Welcome to the other side of halfway. If you thought last week was a shake-up, this week was a real banger. Three of the four teams with losing records won their matchups, and the fourth lost by a margin of <15 points. Do the performance rankings show this as a recent trend to continue or something else?
Overall Rankings
Minimal changes in the rankings for the overall points category. But don’t be fooled by that. The coefficient of variation (that’s a statistics thingy for measuring how much variation between data points) has been steadily decreasing over the last three weeks. There could very well be some major movement in the next few weeks. Already we’ve seen Pegasus drop four positions in two weeks. Will there be more?
Offense
The Detroit Wolverines move from 9th to 4th after an all around stellar performance. Meanwhile Pegasus drops three positions again this week! They’ve got to be in panic mode. Fortunately for them, they’re in a weak division, so they haven’t lost the season yet.
QB
The big story here is that Mahomes is likely to miss significant time. The Winged Hussars came prepared though. They have more QBs (5) on their roster than RBs (3). That’s maybe a little too prepared. Dak Prescott and the speed-demons & Deshaun Watson and the Detroit Wolverines have taken this opportunity to close the gap behind Lamar Jackson and Pegasus. They’re behind by what would probably take two weeks to make up the difference barring anymore injuries.
RB
Saquon Barkley was back in action, but since McCaffrey was on a bye, we still have yet to see Kali Warriors dynamic duo together. Detroit Wolverines must be happy with acquiring Dalvin Cook. They’re now ranked third. The gap between Bling Bling and Not Lucky grows ever so slightly, but they’re still waiting for someone else to challenge them. That could change soon.
WR
The Golden Eagles finally lose out their spot to Total domination. Speaking of Eagles, how about that Sunday night game?* The Golden Eagles weren’t earning any medals from that one as they started five Philly players this week.
* Commissioner’s note: boooooooo
TE
This is the fourth category the Detroit Wolverines have moved up at least three positions. They certainly had a turnaround this week, but for how long will it continue? Hard to say at this point, but I like their chances.
Defense
If the offensive rankings were all about the Detroit Wolverines jump to relevancy, the defensive rankings are all about Necessary Roughness. They scored 98 points on defense this week, which is more than most teams scored on offense and the highest of all defenses.
DL
The Bosa brothers had a great day on Sunday, and older brother Joey Bosa along with Frank Clark helped Necessary Roughness become the third ranked defensive line (and earn back their namesake pride). Meanwhile Bling Bling falls just as many positions as Necessary Roughness climbs. They earned 12.5 points from DL this week, which isn’t great, and everyone that jumped ahead of them had much better performances.
LB
Not Lucky has been up and down at LB all season. This week they move up three positions to offset their Week 6 fall. Bling Bling and speed-demons have sat quite nicely on top for some time. Pegasus and Tricksters have been trying to breach that Top 2, but haven’t shown enough top tier consistency to get there. Kali Warriors joins as a new challenger, but they still have a ways to go.
DB
The Winged Hussars survived two weeks of the Golden Eagles hot on their tail, and their consistency was awarded with a Golden Eagle dud. They could still bounce back (or the Tricksters could keep gaining), so the Hussars should definitely not get comfortable at number one.
Final Thoughts
The Detroit Wolverines and Necessary Roughness are two teams that have received much needed revitalization. Necessary Roughness has the better chance of winning their division, but I could totally see Detroit Wolverines riding Dalvin Cook to a wild card spot. There are four teams (Total domination, Kali Warriors, Tricksters, speed-demons) that really need to be careful. Which wild card spot Not Lucky likely ends up getting will dramatically affect where everyone else falls. And Pegasus needs to survive the bye weeks to win their division. Judging by their bench’s recent performances, they may need to do a little more than choosing different players to start.