That means that just two games separate the three 3-1 teams at the top of the standings from the three 1-3 teams at the bottom.
Then there's that wide middle, the four 2-2 teams who haven't quite figured out where their season will go. There's Explosion, winner of two in a row and the league's top scorer (by just five points). And then there's Hahne, so impressive in the first two weeks but quite literally missing since.
Still, with nine games left to play before the start of playoffs, anything can happen.
Week 4's games were pretty dull, with the lone exception being the Practice-Green Trees game. Even that was pretty much decided going into Monday night (Brandon Marshall would've needed to grab 16 points to tie). In each of the other four matchups, the winners had a triple-digit score while the losers finished with totals in the 70s.
Several of the top individual performers apparently thought it was still 2006. Gates, LT, and TO had 27, 28, and 32 points, respectively. But alone at the top was the fantasy newcomer Arian Foster, who tallied a nice 33 points after sitting out for the first quarter. That helped lead Practice? to its first win.
We talkin' 'bout Practice? Yes, and he begins our Week 4 recap:
Practice? 133, Trees 121
After losing two games in which he scored the second- and third-most points of the week, Practice? was probably wondering if a win would ever come. Really, there's only one way to ensure a win in head-to-head fantasy football: score the most points in a single week. Well, that's just what Practice? did, scoring 133 and making Trees the week's Hard-Luck Loser. That's a new JFL term to describe a team that lost while scoring in the top four for the week.
Trees would have beaten seven of the other teams in the league.
But Trees, who still has the league's easiest schedule so far, finally had an opponent score more than 85 points, and it came back to bite him.
The cynic might say that Trees would've won if Adrian Peterson wasn't on bye week (Laurence Maroney got 1 point as his replacement), but let's just be glad that Practice?, the league's second-leading scorer, finally got a win. It's only fair.
Ants 101, Republic 72
The other 0-3 team going into Week 3, Ants, also snagged his first win of the season. Ants has scored the second-lowest number points in the league, but his opponents have scored the second-highest number of points. That's a recipe for some tough losses, but this week was the first exception.
He ran into Republic, who has the league's lowest average score (83.25) after four weeks. Some tough performances from quarterbacks have really hurt Republic so far.
Ants and Republic each had quarterbacks finish with negative totals. Cutler had a minus-3 before leaving with a concussion, and Anderson had a minus-2 before being benched. If that wasn't enough, Ants bye week running back Lynch had eight yards and a fumble for a minus-2.
But nice days from Jones-Drew (24) and Calvin Johnson (20) helped Ants get a win during top QB Romo's bye week.
Fartsicle 128, Hahne 72
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Remember Weeks 1 and 2 when Hahne scored 133 and 143 points? He was the leading scorer each of the first two weeks and looked unstoppable. Then something happened in Week 3. I don't know what it was, but his team stopped showing up.
Last week, he started a player who was inactive on his way to finishing at 53 points, the lowest total in Jea Football League history.
This week, he tied for the week low with 72 points. The culprit this time wasn't a late scratch but two starters on bye week! We can assume that he didn't check ESPN even once in the past week. That means chances are good he won't be reading this blog, either. But just in case: WAKE UP, HAHNE!
But seriously, inactive owners are no fun, and we miss you, Hahne. So if you or someone you know is friends with Hahne, please remind him to check out his roster once a week to move bye week players to the bench. Well, unless he doesn't care about the fate of his $20 entry fee. If that's the case, keep on doing what you're doing!
Would it have mattered in Week 4, though? Probably not, because Fartsicle had a solid 128 points to grab his second win and finish in second in points for the week.
Explosion 115, Steeles 78
Steeles' streak of 110+ points per week ended in Week 4 thanks to an implosion at the running back positon. With WR1 Andre Johnson already on the Steeles bench with an injury, the vaunted Steeles running backs weren't much help. They combined for 18 points.
The good news for Steeles, though, might be on the QB front. He finally had a QB2 score in double digits (Gradkowski, 14). In fact, his QB3 for the week, Kevin Kolb, also scored in double digits (12) on the bench. Kolb will be the Week 5 starter, so things could be looking up.
Meanwhile, Explosion followed up his 174-point outburst last week with another triple-digit day, helping pull him out of the funk that emanated from his 0-2 start to the season. He's now the the league's top scorer and the highest-ranked 2-2 team.
Screech 110, When 79
LT is back! The 11th-round draft pick scored 28 points to lead Screech to a victory. And thanks to Trees' loss to Practice?, the Screech is now in first place. True, only eight points separate first and third, but still!
So far, the Screech has been the most consistent team through four weeks, for whatever that's worth. Points so far: 117, 107, 116, 110. But that could easily change with bye weeks now here in full force, so don't get cocky, Screech!
For When, it was a disappointing week in which just three of his starters scored double digits, and the leading scorer only had 17.
Other notes
- For more stats than you'll know what to do with, check out An's stat page, already updated with fresh numbers from Week 4.
- It's way too early to think about playoff chances, but let's do it anyway. If all remaining games were decided by flipping a coin, the three 3-1 teams would have about an 82 percent shot at making the playoffs, while the 1-3 teams would get in about 36 percent of the time. You can look at all that here.
- Finally, put on your parka and visit Club Zero, a graveyard of sorts for the players who score 0 points (or less--yikes!).
