NIGHTHAWKS CLINCH DIVISION
...and take aim at the league.
Week Fourteen in the Subsim Fantasy Football League. We have this and next week to sort out out who else is going to the championship playoffs, and folks, there's a lot of team that could do, but only four will make it.
Who are they? Let's find out after this important message.
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Our Match of the Week was a a full on heavy weight battle with a pair of sub .500% teams trying to get to the playoffs. The Drunk Monkeys, perennial favorite as the best damm team that never show up, have had some competition this year from an expansion team, the Boss team, who also didn't show up. The winner of this game was going to put themselves in contention to stay alive in the championship series. This was an arm throwing battle between Jaylen Hurts (QB) for the Bosses and Justin Herbert (QB) for the Drunk Monkeys. While the Bosses gained the advantage with Hurts, it was the wide receiving corp of the Drunk Monkeys that showed up to give the red rump beasts a lead. With the Boss team sitting out three (3) players under covid protocol, it eventually lead the Drunk Monkeys running away with this win late Sunday evening. The dream stays alive with the Drunk Monkeys swinging through the trees convincing winners, accounting for the Boss Team 137 - 85.
In Oregon, Coach Fuel For Blood made a late change to his lineup right before kick off, so late in fact, I was still looking at his listed team from Saturday on Sunday afternoon before I realized he had picked up Pittsburgh (DEF) from the waiver wire and started them. When Josh Allen (QB) for the Australian Taipans had a blah game, this looked like it could be a stolen victory for the Who Dat Nation if only Joe Burrow (QB) could perform. He also had a blah game, almost matching an identical score with Josh Allen (QB), thus handing the game over to Cam McCafferty (RB) to put away. McCafferty (RB) ran and caught touchdowns, but so did Derrick Henry (RB) for the Taipans. The Nation ran out the game on the back of their wide receivers who just didn't score enough points. Taipans get their eight consecutive win and defeat the Who Dat Nation 158 - 103.
In the Carolina's the Black Cats were hosting the Guns of Hochuli. Coach Casey appeared earlier in the weekend then Coach Fuel For Blood and for this game, I actually had the right players on the scorecard before the game started. This was always going to be a lopsided affair as the Cats simply didn't have enough players on the field to mount a challenger, given up two (2) players for Covid. Their situation was made even worst when on the third play of Monday night Kyler Murray went down faster than if he had been torpedoed. Guns of Hochuli cruise to an easy victory over the Black Cats by defeating them 100 - 69.
In England, the local derby of the Helmand Nighthawks hosting the cross country rivals the Banter Brigade didn't go as well as expected. Once again the quarterback issue failed to perform, this time for the Banter when Tom Brady (QB) barely made it to double figure. Up against Patrick Mahonnes (QB) who threw for his standard 300 plus yards, the Nighthawks had this game won by the time they got to Monday night, but still had two (2) players on the bench to play. What should have been a big night for Deandre Hopkins (WR) and Rhondre Stevenson (RB) just fizzled out. They still gave the Nighthawks the win 121- 75, but forgot about the bigger picture.
So lets look at that bigger picture and see what the post season clarity looks like.
The Australian Taipans at 10 - 4 have won the Surface Skimmers division. They will enter the post season as either the #1 or the #2 seed.
The Helmand Nighthawks are at 9-6. Their divisional record is 7-2, two games clear of their nearest divisional rival. They have secured the Sub Simmers division and will enter the post season as either the #1 or the #2 seed.
And now its gets messy, complicated, and with too many variables.
The Who Dat Nation are currently 8-6 and sit as the #3 seed. A win next week and they secure that position. A loss, and with other results, they could fall as low as the 6th position. For the Nation, its win and advance.
The Guns of Hochuli and the Drunk Monkeys have equal divisional records, but the Gunners currently occupy the #4 seed by virtue of a better scoring record. Both teams could advance as high as the #3 seed, or fall as low as the #7th seed. They will be playing with multiple count back solutions.
The Bosses and the Brigade are equal at 6-8 but the Brigade has outscored both the Gunners and the Drunk Monkeys. The Brigade could advance as high as the #4 seed and eliminate both the Gunners and Monkeys. The Bosses can only advance to the Championship with a win and a miracle.
The Black Cats at 3-11 have a secure hold of the #8 seed.
So with that picture where do we get our Match of the day from which this week, includes Saturday playing time. We're going down under - and not for the final time this year, where the Australian Taipans host the Helmand Nighthawks. Both teams have won their respective divisions - and this might be a Torpedo Bowl preview, but the post season seeding is still up for grabs. The Taipans lead the Nighthawks by one game. If the Nighthawks win they will have an equal winning record, so we go to the count backs. The Taipans won the first meeting of these two this year, so to get the number 1 seed the Nighthawks have to win the game - and then some. By splitting the head to head wins the second count back goes to total points scored. The Taipans come into the last game with about a 68 points lead. The Nighthawks have to win the game, and win by 69 points in order to steal the #1 seed, and stay home for the post season.
Each week, (including the week where our post vanished) 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.
You want to win in this league, you have to have a throwing arm, still. For the effort of 352 yards and 3 touchdowns, for a total of 33.78 points, the Week Fourteen MVT goes to Patrick Mahonnes (QB) of the Helmand Nighthawks.
