Week 1 Recap – 2014

Welcome to the first edition of the Weekly Recap.  I’m going to try and do one of these each week of the season to highlight some memorable and not so memorable performances.

It was an exciting first week in the EBFL, with some close matchups coming down to Monday Night Football, as well as some record breaking performances.  Then again, it’s the first week in the history of the league, so take that with a grain of salt.

Matchups

1-0 Greg Shiano is an idiot (165.52) – 0-1 Tom Selleck’s Moustache (158.36)

The Idiots were 15 point favourites going into this one, and they managed to squeek out a 7 point victory, thanks mostly to a dominant performance by the first overall pick in the league draft, Calvin Johnson.  The Selleck’s have some serious potential, but they’re going to have to get some better performances from their vets while their young players round into form.

1-0 San Juan Bananas (225.44) – 0-1 Long Snappers (153.36)

The Bananas showed prognosticators they had no clue when they blew away their projected score by almost 70 points.  They walked away with an easy W, while setting the benchmark for points in a week which may very well stand for the season.  The Snappers have some nice pieces but they’ll need to get more from their 2nd tier players to be considered a contender this year.

1-0 Deadly Nagintas (157.96) – 0-1 Loose Bandits (142.70)

In a season opening battle of teams that looked to be building for 2015 and beyond, the Nagintas came out ahead (or behind if you’re gauging success with high draft picks) in the first match up of these division rivals.  There’s plenty of young talent on each of these squads, and they should be butting heads for Senor Crabs division dominance for seasons to come.

1-0 Chalupa Batman (144.58) – 0-1 Fear Boners (133.62)

The Chalupas were quite fortunate to come away with the win this week, having scored the 3rd lowest number of points.  Thankfully, they matched up with the worst team of the week, the veteran laden Fear Boners.  The Boners were a little on the flacid side this week, but they have the talent to claw their way back into things.  The Chalupas are extremely happy that the Packers are done with the Seahawks this season, so Jarrett Boykin may get a chance to score some points.

1-0 Knuckle Ballers (179.84) – 0-1 Endzone Dancers (151.12)

When you have Peyton Manning as your QB, you’re in win now mode.  The Ballers did just that, nailing down the W with the 2nd most points in the league.  They weren’t projected to win, but pulled it out by outperforming their projections by almost 20 points, and some disappointing performances from the Dancers, namely Jordan Reed who went out early with an injury.

1-0 What Does John Fox Say? (169.22) – 0-1 Rex in the City (157.40)

One of the most active teams in the off-season, the John Foxes came up big in week 1, putting up the 3rd most points in the league.  They’ve traded away all of their 2015 draft picks, so they’re all in on 2014.  This is a big step in the right direction, which will hopefully quiet the doubters in the teams fan base, after a wild off-season.

Week 1 Awards

Offensive Player of the Week

Julius Thomas (Long Snappers) – Tied for the top score of the week, but outscored the next best TE by 13.5 points.  Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to help the Snappers against the Banana juggernaut.

Defensive Player of the Week

Harrison Smith (Rex in the City) – Smith lived up to his top safety billing by leading the league in defensive scoring in Week 1.

Rookie of the Week

Brandin Cooks (San Juan Bananas) – The Bananas GM looks like a genius after the Hopkins for Cooks off-season swap.  Allen Hurns had a monster week, but he was sitting on the Montees TS, and thus ineligible.

Goat of the Week

Larry Fitzgerald (The Fear Boners) – Under 3 points from one of the games top wideouts hurts in an 11 point loss.  A number of other players could have taken the award, but we’ll let early game injuries slide for the time being.

Pickup of the Week

Everson Griffen (Deadly Nagintas) – Griffen put up 9 points from the defensive line, albeit on the Nagintas bench.

Bench Player of the Week

Sio Moore (Tom Selleck’s Moustache) – He wasn’t the highest scoring bench player, but he was a top 10 defensive scorer in week 1.

Bonehead Coaching Move of the Week

We’re going to hold off on giving this one out as a handful of GM’s left players in their starting line-ups that were designated as Out.  It’s Week 1…no bye weeks, and a number of them were 1pm games.  No excuses.