This weekend you guys made it much easier on me. Every game was either officially or pretty much over Sunday, saving some Ravens miracles on Monday night, which let me spend Monday writing this bad boy up and bring you ravenous readers the content you so dearly crave (you're welcome, of course).

First of all, Ryan came through with the big game to win the weekly reward for high score, and unless the weekly challenge's namesake Justin Tucker scored more than 17 on Monday night, my FUCKIN' DUDE Nick Folk won me another sweet sweet payday. Ryan becomes the 8th different person to win a lil sumthin sumthin this year, leaving only Mike and John Luke totally empty-handed on the season.

Second of all, Monday night's Ravens-Saints game had some significance in two ways:

1. Austin, TK, and John Luke (109.3, 112.7, and 111.6 respective projected points on Monday morning) were fighting to not be knocked out of the survivor pool. JL was relying on Justin Tucker and the Ravens defense, Lamar Jackson and Kenyan Drake for TK, and Austin just had to sit and watch.
2. Tyler needed Isaiah Likely to score enough to keep his top 5 point and hold off TK and maybe JL. This would propel him up to a tie for 3rd with TK (though TK has the H2H) in a week that saw #1 and #2 take care of business, while #3 and #4 floundered.

Recaps

Jake 137.5 - 116.68 John Luke (Game Score: 82.3)

Tua continued his strong play this season (head trauma aside) to lead this matchup in points with 32, but the day was Jake's. 20+ from Kyler, who's looking like a stronger fantasy option after a rocky start, Austin Ekeler, and Dallas Goedert were Jake's headliners in a week where his only disappointment was an injury-limited Aaron Jones. JL was missing Najee to a bye week, but if we're being honest Najee is up there for biggest bust this year with Jonathan Taylor. Rough first keeper choice buddy. The limited week sinks John Luke to 4 points behind the 4th playoff spot, but with 6 weeks to play there is plenty of time to make up that ground.

TK 123.92 - 150.34 Collin (82.2)

Another week, another big game from Collin, who remains on pace to break the single-season points record. 4 (so close to 5) players breaking the 20 point mark on a week where he had limited options from bye weeks (granted, he had the best options, but still). Speaking of records, the all-time Points Against record in a season was 2,009 scored against Jake in 2015 (go figure), which averaged out to 133.9 PAPG. As of now, TK sits at 135.0 PAPG. TK also had bye limits, and his were much more impactful. Missing both CMC and Chubb to demolish his RB production. TK was hurt from a goose egg out of Tyler Higbee and 6.4 from AJ Dillon, but still had a great week from his receiving corp, which combined for 58.1 points even without Amari Cooper, also on bye. Thanks to Austin's fumble, TK remains at 3rd, but he let Tmo, Ryan, and Jake all gain important ground on him entering the 10th week of the season.

Austin 109.32 - 164.1 Ryan (81.6)

Ryan saw his shot to climb and took it. A blowout win over an Austin team that's only gained 4 points over his last five games puts Ryan just outside the playoff picture, but Ryan does play the current top 3 teams all in his last 6 games. Ryan had a huge game from Davante Adams, who scored 36.6 points on 146 yards and 2 scores, but he had a MONSTER FIFTY-SEVEN POINT game from Joe Mixon. This man scored FIVE touchdowns and had over 200 all-purpose yards. In fact, his 57.1 points sets a new league record for most points by any player since we've tracked player points, beating Tyreek Hill's 57.0 in 2020 week 12. Austin slip up comes at an opportune time, with Nathan and Garrett lined up in his next two weeks he can regroup and find his footing again.

Tyler 119.4 - 93.94 Nathan (69.2)

This was just a meh game all around. Kenneth Walker III has had a breakout year and scored 30 points on the week for Tmo, and Derrick Henry got another 25.5 for Nate, but that felt like the only interesting aspect of this game. Tmo, limited by missing Kittle, Barkley, and Aiyuk to bye weeks, missed out on the top 5 point thanks to a strong performance Monday night for TK's Kenyan Drake, but can breathe easier and count on a win next week against a bad Garrett team. Nathan has just had a terrible year, and falls to 2-7 with only 1 top 5 on the year, its SUPER FUCKING SICK THAT HE BEAT ME IN WEEK 3 THAT'S REALLY GREAT.

Garrett 71.4 - 148.34 Mike (61.9)

Garrett man what is going on with you this year? Just not a great team honestly. DeAndre Hopkins cooled off a bit, Herbert didn't get much going, and Tee Higgins has his second straight "meh" game as WR1 in Ja'Marr Chase's absence. Mike continued to go to work, getting 38 from Mahomes (who threw the ball 68 times Sunday night) and another 27 from the aforementioned Tyreek Hill. Even the Pats defense got into the groove with 24 points of their own. Mike keeps the pressure on Collin, who clings to the 2-point lead for the #1 spot in the standings.