In the case of two of the matchups, a 93- and a 73-point blowout, it was the one that got really far away really fast.
But in the other three contests, each of the losers could've won if they had made a single roster switch. That's the case many weeks, of course, but it's hard for the losers not to think that they've made a huge mistake.
Let's look at the numbers.
Republic 101, Fartsicle 88
Team Fartsicle is your clubhouse leader in the battle for "Worst Roster Move of the Season." He picked up a new tight end, Dustin Keller, and had nearly four full days to make two clicks and add Keller to his active roster. But, inexplicably, Keller sat on the Fartsicle bench all weekend. He didn't sit on the Jets' bench, though. He went for 98 yards and two scores, which was good enough for 21 points. Add 21 points to Fartsicle's score, and he's won the week. Oops!
On the other side of the matchup, Republic scored enough to snag his first victory, even though the two top scorers on his team (Benson and Cassel) combined for 42 points...on the bench.
Explosion 174, Ants 81
If Fartsicle hadn't left his TE spot empty, his score would've been much higher. If Ants hadn't left his D/ST spot empty, his score would've been slightly lower!
Yes, the "Move of the Week" could be Ants picking up the Dolphins defense and then keeping them on the bench while they finished with minus-2 points. Now that's the way to stay out of Club Zero.
It wouldn't have mattered either way, though, as even Ants' combined bench and starters would've lost to Explosion by 67. Or look at it this way: take Explosion's three top scorers for the week (Collie, Wallace, and either QB) and bench everyone else. That game would've been closer, but Explosion's three starters still would've beaten Ants' 10 starters, 83-81.
Trees 126, Hahne 53
Do you like battles between unbeaten teams? How about dull, lopsided victories? Well then you probably enjoyed Trees-Hahne about as much as you loved Steelers-Bucs.
It's tough to figure out this Hahne team. He was the league's leading scorer in each of the first two weeks, and then he sets the Jea Football League record for lowest single-week scorer (previous low: 64). Ouch. Part of it was his own fault, though. He started Jerome Harrison, who was inactive because of injury. And that minus-3 from the Bucs' defense didn't help much, either.
The rest of it was just consistent suckiness from his entire team. Look at these numbers from his running backs, receivers, and tight end: 2, 3, 0, 2, 2, 2, 2. That's gonna make things difficult. His lone bright spot was from Peyton Manning, who scored nearly half of the team's points (26). Oh, and while we're piling on here, know that Hahne's bench outscored his starters, 54-53.
For Trees, victory came easily despite benching Anquan Boldin (33 points). Trees is one of only two remaining unbeaten teams. (Steeles is the other). But how can Trees be 3-0 when he's sixth in the league in points scored? He has the easiest schedule in the league so far. Opponents are averaging 67.3 points per week against him. The team with the next highest opponent point total is the other 3-0 team, Steeles, whose foes are averaging 92.3 points per game. Ah, the joys of head-to-head fantasy football!
Steeles 119, Screech 115
Now here is how a battle between unbeaten teams is supposed to go down. Well, I would've preferred to win, of course, but this one came down to the final minutes of the Monday night game.
Sure, I could've started Matt Ryan (19 points) instead of Sam Bradford (11), but where's the fun in that? Going into Monday night with a 10-point lead, I knew anything could happen. Steeles needed to outscore me by 11 to win, and he ended up with 14 more Monday night points, thanks mainly to a 10-point night from Johnny Knox.
But it was up for grabs as Green Bay drove down the field, needing a field goal to take the lead. That would've meant points for my kicker, Mason Crosby. Instead, the Packers fumble and give the ball to Chicago, which orchestrated a drive that set up a field goal for his kicker. That's a 6-plus point swing that truly was the difference. Good game!
Meanwhile, the Steeles quarterback controversy continues. After two straight weeks of 0 points from his QB2, his third QB2, Josh Freeman, got him 6 points. Freeman's on bye for Week 4, so he'll be dropped for a fourth different Steeles quarterback. Stay tuned.
When 136, Practice 128
The other really good game of the week was the sibling rivalry between When and Practice. "When Practice?" "I dunno, ask coach."
Like me, Practice could've swapped his benched quarterback (Flacco) for his low-scoring starting QB and won the week. But Brett Favre against the Lions seems like a good matchup on paper, so you can't blame him for the fact that Favre only had 8 points.
Practice starts the season 0-3, and you can't say he isn't trying. Instead, blame unfortunate scheduling. A quick look at An's stat page shows that Practice has had the second-toughest schedule so far (Ants has the toughest). That means that Practice has a team that's better than his 0-3 record suggests. In Week 1, he played the team that scored the most points, while he scored the second-most. And in Week 3, he played the team that finished second in scoring for the week, while he finished third.
Meanwhile, big bro (When) got a solid win and sits near the middle of the pack for most statistical categories.
What's next
The byes are here! We've seen empty roster spots that could've helped or hurt a team, but now we get to find out which team will be the first to start someone who's on bye!
Club Zero
Rather than keep this post going on even longer, check out the latest Club Zero additions here.
