News:

Week 3 was a pretty entertaining batch of football games I thought, with a few in particular providing a lot of drama if you were fortunate enough to be able to watch. Unfortunately we also saw some officiating that will do nothing to quiet speculation about corruption. The pass interference call on CeeDee Lamb towards the end of that game was so bad, you can’t even attribute it to incompetence. That was a choice to “see” something no one else in the stadium or on TV saw. What was behind that choice? No idea.

The NFL ecosystem continues to filter and settle into strata. We expect to see the cream rise to the top and the… other stuff settle to the bottom. It’s not so straight forward though because we also have matchups to consider. I know the Chargers have been struggling but how does Buffalo turn the ball over five times and win? How does Penix walk in and lead a Falcons team that’s looked a bit lost to a win over a Packers team that was supposed to be pretty good? How does Deshaun Watson flash 2020 skills to beat an improving Carolina team? How do the defending champs let Marcus Mariota and the Commanders hang around until the 4th quarter? I would not want to be in a pick’em league these days.

In Clan McDonald news, two undefeated teams remain, as does one winless one. I know a little bit about running into a hot hand so I can sympathize with the Piper for having run into it this week. Still plenty of football left.

Shark move award of the week:

Honourable mention to BK for sticking with Drake London. There’s no questioning the talent there but he’s had a history of falling victim to the classic, “I can’t throw the ball to myself” syndrome. Penix might be the tonic for that.

Kudos to Scott as well for having some sort of premonition about Juwan Johnston, who clearly pulled his QB aside and asked, “Juwanna throw me the ball?”

This week though I’m going to take a rare and small bow for my Week 3 special teams. I knew I would need something special to pull out the win and the combination of Vikings DEF and Chase McLaughlin proved to be the difference. As I like to say, you can’t spell “McLaughlin” without a laugh…

Guppy move award of the week:

Honourable mention to commish for not believing Dolphins era Jaylen Waddle when he tried to show us who he is – four-ply Charmin soft. I am the last person to be that typical “armchair loser” who accuses an NFL player of being soft or having no heart or whatever but this dude is the opposite of ARSB in that department. He’ll put up 30 on your bench and then disappear for three weeks while limping to the sideline every fifth play. Moving on…

The Week 3 award will be shared by Ayden and Brian. Ayden was clearly too busy vibin’ this week to realize his quarterback was holding a clipboard on Sunday. That’s pretty bad but it’s arguable worse when your opponent spots you a zero at QB and you still can secure the win.

Off topic but here’s a random Sunday smack talk question for the group: Which is the real Drake Maye, 2025 or 2026?

Smack talk award of the week:

We had a lot of quality work in the chat this week and it’s extremely hard to pick a winner. Brandon was the first to call out Drew Lock having a lock on low score of the week. I was able to add a link in the chain with a Joe Flacco reference. Grid was openly disgusted with his Titans and while I didn’t see the game, the box score suggests it wasn’t very entertaining. Pollard had a pretty solid day but it’s looking like the Cam Ward experiment might be coming to an end next year (incidentally, “The Cam Ward Experiment” would be a great band name or fantasy team name). If Ward plays a musical instrument, maybe he can look into that after football? Anyway, hopefully Dan can give me the scouting report on the Titans on Saturday.

Runners up aside, without further adieu, Doug takes his first award of the year for disclosing that Janet is his favourite Jackson. I did not know that…

Welcome to fantasy hell award of the week:

In the spirit of truth and reconciliation, I accept this week’s award on behalf of everyone who has ever lost an early draft pick to injury for the entire season. The truth is, it sucks. There really is no reconciliation. In this case, Achane was an early second rounder and a running back to boot. To add insult to injury (pun intended), of course it couldn’t have happened near the end of a stellar, 30 point effort. No, it had to come on his third rushing attempt of the game. What do you do? You drop him, pour one out for your homie and you let go.

Next man up. On to Week 4.