WEEK 4 RANKINGS
Not a lot of changes again this week in our rankings. The good teams are still good and the struggling teams are still struggling. How does early season success translate to end of seasons results? Inspired by a text string conversation, I decided to take a look at the last 3 years rankings at Week 4 just to see how those teams fared. And the bad news for Rocky... he's not going 15-0 and I won't be presenting the KAOS Cup in October. Here are the details:
Over the last three seasons, the eventual league winner has been ranked 7th, 9th and 7th in the Week 4 Polls. So what have we learned? That Championships are not won in September. I looked at some of the rosters to find some reasons why:
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Injuries. Some of the teams at the top of the rankings had injured players,
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Slow starts. Keepers took a few weeks to get going, and
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Waiver Wire. Teams at the bottom of the standings get first crack at grabbing un-drafted breakout players that weren't on anybody's radar in August.
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Now on to the ratings...
#1 Big Rock 2X
Rocky moves back into the top spot this week with a 244 point explosion in Week 3. Keenan Allen (48), Raheem Mostert (45) and Kirk Cousins (32) all came up big. Joe Burrow didn't look like himself on Monday Night but he wasn't needed in this blowout victory. That might not be the case this week with Jimmy Garoppolo in the concussion protocol.
# 2 - Wrath of Khan
Jimmy won, but dropped a spot. Maybe if he scored 100 more points we would have looked at his case differently. Justin Herbert (35), Tyreek Hill (32) and Travis Kelce (19) led this top-heavy lineup. I think Jim may have the right ideal on roster composition. get 4 or 5 game-breakers at the top of the lineup and work off a high floor each week.
#3 Mel Kipers Best Available
Pete goes to 1-2 on the season with 143-109 win over MFT. Lamaar Jackson (29), Mike Williams (27) and Deshaun Watson (25) looked good in the victory. If the QB's start playing up to their potential, Pete could go on a run. The Mike Williams injury is a killer, but at least there is plenty of WR talent on this roster and around the league.
#4 '69 Olds
On a team that has Patrick Mahomes (31) and Jalen Hurts (21), of course the lead scorer this week was the Bills D/ST (35). So of course they lost. I look at the roster here and it's kind of a mess. The one weak position is RB. With that being the case he decided to start three of them. It didn't end well as all 3 combined for 26 points. Psst... Joshua Kelley is not Austin Ekeler and Alexander Mattison isn't Dalvin Cook (2021 version). Hopefully Aiyuk and Watson come back soon from their injuries.
#5 - Springfield Flanders
Glenn won a game! Unfortunately it was against the Ghostbusters and the year is 2023, so it's not that hard to do. The game went back and forth all weekend and Flanders looked like they were going to lose, but AJ Brown (22) and Jamaar Chase (26) exploded in the 2nd half of their MNF games. Brock Purdy threw up the ugliest 24 point performance from a QB on Thursday Night.
#6 (tie) Black Ghostbusters
You have no idea how badly I wanted to rank my team 7th this week (since 2 of the last 3 champions have been ranked 7 through the first 3 weeks). But a tie for 6 is sort of like 7th. The problem so far? This team just doesn't score any TDs. Through 3 weeks, their non-QB players have a combined 6 TD's. In 2 Games. Four of which are from Davante Adams (42). Even the QBs have only 6 TDs through 3 weeks.
#6 (Tie) Peeping Tomlins
A second win in a row earned Jared a tie for 6th in the rankings this week. KW III (30) has come back from the dead and looks to be RB1 on the Seahawks depth chart. CJ Stroud (25) looks like the real deal in Houston. Unfortunately squeaky wheel AJ Brown took all the touches away from DeVonta Smith (6) this week. Maybe he should have yelled at Jalen Hurts on the sideline.
#8 Milford Football Team
Woof! 109 points last week caused CJ to place half his team on the trade block. Josh Allen (23), CMC (22) and Geno Smith (17) led the way in this one.
#9 Skoal Bandits
The Bandits followed their 171 point explosion last week with a 106 point dud. Is there something in the Milford water supply? Father and son combined output this week would have lost to Rocky by 29 points. Kenny Pickett (23) and Chris Olave (18) were the only highlights here. Daniel Jones (3.98) is killing this team.
#10 - Dark Helmet
At this point, I am not even sure that Dan is checking in. So instead of wasting the time to write a summary, I will just make up a fact* about Dan each week and you'll have to decide if it is true or not. This week fun fact for Dan: He toook a year off from school in 1985 to travel around the country with A Flock of Seagulls (the band, not of the avian variety.)
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* The term "Make up the facts" was a term that was coined at the Golden Star Cafe in Bridgeport CT in the mid 80's. It would infuriate Kevin, Dan and Bill every time I would use it because they claim it was impossible to make up facts. Little did they know 40 years later Donald Trump would make it an art form.
