Goal Line Gazette 

Desperate Measures                                            Issue #522

A Phriend of the Devil is a friend of mine.   

 

The Cowboys did it again. They got dragged into a street fight in the middle of Olneyville at 2:00am but the Cowboys took 3 All The Way and a side of fries to go, winning 244-232 to to remain the final undefeated team in the OSFL at 3-0 with the #1 offense. The Cowboys were led by the top RB Jonathan Taylor/59.3 points and a pair of Dallas Cowboys Dak Prescott/37 points and Jake Ferguson/44.2 points. 3 All The Way had their best week of the season but their RB’s failed them again, as Isiah Pacheco and Ashton Jeanty combined for 26.6 points. Vin Roc was yacking on the sidewalk while Ron and Dino were tuning Diamond Dave and his partners up. The Roc hobbled over and slugged Dave with his cane one last time to turn out the lights. 3ATW fall to 1-2. Every Tuesday morning Ron texts me a vintage early 80’s Ric Flair Woooooo! meme and then makes a few comments. This week it was, “I’m not going to say that the Cowboys are the best team in the league… Vin Roc is.” Then he made a comment about next weeks opponent, Allbrite Picks. “Fish fry next week against The Goldfish and the guppy. Disumma is the guppy.” Those are some classic quotes. The goldfish and the guppy, ba ha ha ha. 

Bronx Swag demolished the Wolfpack, 270-163, on route to logging their first weekly high score of the season. Lamar Jackson/54, CMC/42.5 and the Vikings D/49 points combined for more than half of Bronx Swag’s total (145+ points). The victory was Bronx Swag’s first of the season. The Wolfpack didn’t just lose the game, both CeeDee Lamb and Terry McLaurin  suffered injuries. It’s devastating news for The Wolfpack who fall to 1-2. Phriends of the Devil and Dynamic Duo engaged in an epic battle. Dynamic Duo led for the entire game up until the 3rd quarter of the Monday night game then Jahmyr Gibbs had his best game of the season/45 points. POTD won with their highest score of the season, 257-243, to improve to 2-1. Dynamic Duo fell to 0-3, the last winless team in the OSFL. After the game, Phriends of the Devil and Dynamic Duo swung a blockbuster deal that involved the best player in the NFL Josh Allen. The trade will be discussed in the individual game breakdowns.  Two Weeks of Bacon notched their first win of the season defeating XXXL, 249-191. Led by David Montgomery/64, Drake Maye/49.4 and Nico Collins/46.4 who accounted for 159.8 points/64% of TWB’s offense as they scored their highest score of the season. The loss was XXXL’s first of 2025. Showtime beat G-Force, 201-195, led by another BIG game from James Cook/44.3 points. G-Force underwhelmed and suffered their first loss of the year. Allbrite Picks was able to overcome poor QB play and another Derrick Henry fumble as Jordan Mason’s huge game (43.6 points) led them to their second victory of the season, 204-146. G’ss Mafia stalled out with the lowest logged score by any team this season. G’ss Mafia failed to have a single player score 30 points and 6 players scored 11.3 points or less. 

 

We are turning the corner of the first quarter of the season. No need to panic but if there is a deal that needs to be made, then you should make it. You can’t take these players with you, they don’t care about you. I think it’s safe to say in one more game we can start to make a decent assessment of what to expect going forward. The season is a grind and there are many more twists and turns that remain.                         

 

Games of the Week

Week #4

Week 3 picks (3-3)/Season (6-6)

 

Phriends of the Devil (2-1) Vs G-Force (2-1)

After stumbling out of the gates against Showtime, Phriends of the Devil have strung together back to back wins against Bronx Swag and Dynamic Duo. Both wins were by less than 14 points. In this league that’s one play (a 40 yard TD catch will get you 14 points in the OSFL). The biggest news of the year so far occurred after their victory over Dynamic Duo when they pulled off a blockbuster trade with Dynamic Duo. The weakest part of POTD’s team was at QB where they have started Kyler Murray who has gotten incrementally worse since the start of the season, scoring 40, 33 and 32 points. If your QB isn’t scoring in the 40’s consistently then you have an issue at QB. They replaced Murray with the best player in the NFL and reigning MVP Josh Allen who is averaging 51.5 PPG. Allen is the #2 point scorer and #2 QB. Murray is the 20th ranked QB and 25th ranked overall player, averaging 35.2 PPG. POTD sent Dynamic Duo rookie RB Omarion Hampton/22.5, WR Ricky Pearsall/27 PPG,  Bryce Young/40 PPG and their week 4 supplemental draft pick. POTD was the only team that had the depth to make a move like this and not disrupt the core of their team. They kept Gibbs and they had a surplus of WR’s. They were making mistakes every week playing the wrong WR. They don’t have that problem anymore. Yes they lost a solid rookie who is no longer sharing touches, but they went from starting the worst QB every week, to starting the best. Ideally this is a trade you want to make a little later in the season, for the simple reason that you don’t ever want to trade away RB depth early, but the #1 overall player doesn’t usually get traded in the OSFL. It was a ballys move by both teams. Anything and everything could go wrong but it could also go right for both teams. For Phriends of the Devil, it’s the type of  move that could put them over the top. It’s the kind of trade that brings excitement and a plethora of opinions out of the woodwork. The OSFL has lacked this type of wheeler dealer mentality for a long, long time. Give him his due, Kon must be commended for pursing and working the deal. Kon is always available to make a move, I don’t think he sleeps. Just because he locked up the reigning MVP doesn’t mean these guys are done making moves.

When Don Guenette of G-Force learned of the trade, his comment was, “Oh great I have to play Josh Allen twice.” Like I said earlier, I heard many different reactions to this trade. Don stated, “Steve just made Kon a juggernaut.” My response was, “I did what i had to do. I’ll never face POTD again unless we meet in the championship game. They’re not my problem anymore, they’re yours.” G-Force has gotten exceptional play from their QB Justin Herbert/53.6 PPG, which is 2 points more per game than Josh Allen. Thru 3 weeks, Herbert is the #1 point scorer in the OSFL. G-Force is still waiting for Saquon Barkley to breakout. Over the previous 3 games, Barkley’s production has gone down from 32.4, 31.4 to 22.5 points, but his usage has been steady with 22+ touches in all 3 games. Kyren Williams had his best game of the season in week 3, scoring 32.3 points. Alvin Kamara has compiled 46 touches over the last 2 games. Quinshon Judkins had an impressive game rushing for 18-94 and a TD/27.5 points against a tough Packers defense. Deebo is the last man standing for Washington offensive stars. Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin are both currently injured. DJ Moore has caught 12 passes and added another 6 rush attempts. G-Force needed a BIG game from Brock Bowers and they didn’t get it. Bowers has scored 13.8 points in each of the previous 2 games. Bowers had a slow start last season, hitting 1 bonus in his first 4 games, but erupted from week 5 thru 11 and continued to play well after that. POTD’s RB’s have very difficult match ups this week, but G-Force’s isn't much easier. Alvin Kamara actually has a great matchup against the Bills who’ve allowed the most rush yards this season (468 rush yards/ 156 rush yards per game). This is going to be a battle. Both QB’s are playing at elite levels. This game could once against come down to Brock Bowers. G-Force needs Bowers to hit bonuses. This could turn into another knockdown drag out brawl that The Phriends of the Devil have been in the last 2 weeks. I give POTD the slight edge but I wouldn’t Be surprised if G-Forced bounced back either. I’ll take POTD to win another close.                   

 

Dynamic Duo (0-3) Vs. The XXXL 69ers (2-1)  

Dynamic Duo are off to another slow start. They’re 0-3, but they have the 5th most points in the OSFL. They’re one of only 4 teams to score 200+ in all 3 games this season and are averaging 223 PPG. They’re the second most scored upon team in the OSFL, their opponents are averaging 244 PPG against them. Every team we’ve played this season had their highest score of the year to date. There were a lot dominoes that tumbled this week that made us decide to trade the reigning MVP Josh Allen to Phriends of the Devil. Yes we’re 0-3 but there were 2 specific things that happened that made the decision to trade Allen all the more urgent. First we lost one of our starting RBs James Conner for the season and QB Caleb Williams is playing at a very high level. Williams is the #5 overall highest scoring player in the OSFL after 3 weeks. Williams currently has scored 10 points less than Josh Allen. We expected Allen to pull the whole team up by the boot straps and he didn’t. I know it’s extremely early and there will be times when he scores 80+ like he did in week 1, but we lost that game. I heard from several teams after we made the trade and the comments ranged from you panicked to great trade and everything in between. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but we did what we felt we had to do. For anyone to say we panicked, just doesn’t know how we operate, but that’s ok we want you in the dark. There’s no way to say it was a great trade either, not yet anyway. Time will tell. We traded Allen and rookie WR Elic Ayomanor for rookie RB Omarion Hampton/22.5 PPG, Ricky Pearsall/27 PPG, Bryce Young/40 and their week 4 supplemental draft pick. Hampton scored 41 points last week and he no longer has to worry about Najee Harris who is done for the season. This was a major reason we wanted Hampton. He takes Conner’s spot, which we view as an upgrade. Pearsall will go in for JCM who loses his starting spot for now. We expect Pearsall to pick up any slack that Ja’Marr Chase might lose after the injury to Joe Burrow and we rotate Williams in for Allen. You can say whatever you want about Caleb Williams, he’s thrown 655 career pass attempts and only 7 interceptions. His 1.06% interception ratio is among the best all time to start a career and he has already thrown 7 TDs in 2025. He didn’t throw his 7th TD until game 6 last year. We believe we upgraded at RB and WR. We know Williams can’t replace Josh Allen, no one can, but we think Williams will do enough that he’s not going to kill us. We obviously didn’t want to trade Allen, we know he’s the best player in the NFL, but go and try to acquire a RB who isn’t splitting carries, good luck with that. Go try to get any RB at all. Nobody is trading running backs. We feel we got a good one. Both parties viewed this trade as a win-win. Each got exactly what they needed and POTD were the only team that had the surplus to make the move (who needed a QB) and it took balls on both sides to do the deal. Welcome to the new OSFL, a place where blockbusters get made.

XXXL enters this contest coming off their first loss of the season. The KC Chiefs beat the NY Giants for their first win of the season but they did not look good. Patrick Mahomes had his worst game of the season. Mahomes has thrown 3 TD’s passes on the season. Kelce is deteriorating before our eyes. I thought the Giants would be a get well defense but KC had to fight for everything and only managed 2 TDs. KC faces Baltimore. The way the Ravens have played so far this season, this is a get well defense. The Ravens defense got gashed and pushed around by Detroit. The Ravens defense have allowed the most total yards (1245) and the 2nd most (96) points this season. If we don’t see some semblance of offensive continuity from KC this week they might be in some major trouble. They’re 1-2 with a gift win over the Giants. Travis Etienne started the season hot but his production has diminished every week since that first game. He did score his first rushing TD of the season last week, but no catches and he ran for 3.5 YPC, his worst output of 2025. De’Von Achane is stuck in a dysfunctional offense but he’s the most productive member of the Dolphins unit. Achane’s 18 receptions is tied for 2nd most among RB’s. Amon-Ra St. Brown is off to another great start, he currently ranks 2nd averaging 34.5 PPG among WR’s. He’s tied for the league lead with 4 receiving TD’s. Davante Adams has been solid, scoring a TD in back to back weeks and he has a 100 yard game. Adams is dealing with a hamstring and did not practice on Thursday so that will need to be monitored. XXXL has had 2 of the biggest surprises of the season in Etienne and WR Quentin Johnston. Last year Johnston scored 8 TD’s. In 2025, he’s tied for the Chargers lead with 3 TD’s and leads all Chargers WR’s with 239 yards. XXXL may get Chris Godwin back this week. XXXL has inserted Hunter Henry as a second TE after a massive (8-90 and a TD/49 point game). I know the Bengals looked bad but it was only one game. I don’t know if I would shelve Tee Higgins after one bad game. XXXL currently holds onto first place, but there are 4 teams in the Metro West division with 2-1 records. They have a good team, but Dynamic Duo is not an 0-4 team. I’m not picking against my team until I see a weakness and I don’t it see it. We are going to turn this thing around. We are fighting wars every week. We’re 0-3 and facing the first place team in the Metro West. We’re not catching any breaks but it is what it is. I expect to get into another brawl, it’s never easy, but I feel that we will prevail. Dynamic Duo will win.                     

 

The Cowboys (3-0) Vs Allbrite Picks (2-1)

A clear path to success and the playoffs is to be among the least scored upon teams. In 2024, The Cowboys were the least scored upon team, their opponents scored 198 PPG against them which was 12.6 PPG fewer than the next least scored upon team. In 2025, Allbrite Picks is the least scored upon team (opponents are averaging 187.3 PPG against them) and The Cowboys are the second least scored up team (opponents are averaging 190.8 PPG against them). In contrast… G’ss Mafia (opponents are averaging 250 PPG against them) and Dynamic Duo (opponents are averaging 244.7 PPG against them) are the highest scored upon teams. In case you didn’t know, we’re not all playing the same game. Look at the disparity in those numbers. Allbrite and The Cowboys are facing 50 to 60 fewer points per week than the highest scored upon teams. Is this going to be a pillow fight or a shootout. I really don’t know. The Cowboys are also the highest scoring team in the OSFL. If you’re the highest scoring team and the second least scored least scored upon team, that’s how you win a lot games. That’s the reason The Cowboys remain undefeated. Allbrite Picks are dealing with some major issues. Jayden Daniels is about to miss his second consecutive game, forcing The Fish and Disumma to start Trevor Lawrence once again. Lawrence scored 23 points last week which is pathetic. There are 6 free agent QB’s who scored more points than Lawrence did in week 3. It’s tough to win games when your QB is killing you. Derrick Henry fumbled at a crucial point in the game for the third consecutive week. Fumbles are an intersection where real football meets fantasy football. This affects the confidence of the player and the play caller. Henry didn’t just fumble, he almost threw an interception too. Consistency is always an issue but the start of this season has been crazy for many players. Henry looked like a world beater in week 1, then was erased from the game plan in week 2. In game 3 he showed flashes of how good he was in week 1, but ended up being a major liability. Henry is 31 years old. What happens if he continues to fumble? The Ravens look horrible on both sides of the ball. Barring injury, this fumbling issue is the worst possible scenario Henry owners could have expected. I don’t think anyone saw this coming. Jordan Mason’s first start for the Vikings ended up being the best possible scenario (16-116 and 2 TD’s/43.6 points) his owners could have expected. Emeka Egbuka could see increased usage with Mike Evans out and Chris Godwin making his first start. Through 3 games, Drake London has been a severe disappointment, averaging a tick under 16 PPG. That’s more than 10 PPG less than London averaged in 2024. Chris Olave’s usage has been off the charts. Olave leads the NFL averaging over 12 targets per game and is scoring slightly under 21 PPG. Olave has the 3rd most catches among WR’s with 23 receptions. George Pickens has had identical stat lines the last 2 games: 9 targets/5-68 and a TD/23.8 points. A week after exploding for 56 points, Tucker Kraft came back to earth against the top defense in the NFL (Cleveland Browns) scoring 9 points. Kraft should get back on track against Dallas in week 4. 

The Cowboys have sliced through their first 3 opponents like a hot knife thru butter. Last week was The Cowboys closest game, but they never lost the lead in the game even though Zay Flowers had a poor performance and their kicker/defense combined for 8 points. The RB’s are leading the charge for Ron, Dino, the Roc, Mike Calise, Alex Keion and whoever else Ron has decided to sell 2% of the Cowboys to this week. More specifically, Jonathan Taylor is the #1 RB this season thru 3 games. Taylor leads the NFL with 60 carries, 338 rush yards, 431 total yards and is tied with James Cook with 2 - 100 yard games. Taylor is also the only non-QB in the top 9 overall OSFL scores at #4, averaging 51.3 PPG. Chuba Hubbard/27 PPG, Kenneth Walker/26 PPG and Josh Jacobs/26 PPG round out the OSFL’s Four Horsemen. Now that CeeDee Lamb is injured and set to miss his second game (he scored 0 points in week 3), the great benefactor is TE Jake Ferguson who believe it or not is the #1 ranked TE (averaging 30.7 PPG) thru 3 games. Thru 3 weeks we’ve had 3 #1 TE’s (Brock Bowers, Tucker Kraft and now Ferguson). I don’t think Ferguson will remain at #1 for very long, but he is a lock and load TE1 for the foreseeable future. After Taylor, he is the highest scoring non-QB on the Cowboys roster. The Cowboys have been a 4RB/2WR offense since the start of the season with DK Metcalf and Zay Flowers combining for around 41 points per week. Metcalf has scored a TD in each of the last 2 games, but that’s the only thing saving him from a complete washout of a start. Metcalf isn’t getting anywhere near enough usage, averaging 3.3 catches and 45 yards per game. Flowers started the season with 2 BIG games and then disappeared in week 3, which is par for the course for him. Help is on the way in the form of Jordan Addison who returns from his 3 game suspension and Rashid Shaheed who is averaging 4.6 catches and 42 yards per game. Shaheed is slightly outperforming Metcalf (16 PPG to 15.8 PPG). Dak Prescott is the 13th ranked QB and he’s barely hanging onto the 40 PPG threshold all OSFL starting QB’s should maintain. As far as Dak vs Trevor Lawrence, give me Dak every damn day, but Dak vs the Green Bay Packers defense is not a match up I want any part of. Would it be better for The Cowboys to swap Dak out for Jordan Love who faces Dallas in week 4. Lets take a look. The Dallas Cowboys defense allows more points to opposing QB’s (65.7 PPG) and WR’s (81.7 PPG) than any other defense. The Cowboys will employ a press man coverage which historically Love struggles against. The second worst defense vs QB’s is the Chicago Bears (allowing 52.7 PPG), who Dak played last week and scored 37 points against. Dak is facing the Packers who have allowed the 4th least amount of points to QB’s (31.7 PPG). The Packers employ many different schemes but play a lot of zone based coverage which Dak has struggled against historically. Neither QB faces an ideal defense for their style of play, but Dallas is allowing 24 PPG more than Green Bay is against the position. To me it’s clear that a change should be made and Jordan Love should be starting at QB for the reigning, defending, undisputed, undefeated OSFL champions. The Cowboys need subsistence level production out of whoever their QB is. This offense is based on great RB play and the emergence of unexpectedly solid TE play. Actually both of these teams are getting high end production out of their TE’s (Ferguson is ranked #1 and Kraft is #2). A lot will depend on which Derrick Henry shows up in week 4. If it’s the fumbling fool then Allbrite Picks has bigger problems then they could possibly realize. If Henry returns to form and the real Drake London finally shows up and they get a better performance out of Lawrence this could actually turn into a game. There’s a lot that has to turn around for Allbrite to pull the upset. I’m still taking The Cowboys because they’re red hot but it will be interesting to see the outcome of the two least scored upon teams in the OSFL facing each other. Cowboys for the win. 

 

Showtime (2-1) Vs The Wolfpack (1-2)

The Wolfpack are getting carried into the game on a stretcher. They have major injuries at RB and WR. CeeDee Lamb has been ruled OUT this week. I heard him speak after the game and he said he was going to play in week 4, I think this is a better move to hold him out to make sure he’s ready and healthy soon. It’s a huge loss, no way around this one. Terry McLaurin is also OUT. McLaurin had a hold-in in training camp and hasn’t been able to get himself going. Jauan Jennings is questionable and probably going to be a game time decision. They lost Aaron Jones last week, he was placed on IR. Jaylen Warren is questionable but expected to play. It’s a lot to deal with this early in the season and the BYE’s are coming. On the bright side, none of these players are out for the season. The Wolfpack has to roll with the punches for the next few weeks. When the seas get rough in the OSFL, some teams sink and some teams swim. The Wolfpacks week 4 line up is in full blown survival mode. They’re relying on Nick Chubb as their RB2 and they need to keep an eye on Chubb’s usage which has hovered between 12 and 14 touches, because Woody Marks (who they also have) has seen his usage increase from 3, 4 to 7 touches. Jaylen Warren received a career high with 18 touches in week 2, then the Steelers increased his usage to 23 touches in week 3. I’m not looking to curse anyone but that’s too many touches. Jaylen Warren is not a workhorse back, they are going to get him hurt. Veteran Keenan Allen has been outstanding this season scoring 23+ and a TD in every game this season, but ideally you don’t want to start both Allen and Ladd McConkey in the same lineup, especially against the Giants who the Chargers will probably blow out and run a lot on. Thursday night games can be fantasy killers. JSN had his worst game of the season (18.5 points) scoring almost half of his seasonal average (34.4 points per game). TE has been a revolving door, this week David Njoku moves back into the starting line up against a Detroit defense that allowed Mark Andrews to score 40+ points last week. Baker Mayfield has been solid averaging 41 PPG. 

Showtime is dealing with their own injuries. They lost Joe Burrow 2 weeks ago and now Mike Evans is OUT with a hamstring injury. Showtime replaced Burrow with Daniel “Indiana” Jones but he had a subpar game, scoring 32 points against Tennessee. This week Jones goes on the road against a much tougher LA Rams defense. I don’t know if flipping the script and rolling with Stafford is a better option, but it could be. Showtime’s top 2 RB’s has the ability to outscore pretty much any team in the OSFL’s top 2 RB’s. James Cook has been sensational thru the first 3 games averaging 43.3 PPG. Cook has scored 4 TD’s and hit 2 bonuses. Bijan Robinson is averaging 40.6 PPG but he doesn’t pass the eye test like Cook does. It’s the difference between playing on a great team like the Bills and playing on a joke franchise like Atlanta who got smoked by Carolina 30-0 last week. Bijan had his worst game of the season against the Panthers last Week. It doesn’t make any sense. Production is production and thru 3 games, Cook/Bijan have combined for 84 PPG. Thats #1 for any RB tandem and that’s what matters most. That is the foundation of a winner. As good as Showtimes RB’s look, this WR group is inconsistent. What can Showtime expect from Tyreek Hill from week to week? 20 points, maybe? Miami’s offense is so erratic. It’s beginning to look like Tyreek’s best days are in his rear view mirror. From time to time I’m sure we’ll see the ghost of Tyreek Hill appear and he’ll hit a bonus or score a TD. I think if he finishes the year as a WR2 he’s done his job. Jakobi Meyers is the type of player who almost always outperforms his draft position, but Meyers production has slipped since week 1, from 25.7, 18.8 to 12.3 points. Wandale Robinson had 8-142 and a TD/48.2 points in week 2 and then caught 1-26/4.6 points in week 3. How could anyone know what to expect with this type of wild inconsistency. Jerry Jeudy will reenter the starting line up due to Mike Evans’s injury. Jeudy is another WR who’s production is in reverse (16.6, 13.1 to 3.7 points). You can take or leave every single one of these guys. Some weeks they’ll lead the charge and some weeks they’re going to be phantoms. TE Tyler Warren wasn’t going to hit a bonus every week. After the RB’s Warren is the next prominent piece to Showtime’s puzzle. The Wolfpack has to find a way to tread water because things could get rocky. I am not saying they can’t win. Anything can happen in any given week against any opponent. The stars could align for The Wolfpack. I just think even in a bad week Bijan is scoring 30 and James Cook and the Bills are facing New Orleans. I’m taking Showtime to win and if the stars don’t align, this one could get ugly for The Wolfpack.                                                  

 

Bronx Swag (1-2) vs G’ss Mafia (1-1)

G’ss Mafia’s offense has hit the wall early. They beat The Wolfpack in week 1, then have been dismantled the last 2 weeks, losing both games with sub 190 scores, bottoming out last week with 146 points, the lowest score by any team this season. The week after scoring a season low, most teams usually get some type of a bounce. G’ss Mafia has some great match ups. For as long as JK Dobbins is upright he’s been solid, scoring a TD in all 3 games this season. I think Jay and his partners are asking for a serious problem without owning Dobbins backup RJ Harvey. Dobbins should continue his steady production vs Cincinnati this week. Breece Hall had 100 yards in week one and then combined for 50 total yards over the next 2 games. His usage has also slipped from 21 touches in week 1, to 12 touches in week 2, to 13 touches in week 3. I’m not ready to completely write off Hall yet because he did face Buffalo and Tampa Bay in week 2 and 3, and he does have some perceived soft matches on the horizon, but when production and usage fall off, it’s a red flag. Hall has to play better. It’s difficult to determine what Washington is doing at RB. A week after Austin Ekeler went down for the season with an injury. Chris Rodriguez started the game in week 3 and played the entire 1st quarter, rushing for a lackluster 11-39 and no TD’s. Then Jeremy McNichols rushed 4-78, including a fluke 60 yard rushing TD, and finally Jacory Croskey-Merritt rushed 8-26 and a TD. Trying to understand that mess just isn’t worth it, we have to let it play itself out. Rico Dowdle’s usage is starting to increase, from 6 touches, to 7 to 11 last week and he scored a TD. Chuba Hubbard is questionable coming into week 4, so Dowdle’s usage could increase even more. Marvin Harrison Jr. looked lost during the first half of the Thursday night game, running the wrong routes, dropping balls, he looked lost and overwhelmed. In the second half he flipped the script and ended up catching 6-66 with a TD/25.6 points, salvaging what was shaping up to be a disastrous game. Carson Wentz didn’t look bad in his first start for the Vikings, completing 70% of his passes for 173 yards and 2 TD’s in a blow out against the Bungles. It’s still early, but Justin Jefferson has been the biggest 1st round disappointment averaging just 17.3 PPG. Brian Thomas Jr. carries no injury designation heading into week 4. He’s had a miserable start to the season, averaging 2.3 catches and 38 yards per game and he hasn’t scored a TD yet. Thomas isn’t even ranked in the top 50 WR’s. He’s been targeted 25 times and only has 7 catches. If you only catch 28% of the passes thrown to you, you will not last long in the NFL. Brian Thomas Jr. has to play better. I think the day of completely shying away from opposing defenses is over, unless it’s the Cleveland Browns. The Browns have allowed the fewest (613) total yards thru 3 games. That’s an average of 204 combined pass and rush yards per game. As I write, G’ss Mafia has 3 Lions in their starting lineup facing the Browns. Jared Goff only threw for 202 yards and a TD against a bad Ravens defense that allowed 38 points. They also have Jameson Williams who is way too dependent on the BIG play and is only averaging 3 touches per game and Sam Laporta. That’s a lot of guys playing in the a game against the best defense in the NFL. 

Bronx Swag is coming off their best week of the season in which they logged their first win of the season and a high score. When a player averages a certain amount and then goes out and hits that number consistently, it’s a rare thing. Lamar Jackson is averaging 51.5 PPG and has scored 49.5, 51 and 54 points. You cannot ask for better consistency than that. Jackson has compiled (9 thrown/1 rushed) for 10 TD’s. Christian McCaffrey leads all players with 77 touches, including 25 receptions. It’s kind of ironic that CMC is one of the healthiest players on the 49ers roster. CMC is averaging 40.6 PPG. The best part of Tony Pollard is that he has received 84% of the Titans RB rush attempts. He’s averaging 21 PPG. Chase Brown had a brutal week 3. Brown rushed 10 times for 3 yards. His usage and production has diminished each week, from 23 touches/26.6 points, to 18 touches/18.5 points to 14 touches/15 points, over the first 3 games. Usage and production going down consistently over multiple weeks is a bad sign. Garrett Wilson is the best player on a winless Jets team. He’s currently ranks as the 9th best WR, averaging 26.6 PPG. Wilson also ranks 5th among all WR’s with 21 catches. Jaylen Waddle has scored a TD in back to back games. I hate sounding like a broken record, but Hollywood Brown’s usage/production has gone down in 3 consecutive weeks: 10 touches/30 points, to 5 touches/13 points and 4 touches/12 points. Bronx Swag’s owners obviously didn’t read or read and ignored last weeks gazette, because I laid out why they should’ve started Mark Andrews over Ja’Tavian Sanders in week 3, but they didn’t listen. That was an easy one, but Bronx Swag decided to swap out Mark Andrews who had his best game of the season/46 points for their week 2 supplemental draft pick up Sanders who scored 5 points. Hopefully those 41 points don’t comeback to bite them in the ass later on down the line. Ed Money is one of the best draft day talent evaluators in the OSFL, but he is not a week to week offensive coordinator. Those decisions are best left to Frankie. It’s why they work so well as a team. I think Bronx Swag could be headed for a bit of a dip and G’ss Mafia should at least have a dead cat bounce and if I was going to pick an upset, this would be the game but all those Lions going against Cleveland will prevent me from doing that. G’ss Mafia is looking more like the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. I’m picking Bronx Swag to take them out in a professional styled hit.                 

 

Two Weeks of Bacon (1-2) Vs 3 All The Way (1-2)

3 All The Way had 3 players go on Thursday and while it wasn’t completely horrible, none of them cracked 20 points. Trey Benson was their highest scoring player with 19.4 points which was an ugly 13 touch performance that was saved by 5 catches. Trey McBride had a season high 7 catches and scored 19.2 points and Cooper Kupp managed a meager 10.6 points. 3ATW will need to rally. Jalen Hurts threw his first 3 TD’s of the season last week on route to his best game of the year (59.3 points). They need more of that. Last week I said it was now or never for Isaiah Pacheco against a NY Giants defense who was allowing 178 rush yards per game and he flat lined. We have come to that same fork in the road with Ashton Jeanty. It is now or never against a bad Chicago Bears run defense, who have allowed the 6th most rushing yards this season. Jeanty ranks 11th out of the 12 1st round picks, averaging 18.4 PPG. Only Justin Jefferson/17.3 PPG has averaged less. Puka Nacua is the #1 WR in the game averaging 42.3 PPG. Nacua enters week 4, leading all players with 29 receptions and 333 receiving yards, but he has yet to score a TD. Courtland Sutton had a huge week 3 (6-118 and a TD/43.8 points). Through 3 games, Dalton Kincaid appears to have returned to his rookie form after disappearing in year 2. Kincaid has scored 2 TD’s and is averaging 18.4 PPG. 

TWB logged their first victory of the season in week 3. They’ll look to make it 2 in a row in week 4. Drake Maye has been a top 5 fantasy QB thru 3 game, averaging 47 PPG. Maybe gets what should be another good match up against Carolina. Even though the Panthers shutout the Falcons 30-0 last week, that speaks more to how ineffective the Falcons offense is. The Patriots offense isn’t much better, especially rushing the ball. The only reason anyone would start either Rhamondre Stevenson or TreVeyon Henderson, never mind both of them in the same lineup is because you have to. If these were Belichick’s Patriots, Stevenson would probably be benched or worse, but we don’t know how Mike Vrabel will play it. He’s saying the Patriots need Stevenson and he’s right, but this guy has to hold onto the ball. Henderson got his biggest workload to date in week 3 with 14 touches and did almost nothing with them. Cam Skattebo has taken over as the Giants primary ball carrier. Last week he compiled 16 touches and was the focal point of the Giants offense. David Montgomery looked as good as he has ever looked on Monday night football, gashing the Ravens defense for 12-151 and 2 TD’s. That’s 12.5 YPC! They could not stop him. Montgomery looked great last week, but expectation must be tempered facing Cleveland this week. In week 5 against the Bengals its a different story. Nico Collins had a breakout game (8-104 and a TD/46.4 points) but he did lose a fumble. Collins has scored a TD the last two times he’s faced the Titans. How Malik Nabers can go from 9-167 and 2 TD’s to 2-13 in one week is shocking. My first thoughts are, he must have played hurt and low and behold, Nabors popped up as limited with a shoulder injury but he holds no injury designation. The Giants are swapping out QB Russell Wilson for rookie QB Jaxson Dart. Another issue could’ve been Wilson’s ineffectiveness. It remains to be seen how Dart will affect the Giants offense, but however he does, it will reflect on TWB’s players. It’s a little crazy that 50% of TWB’s offense is now compiled of Patriots and Giants. Really all of TWB’s players emanate from bad teams except Montgomery. It’s extremely early but Juwan Johnson might be the pick up of the year thus far. Since using their 1st compensation pick on Johnson, he’s scored 22 and 17 points in the starting lineup for Two Weeks of Bacon. I think the remaining stars left on 3ATW’s active roster come up BIG, including Jeanty. TWB must have BIG game out of Collins and Nabors and I think they get at least one. It’s difficult to determine what TWB will get from their Patriots/Giants. I’m taking 3 All The Way for the win.         

 

 

Weekly High Scores

Week 1: G-Force - 255

Week 2: The Cowboys - 329

Week 3: Bronx - 270

 

We will be meeting for our week 4 Supplemental Draft.