Quarter Pole

Most teams hit the quarter-pole mark last week and some of those continued on and hit the wall again. Week 4 had the normal selection of upsets, good teams stumbling and the few great teams playing as expected, even if they needed to spot an opponent a 20-3 lead. At least the list of Top Performers regained some normalcy with Brees, Manning, and A.P. hitting their stride with big weeks, each in a winning way. A few takeaways from Week 4:

• The defenses in Kansas City and Indianapolis are legit. The Colts faced the Jags and dominated them, but it comes on the heels of a west coast trip where they shut down the Niners. Traveling back and forth across the US will weaken the heartiest of teams. It was a very nice follow-up performance. Another test lies ahead this week at home versus Seattle.
• Victor Cruz is the only Giant worth starting and even that is suspect with the league's most overrated and over-exposed QB getting worse weakly; I mean weekly. Against Philly's D this week, I would normally slide in David Wilson, Hakeem Nicks and Brandon Myers, but I would only do that if the rest of my position players were on Bye.
• Speaking of overrated QBs, nice 5 INT effort in Buffalo, 20-million dollar Joe Flacco. When you are in a close game and your running game has mustered a meek 24 yards, giving the ball away to the other team will not win you any friends on the defense.
• Welcome back, J-E-T-S! We knew you weren't far away from flashing those true colors again. After making the Titans appear like their namesake this past Sunday, a road game in a hostile venue against a very good, albeit, desperate team, is a recipe for a blow out. I have no idea what scheduling genius thought that Atlanta vs the Jets was a good idea on MNF, but he will be fired after this upcoming shellacking.
• When the Bears are not generating turnovers and turning them into points, their defense is borderline overrated.
• While Seattle may toy with a foe, Denver has no interest. They are pissed off about losing to Baltimore in the playoffs last season and are taking it out on every team they face.
• I can't figure out how New England keeps winning. Of course, if I start to buy into them, that guarantees a win by Cincinnati this weekend.
• Was ready to buy into Miami before Monday's game if they showed me anything.

Loads of injuries in week 4. Some injuries will cost some players a game or more, others will just slow them down. Couple that with Bye weeks and it is a very busy week on the waiver wire.

QB: Brian Hoyer (CLE) - Two games started and 18 fantasy points delivered in each game. Say what you will, but this kid has come to play and has a home matchup against Buffalo (remember what Geno Smith did against Buffalo and not Joe Flacco).

RB: Rashad Jennings (OAK) - Jennings did not do much with his chance last season in Jax with MoJo hurt, but desperate times call for desperate measures. McFadden hurt his hammy, again, so he will be Out on Sunday, though not announced yet, and Marcel Reece hurt his knee in the same game after taking over for DMac last Sunday.

RB: Andre Ellington (AZ) - Cards' coach, Bruce Arians has reversed his assessment of Rashard Mendenhall and sounds like he is kicking him aside and is ready to move on with the fresh legs of Andre Ellington. The Cards need a spark in the backfield so Ellington could grab the job and hold it for the remainder of the season.

WR: Alshon Jeffery (CHI) - With Brandon Marshall getting seemingly 90% of Jay Cutler's expressionless Looks, Jeffery went undrafted in many leagues. It appears that the Bears will be involved in many shootouts this season and Jeffery has worked himself into a bigger piece of the offensive pie each week.

WR: Robert Woods (BUF) - Already mentioned as a waiver wire pickup earlier this season, grab him now if available. He was a forgotten stud WR in his senior year at USC, but, it looks like E.J. Manuel paid attention to his skillset from afar at FSU. He can be much more consistent, and much quieter, than Stevie Johnson, so I am not surprised that he is clicking with Manuel.

TE: Sean McGrath (KC) - QB Alex Smith loves the short game and always liked his tight end. With all other TEs beat up on KC, they tried out McGrath's hands last week and liked the results (5/64/1). He could be useful again this week if you need a fill-in.