2024 Week 8 Dynasty Recap: Slight Separation and a Little Clarity
Well, we’ve got some separation in the West, if only for a week. And the big games down the stretch have gotten a little clearer. Nathan’s Sunday night/Monday night comeback helped keep the division record tiebreaker in play, which makes their matchup with Joel in week 9 all the bigger (More on that way below). Bryar continues to trail Alex despite his point total because Alex has the division record tiebreaker, making their week 10 matchup all the bigger. With the middle of the league rubbing shoulders, it makes every 4-4 and 5-3 game important for those 3 to 6 seeds. And let’s not exclude those 3-5 teams, all three are the teams that have never missed a playoff and they’re hungry to keep that streak alive. Here are your week 8 results:
NUKEM 138.06 over Ferocious Felines 137.80
Two weeks after Rob helped set the record for closest game in league history, he once again helped make the list, with this one coming in at 4th closest all-time. Heading into Monday night NUKEM needed 29.35 points to pull it off. Najee Harris has been playing better and Pitt’s defense was facing the Giants, so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility, but Yahoo had its doubts. The two ended up combining for 29.6 and pulled off the win! Rob has gone from 0-4 and looking like he’d be competing in the Ashton Jeanty sweepstakes, to 4-4 and holding down the final playoff spot. Quite the turnaround. Fred’s Felines continue to play well, he’s now scored 120+ points in three of his losses. There are three teams that haven’t even scored 120+ points three times all season. Hang in there Fred, at some point it should start breaking your way…maybe.
Fear Itself 136.52 over Kade’s Dawgs 130.42
It wasn’t looking great for Nathan heading into Sunday night, but George Kittle took care of business on National Tight Ends day, and Deebo did enough to set up Boswell with an easy enough finish to get the win. Three players under 10 points combines between these teams. That is a phenomenal week and a recipe for a great game. Curt, not to throw salt in an open wound, but this will be the first season that you finish with a losing division record.
The Empire 151.26 over Fantasy Fairies 131.64
Bryar spent all of the early game period Sunday yelling at Jalen Hurts every time he popped up on RedZone. Fortunately for him, Ryan left Kyle Pitts on his bench or else he would’ve lost his voice. Also, fortunately for him, his entire team, except two players, scored 14+ points. Ryan’s team finally blows up and he still gets beat easily. On top of that, he had the Player of the Week in Jalen Hurts (34.14)! There’s only one way Kyle Pitts in his starting lineup could’ve gotten him the win and that’s if Cooper was on his bench, which after seeing what Cooper did in his first game with Buffalo last week, I don’t think there are many of us that would’ve benched him. Ryan, you are 4 losses away from securing the #1 pick. Although if you lose weeks 9 and 13 and Trey were to win one other game, then you’d only have to lose one game between weeks 10-12 and 14, and it will be your precious.
Storm Surge 118.70 over Space Rangers 94.56
Blah blah blah, some dumb stuff happened, blah blah blah. What? You want more than that? *Heavy Sigh* Fine. Burrow and Chase got off to a hot start, but Philadelphia decided they actually did know how to play pass defense and shut them down for the rest of the game. Carolina, the team allowing nearly 30 fantasy points to RBs, finally figured out how to stop the position, but also only Javonte Williams. The Packers thought it would be funny if they threw the ball to literally everyone, including the waterboy, except Jayden Reed until the very end of the game. But hey, I’m not salty. Definitely not salty that the only two games my team scored under 110 points both came against my dad and both were actually under 95 points. I’m only as salty as his food will be after I slip the chef a twenty when I pay up on our food bet later this year. Congrats to literally everyone on my dad’s team except the Jets, for scoring over 10 points, and outscoring all but four players on my team. Special shoutouts to Tucker Kraft for scoring a touchdown for that same Packers team that Reed is supposed to be apart of, to Darnell Mooney for making me get excited every time you caught a pass before I realized the jersey number was 1 not 7, and to Evan Engram for catching that touchdown pass at the end of your game that I knew with absolute certainty had just ended my chances at a win.
Michael Style 119.08 over ay_Bilat 94.88
Michael Style’s team mantra of “We can’t lose if they barely score” has really held up again this season. I don’t know what kind of shady back channel money transfers you got going on with your opponents’ players, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t use them in week 14. James Cook looks like he’s all the way back from whatever kept him out two weeks ago, and Kyler Murray surpassed the 300 yard passing mark while eclipsing 20+ points for the third time in the last four weeks…that new COD game just came out though, so watch out! Some highlights for Trey: Patrick Mahomes beat his projected score for the first time this season, perhaps a sign of good things to come. Tyreek Hill hit double-digits for the first time since week 1, Tua being back paid immediate dividends. And Travis Kelce had his best game since week 7 of last season. Get some consistency out of Drake London and a boost to your Running Backs and you got yourself a team!
TOP TEN
1) QB Lamar Jackson (The Empire) 187.06
2) RB Derrick Henry (Ferocious Felines) 171.20
3) QB Josh Allen (Fear Itself) 146.04
4) QB Jalen Hurts (Fantasy Fairies) 143.26*
5) RB Alvin Kamara (The Empire) 143.20
6) QB Kyler Murray (Michael Style) 137.92
7) QB Joe Burrow (Space Rangers) 136.32
8) RB Saquon Barkley (Storm Surge) 135.70*
9) RB Jahmyr Gibbs (Fear Itself) 126.00
10) WR Ja’Marr Chase (Space Rangers) 125.30
* Denotes they have had their Bye Week
As a special treat, with roughly 1/3 of our regular season finished, here are the top 5 rankings by position:
QB
1) L. Jackson (The Empire) 187.06
2) J. Allen (Fear Itself) 146.04
3) J. Hurts (Fantasy Fairies) 143.26*
4) K. Murray (Michael Style) 137.92
5) J. Burrow (Space Rangers) 136.32
RB
1) D. Henry (Ferocious Felines) 171.20
2) A. Kamara (The Empire) 143.20
3) S. Barkley (Storm Surge) 135.70*
4) J. Gibbs (Fear Itself) 126.00*
5) B. Robinson (Space Rangers) 123.40
WR
1) J. Chase (Space Rangers) 125.30
2) J. Jefferson (NUKEM) 115.40*
3) C. Godwin (Space Rangers) 112.80
4) D. London (ay_Bilat) 109.50
5) G. Wilson (Space Rangers) 101.30
TE
1) G. Kittle (Fear Itself) 106.30
2) T. Kelce (ay_Bilat) 58.60*
3) T. McBride (Kade’s Dawgs) 49.70
4) S. LaPorta (Michael Style) 49.20*
5) D. Kincaid (Fantasy Fairies) 48.80
K
1) K. Fairbairn (Storm Surge) 95.00
2) Y. Koo (Kade’s Dawgs) 69.00
3) J. Myers (Michael Style) 65.00
4) E. McPherson (ay_Bilat) 61.00
5) C. Boswell (Fear Itself) 51.00
D
1) Chicago (Space Rangers) 69.00*
2) Pittsburgh (NUKEM) 49.00
3) Denver (ay_Bilat) 46.00
4) Baltimore (Ferocious Felines) 42.00
5) Cleveland (Kade’s Dawgs) 39.00
5) Green Bay (Fear Itself) 39.00
But wait, there’s more!!! Here is the current draft order as it stands right now. The * denotes playoff spots. Tie breakers for non-playoff teams will be determined by regular season head-to-head results, with the loser getting the better pick. In the event of a three-way tie, or an instance of an even 1-1 split on the season, the tie breaker will be points scored, with the team who had the least points scored getting the better pick.
1) Fantasy Fairies – Coach Ryan (0-8)
2) ay_Bilat – Coach Trey (3-5)
3) Kade’s Dawgs – Coach Curt (3-5)
4) Ferocious Felines – Coach Fred (3-5)
5) *NUKEM – Coach Rob (4-4)
6) *Space Rangers – Coach Lance (5-3)
7) *Fear Itself – Coach Nathan (5-3)
8) *The Empire – Coach Bryar (5-3)
9) *Michael Style – Coach Alex (5-3)
10) *Storm Surge – Coach Joel (7-1)
Here’s a look ahead at next week:
Storm Surge (7-1) vs Fear Itself (5-3)
Here we go again. The old guard vs the new guard. I suppose you could take that from an age perspective, but I was specifically referring to Nathan’s chokehold on the East for the last half a century (or so it feels), and Joel’s undoing of said chokehold. A win here for Storm Surge would mean the only way another team could take the East from him is if they surpassed him in overall record. Which he could have a three game lead in after this game if he were to win and I were to lose. Plenty at stake here. Joel is up 1-0 after winning their week 4 matchup.
The Empire (5-3) vs NUKEM (4-4)
Bryar is up 8-5 in this one. It’s the highest scoring team in the league vs the hottest team in the league. It’s the Greatest Show on Yahoo vs the Cardiac Bombers. Will Bryar’s offensive dominance win out, or can Rob keep up his come-from-behind ways.
Michael Style (5-3) vs Ferocious Felines (3-5)
The renewed rivalry. Fred leads 6-5, but Alex has won 5 of the last 8. Including back in week 5. A win by Fred will keep the division record tiebreaker in play for the entire West division (barring a loss by NUKEM), and it could knock Fred’s biggest rival out of the driver’s seat for the West.
Space Rangers (5-3) vs ay_Bilat (3-5)
Trey leads the series 6-3. I feel like we just played this one. Probably cause I took home the win back in week 6, in the second biggest blowout in league history. I’d like to get some more of that, so if you could shut Mahomes, Hill and Kelce down for the week, I’d be very grateful.
Kade’s Dawgs (3-5) vs Fantasy Fairies (0-8)
Here you go Ryan, here’s your second chance to put one on the board against Curt since he currently owns the series 5-0. A loss for Ryan would make it very difficult for Curt to fall into the #1 pick, but a win for Ryan would hurt Curt’s playoff outlook even more. Ryan, at 0-8 it might seem like the sky has completely collapsed, but technically there’s still a chance for you to grab the 6th seed, you’d pretty much have to win out though. But that’s a discussion for week 10!
That’s all for this week, good luck to you all in week 9!