Week 3 Power Rankings
Tier 1
1- The BamOs (1-1) [+2]
2- Sporty Strauss (2-0) [-]
Tier 2
3- Las Cabras (2-0) [+1]
4- Ornery Otters (1-1) [-4]
5- Cooper Troopers (2-0) [+2]
6- Shepherd Goods Choppers (2-0) [+1]
7- $traight Cash Homie (1-1) [+1]
Tier 3
8- DTC Porkchop Express (0-2) [-3]
9- Win’s Up Doc (1-1) [+3]
10- The Pullies (0-2) [-1]
11- Minnesota Moose Knuckles (0-2) [-1]
12- Wait ’Til Next Year (0-2) [-1]
(Tier 1) The tippy top of this league is as murky as the wintery waters an Ornery Otter might swim in or a Minnesota Moose drinks from. But the BamOs still re-cemented themselves as the team to beat with the (probable) high score on the week. The BamOs gave The Pullies no shot. Beyond that, Sporty Strauss forces his way into Tier 1 with a gigantic victory over The Ornery Otters. It’s a win that changes the course of the entire season, preventing Korey Koob from getting off to a hot start against two (supposedly) good teams. Michael Strauss plays DTC Porkchop Express next week, in a matchup that looks far more winnable than before the season started. But Craig McCall looks far shakier than he did prior to the season, which certainly softens Korey’s one win.
(Tier 2) In truth, one of Las Cabras or the Cooper Troopers belong in Tier 1, but we don’t know which! Luckily, we’ll find out this week in a divisional matchup of undefeated teams. (SPOILER: Matchup of the Week.) These are good teams, but it’s just that Cooper Johnson and Trevor/Jordan haven’t played much competition yet. Wait ’Til Next Year and the MN Moose Knuckles are the bottom two teams in the league, and they’ve given Las Cooperas a nice 2-0 start to the season and a two-team race to a division win.
The Shepherd Goods Choppers and $traight Cash Homie round out Tier 2. Jordan Dye obviously gets the edge with a victory over Jack Bennett this week, but these teams aren’t terribly far apart. It’s good that the Choppers are banking wins, because it’s not a team built for BYE weeks, even though he has an easy schedule. It’s still not entirely expected that Jordan will supplant the BamOs as the top team in that division, but that game in hand has to feel great with the hapless Pullies coming to town next week. A 3-0 start in the division is easily within reach for Jordan Dye, while Jack Bennett must do what he can to try beat $traight Cash Homie @Bam next week to avoid a 1-2 start. Jack Bennett is the mendoza line of teams – the average squad that will never get too high or fall too low. Perfectly mediocre.
(Tier 3/4) Avert your eyes, McCall. Skip this section. It’s been a disastrous start the the season for DTC Porkchop Express. His QBs have failed him. Aiyuk has been a disaster. His RBs are either underperforming or banged up. And worst of all, he just lost to a team that ONLY started Andy Dalton at QB (and he didn’t even make it through the game). A big congrats to Win’s Up Doc, who was planted at the bottom of these rankings for a few weeks. Now he’s got some momentum with the depth to potentially trade for a QB (AND it’s Justin Fields time). Somehow, after an unlikely victory, he’s the likeliest team of Tier 3 to pull things together and climb up the rankings. He’s positioned better than Craig McCall. And we all know Oat would love to make Michael Strauss suck on one next week, and end his undefeated reign on that division. So Win’s Up Doc is ready to muck things up.
The MN Moose Knuckles probably don’t deserve to be this far down, but 0-2 is a tough beat. Crhis Hall should compete most weeks, and isn’t a pushover. But he needs monster weeks from his position players to offset his lack of QBs, and that hasn’t been happening so far.
Lastly, The Pullies and Wait ’Til Next Year each made the same bad roster error that is all too easy to make for experienced coaches: OVERinvestment in QB. QB is vital to a team – more vital than any other position – but having 4 at the expense of other roster positions is gratuitous. Both Kyle and Peter/Herm desperately need RB help in any way, shape or form. Ty’Son/Latavius is below average for The Pullies, and CEH isn’t going to cut it for Wait ’Til Next Year. Beyond that, things are barren on their RB depth charts. To make things worse, these teams also invested heavily at TE. RBs are almost as scarce as QBs, and good ones certainly are. But these teams focused on the luxury items of tight ends (which have proven to be not particularly valuable in this league) and bench QBs that might never see the field.It’s tough sledding now for all of these 0-2 teams. We know we we have at least one more winless team coming out of week 3 (Kyle Ooms or Chris Hall). DTC has a tough matchup that might send him crying at the DTC later that night. And The Pullies must beat the BamOs. I’d expect 2 if not 3 winless teams by the end of next week. If that’s so, they better start packing up their things, targeting players for the football consolation playoffs and preparing for the NBA draft, because things are OVER for them to compete this year.
Week 2 High Score
The BamOs (Sam Alakija)
189 pts
Week 2 Low Score
Wait ’Til Next Year (Kyle Ooms)
83.5 pts
Week 2 MVP
Kyler Murray
Las Cabras (Trevor Pearson / Jordan Sinclair)
31.5 pts
Notes: Las Cabras don’t win this game without Kyler shredding the Vikes. It’s a doubly painful loss for the MN Moose Knuckles who needed just 5 more lousy points to beat a good divisional opponent.
LVP(s)
Clyde Edwards-Helaire (2.5 pts)
AND Mac Jones (6), Ronald Jones (4), Antonio Brown (2), KJ Hamler (1), Devante Parker (7)
Wait ’Til Next Year (Kyle Ooms)
Notes: A new Tier was created just for Wait ’Til Next Year. @Ooms somehow scored under 60 points with his position players this week. That honestly might end up being a record for this league. That’s about 6.5 points per player, including 2 QBs. A new historic low. “Wait ’Til Next Year” is right, but only in football. @Ooms is still firmly the most well-positioned team in the league to win this year by winning both NBA and MLB.
Week 3 Matchups
Nolo’s Division
Sporty Straus (2) vs DTC Porkchop Express (8)
Ornery Otters (4) vs Win’s Up Doc (9)
Fhima’s Division
Las Cabras (3) vs Cooper Troopers (5)
MN Moose Knuckles (11) vs Wait ’Til Next Year (12)
Shepherd Goods Division
BamOs (1) vs $traight Cash Homie (7)
Shepherd Goods Choppers (6) vs The Pullies (10)