2022 Power Rankings-Week 4

## Introduction

It's not your imagination. Scoring is down. To start the season, the under has hit 29 times compared to 18 times for the over. A pretty good explanation for this would likely be defenses getting full off-season training for the first time since COVID. In 2019, the last normal year of our lives, the under hit 31 times in the first three weeks.

You can see this in the LOC as well. The top three teams this season have combined for 2,118.52 points, an average of 235.39 a game. Last season, that number was 2,221.52 or 246.81 a game.

What does this all mean? Maybe it means that it's too early for you to quit on that player you had a hunch on to start the year. Offenses might need a little more time to gel. It could mean that having a guy like Lamar Jackson tossing 50 point games and bailing your team out every week is more valuable than having an average team with ten guys capable of getting you 20 points a week, because those ten guys could also bust just as easily. It could mean that the struggling teams are primed for a big second half or it could mean they're already too far gone. It's hard to know for sure. I'm just a guy. A sad, sad guy. One thing is for certain, it's week four. Tua scored four points in its honor. And God isn't real.

I'm in the final weekend of what has easily been the busiest four week stretch of my life. In addition to 11-hour work days Monday-Friday, my last four weekends have gone: Dad visited Atlanta, Pat's Wedding in RI, Universal Studios Orlando, and now Tampa Bay for the Bucs vs. Chiefs. Each of the last three weekends has also featured at least one 9pm flight and one 7am flight. I'm tired, I'm borderline unconscious of my surroundings, and I'm really low on time to dedicate to this at the moment. But things will open up now and I may even be able to do some LOC Gameday Mornings as we get towards the second half of the season. So hang in there!

This week I stumbled upon an interesting article that offered some fun stats for some of our players/teams, so I'll try to sprinkle them in throughout.

## Matchup Recap

* Duck Punchers wins a blockbuster matchup that more than lived up to the expectations against The Shotti Bunch (9-10). **Next Matchup: Week 13**
* Pain Train continues a career of dominance over Mattness (13-6). **Next Matchup: N/A**
* RIPDab avenges his 2021 quarterfinals defeat with a narrow, pathetic looking victory over Idiots (4-7). **Next Matchup: Week 7**
* Papa's Posse gets a much-needed win against a lifeless momma said (8-13). **Next Matchup: N/A**
* Sweet Dee is in early-season form with yet another win against Paddock 9 (6-10). **Next Matchup: N/A**

## Stat Chat

### League Stats

* Mattness becomes the 3rd team to reach 90 combined losses.
* Duck Punchers becomes the 1st team to be in first place for 30 regular season weeks.
* Last season, Papa was 1-2 with 595.26 points. This season, Papa is 1-2 with 597.71. Progress!
* Duck Punchers and Shotti played in September for the first time since 2015.

### Bonus Player Stats

* Pain Train: Davante Adams scored double-digit fantasy points for the 33rd time in the last 34 weeks. The only week he did not score double-digits? Week 2.
* RIPDab: Kyler Murray isn't the duel-threat we had hoped so far in 2022. There have only been seven designed runs for him all season. We going to fire this coaching staff soon or what?
* Shotti: Lamar Jackson has quite literally just had the best three-game start for a QB in fantasy football of all-time. The next best was Russell Wilson to kick off 2020.
* Mattness: Mark Andrews ranks #2 in the league behind Cooper Kupp in first read targets (40.6%).
* Paddock 9: New teammate Zeke Elliot is gaining 1.9 yards per carry less than Tony Pollard on early-down carries.
* For the Crowd: The Bears have accomplished something not seen since Tim Tebow's 2011 Broncos: they have not completed more than 10 passes in a game for three straight weeks.

## History of 0-4

The people needed it and I'm a hero so here it is. How do the 0-4 teams fare in the LOC? Spoiler...not well.

History of 0-4
 Papa's Posse
 Garoppoblow Me
 JarJar Stinks!
 Paddock 9

## Power Rankings-Week 4

Let's take a glance at the 10 teams and one thing for each team to feel good about through the first month of the league year.

### 1 (1). Pain Train

**Feel Good About:** The backup RB vault of gold. Pain Train has Tony Pollard, Jamaal Williams, and Jeff Wilson Jr. who have all found their ways into near-bell cow roles in week four. Pain Train is absolutely playing the free agent market better than Paddock 9 this season, a sure sign that he is done fucking around and wants this to be the year he takes it all.

### 2(2). Duck Punchers

**Feel Good About:** Winning ugly. Duck Punchers was eliminated in Headhunters by CeeDee Lamb last week, but CeeDee also provided him exactly what he needed to be victorious against The Shotti Bunch and take first place outright early on. This, despite 6 of 11 started failing to reach projections and guys going off on the bench, which is arguably worse than if the entire team just played shitty. Duck Punchers having this complete of a team this early is insane. It's good enough to withstand the (hopefully) temporary loss of the Fantasy Sun Gawd Amon-Ra.

### 3(3). The Shotti Bunch

**Feel Good About:** Playing Mattness this week. Nobody likes losing by 1.08 points. But on the brightside, Shotti will win by at least 40 points this week and make up for it. To kick things off Thursday night, Tua had a neurological episode in 4K and basically eliminated the QB position from Mattness's team. I have a hunch that Lamar will outscore Tua. For a guy that runs constantly, Lamar also has not taken many big hits this season. It's a great sign considering the detractor's of his game have claimed he can't last a full season breaking 100 rushing a game. I disagree. I think he has just as much a chance to get hurt as anyone else, mobile or not.

### 4(5). RIPDab

**Fell Good About**: Chris Olave. The rookie WR is 2nd in the league in second half yardage (178) and commands 32.5% of the team's targets. Can you imagine having a player who you haven't started and he's averaging 20.57 points a game? No really, can you? Because I can't. I drafted that dumb fuck Skyy Moore.

### 5(8). Sweet Dee

**Feel Good About:** The Burrow/Higgins stack. Those who are avid readers will note that I had Burrow in her "things to worry about" last week. I still think it's worrisome that he can't stay upright. But the line played fairly well Thursday night, and it's obvious that Burrow is beginning to ignite in 2022. Higgins is also starting to emerge having come back from his injury to 7 targets and a TD. If Chase is going to get doubled all year, Higgins could be a monster.

### 6(5). The Stupid Idiots

**Feel Good About:** Drake London. The Falcons offense is...good? Atlanta has punted on just 19% of possessions this season. That ranks only behind the Bills. They are moving the ball, scoring, and Drake "Best I Ever Had" London is a big part of that. Bigger than Pitts, that's for fucking sure.

### 7(5). ma ma momma said

**Feel Good About:** Having a really lovely wife and a decent job. Just focus on that stuff, man. Don't worry about this fantasy crap, it's all a game. Try not to think about how Jimmy G has been off-target on a 2nd-worst 28% of his throws, rendering Kittle a useless bag of broken bones. Don't stress about Montgomery and Swift both being hurt and Fournette/Gibson both being unproductive. Like I'm telling you...do not even worry about Patrick Mahomes failing to reach projection each of the last two weeks and facing a disgustingly tough Tampa defense Sunday night. Just do, not, worry.

### 8(10). Papa's Posse

**Feel Good About:** CMC. Fantasy production has not been there. But usage has. He's totaled 44% of the Panthers targets + carries, which leads the league for RBs. More importantly. He's still upright. This time last year he was already chilling in Nate's hot tub.

### 9(7). Paddock 9

**Feel Good About:** Jalen Hurts. Like..feel really fucking good. Hurts has to be the lead candidate for MVP so far. He's gotten his team double-digit second half leads in each of his first three games, which means he's taken his foot off the gas every week this year and is still about to pop off one of the best QB seasons ever if he plays all 17 games. There isn't much that went right for Paddock 9 during this year's draft, but Hurts is a superstar.

### 10(9). Multiverse of Mattness

**Feel Good About:** The trajectory of Breece Hall. He has scored double-digit fantasy points each game he's played and increased his total points week over week. In week three he out-targeted Carter 11-2 despite being outsnapped on the season 57% to 41%. It also feels like it might be StevenSZN at One Patriot Place, with Rhamondre's snap rate jumping to 62% in week's 2 and 3. That was a point of concern for Mattness and there's still no depth, but it feels good to have possibly gotten both flyers correct.

## Matchup of the week

Low key week but Duck vs.Paddock 9 is intriguing as it's a former Glory Bowl matchup and the projection is close.

They are 11-11 in their history, making this 23rd matchup extra special. Paddock 9 also desperately needs this W and would love to knock off the lone undefeated team.

Enjoy the games!