as an injury to Jonathan Taylor could put the team in a bind for running back. Have no fear, they added multiple running backs this week for a total of six backs on the roster. To paraphrase a quote from Ezra yesterday, “If I add all of these [bad] rbs together they should be able to combine into one good one.” We will see how that works out.
Tundra Icecaps vs. Prairie Dawgz
That’s one way to get a win. Barely eclipsing the triple digit mark the Icecaps won a low scoring affair against Philly Special 100.78-92.04. Just scoring over 100 really tells you all you need to know about the lineup for the Icecaps, with seven players scoring in single digits. They will take that win and move into first place in the standings with a record of 6-2. They get Kyler Murray back this week which should help out substantially after starting Teddy Bridgewater. They have also elected to keep kicker Randy Bullock on their team while he is on bye and will start Daniel Carlson in his place. This is only relevant because of Jack’s previous management of the kicker position which has been suspect. They have a strong chance of earning that first round bye.
Another embarrassing week for the Dawgz. Scoring less than 71 points, we can call this season a wrap for the Prairie Dawgz. The Dawgz had nine out of ten starters score 10.03 points or less for their grand total of 70.86 points. That doesn’t stop this team from wheeling and dealing, as they completed two trades this week alone to try to better this roster. At 2-6, this is yet another lost year for the franchise.
Sahara Sandstorms vs. Wentz upon a Time
Remember the spread last week? Well the Sandstorms covered in a major way. This was the Dalvin Cook show. Scoring 51.10 points, all his other starters had to do was exist and the Sandstorms would come out a winner. That’s exactly what happened as the Sandstorms moved to 5-3 on the year. Also contributing in a major way was the Eagles defense who scored 32 points. With those two starters aside (83 points), the rest of this roster assembled just about 70 points across eight players. While this sentiment seems to echo with this team every week, the Sandstorms keep earning wins. Good teams find a way to win, and the Sandstorms are doing just that.
Wentz upon a Time won last week taking down Fresh Prince to move to 6-2. Led by Russell Wilson (39.04) and DK Metcalf (31.10), they scored over 159 points. They are accomplishing this without their first-round selection Michael Thomas as he has battled injury and has not played since week 1. In addition, second round pick Miles Sanders has also been out the past two weeks. When you look up and down this roster, it is hard to point out a weakness which makes this team another extremely strong contender for the first-round bye. Arguably, DK Metcalf is the steal of the draft, when Wentz drafted Metcalf in the sixth round. Impressive.
Fresh Prince of Helaire vs. Tropical Thunder
At this point in the season Fresh is playing for pride. They put up a solid effort last week but fell short to Wentz upon a Time. Aaron Rodgers (31.14), DaVante Adams (24.80), and Corey Davis (21.80) were the top three performers on the roster. They will definitely lean on Aaron Rodgers and DaVante Adams once again this week in what is a bad season. Looking ahead to this week, Carson Wentz is on a bye, and Fresh will be forced to start Jake Luton at quarterback. I would not want to be Fresh Prince of Helaire right now.
At 4-4, Tropical Thunder keeps hanging around. Scoring 136.88 points, the Thunder got a balanced attack last week, with seven starters scoring in double digits. They got strong performances from Julio Jones (17.20), Josh Jacobs (17.80) and waiver wire pickup Jamaal Williams (14.20) to beat the Dawgz. They found out late yesterday afternoon that they will be without Myles Gaskin for at least three weeks, which further muddies the running back room for the Thunder. The Thunder did make a trade this week with the Dawgz, when they traded away Mike Evans and received Terry McLaurin. We will see if that works out for the Thunder going forward.
Closing Thoughts
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