2021 Power Rankings-Week 4

## Introduction

Week four is upon us and both remaining undefeated teams have taken their first L. This is good for the league, but perhaps not great for some of the bottom dwellers who are already starting to think about seeding down the line. After all, a top-heavy league favors the teams at the bottom, struggling for Ws.

Think about it this way: at the beginning of the season, there are only 70 wins to distribute amongst the ten teams. That's not a lot! Even distribution of those wins means more competition and jockeying for position. But for a team like Paddock 9, that's not necessarily a good thing. If RIPDab and Shotti Bunch suck up 26 of those wins, that only leaves 44 wins to split amongst the other 8 teams. That's an average of 5.5 wins per team, so six wins very well could mean a 6th seed in the Tournament of Champions. But if Shotti and Dab are going to lose to Momma and Pain Train, that's raising the low water mark and drowning the Papa's and the Mattness's of the league. Now the crabs are in the barrel fighting to get to the top, with Sweet Dee and Papa taking stabs at each other and now Mattness and Papa locked into a battle to see who will survive and who will drown.

Desperate times are already upon us. Let's dive in...

## Stat Chat

* Paddock 9 becomes the 4th team to reach 80 losses.
* Paddock 9 has lost 3 consecutive games to start a season for the third time. He has never lost four consecutive games to start a season.
* Paddock 9 ties Papa's Posse for the most weeks ever spent in last place (19 weeks).
* RIPDab is the 4th team to have spent 20 weeks in first place in LOC history.
* RIPDab scores the 13th-highest regular season point total by a losing team.
* Ma ma momma said ties Duck Punchers for the most blowout of the week wins (18).
* Duck Punchers becomes the 2nd team to score over 200 points in 100 games.
* Over the last 18 games, Mattness of 3-0 against ma ma momma said and 1-14 against everyone else.

## Matchup Recaps

* Ma ma momma said solidifies herself as a contender with an upset over previously undefeated Shotti Bunch (9-10). **Next Matchup: Week 11**
* Duck Punchers beats Mattness and has now won five straight against the Commish (10-7). **Next Matchup: Week 10**
* Pain Train gives us the first great finish of 2021 with a victory over first place RIPDab (8-9). **Next Matchup: Week 9**
* The Stupid Idiots buries Paddock 9 and snaps a three game losing streak against the defending champ (4-5). **Next Matchup: N/A**
* Papa's Posse saves his season with a Dalvin Cook-less victory over Sweet Dee (7-8). **Next Matchup: Week 7**

## Elimination

Commish had a real asshole puckering experience Thursday night when he picked the Bengals over Cincy, but he manages to survive the week and has one less thing to worry about until week 4. The rest of the teams all chose correctly in week 3 and will have their picks revealed at 1PM.

## Trade Tracker

We've now had a couple high profile trades in the LOC and I think it's time to bring back the trade tracker. Starting next week because now I'm behind on my writeup again!

## About Last Week...

We all know the drill with teams scoring over 300. They win. They're undefeated. If you could find a way to score over 300 every week you would never lose a game.

But how about the week after? When the deed is done and you're doing the walk of shame to your dorm in your dirty socks, wondering if it was all a dream? It took a little bit of digging, but of course I have a new obscure chart to present!

Here is a list of how teams performed the week after a 300-point game, and the total record of those teams...

Some teams kept the good times rolling. Others blew the good surprise on Adam Sandler and took a huge L when the actual birthday guest arrived. This week, RIPDab became just the second team in LOC history to score over 230 points in the week following a 300-point game and lose.

## Don't Be 0-4

Last week I highlighted 0-3 teams and the likelihood that they'll make the playoffs. It's not great. That's unfortunate for Pat, but not a death sentence. After all, we have an extra game.

Well, what about 0-4 teams?

Final Performances of 0-4 Teams
 2013 - Papa's Posse
 2014 - Mattness
 2017 - JarJarStinks!

So not great? But how much will the extra game change things for Paddock 9 and the other teams sitting below .500?

## Team Records by Month (Updated Through September)

* Good news for Paddock 9: September is always his worst month. Expect him to pick up at least one win in October.
* With a 2-1 record in September, Stupid Idiots climbs close to .500.
* Duck Punchers and Shotti continue to be the month's top performers, and their league-best 2-1 records kept them in the lead for another season.

## Regular Season Records (2019-Present)

Since finishing in the top-4 four consecutive years, Mattness has suffered his worst stretch of games since the 2013-2014 season, which followed his Glory Bowl II loss to ma ma momma said. That stretch of 26 regular season games was brutal. Mattness went 5-22.

Papa's best regular season was in 2018. He finished 9-4, just missing a bye. Since then, Papa has suffered *his* worst stretch of games since the 2012-2013 season. In those two years, he combined to go 6-21. Not the best way to defend a title.

The DiGennaro Boys face off this week with a .500 record going to the victor and a really demoralizing 1-3 record in store for the loser. ***In addition, the loser will have the worst league record over the last 30 games.***

While they have had the roughest stretch of games over the last two plus years, who has faired the best during that same time?

Regular Season Records (2019-Week 3 2021)
 Pain Train
 Paddock 9
 RIPDab
 The Stupid Idiots
 ma ma momma said
 The Shotti Bunch
 Sweet Dee
 Papa's Posse
 The Multiverse of Mattness

I'd rather drink piss than be at the bottom of this list. It's fucking shit.

## The Davante Adams Game

I wouldn't be doing my duty as a Commish if I didn't quickly jot down the finish we had on Monday night between Pain Train and RIPDab. It was a really good piece of entertainment for anyone not named Chris and Nate. Chris made some bold moves, like starting Matt Stafford over Justin Herbert and banking on him to perform by starting Vegas D over Tampa Bay. Nate made some smart calls too: benching Aiyuk for Kirk. But this all came down to Aaron Jones vs. Davante Adams on Monday night and boy did it deliver. Jones had 82 rushing and a TD, Adams had 132 receiving and a TD.

But the drama came late, when Pain Train clung to a slim one point lead and watched Davante get cold-cocked coming across the field to make a catch. That man got hit HARD. If I had to bet my entire life savings on whether he would stay in the game or come out, I'd have said he was done for this game and maybe the next game. It looked BAD. Aaron Jones took some carries, gave Dab the lead, and it looked over for Chris.

Yet somehow, someway, Adams came back in the game. And on the final drive, caught a huge pass down the field to set up the Packers in field goal range and give Chris the win. It was one of the gutsiest performances by a receiver I have seen since Terrell Owels played with screws in his foot in the Super Bowl. It was really cool. Also scary...Adams for sure was concussed and had no idea what planet he was on. But shit it was cool. Not for Nate, that sucked for Nate. But as a #FootballGuy it was cool.

If nothing else, it solidified Adams as the greatest Pain Train player to ever take the field. All that's missing to lock him into the Pain Train Hall of Fame is a ring.

### 1(1). RIPDab

#NatesYear is still on, people. Don't worry. Losses always hurt, but it wasn't like Dab dropped a dud. He still played amazing and just got hit with a bad matchup. Get right game against Sweet Dee this week.

### 2(5). Ma ma momma said

Last week's win wasn't a complete team victory, but this one was. Prescott has been underwhelming, but he got great performances from Swift, Henry, Chase, Robinson, Kittle, Indy, and Justin Tucker. It was good stuff. This RB group is seriously badass and if Chase is going to be THAT GUY than we may be looking back at this season and wondering how the fuck we let Jared take him in the 6th round.

### 3(3). Duck Punchers

Duck Punchers is one of only three teams to break 200 every week this season (the other two are above him in the rankings). After a strong showing from his Bengals on Thursday night (Mixon and Boyd) he is on his way to do it again. Josh Allen may have reawakened after Commish #MattJinxed him back to life in week two by saying he may be regressing. As predicted, Barkley has gotten stronger every week and added his first TD since 2019 to the mix.

### 4(2). The Shotti Bunch

Just when I thought maybe we were all going to be eating crow, Shotti's team lays an egg. Gronk has cracked ribs, New England's defense cannot seem to stop a nosebleed, the Falcons offense is seriously hampering Ridley's upside, and Miles Sanders is looking like a 3rd round bust. But let's not overreact. Shotti still has the 2nd highest points scored and every team has a bad week, even champions. How he rebounds this week with Anthony Firkser as his TE will be telling.

### 5(7). Pain Train

A great revenge game for Pain Train, who lost his last matchup with RIPDab 243.03-243.64 in December 2020. How he gets a Shotti Bunch team reeling from the loss of Rob Gronkowski. This is shaping up to be a miracle of a season for Pain Train after dropping week one in embarrassing fashion.

### 6(8). The Stupid Idiots

The schedule Gods have been kind to The Stupid Idiots. They are the lowest scoring team at 2-1 and they've faced the least points against in the entire league. But similar to the 3-0 Carolina Panthers, he can't play the Jets and the Texans every week. He's going to have to play real teams soon, and a week four Duck Punchers matchup seems to be a good litmus test. *Stupid Idiots has never beaten Duck Punchers in the entire history of his franchise (0-6).*

### 7(4). The Multiverse of Mattness

Suck a dick, fantasy football. Suck a big, fat, herpes-riddled, decaying fucking dick.

### 8(6). Sweet Dee

An early wakeup call from the Sweet Deelusion, as the first mom in LOC history has dropped two straight and now faces the father of her child in what will surely be a domestic violence incident worthy of a call to child protective services.

### 9(10). Papa's Posse

Gusty victory for Papa's Posse, who was able to swap out Dalvin Cook from a fishing boat Sunday morning. The change to Patterson was enough to fend off a late surge by Sweet Dee and notch a W for the OG. With Cook back but probably not at 100%, will that help or hurt Papa heading into a must-win vs. Commish?

### 10(9). Paddock 9

It's still early. It's only October 3rd. But it certainly feels like a lost season for Paddock 9. As bad as things were, he could not afford injuries. But the loss of AJ Brown and now Hopkins/Gordon nursing some injured ribs, it's ugly. A big trade for Robert Woods and Trey Sermon might be the ticket, but neither player was working magic for Mattness. Momma is rolling, so this isn't the ideal matchup for a must-win game in October.

## Matchup of the Week - Like Father, Like Son

As highlighted above, Papa vs. Mattness isn't just about this year. It's about the last three years. Both teams have suffered so much for two guys who are all-in on fantasy football. As lame as it sounds, being 2-2 after this week is going to feel about as good as winning a playoff game for these guys. Conversely, a loss will feel pretty much like the season is over (it's not, but that's how it will feel).

Last season, Papa handed Mattness his most gut-wrenching loss ever in a hat trick of victories over Commish. It was a big season of revenge for Papa after losing 8-straight against Commish from 2014-2019.