The first thing that came to my mind when thinking about this week was the famous song lyric from John Lennon: "Nobody told me there'd be days like these. Strange days indeed."
Right off the bat was the fact that several of the top teams in the NFL lost this week in shocking fashion. The Raiders fell to the Giants, the Cowboys lost to Denver, Atlanta beat the Saints, and the Rams lost to a Henry-less Titans team. But the biggest upset of the week was the Bills loss to the hapless Jaguars.
Those losses probably ruined a lot of eliminator pools, just like they stirred things up in our Pigskin Pick'Em contest. More about that in a bit.
If you recall from my post last week, week 8 was the lowest scoring week in our league this season, and the lowest in quite some time. The combined scoring for the league was a miserable 1147 points. It was one of the worst that I've ever seen.
Until this week.
This week, the total scoring for the league was 1064 points. I'll save you the trouble if you don't have a calculator handy; that's an average team score of just 88.7 points. You really outdid yourselves. If you continue to lower the bar, eventually, you'll be able to just walk right over it.
One of the matchups that surprised me, and not in a good way, was the contest between Baby Got Dak and Golden Tate Warriors. It didn't surprise me that Dak won. No. It was the final score that was the real shocker.
In a contest between two 1st place teams fighting off their division rivals, the best they could muster was a lousy 134 points?!? Baby Got Dak won the game with only 68 points and it would be normal to assume that they beat the only team that scored fewer points than them.
Nope. Dak's 68 points wasn't the 2nd worst or the 3rd worst score of the week - it was the 4th worst. Three teams scored fewer than 68 points.
Another oddity from this week was the game between the Thundabuddies and Chief Sticky Balls. Heading into the matchup, the Thundabuddies were 18-point favorites, but finished the day with 96 points and a loss. And do you know what they lost by? No, it wasn't 18...they lost by 19. Maybe you find that strange, maybe I'm just getting my word count up to please my editor.
"If [Chief Sticky Balls]...can hold the Thundabuddies to less than 100 points...they may have a shot at the upset."- Commish's Picks
Less shocking is the fact that Los Perros Locos lost...again. Here's a pro-tip, Perros: don't leave the player that scores 39 points on your bench.
Among some of the pleasant surprises from this week, I was happy to see NH Bounty Hunters awake from their slumber to score 141 points. I've probably mentioned before, but the Hunters were on a 3-game losing streak and averaging only 92.3 pts/gm in those games. So, it's impressive that they were able to increase their output by almost 50 points and defeat their opponent by 76.
And while we're on the topic of extraordinary performances, I'd be remiss if I didn't highlight the Pork Chop Express. This team is firing on all cylinders right now.
The Chops defeated Do Not Panic, 108-57, this week to capture their 5th straight victory and a share of 1st place in the Cactus division. For those of you keeping score at home, they've gone 5-0 while averaging 126.2 pts/gm since beginning the season 1-3 with an average of only 93.5 pts/gm.
Now, of course, it's time for me to discuss the most bizarre thing about week 9 - the thing that legends are made of: Badazz Bri won their 2nd game in a row.
Yes, they really did and no, I can't explain it either. It's that strange.
Just look at the starting lineups for Who Is You and Badazz Bri in this game and you'll understand what I mean. Who Is You featured players like Mahomes, Ekeler, Lamb, and A.J. Brown while Bri's lineup included Michael Carter, Kenyan Drake, Rondale Moore, and Van Jefferson - players so unfamiliar that I have to include their first names or some people are confused who I'm talking about.
Digging a little deeper, I discovered that Bri has averaged 96.5 pts/gm when they lose compared to 84.3 pts/gm when they win. The actually score more than 12 fewer points per game when they win. How do you explain that?
Defense, that's how. In the games that Bri has lost, opponents have averaged 129.7 pts/gm. Clearly there's some work to be done there. However, in the games that Badazz Bri has won, they've held opposing teams to just 69.3 pts/gm.
Strange indeed.
DEFEAT THE COMMISH
I've created a survey to get your feedback regarding this contest. As you go through the survey and answer the questions, please also take the time to add some additional comments so I have more than just yes/no feedback to work with.
When you get to the section that outlines some potential ideas for next season, please understand that I'm not asking for your support for them right now. I'm just trying to get a feel for which ideas might be worth pursuing further and which ones need to hit the cutting room floor.
SURVIVOR CHALLENGE
And then there were three. With the low score of 66 points this week, the Golden Tate Warriors were eliminated from the Survivor Challenge leaving us with Pork Chop Express, Who Is You, and Jergoff Passout.
PIGSKIN PICK'EM
In the opening of this post, I mentioned five NFL games that shocked a number of people this week: Raiders/Giants, Cowboys/Broncos, Falcons/Saints, Rams/Titans, and Bills/Jaguars. Among those five games, the league could've finished with a maximum of 60 correct picks, assuming every one of you picked all five correctly.
But, that didn't happen. Not by a long shot.
Collectively, you all finished with a 13.3% accuracy score in picking those contests. Out of a possible 60 correct picks, you finished with 8.
The result was a shake up of the standings in our Pick'Em contest. Who Is You was able to jump into a tie for 1st place with Christian McMingle. Badazz Bri fell to 3rd place, although it's essentially no change since they're only one game back, while Los Perros Locos tumbled three spots to 5th place. And, lastly, Pork Chop Express has jumped into the fray, moving up one spot in the rankings to 4th place and only three games off the leaders.
COMMISH'S PICKS
I don't really want to talk about it. Suffice it to say that it would be difficult to do any worse this week.
Good luck in week 10!
-- Commish
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