Thursday, September 29, 2016

A Football Life, Week 3

At this point, there’s not much use in discussing scoring comparisons. The three highest scoring weeks in league history are this season’s first three weeks. It will be more newsworthy when we have a week that falls outside of the top 15.

Eric Meyer continued his early season tear and improved to 3-0 on the season. His is the only team that has scored at least 120 points each of the first three weeks. His victim this week was Anthony Battle, who fell to 0-3 despite having the fourth most points in the league to date. He has undoubtedly been the most unlucky league member. He has faced either the highest or second-highest scoring team every week so far.

Andrew Perez is the only other undefeated team remaining. His team doesn’t have a lot of names you associate with a championship-caliber fantasy lineup, but DeMarco Murray is the top running back in fantasy so far this season and Le’Veon Bell returns to action this week. If Coby Fleener’s last performance is a sign of an increased comfort and familiarity with the Saints offense, Perez will be a tough matchup all season.

With Meyer at the top of the AFL Central and Perez at the top of the AFL West, William Massimini leads the standings in the AFL East. Massimini had a great first two weeks, but his third game was a bit of a disappointment. His three starting running backs averaged nearly 25 points apiece but his three pass catchers averaged only 2.3 points each. With a sub-par performance from Cam Newton and only 10 points from his off-position starters, there wasn’t much Massimini could have done. Still, he holds the lead in his division and nobody else in the East looks poised for a run of any kind.

The top scoring team last week was Adam Perez, whose team posted 145.2 points, led by 35.5 points from Lions wide receiver Marvin Jones. That score gave Adam his first win of the season, and vaulted him from 12th to 6th in the weekly power rankings. Despite the big week, I’m not predicting a winning streak for Adam’s team.

Eric Meyer led the league with four top five positional scorers, notching one at every position.

Check out the review of Week 3 below (team names have been changed to the names of their owners):

Standings:
AFL East
Record
GB
AFL West
Record
GB
William Massimini
2-1
--
Andrew Perez
3-0
--
Adam Perez
1-2
1
Brandon Saunders
2-1
1
Cory Puffett
1-2
1
William Battle
2-1
1
Nolan Soter
0-3
2
Sean Kennedy
0-3
3
AFL Central
Record
GB

Eric Meyer
3-0
--

Danny Hatcher
2-1
1

Evan Ash
2-1
1

Anthony Battle
0-3
3


Schedule:
Away
Score
Home
Score
Danny Hatcher (DH)
139.7
Evan Ash (EA)
79.4
Eric Meyer (EM)
140.2
Anthony Battle (AB)
124.6
Sean Kennedy (SK)
95.7
Brandon Saunders (BS)
104.5
Andrew Perez (AP1)
116.6
William Battle (WB)
112.9
Cory Puffett (CP)
139.6
William Massimini (WM)
106.1
Nolan Soter (NS)
86.1
Adam Perez (AP2)
145.2

Scoring Leaders (Must be starting on a team to qualify):
QB
Pts
HB
Pts
1. Matthew Stafford, CP
28.2
1. Devonta Freeman, WM
30.6
2. Drew Brees, SK
27.9
2. Carlos Hyde, WB
27.1
3. Aaron Rodgers, EM
27.5
3. LeSean McCoy, WM
26.8
4. Matt Ryan, DH
21.4
4. David Johnson, EM
26.5
5. Kirk Cousins, AP2
20.3
5. DeMarco Murray, AP1
25.6
WR
Pts
TE
Pts
1. Marvin Jones, AP2
35.5
1. Coby Fleener, AP1
20.4
2. T.Y. Hilton, DH
27.4
2. Travis Kelce, EM
17.9
3. Doug Baldwin, BS
26.1
3. Gary Barnidge, DH
11.1
4. Jordy Nelson, CP
25.1
4. Jack Doyle, AP2
9.5
5. Mike Evans, EM
24.2
5. Greg Olsen, BS
9.4

Game of the Week: Andrew Perez at William Battle


What better than the closest game to be the game of the week? With even quarterback production, strong wide receiver play for Andrew Perez and strong running back play for William Battle, the difference was the slight advantage at defense and kicker for Perez.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

A Football Life, Week 2

To give you an idea of just how different scoring expectations are in our league this year, our twelve teams averaged nine fewer points per game than they did last week and this was still the second-highest scoring week in league history.

William Massimini led the way with 140.3 points, his second week in the top quarter of the league in scoring. He won the game of the week against Brandon Saunders, the top scorer from week 1, and earned the top spot in the week’s power rankings. Massimini had a top five scorer at each offensive position and the connection between Cam Newton and Kelvin Benjamin looks like a winning one so far.

Andrew Perez and Eric Meyer rounded out the top three in scoring for week 2. DeAngelo Williams has been holding down the fort and then some in Le’Veon Bell’s absence for Perez. And for Meyer, Matt Forte has been a bellcow and all of his wide receivers have found the end zone at least once.

Massimini holds a firm lead in the AFL East, two games ahead of his three competitors. At least one of them will finally enter the win column this week as Nolan Soter and Adam Perez face off. Massimini will look to fend off 2015 champion Cory Puffett as Puffett tries to get his first victory of the year and avoid a costly 0-3 start.

The 2015 runner-up is having much better fortune. William Battle shares the AFL West lead with Andrew Perez, both teams sitting at 2-0. They will face off in the week 3 Game of the Week for a 3-0 start and early-season bragging rights. Saunders is at .500 while Sean Kennedy, in his return from a one-year hiatus, is searching for his first win. Kennedy has been right at 112 points in each of his first two contests.

The AFL Central looks a lot like the west with two undefeated teams, one winless team, and one team in the middle. Eric Meyer, last year’s regular season champion, shared the division lead with Evan Ash. Meyer will be going up against winless Anthony Battle who has struggled to find a foothold in the three years of our new league format. Ash will look to hold off two-time AFL champion Danny Hatcher who has some good pieces who have underperformed so far this year.

Check out the review of Week 2 below (team names have been changed to the names of their owners):

Standings:
AFL East
Record
GB
AFC West
Record
GB
William Massimini
2-0
--
Andrew Perez
2-0
--
Nolan Soter
0-2
2
William Battle
2-0
--
Adam Perez
0-2
2
Brandon Saunders
1-1
1
Cory Puffett
0-2
2
Sean Kennedy
0-2
2
AFL Central
Record
GB

Eric Meyer
2-0
--

Evan Ash
2-0
--

Danny Hatcher
1-1
1

Anthony Battle
0-2
2


Schedule:
Away
Score
Home
Score
Adam Perez (AP2)
116.4
Eric Meyer (EM)
124.2
William Battle (WB)
122.9
Nolan Soter (NS)
85.9
Sean Kennedy (SK)
112.3
Evan Ash (EA)
113.5
Andrew Perez (AP1)
131.8
Anthony Battle (AB)
113.6
Brandon Saunders (BS)
97.3
William Massimini (WM)
140.3
Cory Puffett (CP)
92.5
Danny Hatcher (DH)
95.0

Scoring Leaders (Must be starting on a team to qualify):
QB
Pts
HB
Pts
1. Cam Newton, WM
31.1
1. Matt Forte, EM
32.9
2. Derek Carr, AP1
27.3
2. DeAngelo Williams, AP1
24.4
3. Carson Palmer, DH
24.7
3. Melvin Gordon, WM
21.9
4. Blake Bortles, CP
19.9
4. LeGarrette Blount, AP2
21.2
5. Ben Roethlisberger, BS
19.8
5. Latavius Murray, DH
19.9
WR
Pts
TE
Pts
1. Stefon Diggs, SK
28.7
1. Greg Olsen, BS
20.7
2. Kelvin Benjamin, WM
26.3
2. Delanie Walker, DN
17.3
3. Eric Decker, AP2
21.6
3. Dennis Pitta, EA
14.7
4. DeAndre Hopkins, DH
20.8
4. Jordan Reed, AB
9.5
5. Julio Jones, EA
19.1
5. Julius Thomas, WM
9.1

Game of the Week: Brandon Saunders at William Massimini


After Saunders led the league in scoring during Week 1, he found himself on the opposite end of the highest score in Week 2. Massimini hung 140.3 points on him to lead the league in scoring and clinch their first ever 2-0 start.