2021-2022: Week 8 Player Reports

Game 1: Team Orange vs. Team Green

-With their roster mostly complete and after snapping a 3-game skid, Team Orange was presented with a great opportunity to set themselves onto a solid course moving forward. Instead, their poor overall play and bad timing continue. They’ve had some random attendance issues and haven’t played a single team with only 5 players. Obviously that’s a pretty weak way to improve your record, but wins can be hard to come by as evidenced by Week 8. Team Green was winless and Team Orange’s supposed potential should have made this one an easy win. Instead, they played from behind all game and came up well short. Team Green played much better and have a new weapon in their arsenal, but this game was mostly a result of Team Orange having almost nothing figured out so far about what they are and what they want to be. It would be a shame to waste this roster. Team Green will head into Week 9 against Team Yellow and a chance to pull their record to 2-5. I’m sure that will leave Rob feeling a heck of a lot better than he did just a couple weeks ago.

Game 2: Team White vs. Team Black

-Team Black seems to be having the inverse season to Team Orange. They’ve been very consistent in winning games they should win and their record reflects that. They have beaten Yellow (with 5), Green (when they were awful), Blue (with 5), and the offensively impotent White. This is actually a compliment. When they have a winnable game, they win it. They stand almost no chance of getting a BYE in the playoffs, but they also appear guaranteed to make the playoffs, which is good enough for a deep squad that can play with anyone. Team White has lost the last 2 games by a total of 50 points and are searching for a way to make the pieces fit. Those close wins they had will serve them well in the long run.

Game 3: - Team Blue vs. Team Purple

-In a Clash of the Heavyweights, Blue and Purple did not disappoint. Both teams looked poised and everyone played hard in this one. Good playoff vibes from start to finish. Team Blue pulled out the win with some timely contributions from unexpected places. As with all things, you can infer anything you want from the way this game played out. Perhaps you can conclude that Team Blue will need some spontaneous things to go right to pull out close victories against good teams. Or you can conclude that their team approach will serve them well and they are deeper than you think. It’s probably somewhere in the middle. They look tough and competent. But they also look vulnerable to a team that can put up points. Their path to a title will be a healthy mix of strong defense and timely offense. Purple’s front line didn’t play their best and they were still right in this at the end. That’s encouraging. But it’s starting to seem clear that Purple has more passive players than you’d prefer. Lack of aggression is a big handicap in close games. If your whole team is attacking all the time, it’s less likely a defensive scheme like the one employed by Team Blue can be effective. These teams don’t play each other again in the regular season, which might not make a huge difference. I expect these teams to both lock up the BYEs come playoff time unless something changes.

Standings

Team	Captain	Win	Loss	Record	Win %	Streak	PS	PA	DIFF
Blue	Matt Koll	5	1	5 - 1	0.833	W3	420	358	62
Red	Garmes	4	1	4 - 1	0.800	W3	318	293	25
Purple	Troy	4	2	4 - 2	0.667	L1	416	399	17
Black	Dudek	4	3	4 - 3	0.571	W1	458	431	27
White	Hahn	3	3	3 - 3	0.500	L2	373	398	-25
Orange	Mark Koll	2	4	2 - 4	0.333	L1	371	379	-8
Yellow	Vitaliano	1	5	1 - 5	0.167	L4	382	436	-54
Green	Knapczyk	1	5	1 - 5	0.167	W1	299	343	-44