Yeah we are late on Thursday again…but I was too busy to work on this at…you know…work…3 Weeks in and we have yet to repeat an award at any position…Another QB record…We are Stormed by Running Backs…We get crushed by a Hurricane of receiving…More Kicks = More Points…The Bubba M*A*S*H Unit has a big crutch…A first ever 3-Way…Some futility…We TIE things up…and a look at Cam Stats…lets go…
Drew Brees (PLA)
Peyton has been the Manning on Fire in 2013…he went 32 of 37 (86.5%) against the Raiders on Monday Night for 374 yards…He added 3 more Touchdowns for his season…setting ANOTHER NFL record for his resume as the 1st Quarterback to throw 12 Touchdowns in the 1st 3 games of the season…the effort was good enough for 29 points…but no trophy…Drew Brees had already set the target higher going 29 of 46 (63.0%) for 342 yards and 3 scores of his own…but he added another 21 yards with his legs…including a 7 yard scamper into the end zone to end on 36 points…the lowest point total to win this award so far this year…It is the 1st Player of the Week award for Brees…The 1st Quarterback award but 4th trophy over all on the year for Danny and the Playground Legends…Honorable Mention goes out to Warriors Darren McFadden…his sole 16 yard Touchdown pass gave him a perfect NFL passer rating of 158.3…
Jamal Charles (BAT)
In a preview of our Team of the Week contest…the top Running Backs in Week 3 all came from the Storm Division…UOG’s LeSean McCoy started things off turning 20 touches into 158 yards (7.9 ypc) with a 41 yard Touchdown (21 pts)…Playing in relief of a sidelined Bush…AND’s Joique Bell also had 20 carries…but only for 63 yards and a score…he added 4 catches for 69 yards to move ahead to 22 points…In a bid for a 2nd Week 3 Trophy PLA’s DeMarco Murray set a personal record with 26 carries for the 2nd highest yardage total of his career at 175 (253 in 2011 Week 11) and a Touchdown…Pulling in all 3 of his targets for an additional 28 yards brought him to 28 points…But the week belonged to Charles…going head-2-head against McCoy he used 20 carries of his own to pile up 92 yards and a Touchdown…then moved ahead of the pack by leading all Running Backs on the week with 7 catches for an additional 80 yards…It is the 1st Player of the Week award for Charles and Bay Area Thrashers…
Jimmy Graham (HUR)
Familiar names cracked 20 points at this position in Week 3….Julio Jones…Wes Welker…Calvin Johnson…but only 2 Wide Receivers cracked the 30 point barrier…Jordan Cameron must have missed the memo that the Browns were supposed to #TankForTeddy after trading away Trent Richardson…While not an efficiency clinic…only pulling in 6 of the 11 balls thrown his way by 2 different Quarterbacks (54.5%) for 66 yards…He was the Go-To-Guy as he converted 3 Red Zone targets into Touchdowns…including the game winner…to top out at 30 points…Finishing just short of this title in Week 2…Jimmy Graham stepped up his game in Week 3 to make another run…The Hurricanes Franchise Player was targetted 15 times and piled up 134 yards on 9 receptions (14.9 ypc)…including 6 First Downs and 2 scores of his own…The 34 points gives Graham his 1st Player of the Week award on the year and moves him into the top Receiver position after 3 weeks at 81 points…It is the 3rd trophy on the year for Hurricanes…
Matt Prater (UOG)
After Sunday action we had a 3-Way tie at the top of the Kicker heap…Mason Crosby and Justin Tucker both followed the path with 3 Field Goals and 2 Extra Points…then went further with an extra Extra Point each to end on 12 points…Stephen Gostkowski also followed the path going perfect on 3 Field Goals and 2 Extra Points…but he got the distance bonus on a 53 yarder against the Buccaneers to tie at 12…he was technically the tiebreaker doing it on 5 kicks instead of 6…But then came the Broncos…For the 3rd straight week…Matt Prater got 7 kick opportunities from his offense…he converted all 4 Extra Point tries…then added on 3 Field Goals including his own 53 yarder against the Raiders on Monday Night to top out at 14…It is the 1st Player of the Week award for Prater and the Grandmasters…
Chicago Bears (BBA)
After sending 2 more starters in Vincent Jackson and Steve Smith (That makes 6 in 2 games…) to the triage tent…The M*A*S*H Unit only held a 7 point advantage over Bandit Division rival Fudgie Whales with Matt Forte’s average score of 22½ per game still to play…The Bears got a quick Sack and Fumble Recovery…but Forte turned that into 6 points with a Touchdown run…Forte had another 55 yard scamper…but the Army got a reprieve with a Michael Bush 1 yard plunge…Big Ben was taken down 2 more times…then threw into 2 rips including Major Wright’s 38 yard Pick-6…but playing with the lead…Chicago just kept feeding Forte…As Pittsburgh started throwing desperate bombs into the end zone for Antonio Brown…the Bears low score bonus disappeared and Forte was within 1 6-yard catch of overtaking them…until…(watch it here)
1-10-Chi48 Ben Roethlisberger sacked at Pit43 for a loss of 9 yards by Lance Briggs. FUMBLE, recovered by Chi (Julius Peppers) and returned for 42 yards for a TOUCHDOWN.
The Bears held Pittsburgh off for the next drive…and delivered a badly needed short-handed Division Win when Michael Bush was used to run out the clock instead of Forte…It is the first Player of the Week trophy for Da’ Bears and Bubba Army…the 3rd straight week with the Defense of the Week scoring 25+…
Team of the Week
Going into Monday Night action…Armed N Dangerous had capped out at 131 points…going head-2-head against Storm Division rival Playground Legends who sat at 127 with Moreno and his 16½ point per game average certain to force AND into some Blue Suede Shoes…Warriors was in 3rd position at 113 with McFadden to go and Bay Area Thrashers was 3 Touchdowns back at 110 with only Welker still in play…McFadden did run and throw for Touchdowns…but only managed 9 yards from scrimmage ending Warriors at 123…Wes Welker did his best to repeat his Week 1 performance pulling in all 6 1st Half targets for 52 yards and a Touchdown to reach 127…and Moreno had 11 1st Half touches of his own to sit at 30 yards and 1 catch to tie the score at 131…Moreno got the 1st handoff of the 2nd half…for 0 yards…At 13:40 of the 3rd he ran for 4 more…then at 9:37 he got another 5…sitting one yard shy of victory…and he never saw another touch for the rest of the game…at 8:55 Welker dropped his only 3rd Quarter target…then at 13:37 of the 4th Quarter he hauled in a 32 yard 1st Down catch to make it a 3-Way tie at 131…and Denver would only throw 1 more pass for the rest of the game…A 2-team tie for Team of the Week has only happened 2 times before…both in 2011 (weeks 7 and 11) but never between teams playing Head-2-Head…The 3-Way tie is historic enough…but the fact that all 3 teams are from the Storm Division makes it even more special (maybe a T-Shirt is in order ?)…It is the 1st Team of the Week (Well .33 anyway) for Armed N Dangerous and Bay Area Thrashers…the 2nd (If we go against standard rounding…) for Playground Legends…
Chump of the Week
X-Factor averaged 115.8 points per game last season…and had their best production in the biggest games…all 3 of their Team of the Week awards coming against Buccaneer Division rivals…But the wheels have come off early for the defending Buccaneer Division Champs…After 3 weeks…they have only averaged 100 POTENTIAL points per game (99/101/100)…Their All-Play record is 1-32-0…only avoiding the season sweep on this award by 3 points in Week 2 to the Bubba M*A*S*H unit (Thanks Cam!)…6 of their Week 3 starters scored single digits or 0…dragging their overall efficiency down to 68.7% for the year…Hopefully Josh can make some roster moves to avoid an Empire like run to 0-13…It is their 2nd Chump Award on the year and removes them from…
Chump Survivor
Average TBFL scoring fell another 7 points to 101 in Week 3 with 5 teams failing to make that mark…Take away the Storm Division…and the rest of the League averaged only 89 points…Throsers had the biggest fall from Team of the Week to just over the cut line with Husslers and Money Inc right behind…
Notes & Numbers
The Record for most ties in a season is 3 in 2004…
Ace’s Lions tied in back-2-back games Week 4 (vs UOG 57-57) and Week 5 (vs WAR 73-73)…one game faster then our 2 game spread this year…
Money Inc and Tampa Bay Outlaws tied again in Week 13 102-102…both in 2nd place for Team of the Week (Monster Mash 135)…
Cam Shafted
Much talk came about from my prediction last week that Cam Newton would have a HUGE game when I benched him for the big game I expected from Alex Smith…I had a gut feeling based on past experience…but I ran some numbers to satisfy my curiosity (It’s what I do…)
Since I drafted him as a rookie…Cam has been an eligible starter in 29 TBFL games…12 Regular Season games and a Wild Card playoff in 2011, 12 Regular Season games and an Empire Cup contest in 2012…and 3 Weeks of the 2013 Season…
Of those games…I have benched Cam 7 times…and he has Averaged 32.6 points per game…
In the 22 games where I started Cam he has Averaged 22.4 points per game…
In those 22 he was outscored by another Quarterback on my roster 14 times (63.6%)…
In 7 of those games he was the worst possible starter being out scored by both of my other Quarterbacks…(including both starting weeks of this season)…
In the 8 games where Cam was the best starter…I lost 4 of those games (but was Team of the Week for 2 of them…)