NBD - Week 4 Review B

I just walked clear across the isle of Manhattan to get home from work, and it's an absolutely beautiful day in the city of New York. I hope Uncle Autumn is treating all your various locales as kindly. Let's finish up the Week 4 games:

Finga Sniffs (96) defeat Woody's Warriors (70)
Heading into Week 4, neither of these teams had been particularly impressive, and coming out of Week 4... neither of these teams has been particularly impressive. The Finga Sniffs 96 looks pretty solid, but further investigation reveals that 28 of those points came from the San Diego defense. Not that defensive points count any less than offensive points in terms of wins and losses, but the Chargers won't get to play the dynamic duo of Derek Anderson and Max Hall every week, so we can't quite start calling Manning's team a powerhouse after their first win here. That we can't is kind of surprising, though, because this team looks really great on paper. The Finga Sniffs boast the top-drafted running back and probably the best waiver wire back of the young season, but only the free agent (Peyton Hillis, 17) showed up this week. Matt Schaub (16) has had some good weeks and some bad, but his virtual receiving targets (Greg Jennings and Marques Colston) have failed to live up to their billing. If this team lives up to its potential, it could be great, but at 1-3, they're going to have to do so soon. Across the line of scrimmage, Woody's RB tandem had their first big day of the season (MJD, 24; Jonathan Stewart, 14), but their efforts were negated by the absolutely atrocious Sunday night had by Jay Cutler (-1). Watching Cutler get eaten by the Giants' D, I had to wonder if they're watching enough game film there in Chicago. And I'm not talking about Giants game film either. Cutler (and Martz) look like they're completely unaware that their offensive line is terrible. Martz is calling 7-step drops, Cutler is acting like he's got all the time in the world, and meanwhile defensive linemen and linebackers are teeing off on him. It looks like Cutler will be sitting this week to rest his sore concussion, which is bad news for Woody, who has no other QB on the roster and has yet to grab one via the waiver wire, but good news for those of us who ache for one more Sunday of glory out of Big Red Todd Collins.

Matt Ryan Loves Dogs (89) defeats Cutler Crushes Cavallari (69)
Speaking of that Sunday night drubbing, Koehler was the beneficiary of the Giants' destruction of the Bears' offense, with a game-best 23-point performance out of the NYG DEF. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised it wasn't more than that. That was pretty much the only outstanding outing in this lackluster match-up, and the 17-point differential in defensive scoring (Haller's Saints had 6) pretty much accounts for the margin of victory. Otherwise, Haller had a humdrum performance by Brees (15) in his first game since leaving the McClusterfuck and a solid day by LeSean McCoy (15) after Kevin Kolb came in and decided that McCoy was the only other player on offense allowed to touch the ball, but before Shady got injured. In similar fashion, MRLD's Darren McFadden (13) was en route to a big day before being sidelined with a hamstring injury, and Donald Driver (16) had his first double-digit day of the year. Otherwise, not a lot going on here besides that New York D.

McClusterfuck (76) defeats Sex with a Pharaoh (50)
Every year, in every fantasy league, it seems there is a team that scores a ton of points but always comes up against stiff competition and loses a bunch of games. And there's also usually a team that can't score for shit but squeaks into the playoffs via a handful of ugly wins. Despite having played in several leagues a year for nearly ten years now, I can't really ever recall fitting into either of those categories. This season is probably too young for us to declare anyone a member of either category, but the McClusterfuck is definitely trending towards the latter. I don't know whether it's payback from the fantasy gods for the many years of slavish devotion to fantasy, karma for the difficult year I've had, or simple luck at being scheduled against a bunch of shitters early, but somehow this awful assemblage of players is 3-1, despite having weeks of 66, 68, and 76 points. Colly provided me with my weakest opponents yet in Week 5. It certainly didn't help that Miles Austin, Jason Witten, and Adrian Peterson were all on Byes, but even the players that could have been expected to shoulder their load seemed to be taking the week off. The Skins' dismantling of Mike Vick (4) must have been bittersweet for Cletus, and it also led to a piss-poor day for DeSean Jackson (2), who appeared invisible to Kevin Kolb on several plays late in the game when he was absolutely wide open. (Also: when I see Kevin Kolb, I get a little bit of Hurt Locker and The Town's Jeremy Renner. Anyone else feeling that?) Leading scorer for the SWAPpers this week was Braylon Edwards (15), while mine was Zach Miller (18), and that's usually a sentence that's followed by something like "but we're in a 20-person league." No such excuses for my ol' roomie and me, just a shitty, shitty week. I'll take the W, though.


That's it for the Week 4 match-ups. I'd like to note that between yesterday's post and today's, Derek changed his team name to Laters on the Menjay, a change I whole-heartedly endorse. That said, though, I wanted to point out that while "I Love You, Man" is an excellent film, the under-rated "Role Models" is actually far better. The only logical conclusion? Sean William Scott > Jason Segel. Hard to believe, but true. For further evidence, see the surprisingly good "The Rundown," featuring Scott, the Rock, and Rosario Dawson.