Horsemen befuddled by Hillbilly offensive explosion

 

The Horsemen now have 4 negative defensive performances in the last 2 years – and these are their only losses. It was difficult to overcome a -4 by the Ravens, but overcoming 35+ from James Conner proved to be the insurmountable obstacle. There were no real let downs on the Hillbilly roster and the Horsemen would suffer their worst loss since week 11 of 2017 to fall to 6-2 with only a 1 game lead in the division over the aforementioned Closet Hillbilly.

I really don’t want to talk about it anymore.

Following the embarrassment of their 2nd loss of the season, the Horsemen brass would find the need to shake up the roster a little bit – sending promising rookie Kerryon Johnson and the WR6 on the season, Emmanuel Sanders, for 24 year old wide receiver Stefon Diggs, a throw in Duke Johnson, and a mid round 2019 pick. The trade was questionable for rest of season prospects, but would be an attempt to shore up the wide receiver position for years to come with Antonio and Julio getting a little closer to the end of their careers. Losing Emmanuel Sanders sent shockwaves through the locker room. He was 24.2 points away from passing up Victor Cruz as the third highest scoring wide receiver and, assuming he does not return to the team in the future, may be ending his career as a Horseman as the 13th highest scorer in franchise history. This would be a clear message that no player was safe from the block, even after only one week of underperformance.

Unfortunately, Diggs second run with the Horsemen would be delayed at least a week with a mysterious rib ailment – a familiar development after his 2016 campaign was marred with injuries.

Fortunately, their opportunity to bounce back after a tough week 8 loss comes against Straight Laced. The Laces are looking like the Laces of yesteryear. 2017 brought the glory of their first playoff berth, 2018 finds them trailing Legs With Holes (and everyone else) and firmly planted in the #12 spot. This matchup was always going to be a challenging one, even when preseason prospects had Straight Laced as a top tier team. Week 9 has them minus their star, Odell Beckham, as well as surprise top 3 tight end, Eric Ebron – and likely starting a resurgent Ed Dickson and a rookie timeshare running back in Ito Smith.

The Horsemen had the pleasure of ousting Straight Laced from the playoffs in week 14 last year, smashing them by 44 after suffering their worst loss to them in week 11 – by 64 points, and scoring the least points in franchise history – 62. The Horses lead the all-time series 4-3, but come into this week averaging nearly 27 more PPG than their homely opponent.

Isaiah Crowell will get likely his last opportunity to start, barring injury, with the absence of phenom Marlon Mack and another week without D’Onta Foreman, Leonard Fournette and Le’Veon Bell – on top of a banged up Stefon Diggs.

The Horsemen are 29.2 point favorites (the largest spread since a week 3 contest against expansion team, Heavy Pistols) and have a projected chance of victory of 78.8% on ESPN and 81.8% on FantasyPros.

After picking the wrong upsets and going 2-3 last week, picks are now 26-14. The playoff picture is starting to come together now and every game is a big one for the middle of the pack as 6 teams have a reasonable shot at securing the final 2 playoff spots. The division champions are also up in the air with 1 game leads on both sides and some big interdivision games ahead of us this week.

• Extreme Baby Throwers @ Heavy Pistols. XBT has the chance to more or less lock up a playoff berth with a victory against an expansion team that will be without their best player, Saquon Barkley. Their extremely good bye week draws have been instrumental in their rise in 2018, but their inconsistency could be their undoing in the final stretch.
• Closet Hillbilly @ Drunken Aces. After a huge win against the Electric Horsemen, the Hillbilly meets up with an old division foe that’s on the ropes. I don’t know if he’s really going to start Amari Cooper, who wasn’t startable before he got to the Cowboys, but he doesn’t have a whole lot of options. The Aces win this one to keep the playoff race interesting and to go over .500 after going 1-4 in their last 5 games.
• 3rd and Unpredictable @ Legs With Holes. Despite massive improvement in the Horsemen trade, Legs are anchored by an awful Derek Carr at QB after dropping Cousins mid-season for… I guess Alex Smith, since they dropped him to simply open up a roster spot and filled it days later. This sets up for a big revenge game unless Unpredictable makes a last second QB change to Deshaun Watson, who’s coming off the best game of his career on his bench. Unpredictable isn’t as good as they figured to be this year, but bad teams stay bad and Legs With Holes are bad and will forever be bad.
• Dangerous Angels @ Bumpy’s Berries. A heavy Angels bye week comes at an inopportune time, as what would be a pretty easy win gets a little less winnable. Cooper Kupp’s return and a Tate-less Golladay should make this one interesting… especially if Sony Michel really returns.
• Nosebleeds @ Strictly Southern. Mahomes is a heartbreaker and the Nosebleeds hopes are tied to an RB duo in Chicago and a broken down Gronkowski. Corey Davis is a starter? The ‘bleeds just aren’t trying hard enough and get run out of the building in this one.