The AOSN All-Stars League: Week 1 Recap
Well folks, after all the podcast-listening, sleeper-article-reading, draft-board-prepping nonsense of the offseason, Week 1 of the NFL season is in the books. With that, we’d like to give you a glimpse behind the curtain of our version of ESPN’s “War Room” league, the AOSN All-Stars.
After a tense draft held just a few scant weeks ago, the first week’s matchups projected out closely up and down the league, but a few surprises (and, sadly, injuries) made the difference.
(All scores are ESPN PPR decimal scoring, 6-point passing TD)
Marshall Law (Alex Cuesta) def. Forgetting Brandon Marshall (Mathew Santos), 106.2 – 105.9
Line: -21.6, FBM
In this matchup of the Jets’ new favorite receiver-themed teams, Law was aided by Tony Romo’s late comeback on Sunday night against the Giants (22.1), The Law avoided being swept up in the tsunami of Keenan Allen’s 15-reception performance. Why Santos decided Darren McFadden was a valid RB2, I’ll never know, but his bench didn’t provide many options.
Gamer of the Game: Of course Allen, who racked up 31.6 points.He more than likely won’t hit 15 catches again, but proved his value in the PPR format.
Bummer of the Game: Santos choosing Cam Newton (12.5) over Carson Palmer (25.7) against the league’s second-worst defense from 2014.
Kick Six (Jake Mitchell) def. Winning Is Not My Forte (Noah Ross), 156.2 – 121.3
Line: -2.4, NMF
This week’s highest-scoring tilt included Mitchell riding the opening-night wave of Rob Gronkowski’s 32.4 points to an easy victory over the Aaron Rodgers-led Forte squad.
Gronk was the leading scorer, but not playing matchups hurt Ross more than it should have; only five running backs eclipsed 50 yards against the Broncos defense in 2014, and that number is still five after Justin Forsett managed just 9.6 points in Denver.
Gamer of the Game: Gronkowski, whose three scores Thursday night provided a nice cushion Forte just couldn’t overcome.
Bummer of the Game: Not that anyone on the planet would have started him, but Bishop Sankey’s 22.6 outscored both of Six’s running backs.
He Cam, He Saw, He Conquered (Derek Tang) def. Over Inflated (Julian Beck), 132.3 – 71.9
Line: -3.7, Cam
The most lopsided victory of the week goes to our Editor-in-Chief, who wisely chose to stick with Julio Jones (35.1) even against a revamped Philadelphia secondary.
That, plus the red-hot first quarter from Travis Kelce (28.6), allowed the boss to overcome a two-point output from the Texans D/ST and a miserable game from the injured Eddie Royal (1.8).
Gamer of the Game: JULIOOOOOOOO, who would have had closer to 200 yards receiving in the Monday night matchup if his teammates could A) block and B) not commit holding penalties.
Bummer of the Game (TIE): Kendall Wright (20.1) was on Inflated’s bench, as was the starting kicker (Josh Scobee, 6); not that it would have made a difference in the outcome, but it’s still gotta be frustrating. That, and complete stinkers from Peyton Manning (4.9) and Greg Olsen (2.1), bode ill for Beck’s future.
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The Blueberries are Frozen (Kevin Fielder) def. Le’Veon A Prayer (D.J. Weller), 132.1 – 115.8
Line: -4.8, Blue
Holy Hopkins! DeAndre Hopkins (32.8) took advantage of garbage time scores to push the Berries to victory, and having the week’s number two running back didn’t hurt either, as Matt Forte put up 27.6 at home against the Bears. This helped bail out the miserable performances for Eli Manning (8.5) and Frank Gore (5.1), who should have been benched against a stout Buffalo defense.
Prayer didn’t seem to have a clue, starting Charles Sims (5.5) in the RB2 spot, I assume hoping to lean on a pass-happy Matt Ryan (16.6) and Jimmy Graham (17.1), but the volume for those offensive stars just never materialized.
Gamer of the Game: Nuke Hopkins, who didn’t let garbage-fire quarterback play keep him from the promised land, twice.
Bummer of the Game: Benching John Brown (14.6) in a pass-heavy offense against a bad defense, in favor of Andre Johnson (6.4) in a pass-heavy offense against an elite defense.
#justgurleythings (Zach Martin) def. San Diego Philip’s Bolo (Alexandro Zatarain), 130 – 108.6
Line: -15.1 GURL
The Big Boss made a valiant effort Monday night, as he entered the evening down more than 40 points, as Carlos Hyde (32.2) dazzled with a spin move and took over the NFL rushing lead. Sadly, it wasn’t enough for him to overcome the solid contributions from up and down Gurley’s lineup.
Could Hyde be for real? Wasn’t the Vikings defense supposed to be good? What happened to Adrian Peterson? This is why we play the games, folks.
Gamer of the Game: Hyde, whose 26 carries for 168 yards and two scores blew the Vikings off the field, not to mention Brady’s four touchdown passes from Thursday night.
Bummer of the Game: DeSean Jackson (0.0), who started for the Bolos but left the field with a hamstring injury before he could record a single catch. Always a bummer when that happens, and we wish him a swift recovery.
Trufant Detectives (Riley Allen) def. Shady’s Shadow (Adam Wible), 126.5 – 69.1
Line: -7.7, TRUE
What happened, Adam?
Oh, right: Sammy Watkins (0.0) didn’t record a catch, Nelson Agholor (1.5) only had the one, and your kicker (Adam Vinatieri, -1) had one of his worst days as a professional. Mark Ingram (20.2) had almost a third of Shady’s points, and those came from catching passes; there may be trouble afoot in Wible’s World.
For the Detectives, though, the cushion provided by Antonio Brown (28.3) on Thursday night proved again that sometimes the preseason number one is there for a reason.
Gamer of the Game: Brown, who shredded a maybe-not-as-good-as-everyone-thinks Patriots defense, continuing his streak of games with at least five grabs for 50 yards.
Bummer of the Game (TIE): Watkins going without a reception from Tyrod Taylor, and the Shady’s bench: Percy Harvin (19.8) and Stevie Johnson (20.2) both outscored almost all of their starter counterparts.
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Standings
(Seeding by total points)
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