Armadildos vs Arctic Sheepshaggers — Week 1 Recap
2026 · Week 1
Armadildos
115.8
Arctic Sheepshaggers
82.4
Pink Slip's record
Boom / bust vs projection
- Trey McBride+9.0
- Pittsburgh Steelers+8.8
- Jonathan Taylor+6.5
- A.J. Brown-10.0
- Drake Maye-9.8
- Tony Pollard-6.1
Left on the bench
Armadildos vs Arctic Sheepshaggers — Week 1 Recap
The Result
Armadildos closed the week at 115.82, Arctic Sheepshaggers finished at 82.36, a 33.46 point margin. Sebastian's squad barely nudged over its number, actual 115.82 against a projected 114.02. Thomas's group cratered relative to expectation, actual 82.36 against a projected 107.53 — that's a full 25.17 points left unrealized on paper.
The Correction
The preview called it: "predicted winner: Armadildos (Sebastian), by 6.49." Sebastian won, and won by a lot more than that — 33.46 instead of 6.49. Correct on the winner, conservative on the spread. Filing it as a hit. Season record on these calls: 2 of 6.
Who Delivered, Who Didn't
Jonathan Taylor carried the RB room, 23.6 actual against 17.15 projected. Trey McBride was the story of the night at tight end, 20 actual against 11.01 projected — nearly double his number. Pittsburgh's defense chipped in 18 actual against 9.21 projected.
On the other side, Tony Pollard flatlined at 3.9 against a 9.99 projection. A.J. Brown was nowhere, 4.1 actual on a 14.13 projected. RJ Harvey added only 6.1 actual with no projection on file to grade him against.
The Bench
Two starts that didn't pay off. Denzel Boston sat and put up 12.9, while Tony Pollard got the start and managed 3.9 — that's 9 points left on the bench. Deebo Samuel went for 15 unused, while RJ Harvey started and scored 6.1, another 8.9 points stranded.
The Swing
Not close. Add both bench regrets together and you're still short of the final margin — 9 plus 8.9 doesn't touch 33.46. This game was decided well before either of those lineup calls mattered, which lines up with the record: this wasn't flagged as a game decided by a lineup decision.
Positional Results
| Position | Home | Edge | Away | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QB | 9.8 proj 19.7 | 13.3 | -3.4 | |
| RB | 41.6 proj 41.0 | 25.7 | +15.9 | |
| WR | 26.4 proj 33.1 | 27.1 | -0.7 | |
| TE | 20.0 proj 11.0 | 7.3 | +12.7 | |
| DEF | 18.0 proj 9.2 | 9.0 | +9.0 |
Running backs and tight end won this one outright for Sebastian — a combined 28.6 points of edge across those two spots swamped whatever ground Thomas found at quarterback and receiver.
Standings Impact
Armadildos move to 1-0, Arctic Sheepshaggers drop to 0-1. It's one week in a fourteen-week season with 13 weeks still to play, so nobody's punching a playoff ticket or measuring drapes for last place yet — the league needs 6 wins to make the postseason and 4 or fewer risks a trip to Pink. But a 33.46-point loss to open the year is not the note Thomas wanted to start on, and I'll be watching whether that receiver corps finds its floor before this stops being a one-week story.