1998 Week 8 Newsletter

What's inside:

1. Standings
2. Letter From The Commish
3. Transactions
4. Game Capsules/Box Scores
5. Swami Sez
6. Weekly Order of Pickup

Letter from the Commish:

We’ve reached the half-way point on the season. The Commish has taken the time to document what he believes all of us have been thinking. Specifically, scoring is down around the league this season. With the exception of the top three Howe division teams, most of the owners have found points more difficult to come by. The Commish added up each team’s points scored, divided by 12 (the number of league teams) then divided by 8 (the number of games each team has played) and found that the leaguewide scoring average in 30.9 ppg. That’s one full point off from a year ago. That doesn’t sound like much; however, it’s the lowest average total since the league’s 1993 season (there’s no accounting for the ill-fated 1994 "lost records" season). Oh, what the Natural Mystics wouldn’t do to have that extra point back. Consider that the Mystics have dropped six straight games. Three of the last four were by, get this, a COMBINED four points. Seasons flush down the drain quickly under such circumstances. Overall, with the season now past the halfway point, there have been 8 cases of a league team scoring 50+ points in a game. Last year, the final tally was 19. At this pace, 1998 will finish with 15.

The Commish has suffered the frustration of having his server down for the better part of the past week. One or two incoming e-mails found their way through but 99% were lost in a black hole. Anything with an attachment that passes through the firewall is doomed to roam in space long after you and I have passed on this mortal coil. This comes as the result of some idiot on the internet sending hundreds of thousands of spam e-mails to the server in question over the course of a week. It had to be taken down for upgrades in an effort to prevent future impact on its users. The Commish appreciated your patience during this time of difficulty that was out of his hands. After 2-3 weeks of being on the road, the Commish had hoped to get back to business-as-usual. Oh well. Perhaps next week.

In a piece of good (?) news, Coach Will has joined the rest of the league in the ‘90s by getting on-line. Actually, let’s be truthful. It’s his wife who has BEEN on-line. She’s just getting around to letting him have his own e-mail address. So, you can all anticipate Coach Will’s incessant smack talking to find its way to an e-mail near you in the written form. God help us all! For those of you who care, his address is grandewrld@aol.com.

Keep in mind that the trading deadline is getting closer. It’s 11:59am on Sunday November 22. The waiver deadline is the following week-11:34am on Thanksgiving to be exact. That is Week 12 and Week 13 respectively. This coming Sunday marks Week 9.

Just an fyi to think about: if the playoffs were to begin today, the matchups would be the #1 ranked Palace of Swords vs. #4 Strange Highways and the #2 Retreads vs. #3 Greenback Iguanas. Grande To The Party, though tied with the Retreads at 6-2, would be home due to its loss to those Retreads in yet another big game defeat. The Highways and Iguanas have the same record but don’t meet until Week 12. At this point, the Iguanas have scored more points for the year. Some of us have only the 2^nd annual shotgun tournament to look forward to. The Commish will speak in greater detail about the shotgun tournament in an upcoming newsletter. Until then…

Go deep, I’ll throw it!

-The Commish

Stop here for reminders:

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• Drop/Adds begin Wednesdays at 6:00pm this year.
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• Wednesdays from 6:00pm-10:00pm are reserved for pickups based on low season point total. There’s a limit of one pickup per team during this time.
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• First come/first serve drop/adds begin Wednesdays at 10:00pm.
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• All transactions are to be called in to 402-392-9749 and left on my voice mail for date/time stamping. This will serve as the official arbitrator of any disputes that may occur.
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• All lineups should be called in to 402-392-9749 for the same reasons. However, you may also call 341-2674 with your lineup if I’m home or you may also e-mail me with your lineup if necessary.
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• To find out what lineup your opponent is using, either: call your opponent directly (remember to notify me of your starting lineups in any event-see above) or call me at 402-341-2674 after kickoff of the first weekly game.
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• I realize some trades are made at the last minute but, whenever possible, please notify me of any trades ASAP after they are made by leaving a voice mail at 402-392-9749.

Transactions:

Revenge For 1997 Defeat Is Sweet To Coach Will

Grande To The Party continued to receive huge production from QB Steve Young, riding him to a 49-16 victory over the Dewey leader Greenback Iguanas. Curtis Martin added a TD and the 100 while of the three starting wideouts found paydirt. The Jets D, filling in for the bye week Cowboys, also scored a TD. The Party was swept by the Iguanas last season by 39-24 and 42-28 scores and suffered the added insult of Iguana whooping after the fact, or so the Commish is told. So victory tasted sweet to Coach Will after this game was complete. The Iguanas were never really in the game. Vinny Testaverde threw 2 TD passes to lead the way for the 5-3 Iguanas, who saw their lead slip to a single game. The Party remains a ½ game behind the Palace of Swords. Perhaps these two teams will square off again down the road in the playoffs in their own version of the Raiders and Chiefs.

Grande To The Party 49 16 Greenback Iguanas

S Young 12 QB 08 Testaverde

C Martin 08 RB 02 B Sanders

E George 02 RB 00 A Smith

K Johnson 06 WR 02 J Smith

C Johnson 06 WR 00 D Scott

Chmura 00 TE 00 Brady

Stokes 00 U 00 Dyson

Vinatieri 09 K 04 Longwell

Jets 06 D 00 Falcons

Highways End Slide With 55-34 Pasting Of Rival

The NFC Norris fell another game off the pace in the Howe division with a 55-34 thumping at the spanky hands of the the Strang Highways. This matchup has slowly turned into an important rivalry, at least in Coach Widtfeldt’s eyes. The Highways have lost heartbreakers to the Norris each of the past two years. It was not to be so close this week as Brett Favre got the Highways off to a quick start and Joey Galloway added the icing to the victory cake with an 80 yard bomb and a 74 yard punt return for TDs. Eric Moulds added an acrobatic TD catch Sunday night and finished with 14 points of his own. The Norris were again led by K Gary Anderson (10 points). The Norris drop to 3-5, 3 ½ games behind the division lead in the Howe while the Highways snapped a 3 game losing streak to regain more solid control of the Cheatem division at 5-3.

NFC Norris 34 55 Strange Highways

Banks 06 QB 14 Favre

Dillon 06 RB 00 Enis

J Anderson 00 RB 00 Lane

J Reed 06 WR 06 Rice

T Brown 06 WR 14 Galloway

Drayton 00 TE 00 Dudley

R Edwards 00 U 14 Moulds

G Anderson 10 K 07 Hansen

Broncos 00 D 00 Buccaneers

Holding Call Helps MNF Claim Another Victim

Ted Popson’s holding penalty against Donta Jones during Joe Horn’s kickoff return for a TD to open the 2^nd half cost the Chiefs a touchdown and the Bone Club a win in Week 8. Replays appeared to show the flag was incorrect and that the TD should have counted. The 41-36 loss to the Retreads spoiled a stellar performance by Jason Elam who scored 14 points including an NFL tying 63 yard FG to close the 1^st half of the Broncos game against the Jaguars. The difference in this game was once again Terrell Davis. Davis scored 20 points and was close to even having 100 yards receiving on the day. Whereas the Club was robbed of 6 defensive points, the Retreads got another Seahawk defensive score thanks to a Joey Galloway 74 yard punt return for a TD. The Club also had an Ed McCaffrey TD catch brought back due to a holding penalty on the offensive line. At 2-5-1, the Club’s playoff chances are remote at best. The Retreads improve to 6-2 and remain ½ game out of the Howe division lead.

Retreads 41 36 Bone Club

Bledsoe 00 QB 04 Beuerlein

T Davis 20 RB 00 Vardell

F Taylor 06 RB 06 Watters

McCardell 02 WR 00 Pickens

Mathis 00 WR 06 C Carter

Cleeland 00 TE 00 Glover

Jabbar 00 U 06 McCaffrey

Stoyanovich 07 K 14 Elam

Seahawks 06 D 00 Chiefs

Swords Maintain Howe Lead With 12 Point Win

The Palace of Swords quietly won their fifth straight game of the season by defeating the Stanley Steamers 36-24 in Week 8 action. Randall Cunningham once again played big, scoring 8 points along with Antonio Freeman and Al Del Greco. The Swords got another D touchdown from the Pack and a Jermaine Lewis TD catch in upping their record to 6-1-1 and maintaining their tenuous hold on the Howe division lead. The Steamers continued to have trouble scoring points. QB Mark Brunell had 14 but the only other TD came from Robert Brooks. The Steamers stumble to 3-5.

Palace of Swords 36 24 Stanley Steamers

Cunningham 08 QB 14 Brunell

Holmes 00 RB 00 Hearst

D Bennett 00 RB 00 Alstott Martin 00 WR 00 H Moore

Freeman 08 WR 06 R Brooks

Coates 00 TE 00 F Jones

J Lewis 06 U 00 I Bruce Del Greco 08 K 04 Stover

Packers 06 D 00 Panthers

Doggies String Together Third Straight Win, 28-17

Only two league teams have scored fewer points, and those two are a combined 4-12, but the King of Dogs won their 3^rd in a row this week by a 28-17 score to even their record at 4-4. The way was led by WR Terrell Owens’ 14 points and new D Steelers’ blocked punt for a TD. While the running game and QB play continued to disappoint, the Dogs again met a team who had an equally difficult team of scoring. The combined score of the Dogs’ last three opponents is 51 points. Montezuma Revenge’s only points came from an Elway TD throw, a TD run and a 100 from Robert Smith and 5 kicking points from Doug Pelfrey. The Revenge drop to 3-5.

King of Dogs 28 17 Montezuma’s Revenge

Stewart 04 QB 04 Elway

A Lee 00 RB 08 R Smith

Avery 00 RB 00 Dunn

B Engram 00 WR 00 Dawkins

T Owens 14 WR 00 Moss

Sharpe 00 TE 00 McGee

L Thomas 00 U 00 Jervey

Richey 04 K 05 Pelfrey

Steelers 06 D 00 49ers

Mystics Lose 2nd One-Point Game On Bettis’ 100

The Mystics have now lost games by 5, 2, 1, 12, and 1 in dropping to 1-7 following this week’s 28-27 loss to PMS. The pair of one point losses and the two point loss are each within the past four weeks. PMS won this one thanks to Jerome Bettis going over 100 yards on MNF with less than four minutes left in the game. The Mystics had a chance to win it earlier in the 4^th quarter but a sure TD pass to Andre Rison bounced off his face mask for an incompletion. The Mystics then held on to a one point lead until Bettis rumbled over the 100 yard mark. PMS won their 2^nd straight while improving to 3-5 for the year.

PMS 28 27 Natural Mystics

Flutie 08 QB 04 O’Donnell

Bettis 02 RB 02 Kaufman

Means 06 RB 00 R Harris

Morton 06 WR 00 R Smith

Conway 00 WR 06 Rison

D Moore 00 TE 06 I Smith

Chrebet 00 U 00 Ismail

Hollis 06 K 09 T Peterson

Patriots 00 D 00 Ravens

This week’s additions to the FFL Record Book:

• Natural Mystics dropped their 6^th straight, breaking their all-time franchise record of five. The league record for consecutive losses is nine. The Mystics play the Swords in Week 9, which is not favorable. They play the Stanley Steamers in Week 10.
• 34 WR points by the Strange Highways ties the record for most points from the WR position in a game. It is now held by six teams.
• Terrell Davis’ 20 points places him among the single game leaders for RB points.
• NFC Norris has given up 50+ points three times in ’98 and a total of 7 times as a franchise.

Swami Sez:

The Swami went 5-1 in Week 8 to up his mark to 31-16-1 on the season. Here goes for Week 9:

King of Dogs (4-4) vs. Stanley Steamers (3-5)

Power Ranking: King of Dogs 8; Stanley Steamers 11

Grande To The Party (6-2) vs. PMS (3-5)

Power Ranking: Grande To The Party 1; PMS 10

Grande To The Party should have an easy go of it this week. The only thing that could stop him is the Packers’ defense clamping down on Steve Young to J.J. Stokes or, better yet, knocking Young from the game. Since we can’t count on that to happen for sure, the safe money says pony up to the Party.

Greenback Iguanas (5-3) vs. Montezuma’s Revenge (3-4)

Power Ranking: Greenback Iguanas 5; Montezuma’s Revenge 9

The Revenge are having trouble scoring. The Iguanas are a 1^st place team coming off a low scoring game in a loss. Since the Swami doesn’t expect the Iguanas to go two straight games with minimal output from its offense, the vote here goes to the Iguanas to prevail.

NFC Norris (3-5) vs. Bone Club (2-5-1)

Power Ranking: NFC Norris 4; Bone Club 7

The Bone Club has seen its share of tough luck in ’98. The Swami doesn’t see Week 9 as being any kinder. While at first glance, the Swami sees the Club as being on a par with the Norris and being capable of defeating Coach Nerz’s annual underachievers, it’s the Week 9 matchups that separate these two teams. Although I don’t expect to see much from Cory Dillon vs. Denver, Robert Edwards and Jamal Anderson could be the difference for the Norris this week. Spend accordingly.

Strange Highways (5-3) vs. The Retreads (6-2)

Power Ranking: Strange Highways 6; Retreads 2

The Highways have been winning with their passing game, disguising a week rushing attack. One look at the Week 9 matchups should be enough to tell you that the Highways face an uphill battle. Brett Favre and Jerry Rice must meet the Packers, although the Swami is sure they’re spending much time reviewing the game tapes from Minnesota’s MNF victory over Green Bay three weeks ago. Further, Joey Galloway will square off against Charles Woodson and the Raider D while Eric Moulds attempts to free himself against a stingy Miami defense. Meanwhile, the Retreads’ Drew Bledsoe faces the Colts and Terrell Davis will pad his rushing stats against Cincinnati. We like the Retreads.

Natural Mystics (1-6) vs. Palace of Swords (6-1-1)

Power Ranking: Natural Mystics 12; Palace of Swords 3

In quite possibly the ugliest matchup of the week, the last place team in the league meets the 1^st place team in the league. Nuff said.

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