Newsletter: Week 5

Hold the phone, we made it through a whole week without the commissioner posting an incorrect score. And we've made it through four weeks without any team having three wins. And, despite the commissioner being in last place, the site is still being updated with the same efficiency. Well, almost.

Last Week

Branden defeated Beau by default, as he only needed 34 points to do so, thanks to Beau leaving Santana Moss and his 24 points on the bench. However, a win is a win, and Branden remains undefeated by winning 46-33.

The matchup between the two winless teams ends up with a winner in a shootout. Bruce outlasts Chris on Monday night, thanks to Akers not getting many chances to kick his owner ahead. 67-58 is the final score, and Bruce launches into 4th place (by a half point!) over Beau. Chris remains in last but still edges closer to 5th place.

The big story is Randy, who has his third high score of the year in just four weeks, annihilating Dave 89-32, gaining 56 of his points from his quarterback, kicker, and defense. Dave loses for the first time this year. Despite the season being less than a third over, you have to believe that it will be nearly impossible for Randy to miss the playoffs at this point.

Useless Info

~I don't even need to look it up.  Randy has NEVER had three high scores in the same season.  And he has three in four weeks! Tip your cap.

~Randy's kickers have scored 18, 17, 12, 21.

~Mcnabb? 15, 14, 11, 24.

~After four weeks, Randy is already at 46% of his total number of points from last year. He's averaging 75.5 points per week, on pace to obliterate all records and score over 1,000 points.

~Check out the standings. There appears to be a higher correlation in the standings with total points scored than points allowed. Hopefully our new system continues to yield similar results.

This Week

Branden (3-0-1) vs. Dave (3-1)
Chris (0-3-1) vs. Randy (3-1)
Bruce (1-3) vs. Beau (1-3)

Branden, our last undefeated team, will face a tough opponent in Dave, also with three wins.  They've both lost argubaly their best receivers (despite Chad Johnson's performace so far), so they'll cancel each other out. Branden's team has consistently scored high all year, while Dave's had the bottom drop out last week. The league shall root for a Branden win, prompting Dave to make four or five trades.

Last place meets first place when Chris squares off against Randy, who only needs three players to win each week. Randy loses Rudi Johnson, but has other hot running backs to stick in to his spot. Can Wilkins and McNabb keep up their sick performances so far? Chris' team is bound to break out at some point, but it may not matter facing Superman.

Beau and Bruce battle for 4th place, and Beau is missing Shaun Alexander and half the rest of his team. He must go with a temporary quarterback, a temporary defense, and his second string running backs. Bruce has Delhomme as a reliable backup to Hasselbeck, but will he find a good replacement for Shayne Graham's consister performance?  Kickers are a dime a dozen, but who he picks may wind up being the dealbreaker this week.