Continuing my effort to procrastinate this week away, the first week of conference games have come and gone. The amount of blowouts was unfortunate as far as competition is concerned, but needless to say, some people opened my eyes while others made me wanna turn away. There is some decent movement this time in the rankings, but nothing really to write home about like the jumps we saw last time. Without further ado:
1.) Sportsrant.com Stalkers
The Stalkers hold onto the top spot and enjoy the time off from scouting with a drubbing of the rebuilding Rainmakers. Kolpaz & Co. manhandled the Rainmakers like the rest of the conference will be doing over the course of Season 9, but now they draw a pissed off Sidewinders team in their first real test of the season. Add that to Motor City waiting for Sportsrant this weekend, and the top seed will have all they can handle over the next few days.
2.) Minneapolis Masterminds
MM got passed their toughest game in a rather easy opening schedule with relative ease, as 52 unanswered points to end the game tends to produce victory under most circumstances. The Masterminds now have a three game stretch against some of the bottom-tiered teams of USA A#2, followed by a murderers' row trifecta to follow. Will they MM dots suffer from the lack of compatition over the next week?
3.)Motor City Madmen
As if there first outing wasn't impressive enough, MCM took the Sidewinders to the cleaners for the final three quarters of their week 2 matchup, demoralizing them behind a dominate offensive line and secondary (who said this was the year of morale and energy?). Part of me screams to shoot them up to the top spot this week, but I feel that might be a drastic decision so early in the seaosn despite my instincts. O'ahu waits this Thursday before the showdown with the Stalkers this weekend.
4.)Pensacola Dolphins
Pensacola drops a spot after doing what they were supposed to do: destroy a rebuilding team. I know, I'm an asshole, but MCM was so impressive that their dominance trumped the performance of the Dolphins. Unfortunately, they don't meet MCM for another 10 games to settle this debate once and for all, but they do have an intriguing stretch of games coming up, starting off against a Rutgers team looking to build off of there most recent contest.
5.)St. Louis Sidewinders
I absolutely did not expect St. Louis to get dominated like they were against MCM, but I still think they have a great club. MCM might just be that good, so I'll keep them in the five spot for the time being. Once again in my game of the week, St. Louis gets a shot at the top seed in these rankings in an effort to rebound from an embarrassing loss.
6.)Rutgers Silent Willies
RSW proves me wrong and takes down the Krakens behind a strong ground game and an extremely efficient air attack. Now they face another early-season challenge against a Dolphins team looking for its first big win up here in USA A#2. Thorpe & Co. always seem to be up to the challenge, with the question being how many consecutive weeks can they continue to climb the rankings?
7.)Tampa Bay Krakens
Of course, as soon as I start to sing their praises about how good they are, they go and make me look like an idiot by promptly losing the following day. No hard feelings however, but the Krakens now face a familiar foe in Detroit, a matchup that will undoubtedly have implications on playoff seedings down the road. I'm still sticking with the Krakens, but in a squeaker.
8.)Detroit Rampage
The Rampage take care of business against the Night Marchers, staking their claim as a legitimate playoff contender, and now take aim at the last team to take them down when it counted. A FG in the final minute to end your season definitely hurts, but like many teams, Detroit has an intriguing set of matchups on its immediate horizon that will tell all of us just how strong these guys are.
9.)Corona Del Mar Cougars
The Cougars took one on the chin against MM, but look to bounce back with an easy one against San Antonio. they still find themselves on the outside looking in on the playoff picture as far as these current rankings are concerned. Games 4-8 for these guys will give us a damn good idea as to whether or not they really are contenders, or just pretenders.
10.)O'ahu Night Marchers
These guys are in trouble. their next four games are pretty brutal, and the two following that with the possibility of a huge roster-wide morale loss could not have worse timing for the Night Marchers. These guys still teeter in the top ten, but are gonna need to surprise myself along with a number of other people if they intend on staying within striking distance of the playoffs in these rankings.
11.)Cincinnati Norris Ninjas
The Ninjas rebounded to take care of North Texas as expected, and now draw the now-hapless Seattle franchise before tackling the first group of tough games that their schedule has to offer. You can bet a win on Thursday coupled with a Night Marchers' loss will have them jumping up a spot. Cincy needs to pull off some upsets before the halway point of the season if they hop to contend for a playoff spot in Season 9, but they'll have more than enough opportunities to prove it over their next group of games.
12.)Orange County Old Farmers
I was just thinking, where the hell is the farmland in Orange County?!? I'm not exactly a geography expert by any means, but are there really crops grown there? I also apologize for omitting the "Old" in your mascot name last time I did these. Anyway, OCOF got there first win of the season against one of everybody's favorite rebuilding projects, and get the early jump on North Texas in the standings. We'll see what happens Thursday against MM.
13.)North Texas Cowboys
The Cowboys look to put up more than 3 points against the Sharks and score their first TD of the season. North Texas should be able to pull out two of their next three games (assuming a loss to MM, no offense) before they embark on their quest to surprise some unsuspecting foe and put the league on alert. They do have the same mascot as my favorite real NFL team, however, so I guess that counts for something.
Rebuilding
14.)San Antonio
15.)Florida
16.)Seattle
1.) Sportsrant.com Stalkers
The Stalkers hold onto the top spot and enjoy the time off from scouting with a drubbing of the rebuilding Rainmakers. Kolpaz & Co. manhandled the Rainmakers like the rest of the conference will be doing over the course of Season 9, but now they draw a pissed off Sidewinders team in their first real test of the season. Add that to Motor City waiting for Sportsrant this weekend, and the top seed will have all they can handle over the next few days.
2.) Minneapolis Masterminds
MM got passed their toughest game in a rather easy opening schedule with relative ease, as 52 unanswered points to end the game tends to produce victory under most circumstances. The Masterminds now have a three game stretch against some of the bottom-tiered teams of USA A#2, followed by a murderers' row trifecta to follow. Will they MM dots suffer from the lack of compatition over the next week?
3.)Motor City Madmen
As if there first outing wasn't impressive enough, MCM took the Sidewinders to the cleaners for the final three quarters of their week 2 matchup, demoralizing them behind a dominate offensive line and secondary (who said this was the year of morale and energy?). Part of me screams to shoot them up to the top spot this week, but I feel that might be a drastic decision so early in the seaosn despite my instincts. O'ahu waits this Thursday before the showdown with the Stalkers this weekend.
4.)Pensacola Dolphins
Pensacola drops a spot after doing what they were supposed to do: destroy a rebuilding team. I know, I'm an asshole, but MCM was so impressive that their dominance trumped the performance of the Dolphins. Unfortunately, they don't meet MCM for another 10 games to settle this debate once and for all, but they do have an intriguing stretch of games coming up, starting off against a Rutgers team looking to build off of there most recent contest.
5.)St. Louis Sidewinders
I absolutely did not expect St. Louis to get dominated like they were against MCM, but I still think they have a great club. MCM might just be that good, so I'll keep them in the five spot for the time being. Once again in my game of the week, St. Louis gets a shot at the top seed in these rankings in an effort to rebound from an embarrassing loss.
6.)Rutgers Silent Willies
RSW proves me wrong and takes down the Krakens behind a strong ground game and an extremely efficient air attack. Now they face another early-season challenge against a Dolphins team looking for its first big win up here in USA A#2. Thorpe & Co. always seem to be up to the challenge, with the question being how many consecutive weeks can they continue to climb the rankings?
7.)Tampa Bay Krakens
Of course, as soon as I start to sing their praises about how good they are, they go and make me look like an idiot by promptly losing the following day. No hard feelings however, but the Krakens now face a familiar foe in Detroit, a matchup that will undoubtedly have implications on playoff seedings down the road. I'm still sticking with the Krakens, but in a squeaker.
8.)Detroit Rampage
The Rampage take care of business against the Night Marchers, staking their claim as a legitimate playoff contender, and now take aim at the last team to take them down when it counted. A FG in the final minute to end your season definitely hurts, but like many teams, Detroit has an intriguing set of matchups on its immediate horizon that will tell all of us just how strong these guys are.
9.)Corona Del Mar Cougars
The Cougars took one on the chin against MM, but look to bounce back with an easy one against San Antonio. they still find themselves on the outside looking in on the playoff picture as far as these current rankings are concerned. Games 4-8 for these guys will give us a damn good idea as to whether or not they really are contenders, or just pretenders.
10.)O'ahu Night Marchers
These guys are in trouble. their next four games are pretty brutal, and the two following that with the possibility of a huge roster-wide morale loss could not have worse timing for the Night Marchers. These guys still teeter in the top ten, but are gonna need to surprise myself along with a number of other people if they intend on staying within striking distance of the playoffs in these rankings.
11.)Cincinnati Norris Ninjas
The Ninjas rebounded to take care of North Texas as expected, and now draw the now-hapless Seattle franchise before tackling the first group of tough games that their schedule has to offer. You can bet a win on Thursday coupled with a Night Marchers' loss will have them jumping up a spot. Cincy needs to pull off some upsets before the halway point of the season if they hop to contend for a playoff spot in Season 9, but they'll have more than enough opportunities to prove it over their next group of games.
12.)Orange County Old Farmers
I was just thinking, where the hell is the farmland in Orange County?!? I'm not exactly a geography expert by any means, but are there really crops grown there? I also apologize for omitting the "Old" in your mascot name last time I did these. Anyway, OCOF got there first win of the season against one of everybody's favorite rebuilding projects, and get the early jump on North Texas in the standings. We'll see what happens Thursday against MM.
13.)North Texas Cowboys
The Cowboys look to put up more than 3 points against the Sharks and score their first TD of the season. North Texas should be able to pull out two of their next three games (assuming a loss to MM, no offense) before they embark on their quest to surprise some unsuspecting foe and put the league on alert. They do have the same mascot as my favorite real NFL team, however, so I guess that counts for something.
Rebuilding
14.)San Antonio
15.)Florida
16.)Seattle
