Another belated post, with one more likely to follow today or tomorrow, this time looking at how my team got on in week 1 of the new season.
We were up against Toby's team, TBONE, a late addition to the league but they had a pretty nice draft. Going into the game we were strong favourites with a predicted final score in the region of 150-70, but as these things often go it was a lot closer than expected.
Carlos Hyde nearly pulled it back for Toby on Monday as San Fransisco stomped all over the recently relocated Rams as the majority of my players were involved in the early games on Sunday. I had to put my faith in LA's defence and boy did I nearly regret it!
A quick look at my starting lineup does show that I had a large number of underachievers in week one. Leading the pack were Gary Barnidge (no receptions) and the LA Defence (with a solitary point) but not far behind was round 1 pick Devonta Freeman (20 yards rushing, 20 yards receiving). Going into the week I had expected both Freeman and Barnidge to generate around 10 points each, with the Rams defence picking up around 4 or 5, a grand total of 20 points left out on the field.
At the opposite end of the scale we had strong performances from David Carr (319 yards, 1 TD) and DeMarco Murray (42 rush yards, 35 receiving yards, 2 receiving TDs). The solitary TD for Carr was perhaps a little disappointing but his all round game was strong and I expect that we will see similar or improved numbers from him next week.
Achieving roughly what was expected of them were Doug Martin, Michael Crabtree, D'Andre Hopkins and Cairo Santos. I had hoped that, against a weak Saints secondary, Crabtree would have picked up a couple of touchdowns as he is a big red zone target for the Raiders but it wasn't to be.
For my opponent his players went to the extremes, either brilliantly or awfully. On the brilliant side of things he had Carson Palmer, Ryan Matthews and Carlos Hyde. Each put on a good show and a few more points from the underachievers and TBONE could have had a week one upset.
Unfortunately there were the underachievers. Catanzaro missed a key field goal against NE, Keenan Allen ended his season after only 63 yards and OBJ and Jordy Nelson looked a little rusty. With only one TE on his roster Toby had to start Eifert who is probably a few weeks away from starting for the Bengals.
On the bench I probably had the better options for replacements. The Raiders just about outperformed the Rams on defence, while Alshon Jeffery and Jordan Matthews each had pretty decent games. Both of our backup QBs performed well but not well enough to put our starters under any real pressure.
My optimal lineup for this week would have been:
QB - Carr
RB - Murray, Martin
WR - Matthews, Hopkins
TE - Barnidge (no other option)
W/R - Crabtree
K - Santos
DEF - Raiders
total points - 100.16 (14.40 better than my starting lineup)
But a win is a win, and in the end that is all that matters.
A look at the rest of the league sees us sitting in the middle of the pack, with one or two big performers in week one but most teams still within touching distance.
Next up are Andrew's Newton Haven Blues who won a close game with Gary's 4th and Goal team. Early projections have the Dolphins winning 99.62 - 99.00, a very tight game which could easily swing either way on the night.
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