8 weeks in the books! Some good stuff continues to go down every week, so lets hop in.
A New Team to Beat
There is a new king at the top of the standings: Sandy freakin' Nic.
Cam is truly just vibing with one QB and seemingly doesn't have a care in the world about it. It's been one of the biggest storylines of the season, and this week he finally climbs the Iron Throne and becomes the team to beat.
In my opinion, Matthew Golden is the biggest story on this team. He's the #7 WR on the season, and being the WR2 on a Packers offense that historically hasn't been particularly kind to WRs (at least for fantasy purposes) is a seriously legit breakout. I was curious whether the return of Josh Jacobs would slow him down at all, but nope, not even a little bit. In fact, Cam ALSO owns Josh Jacobs, who has been surprisingly good in his two weeks back. Hate the guy, but damn, he's good at running.
Cam is one of FIVE teams sitting at 6-2, but he has the highest PF of the bunch. Showing no signs of slowing down, Sandy Nic takes the #1 seed heading into Week 9 and is officially the team to beat.
He Scored HOW MANY?
Last week, I made a note that Rootin' for Tuten (Jacob) does not look like a tank after putting up 144 points and a W. Well… he must have heard me and gained some extra confidence, because he absolutely blew that number out of the water this week, scoring the most points in the league with 177!! and taking another win.
In fact, this matchup was between Jacob and another (former, apparently) tank in Nick, who scored 151 points - the most points in a loss this week. These two tanks must have found their missiles because (don't look now), they're BOTH sitting at 3-5 and looking to make a sneaky second half push for the postseason.
Jacob's namesake, Tuten, is officially breaking out. He scored 30 points on 159 yards and 2 TDs, solidifying himself as a potential league winner this year. This also made up for his other RB, TreVeyon Henderson, who didn't play and put up a fat donut.
There is one massive reason, though, why Jacob scored so many points this week. And that reason is…
A Tale of Two Halves… and Two QBs
Joe Burrow!
Phewwwww… 462 passing yards, 6 total TDs, and 44(!) fantasy points, which is now the league record for a single-player score.
I swear to God, one of you must have Joe Burrow's number and sent him a screenshot of me putting him on Fraud Watch during the first half of that game. Buddy threw 3 interceptions, all to the same guy… Amani Hooker was hungry for some meatball subs.
All he needed was the commissioner of BOC Dynasty to put him on Fraud Watch for him to realize the severity of the moment. (Ask Drake Maye - that's not a place you want to be around here.) But in the second half, he really turned it on and delivered one of the greatest QB performances we've seen in a very long time.
And to our good fortune (or bad fortune), this wasn't the only historically bizarre QB performance we saw this week! Baker Mayfield completed ZERO passes in the Buccaneers' win over the Falcons. Zero. He went 0/3. This is the first time since 1974 that an NFL team has won a game without completing a single pass.
It's hard to even be mad at Baker lol. He led his team to a win, which is the whole point of the game. There was even a big Kenny Gainwell run where Baker led the block and pancaked a dude. He's really just out there playing football, and you have to respect it.
I also love that Baker is on Vance's team. Vance is committed to the tank, and I'm convinced he sent Baker a message before the game telling him to shave off some fantasy points. Baker got his team the W and got Vance's team negative points. Pretty fucking epic!
(Still scored more than my team, though… gonna be hard to catch me.)
P.S. Michael Penix ALSO scored negative points this week… WTF??
Panicking at All?
In a brutal turn of events, Lamar Jackson has fractured his thumb and very well may be out for the season. This is a gut-punch situation for Conner's team, which was looking to stay afloat in the playoff race after making a big move for Colston Loveland this week. (Shoutout to the trade!)
Conner is going to have to take a page out of his brother's book and figure out how to win with only one starting QB playing. Hey, if Cam can do it, it's in Conner's blood to do it too.
After a loss this week, Conner falls to 4-4. BUT, if the playoffs started today, he'd still sneak into the wildcard spot thanks to his extremely high PF. Not ideal timing for the Lamar news, though!
Playoff Race Is Real
In just five short weeks, the playoff picture will be set and locked. I can't believe how fast the year is going by! These next few weeks are going to bring a lot of battles for playoff spots, and the standings are pretty fucking tight right now, to be honest.
Five teams are sitting at 6-2, so while I'm officially declaring Sandy the team to beat, nobody is significantly more dominant or a heavy favorite than the rest. Things get even more interesting in the middle of the standings, with a couple of teams at 5-3, a few at 3-5, and one at 4-4. There are SIX teams separated by basically a one- or two-week swing, which is pretty crazy.
Meanwhile, Sean, Vance, and I are holding it down at the caboose of the league, all sitting at 1-7. So don't even worry about us. We're doing just fine.
Now is the time to really lock in and make a push!
Quick Hits
Coleman now holds the longest active winning streak in the league after Fred's loss this week, sitting at 4 wins and counting. He wants a playoff spot!
On the contrary, Sean holds the longest active losing streak at 5 games. Tough times.
Our Weekly Challenge winner this week was Julian, who took home the $10 for having the highest-scoring WR in Tee Higgins. Shoutout Joe Burrow!
Fred had a rough week… Zay scored 0 points, DK had 0.9, and that led to Fred putting up only 106 points. He has also been eliminated from the Survivor competition. Ouch.
Vance and Sean are trying to catch me, but unfortunately for them, Jeremiyah Love just got put on IR, and Ashton Jeanty is being soft benched for talking shit…(seriously, are we in high school?) but either way- less points for me!
I feel like this recap was a bit shorter than usual… sorry, folks! Next week I will look to make an update to our league power rankings… should be interesting to see where everyone falls. Hope you all got out and participated in our democracy this week. Onto Week 9!
