A Thursday recap? Is this a gift from the benevelont commissioner, or has he been slacking delaying it this long? Listen people sometimes your boy get busy, and when a certain founding member of the league drags us to a certain city in Texas for the weekend, the fatigue really puts a strain on the creative juices. Still, was a blast to see everyone and I got some good juicy content for the website, I'll have to creatively yet tastefully integrate some of the material.

Speaking of the website, I've included the standings on the home page now, first thing you see. You'll see the standings, the Power Couples rankings, and eventually the current week's matchups like are shown on the newsletter each week. Just another one of my endless gifts to you all, my flock.

Recaps

Nathan 110-72 - 108.1 Jake

Fucking bitch ass fucking Travis Etienne couldn't even break 10 points in a game they WON. I guess some of the blame lies on me, benching Rachaad White in what will likely be the only game he performs well in this season, but damn Trav you couldn't just do a little tiny bit more for me?? Jake and Nathan continue a trend of playing very close games, in their last 7 matchups 5 have been determined by less than 3 points. The win is not only huge for Nathan, who scrapes out a 1-1 record on the week to keep up with the middle of the standings pack, but also gives the Ryan-Nathan coupling a much needed win to avoid going 0-4 against Jake-Tyler. Otherwise, this game was wholly unimpressive outside of a couple of good performances from QBs.

John Luke 129.3 - 103.34 Ryan

Wow, MASSIVE win for John Luke here early in the season. At #10 and looking bleak, he went a clutch 2-0 against then-#3 Ryan thanks to yet another huge outing from Jonathan Taylor (31.6). JL will want to take the win and keep the momentum going against a Nathan team that he is shockingly bad against. 2-8 all-time against him, averaging a dismal 103.64 PPG. Ryan didn't get the lowest score of the week, TK had him beat there, but it was nothing to brag about. No players over 20, a decent 18 from Amon-Ra which was hindered by him not finding the endzone, reasonable production from Jayden Daniels. But nothing to brag about. That's alright Ryan, plenty of ball left to play. Unfortunately for Ryan he also goes to play someone he's historically terrible against. 1-9 vs Collin all-time, you have to go back to 2019, 8 straight regular season games, to find the last win for Ryan in the series, BUT Ryan does have a 2021 championship win vs Collin in that span, so that's probably worth it.

Austin 167.66 - 124.06 Tyler

Yawn. Austin's broken team gets another win. Honestly the fact that he hasn't had a top weekly score after 5 weeks is pretty impressive. Snaps for the rest of us. Unfortunately for Tmo, he was just edged out by JL for the last Top 5 spot, so he goes 0-2 on the week and personally I'd really apprecaite if he could PULL SOME OF HIS OWN WEIGHT IN THIS RELATIONSHIP. Not much else to say here, it bums me out that Austin might break the points record because I didn't have the foresight to limit draft pick trading last year.

Garrett 144.86 - 97.82 TK

Don't worry yall, TK confronted me this past weekend about it and yes, I admit, I cursed his team. Every year I forget that if I give TK even the slightest ounce of credit, his team collapses. Its a power I'm still getting used to wielding, even after 15 years. TK, I profusely apologize and decree that your team will finish the season without making the playoffs and it will be my fault. Next year I promise I will speak only ill of your men. THAT BEING SAID... TK this week I'm not taking the blame for. 97 points man, James Cook couldn't even get 5! Josh Allen with 21 is even kinda a down week for him? Idk man this one is one you. Wouldn't have mattered anyways, Garrett had a big week to pull back to 5-5 on the year thanks to 3 big outings, Baker (32.66), Diggs (24.6) and Javonte Williams (28.9). Garrett did get negative points on defense, so chalk that one up along with the analysis from a couple of weeks back, fun!

Mike 138.92 - 169.52 Collin

Finally, the best matchup up the week certainly earned its spot. Collin finally earned a top score on the week for his delicious $10 payout and the JaMarr acquisition paid off with a 29-point performance from him. CMC is in full form, Justin Fields may be secretely elite (for fantasy purposes, def not IRL). Hard to imagine Collin not staying near the top of the standings for most of the year, but we'll see I suppose. Mike had a fine game. Yet another tame game from DHen can partially be written off by the lack of Lamar Jackson to open up the offense, but it was made up for by a couple of 20-pointers by Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Deebo Samuel. Mike's losing streak to Collin continues though, 9 straight regular season games and a playoff game in 2021 have all gone Collin's way. For those of you wondering "Collin has these win streaks against people, who does he lose to?" The answer is Tmo. He loses to Tmo. 2-10 vs him all time.

Power Couples

It's a shame there's no race for 2nd or 3rd to compete for here, because the bottom 3 teams are all perfectly tied. No H2Hs to break them up, they're all #3 (don't let the "place" column fool you). Hopefully yall don't make me break this bad boy down into h2h points...