Whether a team wins a real championship or a pretend fantasy one, the winners always open the next season with a target on their back. Pinstripe Bowl won the 2020 Ladies and Edelman championship and became the league’s team to beat when the 2021 season started.
Winning the championship dropped the defending champions to the 10th spot in the draft order, so last year’s team was loaded with superstars. The roster has a whole new look; however, Kyle Murray returns to the squad and will be the team’s leader as the Bowl starts their title defense in week one.
KerryMy Johnson had to wait seven months to get their next opportunity to take on Pinstripe Bowl. If anyone forgot, Johnson and Bowl met in the championship game after spending the bulk of the regular season fighting for first place in the standings.
The two teams left standing at the end of 2020 opened the 2021 season, and the anticipation for a rematch was at an all-time high. Unfortunately, the matchup did not live up to expectations and resulted in the season’s first blowout games as the Bowl rolled to a 156.36-84.22 win.
Neither team had players in the Thursday night game, which led to zeroes across the board heading into Sunday morning. That’s when the Bowl opened up a lead, one they never relinquished. Johnson started slow and never had a chance to recover as both teams finished their matchup before kickoff on Sunday night.
The Bowl superseded their original projections by 13.48 points, while Johnson underperformed by the tune of 58.04 points. In the process of losing, Johnson became the first team in 2021 not to reach 100 points in their matchup. Pinstripe Bowl managed to pull off a massive victory despite only three players in the starting lineup managing to meet or exceed their initial projections.
The most shocking aspect of the whole thing is Ronald Jones II, who didn’t even register a single point, producing -0.60 points in the season opener against Dallas. He fumbled the ball and was unheard of for the rest of the contest.
Meanwhile, Murray led the way with a team-high 38.56 points, edging out Tyreek Hill (37.10) and Adam Thielen (30.20). Those three carried the offense since no one else scored more than 20 points, and the special teams produced a total of nine points.
The defending champions opened the season with four players in the top 25 in league scoring, meaning they started their title defense on the right foot. 
Pinstripe Bowl may have scored the most significant defeat of the opening week, while Pleasantly Plump scored the most of points with 175.48. Everyone scored over a hundred points except KerryMy Johnson, who didn’t even reach 90 in their contest.
The battle for the top spot kicked off dramatically as three of the opening week matchups had scores within 25 points of each other.
As mentioned earlier, Murray was the best player for Pinstripe Bowl in week one. Jones II had the distinction of being the worse starter in the lineup. Corey Davis had the best week raking up 26.70 points on the bench, while Amari Cooper (Pleasantly Plump) had the best week of any player in league with 38.90 points.
Pinstripe Bowl made no roster adjustments during week one.
Weekly Move Total: 0/4
Season Move Total: 0/50
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Keeping the Stats 