Week 4 Recap: Crunch Bunch's Jekyll & Hyde

By Mel Alper, CTDB Analyst

Put the Crunch Bunch’s Week 3 lineup next to its Week 4 lineup and you’ll find the same ten players in the same ten slots. BUT - in Week 3 they scored 102 and lost to Blitz by 72. Week 4 was a different story. On Sunday they put up 188 and broke the season high points scored, which Blitz had just set in that Week 3 game with 174. Tetairoa McMillan went from 3 points to 38, and Kyle Monangai from 3 to 28. Same guys. Different Sunday. Better plays by Coach Eddie??

This year - points scored records have been broken week over week. Gang Green’s 159, the Masterminds’ 167 and Blitz’s 174 each fell the next Sunday, and this week Blitz beat its own mark with 179 and still had only the second-best score.

The Chunky Monkeys on the other hand - limped to another win with 101, the eighth-best score of the week. Yikes. 

My picks went 3-2 again, with misses on Gang Green and Buffy.

The games

Crunch Bunch 188, LA Buffy 121

Last season these two finished at the bottom, Buffy ninth and the Bunch tenth, and Buffy won all three of their meetings. The last was 93 to 41 in the consolation bracket, the widest margin between them in five years until Week 4.

The backfields decided this one. Crunch Bunch running backs outscored the Buffy backfield by 59, nearly all of the 67-point margin, and Monangai alone beat Jeremiyah Love, Cam Skattebo and David Montgomery combined, 28 to 17.

Buffy’s best day came from Nico Collins, back from two missed games with 27. Buffy’s 121 was fifth-best in the league, good enough for the bonus win.

A Squad Called Blitz 179, Jail Yard Boyz 128

Blitz has scored 79 more points than anyone else in the league so far this.  This is the team that hasn’t finished better than fifth in any of the last five seasons. Coming into this year, the Boyz owned this matchup, 8-4 over the last five years, and even knocked Blitz out of last season’s playoffs, 151 to 120. None of that mattered this year. 

Blitz was led by its usual core of super stars. Blitz win when its stars, well, star. CeeDee Lamb caught 33, and Bijan Robinson, Brock Purdy and Chuba Hubbard each cleared 25 beside him. Blitz left 3 points on its bench, the fewest in the league, and Victor’s best possible lineup scores 162, was still 17 short. 

Battle Angel 156, Gang Green 117

Gang Green won the last meeting, 149 to 130 last November. This time it came in as the widest favorite on the board, by 17 on the projections, and then they got crushed

The Angel's Kyren Williams ran for 32, more than Derrick Henry and Christian McCaffrey gave Greg together, and Javonte Williams added 29. Like Crunch Bunch, this game was decided by the Angels' running game.

Sunday night’s game between the Panthers and the Bills had both quarterbacks -- Bryce Young got the better of this one with 29 points. Gang Green's usual capital, Josh Allen, threw for a very pedestrian 23 points.  The Angels are on a bit of a run. Just wwo weeks ago, the Angels were 0-4. After two 2-0 weeks they sit level at 4-4 with Gang Green, the franchise with the best average finish in the league over the last five years.

City of Angels Masterminds 120, Philadelphia Phreaks 84

GM Ping is trying - he made big bids this week and acquired some prize free agent signings but weirdly, he didn't play them. The Phreaks made the biggest bid of the season on Wednesday, 31 dollars for Ollie Gordon but then started J.K. Dobbins over him. Insiders said Ollie was still learning the playbook. Gordon put up 17 on the bench and while Dobbins scratched together only 6 points. The Phreaks also suffered some bad luck by benching Hockenson for Sadiq who put up a bagel. In fact, the Phreaks' best lineup would've scored 123 points which would've of secured a win in the best of worlds. 

Marcus relied on some late round draft picks this week including Romeo Doubs and Deebo Samuel, his round 8 and round 11 picks, and they put up 36 on a day his first two picks, Davante Adams and Parker Washington, managed just 7 points. Kudos to the Mastermind scouting department.

Chunky Monkeys 101, Custom J 89

The Monkeys had won the last four meetings between these two -- the latest last season’s semifinal victory over Custom J, 120 to 72.

Neither manager set a good lineup this week. Emanuel Wilson, a 6-dollar claim in Week 3, went for 26 on the Monkeys’ bench.  Coach Evan labored over his QB1 decision and did ultimately make the right call in the preview’s coin flip: Tyler Shough outscored Trevor Lawrence but it wouldn't have really mattered.

Custom J's roster really struggled this week. Ladd McConkey put up a bagel and the rest of the team is really struggling to find its offensive rhythm. Worth noting that like this article, Custom J's article was AI built and now the team is 2-6 and alone in last place -- sorry, Josh. Love, Claude.

Heroes and Zeros

This is where the projections get graded. Heroes beat theirs by the most; Zeros are the healthy stars and early picks who didn’t show for the lineups built around them. McMillan has now been both: last week’s Zeros, and this week’s top Hero, 38 on a projection of 13.

Heroes. Monangai, Kyren and Javonte Williams, Lamb and Collins all beat their projections by 14 or more, and Collins was the only one whose team lost. Even the season-high lineup left one on its bench: Brian Robinson Jr., the Bunch’s round 12 pick, put up 25 on a projection of 6, and no bench player beat his projection by more.

Four of the six best days by waiver pickups sat on a bench: Emanuel Wilson, Hockenson, Gordon and Vele.

Zeros. Bucky Irving, the Boyz’ first-rounder, went for 6 on a projection of 15. Two keepers sank lower on points: Garrett Wilson caught 4 for Gang Green and David Montgomery put up 4 for Buffy, both on projections of 13. All three teams lost.

Manager of the Week

Manager of the Week: Marcus, City of Angels Masterminds. His calls gained 9 points, the most in the league, all of it Doubs and Samuel. Eddie finished a hair behind, with the same ten starters that cost him 16 against the projections a week earlier.

Projections only. Will and Ping both started exactly the projections’ lineup. It won Will a game by 39 and lost Ping his.

Calls that cost. Evan’s calls cost 16, the most in the league, a week after he won this award. That’s the same 16 Eddie’s ten starters cost him in Week 3. The Monkeys also left 39 on the bench, a hair more than the Phreaks. Roger’s calls cost 9. Victor’s cost 8, all of it Malik Nabers catching 20 on the Boyz’ bench, and none of the three changed a result.

The Trainer’s Room

In a keeper league an injury costs this week’s points, the waiver dollars spent covering for it, and sometimes next year’s keeper.

Custom J. De’Von Achane, a keeper since 2024, is out for the season with the knee he hurt in Week 3. Without him, Custom J’s three starting running backs gave Josh 23 between them. Gordon, next in line in Miami’s backfield, went to the Phreaks on the season’s biggest bid, so Achane’s replacement belongs to someone other than Josh.

The Phreaks. The Phreaks have kept Justin Jefferson every year since 2021, and he sprained an ankle in Week 3. Early in the week he looked like he might play, and by Friday he was ruled out. Dontayvion Wicks took his spot and caught 3. Dallas Goedert was out too, which left Sadiq as the only healthy tight end on the roster until the Hockenson claim on Sunday morning.

The Angels. Jayden Daniels, their fourth-round pick, missed another game after talk of a Week 4 return. After Young’s Sunday, Daniels’ return is a lineup question, not an automatic start. Travis Etienne Jr., a keeper, is on injured reserve with a hamstring, and Josh Jacobs is day-to-day. The Angels paid 8 dollars on Friday for Kendre Miller to cover, and Miller scored 1 on the bench.

Gang Green. Greg spent his first-round pick on Jadarian Price, who was listed questionable on Friday and was on injured reserve by Monday night. Seattle’s other back, Emanuel Wilson, is a Monkey, which makes Price’s injury Evan’s opening as much as Greg’s problem.

The Masterminds. A quad injury kept Breece Hall, a Masterminds keeper since 2025, out of Week 4. The early word is weeks, not days.

New tags. Seven starters were listed active on Friday and came out of the weekend questionable: the Bunch’s Monangai, Buffy’s Love, the Boyz’ Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, Custom J’s Lamar Jackson, the Monkeys’ Rashee Rice and the Phreaks’ Saquon Barkley. Five of them are keepers. Rice and Barkley finished with 0 and 2, so watch those two before Wednesday’s waiver run.

The Bunch. The Bunch set the season high without A.J. Brown, a keeper since 2023, who remains on injured reserve.

Tidbits

• Week 4 history ran backward. The Masterminds, 1-4 in Week 4 over the last five years, won, and Gang Green, 4-1, lost.

• The family went 2-2, and the brothers split: Eddie won and Josh lost.

• Eddie had the Panthers on both sides of the ball Sunday night: McMillan on offense, and a defense that scored minus 5. 

• Ping started five Eagles, and they gave him 33 of his 84.

• The best rookie starter was Carnell Tate, the Bunch’s first-round pick, with 17 on a projection of 10. Week 6’s Pot pays the best rookie.

This Week’s Pot 

Week 4 paid the waiver hero: the highest-scoring starter who wasn’t drafted or kept this year. Bryce Young won it for Battle Angel with 28.75, two Sundays after Will claimed him for nothing and cut Bo Nix to make room. Last year’s Week 4 went to the Phreaks. Tyler Shough’s 20.8 was second and Dominic Zvada’s 12.0 third — both waiver starts, neither close. Week 5 pays the lowest-scoring winner, and the champion’s 101 would have taken it this week.

The standings

Counting bonus results, Blitz and the Monkeys share first at 6-2, and the Masterminds, who haven’t finished better than seventh in five years, sit alone at 5-3. Gang Green, the Bunch and the Angels are 4-4, with Buffy, the Phreaks and the Boyz at 3-5 and Custom J at 2-6. Last season’s runner-up and last season’s fourth-place team are both near the bottom: the Boyz have scored the fewest points in the league, and Custom J is last.

Next week

The Monkeys host the Bunch, the season’s best score against Week 4’s lowest winner, cousin against cousin in the first of their two Bay Area division games. The Bunch leads 4-2 over the last five years.

Elsewhere, the Masterminds host Buffy in the first City of Angels game, Custom J hosts Battle Angel, and the Boyz host Gang Green. The Phreaks, the week’s lowest score, host Blitz, the league’s points leader.

Eddie, you know where I stand on Monangai, and after Sunday I’m keeping it to myself.