We’re getting right back to it. In this blog post, I’m going to be recounting how my fantasy team performed in Weeks 8 and 9 of the NFL season.
Starting where my last post finished, my record was 4-3 after Week 7, and I was coming off a win against Aidan. With the regular season now halfway over, I felt that I now had a pretty good understanding of my team and what I needed to do to hopefully have a shot at the playoffs.
And for Week 8, the first order of business was figuring out how to handle the bye weeks of the Chiefs and the Chargers. The Chiefs bye meant that I would be missing Travis Kelce for my matchup against Parthiv and his team Team Manchella. This had the potential to be a tough battle as well, with Parthiv’s team spearheaded by Josh Allen, who had been the top fantasy quarterback on the season so far. I would also be without Mike Williams, as the Chargers WR had unfortunately suffered a high ankle sprain in his team’s last game that would likely keep him out for 4-6 weeks. Another major blow to my team considering that Mike Will had been an integral part in many of my previous victories.
I put Tony Pollard in at my FLEX spot again to join Etienne and Kenneth Walker III, and then I looked to the waiver wire for a replacement for Kelce. I saw that another team in my league had recently dropped Dolphins TE Mike Gesicki, so I picked him up to stand in for my star tight end. While he had by no means been all that great on the season, I figured he was serviceable enough. Gesicki had had a couple of solid performances in the past and I also liked the way he hit the griddy, so that was all I needed to take a shot at starting him for the week.
But really, surprisingly, none of these moves ended up mattering all that much in the grand scheme of things, because my entire team went absolutely nuclear in Week 8. With Ezekiel Elliott out, Tony Pollard rushed for a hat trick of 3 touchdowns and an insane 33.7 fantasy points. Etienne continued his hot streak by scoring another touchdown and 25.2 fantasy points. Jalen Hurts threw for 4 touchdowns and had 28.4 points. Jefferson had 15.8, Walker had 12.2, and my kicker Tyler Bass had 10.0. Even Gesicki got in on the action, scoring 12.8 points and a touchdown of his own. And the Jaguars defense actually didn’t suck, as they managed a respectable 5.0 points. But not to be outdone by anyone, A.J. Brown had a monster 6-156-3 statline, giving him 39.6 fantasy points and making him the overall WR1 for the week.
Adding up all the scores, my team finished with a ridiculous total of 182.7 points on the week, by far my highest total of the season. With an uncharacteristically bad game from Josh Allen, Parthiv’s team only managed 76.76 points, so I walked away with another W.
I was feeling good coming off of a win, but my opponent in Week 9 would be maybe my toughest yet. I was facing off against none other than my good friend Anton Frantisak and his stacked 8-0 squad. This was going to be a real test.
The Cowboys bye week meant that I would be without Tony Pollard and he would be without Dalton Schultz. I started off with an early lead in points, as the Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown both had solid performances against the Texans on Thursday night. As the early 12:00 games started on Sunday, I was hoping for a big game out of Justin Jefferson, and he immediately delivered, catching 4 passes on the Vikings’ opening drive of the game and scoring a touchdown as well. But in the other 12:00 game, Anton’s own star receiver Davante Adams was torching the Jacksonville Jaguars. Luckily I had chosen to start the Chiefs defense over the Jaguars this week, or otherwise I would have been in even more trouble. Adams had 2 touchdown receptions and had scored over 30 fantasy points by halftime. He would finish the game with 60 points if he kept up that pace. It was not looking good.
But in the second half of that game, the Jaguars rallied back against the Raiders. They held Davante Adams to only one more catch the entire game, and equally as importantly, Travis Etienne scored 2 touchdowns to put me back in the lead. Jefferson continued his great game and finished with 25.5 points,and Falcons rookie RB Tyler Allgeier, who I had started in place of Pollard, had a nice outing rushing against the Chargers. Kelce and Kenneth Walker III both had exceptional games as well, and with uncharacteristically bad games from Anton’s duo of Justin Herbert and Leonard Fournette, it was looking like the win was all but secured. I just needed Alvin Kamara not to score 50 points when the Saints played on Monday night, and fortunately, that did not happen. I managed to end Anton’s undefeated record and come out with a win 161.82 to 119.7.
After Weeks 8 and 9, I was sitting in a five-way tie for the top of my division with Vishal, Ian, Jacob, and Lex. With the jaw-dropping point totals my team had been putting up recently, I am excited to see what is to come.