Week 8 - The Pack is Growing
The Prophet Wants His Bragging Rights
A quotation from Fireseed's 2008 Draft Analysis, as posted on the Message Board dated 9/1: "[a very even Draft for all teams] makes this a more difficult year than usual to evaluate - at this point, teams are more even than they've been before the start of previous season, and you'll see that I'm predicting some major clusterfucks with the standings, which means an injury or breakout performance here or there could throw the whole thing off." As it stands, 10 of 12 AldenLeague teams are at 4-3 or 3-4 records.
Week 7 Recap
Week 7 was a dandy, with 4 different matchups coming down to the New England/Denver game on Monday Night Football, including a last-minute trade to try to pick up some last-minute points. First off, congrats to Dan Leonard, whose Ice Cold Bruschi's posted their first-ever AldenLeague victory with a ten point win over division-rival Karate Xplosion. In the featured Game of the Week, Los Petates Mexicanos took a 5-point win over the fading BountyHunters, thanks to some MNF help by Michael Pittman and Stephen Gostkowski. High score of the week went to Fireseed, who has fought their way back into contention after a slow start with a victory over longtime divisional rival The Skyns. The L.A. Ninjas' Jay Cutler fell five points short in his MNF effort to come back on the C-Men. Meanwhile, league points leader CheektoWojo posted their worst game of the season in a week beset by bye-week roster problems as they got thumped by Andy's Red Hots, and Syn City improved to 4-3 with a victory over the Boys of Summer in the Florida State Bowl.
Power Rankings - Week 8
Team (Pvs Week) - Total Voting Pts
1. CheektoWojo (1) - 27
2. Syn City (4) - 23
3. L.A. Ninjas (2) - 21
4. The Skyns (5) - 20
5. Boys of Summer (3) - 18
6. C-Men (6) - 17
7. Andy's Red Hots (NR) - 8
8. Los Petates Mexicanos (7) - 8
Quick Facts
- Since joining AldenLeague in 2006, the L.A. Ninjas have gone 0-4 against Fireseed. They meet this week for the first time as non-division rivals.
- The Boys of Summer, C-Men, L. A. Ninjas, Andy's Red Hots and Fireseed are the only teams this season to have scored at least 100 points in every week.
- In their 4 losses this season, the C-Men have averaged 150.96 points. In their 3 victories, they averaged 151.69 points. Guess that 1/2 point is worth more than you think!
- Syn City has not won or lost two games in a row all season.
- The BountyHunters started off their season by going 3-1, averaging 150.62 points per game during that span. After a Week 4 win over league-leading CheektoWojo, they have since dropped three in a row, averaging just 87.04 points during that stretch.
- The #1 pick in the draft was LaDanian Tomlinson - he is currently the 14th highest-scoring RB in AldenLeague. #2 pick was Tom Brady, who has missed all but 7 minutes of the season due to injury. #3 pick was Tony Romo, who last week missed the first of what could be over a month's worth of games missed due to an injury. #4 was Adrian Peterson, whose 2008 resume includes games of 80 rushing yards, 77, and yes, 32. #5 Peyton Manning ranks as the 12th-highest scoring QB in the league, and has an 8-7 TD-INT ration this year. #6 was Steven Jackson, whose 2008 resume includes games of 79, 66, 53 and 40 rushing yards, none of which included a TD. #8 was Brian Westbrook, who has already missed two games due to injury and left a third game after just 5 carries. #9 was Carson Palmer, who has already missed three games in a subpar season and rumors suggest he may be out the remainder of the season. #10 Joseph Addai has missed one game due to injury, left a second after just 2 carries, and has yet to attain more than 80 rushing yards in any single week. #11 Randy Moss has games of 26, 25, and 22 receiving yards, none of which included a TD. #12 Maurice Jones-Drew ranks 18th among RBs in scoring, hasn't had a single game of more than 25 return yards, and in 4 of 6 games played failed to reach the 33-yards-rushing mark.
The winner of the first round? At #7, the C-Men took Drew Brees, who currently leads all players in AldenLeague points scored. Congratulations, Corey. The rest of us should hang our heads.
Syn City responded to Larry Johnson's benching and possible suspension by signing KC RB Kolby Smith. Boys of Summer, looking to hold off Syn City in their Week 7 matchup, swung a trade with the C-Men in which they obtained K Matt Prater to fill in their bye week, along with RB Selvin Young, in exchange for RB Felix Jones. The gamble did not work, however, as Prater was unable to keep the team from losing by 25 points thanks to a big night by Randy Moss. Syn City then joined the Boys of Summer and Los Petates Mexicanos as the team without any ACQs remaining when they added WR Kevin Curtis, who has returned from his injury.
Week 8 - Game of the Week - #1 CheektoWojo (4-3) vs. Karate Xplosion (3-4)
With the standings as tight as they are, throw a rock and find an important matchup. Up and down the league, injuries and bye weeks are playing a brutal toll on the schedule, and many teams are going to be sporting squads without their full firepower. This leads us to CheektoWojo and Karate Explosion - two teams with a long history of close and important games, and in Week 8, two teams who are close to full strength. CheektoWojo continues to lead the league in both points scored and power ranking votes, from a cast of unlikely sources. Led by QBs Kurt Warner and Aaron Rodgers (Rodgers is CheektoWojo's lone bye-week casulty) and a more-obscure-than-usual band of kick returners, the defending AldenLeague champions have let their record slip in recent weeks, but it's a deceiving statistic. They've lost 3 of 4, but in 3 of those games they've scored upward of 170 points. Last week was the exception, when numerous bye-weeks crippled the team's production and chances. Karate Xplosion's points are coming from more traditional means - household names like Clinton Portis and Brian Westbrook at running back, and Steve Smith and the newly-healthy Marques Colston at wideout. The question marks on this team come under center, as QB David Garrard has underperformed his expected value this year, and J.T. O'Sullivan, a beneficiary of playing in a Mike Martz offense, has been a bit inconsistent, and now must contend with a new head coach after the firing of Mike Nolan this past week. In the 2001 Fantasy Bowl, CheektoWojo eked out a 0.77 point victory to claim the AldenLeague trophy. Fireworks always seem to fly when these teams get together...
