Week 4: The Match-Ups

"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for."  - Robin Williams as John Keating in Dead Poets Society

On the surface it may just look like I was watching Dead Poets Society while attempting to come up with an introduction to this week's match-up summary.  While that is true, I think we can all agree that all of us are filled with passion...for Fantasy Football, and occasionally, there is a match-up that can only be described as poetic.  A major stretch?  Yes, but having already written it, I say good enough.  Now let's get into the match-ups.

Joe defeats Ed (140.50-95.48)

I would say his score leaves me eating my words from last week, when I said I didn't like Joe's team moving forward, but I don't believe Baltimore's D will score 30+ again this season.  The Ravens' D ripped apart the Jets Sunday Night, as the Jets' offensive line had all kinds of issues without Nick Mangold.  I'm sticking with my stance (for now), but either way I didn't see Ed winning this one.  His team is going to top out at around 110 points in a given week, so even a smaller Raven's performance wouldn't have saved him here.  Joe continues to be the only unbeaten team.  I'm predicting Week 7 as his first loss.

Kum defeats Frank (165.98-81.94)

Just about everything went right for Kum's team this week.  Aaron Rodgers pulled out one of the best fantasy performances ever, and two of his three RBs went for 20 or more points.  Frank's team may have actually picked a good week to look like crap (minus Fitz, Foster and Davis), as there was no way in hell he was catching Kum this week.  The Kummish will undoubtedly move to 4-1 as he faces Tom's disgrace of a team next week.

Nulty defeats Dan (me) (143.26-121.66)

Being 1-2 in 120 point scoring weeks is not fun, trust me.  With Nulty benching Romo this week (for reasons still unexplained) I thought I had a really good shot here.  It came down to Nulty's Chargers, who combined for 49.78 points, and really buried me.  Andre Johnson's hammy will be an issue, but luckily I have enough WR depth to survive that for a few weeks.  The only good news for me is that my next four match-ups are winnable, and that Nulty agreed to stop cursing me with his match-up picks.

Rich defeats Tom (94.74-82.40)

Tom Brady and Colt McCoy helped save Rich this week from what would've been a crushing loss to Tom.  Well, them and the Raven's D, who left Sanchez with a -1.94 week.  Mendenhall may miss next week with an injury, and with Roethlisberger's banged up feet, Mike Wallace may not get so many great passes in the near future.  A win this week for Rich moves him to 3-1, but a couple losses may come soon.  For Tom, he remains the league's only winless team.

Russ defeats Adam (96.98-96.36)

This off-season, we voted that missed FG would count for negative points.  That hadn't played a big role in any match-ups...until Monday night.  After the Colts scored their second TD of the game, Vinatieri put Adam up on Russ by less than a point.  With Russ being out of players, all Adam needed was for A) Curtis Painter to finish off drives, or B) not to get anywhere close to FG range.  Of course, neither of these things happened, and on a 43 yard attempt, the kick sailed wide left.  Adam's team was charged 1 point, and it cost him the match-up.  We may not see another match-up as gut wrenching as this for the rest of the season.

Danny defeats Neil (159.86-99.72)

In general, If you can have two players best 30 points in a week, you are going to win that match-up. Danny got that this week from Cam Newton, who continues to shine (fantasy-wise) in his losses, and Beanie Wells.  The winning QB from Cam's game, Jay Cutler, only ended up scoring 3.28 for Neil, and despite a decent week, he moves to 1-3.  Danny's win brings him to 2-2, and despite being second in the league in scoring leaves him in 6th place.  Also, as per the bet they had made before this weekend, Neil's "Breesus Christ" will be renamed by Danny.

Next Week's Match-ups:

Frank vs Dan

Kum vs Tom

Danny vs Nulty

Ed vs Rich

Joe vs Russ

Adam vs Neil