THE WEEK OF LOW SCORES
...except for one team.
Week Seven in the Subsim Fantasy Football League. We are exactly halfway through the regular season and the playoff picture became murkier as we saw almost all of the league put up low ball scores this week, including the lowest winning score ever. That is of course except for one team that suddenly took flight to rise above the pack and soar into play off contention with a statement performance.
Who the hell are we talking about? We'll get to all of that right after we get through this.
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It was the Under Performance week. Low scores, hi jinx in the quarterback position, and the only bright spot was the ominous light being cast from across the pond in England. The Helmand Nighthawks returned home to Wembley Stadium and put on one of the finest dialys of scoring not seen this year, Out the gate the Nighthawks had almost 50 points on the board before the visiting Who Dat Nation ever got on the board. This was never going to a contested matter for each point that the Nation put up, the Nighthawks put up two. The Nighthawks had stellar performance from every position, that Ryan Succop (K) was the only player not to reach double digits. Conversely, the Nation started the game with two of their starting players on vacation. Rookie mistakes from Coach Fuel For Blood lead to his demise as the Who Dat Nation falls to divisional rivals the Helmand Nighthawks 225-102.
Then we have the other end of the table with the leagues lowest winning score ever. You would not dare to think that both of the Drunk Monkeys and the Guns of Hochuli were one time Torpedo Bowl Champions. The Monkeys came into this game with six (6) players on scheduled vacation, and even then, the Guns of Hochuli who themselves were playing with three (3) on vacation struggled to get the win. Nine - that's nine players who were on vacation for the one game - that's almost an entire bloody team! In the lowest winning score every recorded, the Guns of Hochuli defeated the Drunk Monkeys 55 - 40 - and there's nothing more to say about that game.
In Southern California, the Taipans were hosting the Black Cats, and while this was not as low a scoring affair as the Gunners, it was an unimpressive display of underachieving teams. the Taipans should have put the Cats away early but for Patrick Mahommes (QB) injuring his singing voice and having to be carted from the field, having only scored 3 points. With an opportunity to steal a win away - again, the Black Cats should have shredded the Taipans. It looked like Chris Goodiwn (WR) would put some respectability back in the score, but the slender lead created by the Cats wasn't really enough to hold the Taipans Deebo Samuels (WR) from securing the win. In an very unimpressive affair, the Australian Taipans get lucky and defeat the Black Cats in an under scoring game, 139 - 121.
So after the abortion of week seven allowing us to reach the half way point of the season, where do we stand. Lets go through the table and realistically look at who the contenders are, and who the wannabes are.
The Australian Taipans of Southern California lead the league at 5-2 after their defeat of the Black Cats this week. The Taipans hold a two game lead over their nearest divisional rival. The Taipans have made more wholesale changes on their team since the start of the season thanks to injuries, its hard to tell where they will end up.
One game back at 4-3 the Helmand Nighthawks have quietly put together some wins to put them back in contention. In years gone past the Nighthawks have all but owned the league by this time of the season. There are some back and forth still to be played out in the Sub Simmers division, but the Nighthakws are a team not to be ruled out. The Black Cats, divisional rivals to the Nighthawks are also 4-3 but you sense that of these two teams, the Nighthawks will eventually get the divisional record on their opponent.
Back another game again at 3-4 are the Who Dat Nation and the Guns of Hochuli. These two teams are having an uncharacteristic season of "hit and miss" and its difficult to determine if its incompetency, bad luck, or the ghost effect is creeping in. Having said that, both these teams still have enough season left to come out as the number one and two seeds respectively.
And bringing up the tail, again, are the Drunk Monkeys at 2-5. The best damm team that has ever ghosted a league, each year we ask the same question - and this year is no exception. Just how good could this team be if their Coach showed up.
Next week we go back to Texas where Coach Casey and the Guns of Hochuli will be hosting the Who Dat Nation. Both these teams only meet a couple of times a year so this game becomes pivotal should one or both these teams make a run for the league championship. Only one of them can recover and take that title, and this may be the game changing decider that does it. And we'll be there to catch all the action live.
Each week, the Associated Subsim Writers (ASW) will nominated their Most Valuable Torpedo (MVT) of the week, the single player who proved decisive in their teams performance.
There are a lot of players that could have won this award this week, - and they're all on the same team. We went round and one on this one, but in the end, it was such an outstanding performance on percentage, we couldn't not give the award. For the effort of 4 sacks, 3 interceptions, 2 fumble recoveries and only allowing 3 points against , for a total of 21 points, the Week Seven MVT goes to Tampa bay (DEF) of the Helmand Nighthawks.
