WEEK 1 RECAPS - MATCHUPS 1-3

Alright turds you know the drill – it’s time for the GW Bush League Week 1 recaps. As always this will be a weekly occurrence and generally come out in 2-3 separate pieces per week. I’ll cover everything from the matchups, to injuries, breakouts, busts, trade analysis, Ken’s collusion, you name it. I’ll also try to keep the interviews going because I think those are fun.

I’m a little short on time this week due to work, so I’m just going to give you 5 quick reactions/thoughts from each matchup this week. In honor of the Browns and Steelers tie, I will name each note after the four quarters in a game and the overtime period. Period is right…… I’ll see myself out. (Don’t think about that one too long.)

Matchup 1: The GOAT And His Kids 162.3 vs. The West Canaan Coyotes 143.2

First Quarter: What a roller season for Kev so far. After never picking in the top 4, he gets the second pick this year and finally gets an elite RB. Ecstasy. Less than a week later, LeVeon Bell decides he’s going to hold out and Kev loses his first round pick. Despair. Kev was smart and handcuffed Bell with Conner (a move I applauded him for in the draft recaps), so he was somewhat covered. Relief. James Conner scored 41 points this week and Kev beat me by 19. What a lucky fucking break. If Conner just has a good game I probably win, but instead he goes off and Kev is riding on cloud nine. Kev also won high score for the week and earned $25.

Second Quarter: If Kev is on cloud nine, I’m on cloud negative nine. I lost by 20 when the following happened: James Conner bullshit, Christian McCaffrey fumbles on the 3 yard line (8 pts), Alfred Blue vultures a 1 yard TD from Lamar Miller (6 pts), the same Miller comes up 2 yards shy of the 100 yard bonus (2 pts) and Travis Kelce scored 1.1 fantasy points (can’t even get me 5?).

Third Quarter: I’ve had some pretty bad luck in fantasy stretching back to last year. I lost this matchup 162-143 and was the highest scoring team to lose a game. The last time I played a meaningful game I lost 143-107 (1st round 2017playoffs). Overall my opponents are averaging more than 150 points per game the last two matchups. On a macro level, I went 2-3 this week across 5 leagues and traded James Conner away in one of those. Rough go of it for the Commish these days.

Fourth Quarter: The big question for Kev’s team of course relates to LeVeon Bell. Is he going to come back for Week 2? Will he hold out til Week 11 which is the last date he can return and still be eligible for free agency? Conner proved that Bell is just a system back, so I’d think he’ll want to come back and outplay him. Worst case scenario is Bell comes back and they end up in some kind of time-share. Best case is Bell doesn’t come back til Week 11.

Overtime: Kev’s WRs are absurd and it shows how much of an advantage the early picks were. His combination of Mike Evans, AJ Green and Jarvis Landry scored 58 points all together. Him and Frader had the best WR groups coming out of the draft and Kev’s definitely outperformed Frader’s this week.

Matchup 2: DeAngelo Vickers 143.2 vs. You Done Messed Up, A A Ron! 120.6

First Quarter: This is a perfect segue to show how bad my luck is in this league. Guy and I scored the exact same amount of points this week and my bench outscored his. Guy is 1-0, I’m 0-1. FML. Anyways it was a huge week for Guy and he has Todd Gurley to thank for much of it. The #1 overall pick scored 29.2 points on 20 carries, 108 yards, 3 catches, 40 yards and a TD. Huge win for Guy and I think he’s really going to make some noise this year.

Second Quarter: Gronk was huge for Vickers this week, scoring 22 points on 7/123 and a TD. The top 5 TEs picked in this year’s draft were Gronk, Kelce, Ertz, Olsen and Delanie Walker. Gronk scored 22 points while the other 4 combined for 19.9. Hot take: TE shouldn’t be a position in fantasy, just throw in another FLEX.   

Third Quarter: DeAngelo got 27.5 points combined from his Kicker and D/ST which was by far the most in the league. The Vikings D ragdolled Jimmy G to the tune of 17 points, while Third Leg Greg Zeurlein put up an NFL high 10.5 fantasy points. Greg Zeurlein is now third leg Greg, while Greg Olsen is 1 leg Greg. Guy beat Frader 27.5:15.5 in specialist scoring, which accounts for more than 50% of the margin of victory.

Fourth Quarter: Another good segue here – at the draft recaps I said Frader had the #1 WR group while Kev had the second best. For week 1 I was wrong: Kev’s top 3 scored 58.1, while Frader’s top 3 scored 50.7. THAT SAID, Frader inexplicably started Marvin Jones over JuJu (I heard there was a funny moment on draft day related to JuJu, but I’ll move on). Anyways JuJu scored 16.4 while Jones scored just 7.4. If you swap JuJu in for Marvin, Frader’s top 3 WRs scored 59.7. I guess that makes my draft recap right?

Overtime: Frader’s RBs are a little concerning and is something I pointed out in the draft recap. His 2 starting RBs accounted for just 25 points and his 3 bench RBs fared even worse: 14.8 combined. Sony Michel didn’t play which will change in future weeks, but Frader’s gonna have to start looking at waivers for some help there.

Matchup 3: Kens African Safari 101.3 vs. DalvinCooKens AfricanRhino 92.7

First Quarter: This was easily the lowest scoring game of the week at a combined total of 194 points. Kev scored 162.3 against me and these two teams combined for 194 – sick (last pity party I swear). Anyways Ken was lucky to get away with a win here as Robby D was legitimately the only team he would have beaten this week. Kind of hilarious that the two teams with team names honoring Ken’s matrimony played in the toilet bowl this week. Can’t wait to play Rob D in Week 3 and watch him put up 150 on me. (Okay really, last gripe.)

Second Quarter: To further illustrate how poor this matchup was, you can go right to the D/ST scoring. Robby D got -3 from the Chargers D, while Ken got -7 from the Saints D. Getting -7 from your D and still winning? Happy wedding gift Ken. This is definitely the only time in league history that both defenses scored negative.

Third Quarter: LeSean McCoy was a giant bust for Robby D this week and managed only 4 fantasy points (7 carries 22 yards, 1 catch -1 yard). Sixty One running backs scored more than that this week and Rob D has to be worried about his 3rd round pick. McCoy was a bust candidate coming in, but no one expected this bad. I think he’ll be better going forward, but expectations definitely need to be adjusted.

Fourth Quarter: Ken’s top 2 WRs are the main reason he won as he got 45 combined points from Antonio Brown and Julio Jones.  Despite Roethlisberger playing poorly and the Falcons only scoring 12 points, both star WRs were able to contribute heavily to Ken’s team. Throw in Adam Thielen’s 15.2 and Ken’s top 3 WRs are right up there with Kev and Fraders.

Overtime: While both teams sucked this week, both teams had some really promising bench performances. Ken got 27 from Emmanuel Sanders and 27 from Isaiah Crowell, plus had Edelman waiting in the wings. Robby D on the other and got 23 from Chris Thompson who picked up right where he left off.