TWO MONDAY NIGHT THRILLERS
...who saw this coming?.
Week Three in the Subsim Fantasy Football League. Wow. If you thought picking a quarterback off the waiver wire was only going to get you twenty points, you need to see what happened this week. If you thought benching the reigning Torpedo Bowl QB was a bad move, you need to see what happened this week. And if you thought that we couldn't have two thrillers come down to Monday night, making for the fourth occurrence, you need to see what happened this week
Before you see what happened this week, here's the most important thing you need to do this week though.
DONATE TO SUBSIM...AND NOMINATE SUBSIM FANTASY FOOTBALL FOR BEST OF SUBSIM.
Let's start with the Australian Taipans of Southern California, temporarily occupying the Q Stadium in San Diego as they host the Black Cats. the Cats and the Taipans met in week 1 where the Taipans were barely able to squeak out a victory, that they really had no business losing. This week the Taipans came to play, modifying the wide receiver corps to drop their #1 receiver for an additional receiver. The Cats were scratching their post right from the outset as they started both Harrison Buttker (K) and Baltimore (DEF) The Cats look like they're about to become the first "ghost team" of the season, once again, and as the weeks progress, become nothing more than a smelly cat. Taipans account for the Black Cats 181 - 119.
I can't remember the last time that we had two (2) games in the Subsim Torpedo League, come down to the final quarter on Monday Night. We're only in week three of the regular season and this week, we had two games. Let's start with our Match of the Day, the Guns of Hochuli hosting the Helmand Nighthawks Deployed to Saint Louis.
The Gunners under Coach Casey were the first team to hit the waiver wire after the draft. As the defending Torpedo Bowl Champion, the Gunners have very quietly and methodically go about the business of pretend football. The Nighthawks, easily the dominate force in the Torpedo Bowl of recent years, is not afraid to make moves as well. When the program for this game came out and I saw that Mister Chris had benched Lamar Jackson (QB) in order to pick up Russell Wilson (QB), even I had to question the move. Pfft. What do I know - I'm not a Coach in the league and the decision by Mister Chris to start Wilson (QB) earned him 50 points. 50! That's an insane score for a quarterback, what did Coach Casey had to respond. Gunners quarter back Matt Ryan was disappointing, but it was the Gunners wide receiving corps that outscored the Nighthawks, lead by Keenan Allen (WR) with 36 points. On Monday night, the scored were close and each had one (1) player left. For the Nighthawks it was Travis Kelce (TE) and for the Gunners, Clyde Edwards - Helaire (RB). Kelce (TE) and Edwards - Helaire stayed on pace with each other, moving the score forward, but it was the Gunners ground game that was able to roll forward in the last two minutes of the week. Edwards - Helaire finished with 18 points, Kelce (TE) with 14 points, giving the Guns of Hochuli a key win over the Helmand Nighthawks Deployed to Saint Louis. Final score in this game, Gunners hold on for their first win of the season 150.72 - 145.3.
How many times in the past years have we talked about the Drunk Monkeys being the best damm team - when they show up. The Monkeys were hosting the second heavyweight of the league when the Who Dat Nation Rises came to town. Both the Monkeys and the Nation were at 1-1, the Monkeys having a shock win, and the Nation having a shock loss. One of these teams was going to come out of their game sub .500%, the other other to a possible tie breaker. The Monkeys started Julio Jones (WR) who was scratched earlier in the week, and this meant that Alvin Kamara (RB) had to pick up the slack - and that he did becoming the second player of the weekend to score over 50 points. The Nation started New Orleans (DEF) who recorded the first negative score of the year, -3. Would those three points come into play as the Monkeys relied on Justin Tucker (K) to boot the Nation and give the Monkeys the win? Tucker kicked 2 FG and 2 PAT, but needed another field goal to close out the game for the win. In a nail bitter, the Who Dat Nation Rises holds on after being pushed to the last two minutes of the week, winning 173.08 - 170.5.
Where do we go for next weeks games? There are some really good match ups, but the one unpredictable element was that the Australian Taipans would be leading the league. Next week they travel to Saint Louis where our other international team, the Helmand Nighthawks are Deployed. And that top of the table game is our Match of the Day as the heavyweight of the league the Nighthawks, host the upstart of the season the Taipans.
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.
Hard to look past the Australian Taipans again this week. I actually voted for the performance of Indianapolis (DEF) with 36 points, but the others voted for an individual. For the effort of 385 yards, 4 passing TD's, 26 rushing yards, and 1 rushing touchdown, for a total score of 54.0, being the third player this week to score more than 50 points, the Week Three MVT goes to Patrick Mahonnes (QB) of the Australian Taipans of Southern California.
