Underdogs Rise
...and nothing But Bad News for Antonio.
Week Four in the Subsim Fantasy Football league, and Vegas is furious. If you were backing all the favorites this week, well, do we have bad news for you. If you were thinking that we'd have no mention of Antonio Brown, well, do we have bad news for you.
Let's get down to the tin tacks and runs those stats across the board and find out what our superstars did this weekend.
DONATE TO SUBSIM...AND NOMINATE SUBSIM FANTASY FOOTBALL FOR BEST OF SUBSIM.
No Antonio, you are not one of the Superstars. As reported last week, Brown (WR) was still on the Permanently Unable to Shut The F!@# Up list with the Helmand Nighthawks, but early in the week, with little to no fan fare, Brown was let go.
Bye bye Antonio.
For those of you that thought that the Helmand Nighthawks were going to miss Antonio Brown, have we got bad news for you. Nighthawks hosted their oceanic counterparts the Australian Taipans in a top of the table battle. The Nighthawks did not enter the game as favorites - which is a little strange given the rivalry of the two teams. Didn't matter to Aaron Rodgers (QB) though who started with his best performance of the year on Thursday night. (I guess Danica Patrick wasn't in town to distract him.) The Taipans had Pat Mahomes (QB) who responded, but not with the same gusto that the Taipans have shown in their previous games. Once again, the Nighthawks had the Patriots (DEF) show up and put up some big points. This game was all over by Monday night, when it looked like Ju Ju Smith - Schuster (WR) would turn the Nighthawks score into a landslide. Smith - Schuster barely showed up, but it's not like the Nighthawks needed it. Nighthawks obliterate the Taipans 184 - 135.
Coach Casey of the Guns of Hochuli has fired the first salvo in their run to the championship, taking on the more highly favored Who Dat Nation. Casey has been quiet in the first few weeks, with their pure mathematical approach. A change of player here, adjusted teams there, just systematically putting together game plans for the opposition. This week their opponents were the Nation who right from the onset had the Nation behind on thew scoreboard. Who Dat Nation fans knew that the game would be close and may have expected Dak Prescott (QB) to produce a game winning driver, but Prescott failed to deliver handing the Gunners a cheap win. Gunners run out clock to beat the Who Dat Nation 149 - 126.
Our third and final game produced our first thriller and rewrite of the season. The Drunk Monkeys, despite being 0-3, were heavily favored to sink the Black Cats alive. Coach Thad has assured the press that the "team is alive". Probably on life support, but there is a pulse. Monkeys Devonte Adams (RB) lead the charge scoring almost 40 points, but it was the star O'dell Beckham who threw a cog into the work only making two catches. This opened the door for the Black cats, who despite leaving Seyqon Barkley (RB) and Greg Kittle (TE) on the advertised team, despite their very publicized auditions for Dancing with The Stars of the Voice for Americas Got Talent Show. Come Monday Night, Coach FYC, who is yet to make an appearance on any field, only needed James Connor (RB) to have a mediocre day in order to win. Black Cats, with their last player on the field, managed to stay in front of the Monkeys to cause the third upset and underdog win of the week. Final score, Black Cats 119 narrowly beat out the Drunk Monkeys 111.
So what does this do for the league as we reason the end of the first quarter of the season? We'll take it apart piece by piece and try and reassemble it into a Subsim format.
The Helmand Nighthawks and the Black Cats have the best record in the league at 3-1 and sit 1-2 in the league, and in their division. The Cats surprising climb above the Who Dat Nation has come without a public appearance of their Coach. If the Cats go much deeper into the season and continue to win without their coach, perhaps that's their winning formula? The Who Dat Nation at 2-2 come in as the #3 seed, meaning, the entire Sub Simmers Division would advance to the play offs if the season were to end now.
Over in the Surface Skimmers Division, the Guns of Hochuli and the Australian Taipans with records equal to the Nation at 2-2, occupy the #4 and the #5 position. The loss by the Taipans dropped them form a countback as the league leader to the #5 position. The Gunners and the Taipans have separated themselves form the Drunk Monkeys, who despite still being win less at 0-4, are only two games out of the chase. Not an unsurmountable task
Next week, we go back to Carolina to see if Coach FYC will make an appearance as the Black Cats host the Guns of Hochuli. With the two teams have an equal record right int e middle of the league, the winner of this game, with some favorable results elsewhere, could elevate themselves to outright leader of the league, or alternatively, drop themselves out of a playoff position into 5th place.
Each week, the Associated Subsim Writers (ASW) will nominated their Most Valuable Torpedo (MVT) of the week, the single player who proved decisive in their teams performance.
When you lift your team from being the underdog to being a convincing winner, it's hard to overlook. For the effort of 82 rushing yards, 8 receptions for 83 yards and 1 touchdown, for a total score of 26.5 points, the Week Four MVT goes to James Connor (WR) of the Black Cats.
