Week 4 Recap

Decided by 0.34. Any one of four bench players wins it.

Two of the lowest scores of the week, and it came down to a third of a point.

Fudge Friends got hit twice in the same afternoon. Ja'Marr Chase left with a concussion after a facemask and scored 5.7. DJ Moore hurt the same left shoulder he hurt a couple of weeks ago, did not return, and scored 2.7. Two receivers, 8.4 points combined.

Meanwhile the bench: Carnell Tate 21.5. Tony Pollard 13.0. Xavier Worthy 11.0. Kenny Gainwell 10.7. Put any one of them in Moore's spot and Fudge Friends win. Tate alone wins it by 18.46. The optimal lineup was 128.28.

The injuries were bad luck. The bench was not. Last week Fudge Friends' optimal lineup would have won by 0.12. This week they lose by 0.34 with 26.10 points sitting in reserve. That is two straight weeks this roster has lost to its own bench.

Lindeman didn't play a clean game either. Dalton Kincaid scored 1.7 in a starting spot while Keaton Mitchell put up 11.3 on the bench. Emeka Egbuka scored 3.3 in his first game without Baker Mayfield. Jeremiyah Love 6.5. He left 17.50 on the bench.

What saved him: Sam LaPorta scored 22.4 after a 7.4 last week, Brock Purdy added 21.12, and Rome Odunze put up 15.4 with Case Keenum throwing to him — his best game of the season.

Lindeman is 2-2. He has won two straight games by a combined 0.78 points.

Chuck fixed everything this column asked. The running back he didn't start scored 28.

Credit first. Last Thursday Chuck had no tight end and no flex in his lineup. He filled both — Juwan Johnson 11.9, Braelon Allen 8.7 — and activated Puka Nacua off IR — 27.7 points. That's 48.3 points from three moves this column flagged. Without them, this isn't close.

It was close. It was 2.22.

Kyle Monangai ran 30 times for 146 yards and two touchdowns — 28.0 points — on Chuck's bench. David Montgomery scored 4.3 in a starting spot. That swap alone wins the game by 21.48. KC Concepcion (11.4) and Brian Thomas Jr. (9.7) also outscored Josh Downs (4.6).

Chuck left 31.50 points on his bench, the most of anyone this week, in a 2.22-point loss. His optimal lineup was 171.52 — higher than any actual score in the league this week.

Louie won because of one player. Tetairoa McMillan: 14 catches, 192 yards, two touchdowns, 45.2 points. The best individual game of the week, from a receiver who had 3.7 last week. Jonathan Taylor added 22.7.

The rest of Louie's lineup was sloppy again. With Justin Jefferson ruled out, Dontayvion Wicks started and scored 4.8 — while RJ Harvey (19.3) and DK Metcalf (16.5) sat on the bench. Bucky Irving managed 6.1 without Mayfield. Louie left 24.90 points on the bench, fourth-most in the league. McMillan covered for all of it.

One thing went right for Louie that this column got wrong: Tucker Kraft 16.5, Jake Ferguson 4.1. Kraft over Ferguson was the correct call.

Conte made the move of the week and lost to his own receivers.

This column said the best move available to anyone this week was activating Nico Collins. Conte did it. Collins caught 7 of 8 targets for 118 yards and two touchdowns: 30.8 points. Mike Evans, who he benched, played and scored 12.6 — so the swap gained 18.2.

Emanuel Wilson added 27.0. Josh Allen 19.52. Jahmyr Gibbs had his worst game of the season and still scored 17.7.

And then: Parker Washington scored 2.0. TreVeyon Henderson 4.2. Khalil Shakir scored 13.2 on the bench. Evans 12.6. Malik Washington 12.0. Start Shakir over Parker Washington and Conte wins by 1.36. His optimal lineup was 155.02. He lost by 9.84.

Buscho is 4-0, and this column has now picked against him and been wrong in back-to-back weeks.

The argument was luck. Last week he left 36.48 on his bench and won by 33. This week he left 31.00, and won by 9.84. The headline miss: Drake Maye scored 27.16 on the bench — 269 passing yards, three touchdowns, 54 rushing yards — while Bo Nix started and scored 13.56. This column argued for Nix. That one's on the column.

He won anyway because his starters were good enough. Bijan Robinson 30.7, Tee Higgins 26.7, Chuba Hubbard 25.9, Brock Bowers 20.6. Michael Wilson (16.5) and Michael Mayer (16.2) were also on the bench.

Over two weeks he has left 67.48 points in reserve and won both games. At some point that becomes a strategy.

The league high against the league's only winless team. Haas did his part. It didn't matter.

Max put up the highest score of the week and the cleanest lineup in the league: 4.40 points left on the bench, all of it Denzel Boston (12.9) over Stefon Diggs (8.5).

Kyren Williams: 26 touches, 147 yards, two touchdowns, 36.7 points. Zay Flowers, the receiver this column upgraded from alarm to start, scored 25.8. George Kittle 20.0. Chase Brown 19.1. Lamar Jackson scored 18.88 and was taken out at halftime with an ankle injury, possibly as a precaution with the game in hand.

Haas handled his alarm. DeVonta Smith missed the game, and Alvin Kamara scored 22.8 in the flex instead. Javonte Williams went for 31.3. Jared Goff 20.48, Justin Herbert 11.56 on the bench — the quarterback call right for the second straight week.

Then Saquon Barkley aggravated his hamstring, left early, and scored 2.0. Courtland Sutton scored 1.4. Jaxon Smith-Njigba came back to earth at 12.6.

Haas left only 9.30 on the bench. His optimal lineup, 131.88, loses by 36.

He is 0-4 with the seventh-most points in the league — more than Burrow My Face in TDs, more than Tom DaBombadil at 2-2, more than alindeman at 2-2.

CeeDee Lamb caught 17 passes. That was enough.

Lamb caught 17 passes on 21 targets for 41.3 points, and the commissioner's 0.44-point heartbreak from last week turned into a 38.4-point win.

Sean took this column's one specific advice: Aaron Jones started over Omarion Hampton. Jones scored 16.8, Hampton 13.3 from the bench. Right call, by 3.5.

But the column also undersold the best option. Quinshon Judkins scored 21.6 on the bench — more than either of them. And Sean's flex was a zero: Rashee Rice left early with a hamstring injury and scored 0.0. Judkins in for Rice is the 21.60 Sean left on the bench. Travis Kelce added 3.5. None of it mattered.

Chris Olave 19.6, Dak Prescott 18.1, Jameson Williams 16.2, Jaylen Warren 15.6. Sean is 2-2 and fifth in scoring.

Tom had the low score of the week. Kenyon Sadiq — added Thursday morning, listed questionable, started in the flex — scored 0.0. Rhamondre Stevenson scored 18.4 on the bench. Colston Loveland 11.7 on the bench.

Davante Adams, the receiver this column worried would fade with Puka Nacua back, scored 7.2. Nacua scored 27.7. Garrett Wilson 5.7. Trey McBride 10.1.

One thing went right: Ollie Gordon II scored 18.0 in his first game for Tom, after this column called the pickup a risk. Mahomes 17.0, Hurts 13.52 on the bench — Mahomes has now outscored him three weeks out of four.

Even the optimal lineup, 121.10, loses by 14.