Month: October 2022

Welcome back everyone. As you smart folks can guess from the title, in this blog post I’m going to be going over how my fantasy football team did in Weeks 6 and 7. So without further ado, let’s jump right into it.

First, a quick recap from my last post. After a statement win in Week 5, my record had improved to a solid 3-2. I was on a two game winning streak and my players had all been performing very well, so I was feeling nice and confident going into Week 6. 

Hoping to keep my win streak alive, I was facing Jeff Prakash and his team the Chicken Lit Chickens in Week 6. Jeff’s team had been struggling a bit for the past couple of weeks and I was projected to come away with a victory on paper, but I knew that ESPN’s projections are oftentimes a bit off the mark, to say it kindly. 

It started off well enough, though. Jeff had Commanders receiver Curtis Samuel playing on Thursday night, and he busted hard, scoring only 2.2 points. However, nothing could have prepared me for the chaos that was to ensue next in this matchup.

It started with the early 12:00 games on Sunday. I had Justin Jefferson playing against Miami, and I was hoping that he would be able to have a monster game against their so-far suspect secondary. He only turned in an average performance however, at least by his standards, scoring 16.7 points. But I wasn’t sweating it too much yet, as I figured that the rest of my team would be able to make up for it. 

And that’s when I looked at the score of the other 12:00 game. The Colts vs. the Jaguars. Now, I didn’t actually have any players in my lineup playing in this game because I benched Etienne for the week in favor of Cardinals RB Eno Benjamin, but I did start Jacksonville’s defense. They were supposed to do well in this matchup, as they had been a solid fantasy defense to start the year and the Colts had been struggling to score the ball. You should be able to tell by that lovely foreshadowing that this was not going to be the case.

I watched in a mix of absolute horror and shock as the Colts offense ripped the Jaguars defense to shreds. By the fourth quarter, the Colts had already scored 26 points. Then, to add insult to injury, Colts QB Matt Ryan threw a bomb down the field in the final seconds for the game-winning touchdown. The Colts beat the Jags 34-27, their highest point total of the entire season, and the Jaguars defense finished with an abysmal -4 fantasy points. To make matters even worse, Jeff had the Colts #1 receiver Michael Pittman Jr. on his team, and he finished the game with 13 catches and 26.4 fantasy points.

So after that, the tables had turned, but I wasn’t out of it by any means. The Chiefs and the Bills were playing at 3:25 in America’s Game of the Week, and I knew I could count on Travis Kelce for a big performance. The only problem was that Jeff’s team featured the Bills top receiver Stefon Diggs, as well as the Bills top running back Devin Singletary, who I had actually traded to him. I was not feeling good about that combination.

I watched this game live, and every time that Buffalo had the ball, I prayed that Josh Allen did not throw it to Stefon Diggs. Clearly though, God did not hear my prayers. Diggs caught pass after pass after painful pass, and finished the game with a ridiculous 30.8 points.

However, after all that, I still somehow had a small chance to win the week, and it all came down to the Monday night game, where the Broncos played the Chargers. Jeff had the Broncos defense and I had Chargers receiver Mike Williams. If Mike had a big game, then there was a good chance that the Broncos defense would be bad as well. But unfortunately, Mike Will had one of his worst games of the season, only seeing six targets. The Chargers did win, but as you could probably guess from a game featuring the Broncos, it was a low-scoring affair. I ended up losing to Jeff 104.7 to 120.88, and all respect to him.

After a rollercoaster ride of a Week 6, I headed into Week 7 needing to bounce back. The only problem was that three of my four best players, namely Justin Jefferson, Jalen Hurts, and A.J. Brown, all had a Week 7 bye. If a player has a bye in football, it means that their team is not playing that week for rest purposes implemented into the NFL schedule. So, it was going to be an uphill battle. Looking to get back in the win column, my Week 7 opponent was Aidan Donnelly. His team is stacked at running back, having all of Nick Chubb, Joe Mixon, Ezekiel Elliot, and Breece Hall, who is now unfortunately out for the remainder of the season. I knew that I would need to make some moves to have a chance. 

First, I needed to find a wide receiver that could fill in for Justin Jefferson, and the answer was already on my bench. Prior to Week 5, I had picked up the Colts rookie WR Alec Pierce from the waiver wire, and he had been putting up solid numbers over that time span. While he certainly would be no Justin Jefferson, he would be good enough. I then turned my sights towards finding a quarterback to step in for Hurts. Since the Colts offense had just scorched my beloved Jacksonville defense the week prior, I figured it would be a good idea to pick up their quarterback, Matt Ryan. He also would form a nice stack with Alec Pierce, as they both played in the same offense. With my stand-in QB and receiver situation addressed, I just needed to fill my FLEX spot on my roster, so I slotted in trusty Cowboys RB Tony Pollard. 

With my lineup set to go, it was time to square off against Aidan. And thankfully, this week went a lot smoother than the last. Despite Matt Ryan and Alec Pierce not playing particularly well and the Jaguars defense giving me negative points for the second week in a row, I was able to get past Aidan. I was aided by a bounceback game from Mike Will, a breakout performance from Travis Etienne Jr., and a huge 28.8 point outing from my new favorite rookie Kenneth Walker III. I won with a final score of 118.62 to 107.14.

With my overall record now sitting at 4-3, and my hole at running back seemingly filled, I am excited for the rest of the fantasy season, and hopefully finding myself in the playoffs.

Since my last blog post, there have been three more weeks of fantasy football action, and I’m here to tell you all about how my team has been performing.

As you may recall from my previous post, I was going into Week 3 with a record of 1-1. My Week 3 opponent was none other than Vishal Yelamanchili, and if you saw his comment on my last post then you know that I ended up losing to him. It was a close contest, but the final score was 107.1 to 117.8 in Vish’s favor. This loss was due to a variety of factors, but the most glaring one was an ugly 4.4 point game from Justin Jefferson. His statline of 3 catches for 14 yards was atrocious by his standards, especially playing against the Lions of all teams, and it was painful to see. Jerry Jeudy also had a poor outing, scoring just 3.7 points on 2 catches for 17 yards, but this was much more excusable in my opinion. Jeudy was dealing with a rib injury that he had picked up in the Week 2 game, and he was also dealing with the god-awful quarterback play from Russell Wilson. So it was probably a questionable call on my part to put him into my starting lineup, especially when I had waiver-wire stud Greg Dortch go off for 17 points on my bench, but hindsight is always 20-20 I guess. 

The rest of my roster all played well, with the exception of my newly acquired kicker Tyler Bass, but some volatility is expected at the kicker position from week to week. Prior to my Week 3 matchup, I traded Bills RB Devin Singletary and Nyheim Hines for Travis Etienne of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Etienne was a player that had severely underperformed so far in the season with respect to the lofty expectations placed on him, but I figured I’d take a shot on his upside since I didn’t have much to lose at the RB position anyway. He and my other running back Tony Pollard both had solid games, but it ultimately wasn’t enough to beat Vishal’s team, as he was aided by a 28 point explosion from Hollywood Brown. 

Going into Week 4 with my record of 1-2, I determined that I needed to try and make another trade. I was looking specifically to find a more reliable WR3 than Jerry Jeudy, as the Broncos offense had looked like hot garbage through three weeks and I didn’t trust Russell Wilson to be able to get him the ball consistently. I identified my trade target as Chargers receiver Mike Williams, who was coming off a down performance in Week 3 that saw him haul in only one catch. I swung a deal for him and Seattle rookie RB Kenneth Walker III in exchange for Jeudy, Chase Claypool, and Mark Ingram II off my bench, who I threw in because the manager who I was trading with had the injured Saints star Alvin Kamara on his team. While it pained me to trade away Jeudy, with Mike Williams I felt that I had acquired a WR that I could feel more safe about playing, and who also had the potential to have a few incredible games with Keenan Allen sidelined by injury. Getting Kenneth Walker in the deal I thought was also a nice addition, but as you’ll see later he would prove to be much more than that. 

In Week 4, I was matched up against Jacob Pandya, who had a 2-1 record and a really good all-around team featuring Kyler Murray and Dalvin Cook. But I was confident going into the matchup that my team could secure the win. It started with a huge bounce-back game from Justin Jefferson, as he dominated the Saints in London scoring 31 points. Helping my cause further was Dalvin Cook having a lackluster performance in that same game, putting up a modest 10.6 points. I got a bit scared when Pollard and Etienne both gave me next to nothing in terms of points scored, but it ended up being ok because Jacob’s two receivers, Amari Cooper and Diontae Johnson, ironically both gave him next to nothing as well. A good game from new addition Mike Williams and the ever-reliable Travis Kelce secured my team the win 125.66 to 106.18, and brought my overall season record to 2-2.

Week 5 I played my friend Tarik Bennouna, who went into the week with a record of 3-1 but also some injuries on his team to key players like Cordarrelle Patterson and D’Andre Swift. I had some momentum from last week, and was looking to see if I could get another win. A lot of my top players performed really well in this one. Jefferson had another game where he scored above 30 points, and Jalen Hurts and Mike Williams again had great performances as well. The cherry on top was Travis Kelce having a monster game against the Raiders in which he scored 4 touchdowns, cementing the victory in style. I won the week 152.98 to 102.06, though it would have been a bit closer had Tarik started Gabe Davis instead of Christian Kirk. 

With an overall record now of 3-2, my team seems to be trending in the right direction. Some of the players on my roster have begun to show flashes of their upside as well. Etienne, who started the season in a backup role to James Robinson, has begun to split carries out of the backfield more evenly and has demonstrated the dynamic running and pass-catching skill set that had him being drafted so highly at the start of the fantasy season. And Kenneth Walker III could now be thrust into a much bigger role in his respective offense with Rashaad Penny’s heartbreaking season-ending leg injury. I am excited for my team going forward and hope to keep my win streak alive in Week 6.