Highest Scoring Team ($15)
Children of Jackos
Coach Zach
171.84 pts (League High for 2018)
Highest Scoring Player ($7)
The Trash Man
Coach TC
Alvin Kamara - 41.10 pts
(Trubisky scored 43.46, but was unrostered)
Pickup of the Week
(of pickups that were started)
Curtis’s Dropped Bar of Soap
Coach Nick
Nyheim Hines - 28.30 points
$20 Waiver Pickup
High Bid of the Week
Taylor Gabriel (Ewoldt), Dallas Goedert (Curtis), Nyheim Hines (Nick)
$20 Waiver Pickups
Bench of the Week
Hype Zone
Coach Ewoldt
Taylor Gabriel - 30.40 points
Benched for Marquise Goodwin - 4.80 points
WHAT
A
WEEK.
The NFL is BACK, baby. Offenses across the board are lighting it up. Browns / Raiders game is somehow a legendary shootout, and Browns dynamic QB is making me care. 6 overtime games in 4 weeks, and 3 of them in Week 4. The Rams are great again.
And it all pales in comparison to the drama of the IFL.
As someone who once tweeted this:
That insane comeback in the playoffs, pre-IFL, courtesy Justin Tucker’s legendary 22 point performance to beat the Scallon Express and put me in the championship, doesn’t hold a candle to the gut-wrenching saga that was the Brady / TC game that culminated Sunday afternoon.
Hard to put into words why it was so exciting. Brady was down most of the game, and there were only 3 lead changes, but I’ll give it a shot. TC is 3-0, an unlikely giant. Brady’s 1-2, and his season feels like it’s on the line. Brady stars off Sunday almost immediately down 50 points, and doesn’t even come close to TC’s score until the afternoon games have started. Down 25 points at the afternoon games’ commencement, Brady has Lynch, Cook, Baldwin and the Chargers DST, meanwhile TC only has Kamara, so the comeback looks doable for Brady. A Chargers INT and long return puts Brady over TC for the first time just as the 2nd half of most afternoon games are beginning. At this point, Brady’s feeling pretty good. To repeat, Brady has 4 players going against the TC’s lone Kamara. But Kamara won’t stop scoring points. His 2nd rushing TD keeps things interesting, but still Brady is feeling good. The math is on his side. But Kamara, the freaking beast, scores a 3rd rushing TD, with 2:16 left in the 4th quarter, a 49-yard run, that upsets the apple cart, putting TC up 10 points and crushing Brady’s heart. With just 4 minutes left in the Raiders game, a 10 point lead looked insurmountable, and Brady’s fantasy season looked over.
But then Jared Cook got this look on his face:
And did this:
Which combined with a timely Chargers INT, allowed Brady to pull off the impossible and overcome that 10 point deficit with no time left. Cook forcing overtime for the Raiders allowed Brady to get some additional cushion and ultimately win the crazy shootout 157 - 145. What a game, what a game. Stay tuned to tomorrow’s podcast for a special comment from Brady himself.
And there were three other wild finishes besides that game in the IFL this week. Nick’s comeback was shutdown to Sammy’s hammy injury in MNF, allowing Joe his first win since Week 1. Jesse’s 35 point deficit was reduced to about 5 points late last night, but a Travis Kelce touchdown, allowed Drew to hold on to his lead, and send him to 3-1. Jesse, moving to 2-2, falls out of co-lead of X-IA, with Hype Zone beating the Scallon Express by 32.
But Anton had a similar trajectory to Brady, if not more on the line (the wife threatening to kick him out if he loses). Down 50 headed into the afternoon games, Threat Level Midnight earned a 10 point lead heading into SNF. Early Smith-Schuster production allowed Chris to comeback and snag the lead twice, but some 4th quarter Sneaky Snead action clutched it for Anton, and keeps him in the household for another week, beating Chris 130-127. Anton moves to 2-2, and is hot on Hype’s heels, along with everyone else in X-IA. Chris falls to 1-3, and is two games back from Drew in the BSC.
Which brings me to this: there are six 3-1 teams in the IFL, with no undefeated’s. There has never been a year in the IFL without a 4-0 team. Three of those 3-1 teams are in the DD&B division, with Jord and Jack having big weeks again. L O A D E D.
Here’s another record. With all the NFL offense thus far, the IFL league average PPG is in the stratosphere. Take a look at league average PPG through the years:
A full 16 PPG higher than last year, and currently 9 PPG higher than the highest scoring year ever. That’s unreal. PPG typically goes down slightly 2-5 PPG by end of season, but we’re still headed for 125+, most likely.
Naturally, the amount of high scoring teams has increased, but it’s still crazy nonetheless. Check out the number of teams averaging more than 140 PPG through the first 4 weeks of season throughout IFL’s history:
If you struggle with tables, that’s more teams than in the previous 4 seasons combined. OMG.
Keep lighting it up, boys.
Big weeks from DD&B and X-IA allow them to pull away. BSC continues to crap the bed.
Division Overall W-L:
DD&B: 150-90
X-IA: 135-105
CdS: 109-131
BSC: 67-113
Thought you would have learned this by now, but if you go pick against the Commish’ or Drew, you’re usually gonna get burned, and yet somehow the consensus went against in both polls 9-5. Law of averages, boys. I can see voting for Jesse, but Curtis?! Come on now. 😏
The Commish’ goes 4 for 5 and is beginning to run away with it. Get @ me, boys.
Let’s go.