Week 5 had the Cats crushing the now irrelevant TBIAC, 133-91.  What has happened to the former champ?  Did playing in the loser’s bracket last year take away his mojo?  Or was it that he showed up at the draft and wasn’t able to mooch off Griders panel of ESPN experts? 

   Speaking of WTF? Pigg curb-stomps Grider 124-87.  Zeke Elliott ran all over the Bengals, 28. Rivers flowed in Oakland for 26. And Hyde got 16 before getting injured.  Grider- Raaaawwwdddjjjjaaasss continues to dissapoint with 15. Girl-y had a decent game for a change with 14, but CJ and AJ failed miserably with 5 apiece.  Pigg is the league wildcard right now.  He has taken down the big boys one week, then started 7 players the next.  Can he pull it together to make the promised land?  Grider is always a player in the league championship.  Despite having, on paper, a mediocre team (Power Bottoms said mediocre, direct quote), he can’t be ruled out this early in the season.
    Power Bottoms power slammed DSVP 78-75 in the SuperBowl of Bad FFL!  Big Ben got 29, Fitz 20 and Freeman 17.  The rest of the team appeared to stay on the team bus and take the weekend off. DSVP got 17 fom Marshall, 16 from Wentz and 11 from Matthew and the Pats D.  This matchup was so boring I fell asleep twice writing these few lines. Moving on…..

     Dominate. Unstoppable. Short.  These are just some things being said about the #1 team in FFL, Team LO.  The insane move to “keep” a player who was banned for 4 weeks is paying off, Brady 29.  McCoy, still not injured, is having a great year.  Blount, still not in jail, is a TD machine. Hopkins still playing with a joke of a QB, awesome. And this week, just to show TSMYTDs, and new wrinkle, Vinateri kicks for 23.  One word describes LO at week 5…..First Place! (ok that’s two words, but i could have hyphenated and then i think it counts as one.)  TSMYTDs continues his roller coaster season throwing up a 66 to LO’s 128.  Luck and DeMarco are the only bright spots this week.  Julio and Edelman were bad, 2 and 3pts.  TSMYTDs just had a bad week.  He should have played DSVP, might have made it a game!!

Week 6
   Last week we had  the exciting news about the Power Bottoms 2 game win streak.  This week they start off the blog with…..wait for it….a………LOSS.  Possibly the worst game in FFL history. 43 points.  All players were active and not injured, just pathetic. One player, Meredith 11, got double digits.  Looks like somebody wants to hold on to his special trophy!  Pigg, like his Yankee fore-fathers, had no mercy on his Southern realtives scoring 106.  No need to recap. A Sacko-like week for the Power Bottoms.
     Well at least we can look forward to a DSVP victory sometime.  Not this week, or last, but sometime.  Maybe.  109-103 Cats take down the Pugs.  David Johnson’s 31 on Monday night brought the Cats back and allowed DSVP to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory.  Its a shame to lose a close game with a good score.  We have all been there. Its the FFL. It happens. And it was AWESOME!!

    TSMYTDs puts Grider down for his second loss in two weeks. 93-69.  Never a good sign when your K is the leading scorer, Bailey 13. Raaaaawwwwdddddjjjjaaasss sucked again, 11. Girl-y sucked again, 8. CJ and AJ, sucked. Maybe time for a roster overhaul for the Griders.  Tanner came to play this week! Luck 23, DeMarco 12, West 23, and Julio 19 and Gostkowski 10. the rest of the team were disappointing, but it was still enough for the W.

     TBIAC needed a big win this week to stay near the top of his dumpster-fire like division.  Unfortunately he ran ito the red hot LO team.  Brees, 32, did all he could to keep the Capt in the game, but it wasnt enough.  LO 116-109.  Gronk finally made an impact with 22, the first female in the NFL, Christine scored 19 and Stewart played the best game of his entire underachieving career, 20.  LO countered with 27 from Brady, 32 from McCoy, strangely still not injured, 13 from Blount, again…..still not in jail, and Vinateri 12.  

     At the halway point
EAST                                                                   WEST
LO 5-1                                                                  Pigg 4-2
Cats 4-2                                                                TBIAC 3-3
Grider 3-3                                                             TSMYTDS 2-4
Power Bottoms 2-4                                               DSVP 1-5

CATs with most PF 647.   TGPBs with the least 486.  Grider with most scored against, 632.  Pigg with the least, 443.
     As usual, the Standings page is a fun thing to look at, and to curse the FFL Gods about.  How in the world can everyone have a bad game against Pigg, but excel against Grider (thats probably karma).  Lo is a scoring machine, but has second lowest poinst AGAINST.  Poor DSVP has been the league punching back with 601 points against.  adn TBIAC, as usual, looks like the hard-luck loser so far.  Second in his division behind Pigg. 5 points scored more than Pigg but has given up a whopping 171 more points against!!
     Halfway to the playoffs, or for some teams (you know who you are) the losers playoffs!! With bye weeks and injuries stacking up, now is the time to make some strategic moves, trades, waivers.  Churn that roste over! Side note- Cats will be taking offers on Eddie Lacy as of now…. get those offers in now!

    Lead Story- Undefeated TBIAC v Unwinned Team Griders Power Bottom.  The big question is how a team as bad as TBIAC was undefeated? 12 from Brees ( who has been really nice this year), 0 from Sims (only playing because injury), the girl named Sue (Christine), 14, Antonio with his normal 18pts and Gronk with a big fat 1 aren’t enough to keep the smoke and mirrors going. The Power Bottoms had a huge game from Big Ben, 34 and from McKinnon (who he acquired from the Cats, just saying…..), 15 and the Bengals 14.  Victory Power Bottoms!!!  TBIAC left 19 and 26 on the sidelines from M Jones, M “Trabtee”. The Bottoms left 20 on the pine in W Fuller (another trade from the Cats….. just sayin….Cats make great trades…..just sayin).

    Unwinned TSMYTDS v Cats. 90-85. Julio Jones goes for 300 yds and a TD and 36pts. The resurgent DeMarco, 23pts, continues to prove Team Taco’s wise and crafty draft choices! TSMYTD’s  K, -1 and D, -1 and WR, 0 didn’t help at all but were enough to unseat the Cats as Holamon Family Champions.  For the second straight week the Cats missed on monster QB days by following the so-called experts.  Last week started Ryan 19 , Stafford benched with 26.  This week the start went to Stafford 7, benched, Ryan 35.  ESPN experts hopefully all work for Team Grider. Cause they SUCK!

     LO 75 Pigg 61final.  Not too much drama on this one except seeing if Pigg will field an entire lineup! After punishing his K by leaving him at home (or most likely Pigg forgot the K was on bye) and a -4 from his D, Julius Thomas scoring a zero and an injury, an to top it off, Carson Palmer went down to a concussion. Zeke rumbled for 20, Hyde for 13 and Sanders finally showing some FFL skills with 14, but it wasn’t near enough to make up for the Coaching miscues and injuries.  LO wasn’t anywhere near dominate, but a win is a win.  Dak’s 17 and McCoy’s 16 were enough.  3 and 5 from Forte and Blount, 0 and 7 from Hopkins and Jones, and Witten with 4.  Strong special teams day helped bring the W home for Lo,  with 12 and 11 from K and DST. 29 points left on the bench in Demarious Thomas and Gore weren’t needed to bitch-slap the unaware Pigg.
    

Side note- despite the win, LO’s score was the lowest winning total for the week, in fact it was tied for the second lowest score of the week.  FFL Gods must be pleased with Laces Out.  And DSVP, on the other hand, scored 98 the second highest score of the week…. and lost. Clearly he has angered the Shiva!
      As noted, DSVP 98- Grider 122. Grider got very little from the “mouth breather” Eli and Girl-y, but everyone else was magnificent.  As discussed for the last two years, our only chance of a non-Grider championship is a fluke game or injuries.  His bench is pathetic, sad and weak (like TG Power Bottom’s starters).  Poor DSVP just got FFl’ed this week. It happens. He will bounce back to become mediocre as usual! When your leading scorer is a Cleveland Brown, you may want to churn that roster over a bit. Just sayin!!

1/4 of the way through the season STAT breakdown-

EAST
Grider and LO 3-1, Cats 2-2, TG Power Bottoms 1-3

WEST
TBIAC 3-1, Pigg 2-2, and DSVP and TSMYTDs 1-3

                                PF (points scored)                           PA (points scored against)
Grider                             433                                                     415
Cats                                405                                                     348
LO                                  384                                                     364
TGPBs                           365                                                     405

TBIAC                           368                                                     365
DSVP                             353                                                     414
TSMYTDs                     346                                                     363
Pigg                                333                                                     313

Cats have the largest difference between PF and PA and the 2nd most points scored by is 2-2.  TBIAC is only 3pts ahead of his PA but is 3-1.  Pigg is absolute last in PF, and in PA, but is 2-2, while Grider is #1 in both PF and PA and 3-1.   The West division is looking much like the dumpster-fire they were last year, rekindling the talk of division re-alignment.  The commish has done nothing about these issues, like most others, due to the fact that last place in either division is still last place!  The East’s last PLACE PF is 365 and the West’s FIRST place PF is 368.  This may change, or like last year, the West will only have one representative in the winners bracket. 
Playoff Bracket as of now-

1. Grider v 4. Cats
2. TBIAC v 3. LO

6.TGPBs v. 5. Pigg
7. DSVP v 8. TSMYTDs

Plenty of time to change your playoff position.  Plenty more injuries to come.  Plenty more bye weeks left. Hopefully no more empty roster spots (Pigg).   Who will find the next superstar (Cats)?  Who will make the trade that propels them to the next level (prob not LO, she has trust issues).  Who will stand pat and hope their draft will pull them through (hopefully Grider).  Who will churn players weekly looking for the next win (most of us!!). Good luck, you will need it!

    
    

     Pigg v TSMYTDs. Tanner was a 3pt fav to begin the week and ended up a 4 pt dog. 80-84. Pigg goes to 2-1 while TSMYTDs continued to challenge the “Power Bottoms” for the cellar at 0-3.  This battle came down to Julio Jones and Tamme for Tanner vs Cooks for Pigg.  Cooks scored 1pt.  Sooooo TSMYTDS should obviously win since Julio is a stud, righ? Clearly in a game that had a combined 77pts between the Falcons and Saints that Julio would have grabbed a handful. Nope. 1 catch for 16yds and 1pt. Tamme doubled him up with 2.  TSMYTDs got a -4 from the Steelers D but 21 from a resurgent DeMarco and 22 from Baldwin but left DeSean Jacksons 15 on the pine.  Pigg survived a 3pt day from his QB and 1 each from Cooks and Thomas. But, the Chiefs won the day with a whopping 32pts.  Piggs bench scored 86. Yup, out scored the starters. He seems to have a middling starting group and a solid but middling bench! Time to make some trades!

                                   

                             

     In the battle of for Lil D, LO escapes (Stupid Saints D) with the win over the Cats. Down 25 going into Monday with only Ryan left it looked all but over. By the third quarter Ryan had 18 pts and was unstoppable (at least by the F$&(ing Saints D).  Fourth quarter…. Run run run run (stupid Saints D). Ryan finishes with 19😭.  Deangelo had his first bad game as a fill in for Bell, 4pts. And the Cats WRs combined for 13, not exactly Championship skills.  LO countered with 32 from Jones (wtf?) and 22 from Blount (he isn’t in jail? Seriously?).  And now the coaching miscues. Cats- Coleman 26, Stafford 26. Benched. LO-  Shady McCoy 23. Benched.  LO moves to 2-1, Cats fall to 2-1.

  And in the struggle for FFL and position dominance, Team Grider visited Team Grider’s Power Bottom’s dungeon like stadium.  Raaaaawwwwddddjjjaaasss wasn’t afraid of his burly bearded opponent and threw for 26pts. Gurley finally didn’t play girl-y, 2 TDs and 20pts.  Robinson caught 17 and Hauschka kicked in 13. Grider 113.

  The Power Bottoms weren’t just going to lay there and take a pounding from Grider despite being down 45 pts and only Freeman and Fleener left.  Hill had his one of four good games this season and rumbled for 21. Jordy snagged 22. Now could Freeman and Fleener do it?  As noted above (once or twice), the Saints could not stop the Falcons.  This caused Bree’s to keep throwing, to Fleener among other, for 16 pts! On the other hand, the Falcons jumped out quick on the arm of Ryan (Cats should have won damnit!) but with such a lead they went to the ground. Freeman went 14-152 rushing and 5 for 55 receiving and a TD.  Tragically, Coleman stole just enough touches from Freeman who ended the night with 26. Final score 113-111. Team Grider is still the “top” to the Power Bottoms. Coaching breakdown- TGPBs started Big Ben….6pts. On the bench, Tannehill…..18pts. Grider chose the Denver D to start, 9pts. Vikes on the sideline, 25.

   Almost every game could have flip-flopped with different choices.  That’s the way FFL go, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on what side your on!  Week 4 brings us more injuries and the start of the dreaded bye-weeks (and the return of Josh Gordon….or not). That’s it for this week, sorry for the tardiness, the stupid blog the Commish set up kept crashing and deleting all this Pulitzer-prize winning writers work.  

Ohhhhh, almost forgot. The title of the week.  The “Bell” tolls for thee!!! Leveon is back (at least till his next injury or suspension). Now we can all join together and watch him try to surplant D Johnson (Cats keeper) as the best RB in all of FFL!  

     Let’s make some trades, talk some trash and enjoy the FFL!! Good luck to all, except for the Cats opponent!