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Well, this has been my most embarrassing survivor pool performance by a long shot. Two picks, both heavy favorites, both losing on missed field goals as the clock ran out. The main pool I entered had 1924 entries and saw 1180 of those eliminated in the very first week. My picks, the Titans and the Broncos, were polarizing examples of how coaching can decide a game. The Giants first-year coach, Brian Daboll, showed that he understands the game of football and decided on a 2pt try rather than a tie late in the fourth quarter to secure his first coaching win.

Then there were the Broncos. Such superior talent on the team allowed them to remain in the contest in spite of numerous mental mistakes and poor coaching decisions. That is, until the final drive, as their 250 million dollar quarterback is driving them down the field to complete a 4th quarter comeback and Nathaniel Hackett decides to let the clock run down from a minute plus to 20 seconds on a 4th and 5 to attempt a 64 yard field goal. I have never in my life seen a worse coaching decision. It might be the only instance in the history of the universe to have a unanimous disagreement with the call. I'm serious. If we can somehow harness the solidarity of the opposition to that decision we could have world peace, it was truly amazing! It crushes me as a Broncos fan to come to the realization that they will be wasting several years of Wilson's career with this bozo at the helm. Normally, one bad decision can be written off, but something that bad shows he is not ready for the responsibility of being a head coach and will be learning on the job.

Anyways, take the Packers this week. Aaron Rodgers owns the Bears and is 6-0 coming off a loss with Matt LaFleur as coach. I think you should fade the other big favorite 49ers vs the Seahawks. Trey Lance has yet to prove he can play and in no way deserves 9.5 points.

Cheers!
Drink Five!

Oh this is going to be a fun week!

To clarify, this will be a “fun” week.

This is the kind of week where season-long confidence pool participants are separated. Once we get past the first few lines, nearly every other game is a crap shoot!

My best to those who have to make picks for a survival pool this week.

We’re not worried about that here though so let’s get some confidence!

Week 3 – HERE WE GO!!!!

(HOME TEAM IN CAPS)

16 – LOS ANGELES CHARGERS over Jacksonville – Sorry, Jags – can’t host the Colts every week.

15 – MINNESOTA over Detroit – The Lions have looked better than they have in years…but its still hard to have confidence in them on the road.

14 – Buffalo over MIAMI – Yes Tua had a bit of a coming out party last week. But give me one good reason why you think the Bills will lose any game this season? Not saying they will go undefeated, crazy things happen during the season but my BOLD PREDICTION for this week is that THE BILLS WILL WIN AT LEAST 16 GAMES THIS SEASON.

13 – Kansas City over INDIANAPOLIS – With how good Buffalo has looked, the Chiefs haven’t been too far behind.

12 – San Francisco over DENVER – Aren’t too many situations where a team loses their starting quarterback…and MIGHT be better for it.

11 – TAMPA BAY over Green Bay – I haven’t officially done the math but Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers may have more career TD passes than the combined career yards totals for both of their receiving corps.

10 – Baltimore over NEW ENGLNAD – I fully expect Baltimore to take a lot of AFC East aggression out on the Pats this week.

9 – Los Angeles Rams over ARIZONA – I look for the Rams to make a much needed statement in this game.

8 – CLEVELAND over Pittsburgh – Amazon gives us a matchup this week that most wont be upset about missing due to streaming issues.

7 – SEATTLE over Atlanta – Remember when this would have been a Game of the Week candidate?

6 – CAROLINA over New Orleans – This is a matchup for #1 overall pick quarterback…just keep that in mind as you are trying to stay awake watching.

5 – TENNESSEE over Las Vegas – Both teams desperately need a win – luckily for the Titans the game will take place in Nashville.

4 – NEW YORK GIANTS over Dallas – The Giants could very well be 3-0 at the end of this week…just let that sink in for a bit.

3 – WASHINGTON over Philadelphia – We’ll give this the pick ‘em because they’re the home team tag.

2 – NEW YORK JETS over Cincinnati – Welp, the Jets beat the Bengals last year when Cincy wasn’t seemingly falling apart…sooo…

1 – Houston over CHICAGO – You could very well take the Bears in this one but, unlike the Bears, I’ll pass.

OK…so…about last week…

Well, now seems like a good idea to remind everyone that most season-long pools will allow you to remove your lowest scoring week from the total amount.

I didn’t really think we would have to look into that feature less than a quarter of the way into the season…but here we are!

Ah well, time to get back on that horse!

Week 4 – HERE WE GO!!!!

(HOME TEAM IN CAPS)

16 – GREEN BAY over New England – I won’t say that the Packers are back to normal after winning in Tampa last week…but there definitely at a point where they can easily handle Mac Jones’ backup.

15 – Minnesota over NEW ORLEANS – Remember to wake up early to catch the first London game of the year! Or don’t, its just Kirk Cousins vs Jameis Winston.

14 – PITTSBURGH over New York Jets – Zach Wilson is back!!! Yeah…it won’t matter.

13 – PHILADELPHIA over Jacksonville – So the Eagles look like the best team in the league…the Jaguars just went to LA and beat the Chargers by four touchdowns … … … where are we??

12 – LAS VEGAS over Denver – Yes, this is an ignorant hopeful homer pick. If  you choose to make adjustments with this one, I will more than understand.

11 – DETROIT over Seattle – The Lions are on a double-digit line…as the winner? This has been a weird start to the season.

10 – NEW YORK GIANTS over Chicago –  This will basically be Saquon Barkley and a bunch of middle schoolers.

9 – DALLAS over Washington – The Cowboys in another divisional matchup that, unlike last week, wont be nationally televised…thank God!

8 – INDIANAPOLIS over Tennessee – The Colts and Titans both battling to try and keep pace with the Jaguars …(checks notes confusingly)

7 – ATLANTA over Cleveland – Yes this will the Falcons back-to-back wins…but change is coming. My BOLD PREDICTION for this week is DESMOND RIDDER WILL BE STARTING FOR THE FALCONS BY WEEK 12.

6 – Buffalo over BALTIMORE – One loss won’t change my Bills’ opinion. Safe to say Ken Dorsey will be making sure no mistakes are made this week!

5 – CINCINNATI over Miami – I don’t think there would be a bigger way to close the book on the 2021 season than the Dolphins going 4-0 by sending the defending AFC Champions to a 1-2 start…but it won’t happen.

4 – SAN FRANCISCO over Los Angeles Rams – Just like the Bengals, the Rams don’t exactly seem to have the dominant aura that a defending Super Bowl champion should have.

3 – Los Angeles Chargers over HOUSTON – I wanted to say the Chargers would lose to the Texans since they knocked me out of my survivor pool last week…but I have responsibilities.

2 – TAMPA BAY over Kansas City – This one is obviously a toss-up with the craziness surrounding it. Thoughts & prayers out to everyone in Florida – stay safe!

1 – CAROLINA over Arizona – Can you think of anything entertaining or helpful to say about this one? Go ahead, I’ll wait…

Welcome to Statistically (in)Significant, the place to find great stats that probably only matter at the water cooler (or bar). Each week I'll dig through the stats of the week gone by and deliver you some choice conversation starters. All fantasy stats are half PPR scoring unless otherwise noted.

4 Lost Fumbles

I’ve been talking up Trevor Lawrence, so it’s only fair that I talk about when he’s remarkably bad as well. He’s the first player this century to lose 4 fumbles in one game. Those 4 fumbles canceled out Lawrence’s 2 TD passes. He finished the game with 6.66 points – truly not a great sign for what I thought was a step forward in his second year. Lawrence added one pick to his total, for 5 overall turnovers – the most he’s had in a single game in his career. Sometimes I wish that there was still someone on TV to hype the Jaguars so I didn't feel so alone in this. Meanwhile, their opponent the Eagles D/ST has been having a great year – they now have 5 INTs, 5 fumbles recovered, and 16 sacks through just 4 games. They are now the D/ST2 on the season, but have 2 tough matchups leading into their bye week, so – maybe time to try and trade a D/ST? Is that even a thing?

2 Quarterbacks Over 30 Fantasy Points

…And neither of them are owned in the drinkfive.com so-called “Experts League”. Well, let’s not be too tough on everyone, here. Geno Smith threw for 2 TDs and ran in another while accounting for 369 total yards on the day on his way to leading the Seahawks to 48 total points – and they needed nearly every one of them. More on that in a moment. Joining Smith in the 30+ territory was his opponent, Jared Goff. For the second time this year, Goff threw for 4 TDs and he’s now the QB5 on the season. Goff is also tied for the league lead with 11 passing TDs. This is likely a trend that can continue for Goff, considering his team has given up the most points in the league so far this year.

140 Points Scored on the Season

The Detroit Lions are leading the league in scoring, having scored 140 points on the year so far. Unfortunately for them, they have given up 141 points – also the most in the league. This is why they have a very disappointing 1-3 record. The Lions have scored 35 and 45 points in games they lost this season. They are leading the league in passing TDs (tied), rushing yards per attempt, and total yards. Second in the league in rushing TDs, and top 10 in lots of other important offensive milestones. Unfortunately, they are dead last in defense when it comes to points, yards, first downs given up, rushing TDs, and rushing yards per attempt. It’s really an extreme experience being a Lions fan this season.

5 of 5 Field Goals in the Home of the Hotspurs

Kickers haven’t come up much this year so far, and props go to Greg Joseph of the Vikings who completed 5 of his 5 field goal attempts in England on Sunday morning. He kicked for a total of 181 yards, including one with under 30 seconds left to answer Will Lutz’s 60-yard field goal which had tied the game just minutes earlier. The fans in England were treated to a good game, one that had 5 scores in the 4^th quarter alone. Unfortunately for Joseph, he can’t claim he had a perfect day, as he did miss 1 extra point. In fact, each of the top 4 scoring kickers missed one kick this week – 3 of them missing extra points attempts. Perhaps this shows that the NFL moving the extra point back is accomplishing what they wanted. Perhaps this shows that kicking is pretty damn random indeed. Perhaps they don’t even belong in a column about fantasy football. My apologies, it’s getting late.

35.9 Fantasy Points

I tried my best, but I just couldn’t avoid talking about one more Detroit Lion. It’s not as if he doesn’t deserve it. T.J. Hockenson scored 35.9 fantasy points, the most of any TE this season – by more than 10 points. Hockenson had 8 receptions for 179 yards (lead the league in receiving yards) and scored 2 TDs. He even tacked on a 2-point conversion catch just for the cherry on top. This catapulted him all the way to TE3 on the season, even though he had only 19.2 points going into week 4. He has 65% of his points in just one game this year. Sometimes a small sample size is really fun to play with.