Band Aids pulling away in ST

Bob Garcia's team scores in triple figures again, and so do Packers; Rangers and WTNE continue to pace the Silent Division with close victories

Free-agent pickup D'Onta Foreman led the Packers to victory with 29 points.

The game of the week turned into the dog of the week, and Jordan Garcia's WTNE is just thankful that RB Christian McCaffrey suited up on Monday night: he was the difference between a W and an L. McCaffrey shrugged off an oblique injury that was supposed to sideline him for the week and scored 20 points instead. That led to a 62-51 win over the hapless Tirades, because Jordan had the guts to leave McCaffrey in the starting lineup all week. He had no alternative after 4 p.m. on Sunday, when his lone possible replacement, Seahawks RB Zach Charbonnet, went up against Arizona.

But not all was wine and roses for WTNE last weekend. They should have won this game big, but starting WRs Calvin Ridley (remember him? remember the week 1 halftime trade that cost WTNE a first-round pick?) and DJ Moore combined for a whopping 5 points. Ridley didn't score a single point and is averaging 5 points a game since that trade, which might make him the most expensive low-scoring WR since, well, the idiot Tirades sent a first-rounder to the Invalids last season for one-quarter of one game (and zero points) from Cooper Kupp. WTNE left 38 points on the bench with WRs Michael Pittman Jr. and Jordan "Who's Justin Jefferson?" Addison. Oh, and Colts fill-in QB Gardner Minshew outscored starter Justin Herbert 29-10. But WTNE won anyway, and that's all that matters... until it doesn't.

The Rangers kept pace with WTNE thanks to an upset win over the Spread Beaters, led by QB Jalen Hurts' 24 points and a complete lack of production from the opposition's starter at the position (Cleveland starting QB Deshaun Watson got knocked out with a shoulder injury). The Beaters and Matt Pringle had a one-week reprieve from a QB controversy, but now we're back trumpeting some kind of change should be in the works here. Bears QB Justin Fields is also injured, wasn't really the answer anyway, and has been replaced by Tyson Bagent, who scored a whopping 12 points but led his team to victory anyway (thanks to RB D'Onta Foreman, who was just added to the Packers roster earlier in the week).

Over in the ST division, the Band Aids continue to roll and improved to 6-1. JSFL Today's staff is not going too far out on a limb here saying that they'll 1) Win the division and 2) Might win the whole thing. But their lone roadblock won't be the now-tied-for-second-place Saddles, whom the Band Aids beat last weekend. Nope. It's the sneakier than thou Packers, who are almost quietly averaging 99.6 points a game (to the Band Aids 103) and are now tied with the aforementioned Saddles (who are averaging only 81.6).

Swami Update: It was a rough week for the Swami, who might have inhaled too much secondhand ganja smoke in the Pacific Northwest when he picked the Tirades (ok, maybe with McCaffrey out), Saddles and Recliners to win. Swami went 1-for-4 and thanks to the Packers pick, did not go winless. That dropped him to 20-15 on the season.

Christian McCaffrey scored two more TDs on Monday night, extending his consecutive streak to 16 games, two short of the record set by former Packers RB LaDanian Tomlinson.

WTNE 62, Tirades 51: Not sure what was worse Monday night for the Tirades management: Watching McCaffrey beat them with a 20-point outing (I won't mention the pre-draft trade that didn't happen), or Brock Purdy flaming out, or Brandon Ayiuk going silent in the second half as the 49ers lost the MNF game against the Vikings. All of that sucked, frankly, but congrats to Jordan for sticking with McCaffrey and dumbass of the week goes to the Tirades for picking up Rams RB Zach Wilson (who? oh, the guy who didn't score?) ahead of, say, Foreman. Who scored 29 (see below).

PACKERS 110, GERBILS 78: Jeff Lambert's team won its third consecutive game thanks in large part to his pickup of Foreman last Tuesday. Those 29 RB points were almost the entire margin of victory. It was a bounty of output from RBs for the Pack as Travis Etienne Jr. added 19 and Javonte Williams 9. QB Josh Allen's team may have lost against New England but the Bills QB came through with 24 points for Jeff, and WR Mike Evans added 14. The Gerbils, who fell to 0-7 on their way to the first pick in the 2024 draft, were led by 14 points from WR Christian Kirk.

BAND AIDS 100, SADDLES 83: QB Patrick Mahomes led the way for Bob Garcia, scoring a game-high 32 points. TE Mark Andrews added 18 and WR Puka "Shell" Nacua had 15. Saddles QB Jordan "I Don't Get No" Love led his team with 17.

RANGERS 90, BEATERS 82: John Lambert rolled to his fourth consecutive win thanks to Hurts (23), WR Josh Downs (18) and RB Josh Jacobs (14). The Beaters got only 3 at the problematic QB position (they're averaging 15 ppg, but if you remove the aberration here -- weeks 4-5 were 60 of their 111 points -- it's been more like 10). With Justin Fields injured (also very inconsistent) and backup Deshaun Watson also injured (again), we'll see what tricks Pringle has up his sleeve in a few hours when the waiver wire opens.

INVAIDERS 95, RECLINERS 80: Just line in the olden days, Vern Ahrendes rode his running backs to a win this week. Alvin Kamara, Saquon Barkley and Jamyr Gibbs combined for more than half of the team's scoring (50) and offset an off game from QB Tua Tagovailoa (10). First-round pick Travis Kelce led the Recliners with 23.