This football season is flying by. It's already week 5 and there still haven't been any "dominant" running backs to establish themselves to carry a team to the ship. In 4 weeks, everything has gone right for Jon and everything has gone wrong for Biggie. 4 weeks = 4 game gap. But luckily enough, there's still 9 weeks left and with bye weeks galore, the standings are guaranteed to shift.
There are 2 interesting matchups this week and we'll start with the matchup between current playoff contending teams:
MOTW 1
1. It'saHardGronkLife (Jon) vs. 6. (⌐■_■) (Alex)
With Le'Veon Bell back, Alex can really live up to his dark horse candidacy but he'll have to give Jon his first loss to establish himself as a contender and stay over .500. Jon shows no signs of slowing down after thrashing Mike on his way to the blowout of the week.
QB: The rapist looked unstoppable last week but most likely he'll regress to the mean with an average game against a decent Jets defense. But on the other side, Brady is back with a vengeance against a terrible Browns team. The disparity of points at this position may be enough to make up for any other position battle Jon loses. Edge: Jon
WR: Definitely Jon's strongest position, it's also Alex's weakest. With 2 WR1s on their respective teams and a great underneath receiver in Sanders in an offense that's improving every day, this matchup should just further the gap between Jon and Alex. Edge: Jon
RB: Bell is clearly the most dominant of these 4 backs and the other 3 all kind of hover around the average range due to mediocre teams that fall behind often and abandon the run game. Edge: Alex
TE: A matchup of two slow white guys that will face formidable defenses. I'll give Witten the slight edge against a struggling Bengals team at home over Tamme against the #1 defense in thin air. Edge: Alex
K/DEF: Ummm... Alex hasn't picked a defense but it's slim pickings out there. The Jets may struggle against a revamped Pitt offense on the road but it should be better than any of the options available in free agency. Edge: Jon
Winner: Jon
Jon stays undefeated in this matchup and moves to 5-0 and 2-3 wins from clinching a playoff spot. Alex may take a step back this week but don't sleep on his team as he has a trade in the works to improve the weak WR corp. He may lose the battle, but he's looking long term to win the war (and by the war, I mean our fantasy football league, which isn't actually a war at all...).
MOTW 2
5. Jacked Up! (Cho) vs. 7. Just Forsett In (Mike)
Mike gets featured in a second MOTW in a row and hopes for better luck this week. He faces Cho, who is riding the back of his number 1 pick to a .500+ season. While Mike is out of playoff contention for now, he can move back in with a win this week. Both teams have key players resting on a bye so the replacements will play a huge role in this MOTW.
QB: Stafford looked good this season... until he lost to Chicago last week. And while he is back in a dome, he faces a sneaky good Philly defense which could temper his numbers a bit. But his opponent is Flacco, who hasn't gone over 30 points this season. Let's just say this positional battle won't determine this matchup. Edge: Even
WR: While Mike gets Matthews and Cobb back from a bye and his WRs are deep, there's no way I'm picking against Antonio Brown. "But he's just one guy" says the skeptic. But Antonio Brown is not a man. He's a fantasy god. Edge: Even
RB: Mike has both his Seattle RBs on a bye and Langford is struggling with an injury. So what does he do? He starts DeAngelo. In most cases, it's a terrible idea to start a backup RB. But DeAngelo is a little different. He's playing in an explosive offense and even got a goal line carry in the win last week. Alongside McKinnon, he should be able to provide enough points to counter the Hill-Crowell combo that isn't exactly a world-beater. Edge: Even
TE: While slow white TEs seem to be a theme that I really don't like this season, Rudolph has been a legitmate red zone threat. His chemistry with Bradford has developed nicely, especially since Bradford isn't really known for a downfield arm. Brate faces a tough defense that is out for revenge on 8 days of rest. Edge: Mike
K/DEF: Both defenses should be key players this week as they face turnover prone offenses and want some revenge for last week's terrible outing. Carolina gets a small edge as they face the Bucs at home on extra rest. Gano should score plenty of points to counter Walsh against a relatively porous Houston defense sans Watt. Edge: Mike
Winner: Mike
Mike bounces back this week on the backs of his special teams and wide receivers. Cho just has too many key players on bye (Brees, Cooks, Kelce, Yeldon) to compete this week, but this won't be the last we see of him in this column.
Good luck to all!
Simon Kim
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