Week 6 Wrap-up

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The Glass is Half-something

Week 6 is in the books which brings us roughly to the halfway point in the season. I've been saying each week that the playoff spots are still anyone's for the taking, but from this point forward the competition is going to get a lot stiffer. For those teams that are below the .500 mark the coming weeks are especially important as we try to pull ourselves up from the gutters to gain ground on the division leaders. Every game from here on out is a do-or-die situation. But it won't be much easier for the teams on top of the standings. After all, the counterpart to the epic comeback of a struggling team is the crash-and-burn meltdown of a top team. Competition is especially close in the East division where only three games separate first from last, and with seven weeks remaining, anything might happen there.

Quit playing games with my heart.

Week 6 continued the previous week's trend of one-sided blowouts, at least for half the games. Three matches were decided by a margin of more than 40 points. The most surprising victory came from Chris' HerpDerp Bergers who upset Eric's TGIF to grab their first victory of the year. Congrats to Chris on grabbing the win in stellar fashion. In the Battle of the Mediocre, Ash's Shittysauruses beat out my (say-it-while-I-can champion) Pumaskulls on a 38-yard TD-catch by Santonio "Heartbreaker" Holmes. Congrats Ash on the win, it literally made me sick. We had a great game in the match-up of Phillips brothers, with Matt's Mega Shark edging out Drew's Boomers. Both teams played great but Mega Shark had solid performances from eight of nine positions to grab the victory. And in the Match-up of the Week, Cox's Annexation put the smackdown on Juan's Nerfherders to grab sole possession of the league's best record.

I've made a huge mistake: I drafted Vick.

Now that the season is halfway done, we can take a look back at the draft and start to grade the picks. I'll hardly be the first to say that drafting Vick first round was a mistake. While he ranks sixth for quarterbacks so far this year, it has not been worth the complete lack of a decent running back, and the fact that he has zero rushing touchdowns on the year isn't much compensation. Other first round busts would include Jamaal Charles, who went down with an injury, Andre Johnson, also affected by injuries, and Rashard Mendenhall, who has just generally sucked. On the other side of the coin, there were some great grabs outside of the first three rounds. Since Cam Newton went undrafted, he doesn't really count here, though he is the biggest surprise player of the year. The top running back so far has been Fred Jackson, who was grabbed late in the fourth round by Drew and has paid off immensely. Matthew Stafford ranks 5th among quarterbacks, just a few points below Drew Brees, and now seems like a steal, going at the top of round 6 to Brett's Fluffy Bunnies. The award for best picks might have to go to Matt. Not only did he grab Wes Welker, who leads wide receivers in points, in round 5, but he also picked A.J. Green in round 9. Green ranks 6th among receivers, great worth for his draft position. Other great picks are Jahvid Best (round 4), Jimmy Graham (round 7), Steve Smith (round 9), Tony Gonzales (round 12), and Darren Sproles (round 13).

In other NFL news, the Packers are now the only undefeated team after the Lions lost in the last minutes of Sunday's game against the 49ers. The most exciting part of the game came after it was done, when Niners coach Jim Harbaugh got a little too excited for Lion's coach Jim Schwartz's liking. Schwartz chased Harbaugh down to yell at him, and the whole stadium erupted with "COACH FIGHT!" Unfortunately it was broken up before any punches were thrown, cause let's be honest, that would have been bad-ass.

Top 10 Players In-play

1. Ahmad Bradshaw[RB] (HURR) - 31
2. Michael Turner[RB] (SHSR) - 26.7
3. Aaron Rodgers[QB] (PHSH) - 23.9
4. Fred Jackson[RB] (NWA) - 22.8
5. Matthew Stafford[QB] (FLUF) - 20.6
5. Frank Gore[RB] (MEGA) - 20.6
5. Rashard Mendenhall[RB] (FLUF) - 20.6
8. Josh Freeman[QB] (COX) - 20.4
9. Billy Cundiff[K] (HURR) - 20
9. Jets D/ST (ATOM) - 20

Season Points Leaders by Position

QB:
1. Aaron Rodgers (PHSH) - 161.9
2. Cam Newton (SLNF) - 142.9
3. Tom Brady (NWA) - 137.5
4. Drew Brees (TGIF) - 129.6
5. Matthew Stafford (FLUF) - 122.1

RB:
1. Fred Jackson (NWA) - 124
2. LeSean McCoy (MEGA) - 117.2
3. Darren McFadden (FLUF) - 104.1
4. Matt Forte (PHSH) - 102.8
5. Adrian Peterson (TGIF) - 100.6

WR:
1. Wes Welker (MEGA) - 116.4
2. Calvin Johnson (SHSR) - 110.4
3. Mike Wallace (OCTO) - 86
4. Steve Smith (HURR) - 83.5
5. Greg Jennings (TGIF) - 77

TE:
1. Jimmy Graham (COX) - 80
2. Rob Gronkowski (SHSR) - 70.1
3. Tony Gonzales (ATOM) - 55.8
4. Jason Witten (HURR) - 53.4
5. Jermichael Finley (TGIF) - 50.1

D/ST:
1. Ravens (SLNF) - 79
2. Jets (ATOM) - 77
3. 49ers (NWA) - 68
4. Bengals (COX) - 63
5. Lions (FLUF) - 56

K:
1. Jason Hanson (FLUF) - 64
1. Sebastian Janikowski (SLNF) - 64
3. David Akers (NWA) - 61
4. John Kasay (COX) - 60
4. Dan Bailey (SHSR) - 60


Onto Week 7...

Match-up of the Week

This week's MotW was not easy to decide. There was no clear-cut choice, no face-off of division leaders or games of intrigue. On top of that, half the teams this week are going to be hit hard by bye-week holes in their lineups (I'm looking at you, Mega Shark, Boomers, Giant Octopus). As such, I think the best game this week will be Juan's Scruffy Looking Nerf Herders against Jim's Shenanihads. The Nerf Herders are atop the East division with a good looking 4-2 recording and looking to keep their spot as top-dog. Meanwhile, the Shenanihads have had some tough loses in the last few weeks and will seek to upset once again. And as always, the Shenanihads will choose a new taunting logo for the week. Should be a good one.

Good Luck to everyone this week (except for Justin, even if half your team is on bye, I'm not taking any chances).