Taking Flight

SUPER 16 – The Game of the Week for week 7 in the Super 16 was between a pair of the fiercest rivals in the league, and in the 5th installment of the AF#11 Who Dat Saints vs the AF#19 Birds of Prey, the Birds extended their win streak over the Who Dats by a 4th straight win.  BoP had this one in the bag even before their hometeam players took to the field Monday night, accounting for 78 of their points in this 243-157 route.  It’s the second win in a row for the Birds, who jumped up 13 points in last weeks’ Association rankings and will likely move up even further after this week’s score – in the top 20 of all time scores in league history.  The outcome of this GOW leaves the Who Dats and Birds of Prey in a standings tie, 5-2-0 each, for control of the South Division, setting up their Thanksgiving night SimulPlay contest for epic drama.  Meanwhile, after big wins by BIGDOGINTEX (4-3-0) who beat the BowMen 213-187 and HTOWN (3-4-0) coming up big, 223-156 against the Jaw Breakers to keep pace with the Saints and Birds, the South is a long way from being sewn up.

In the West, AF#24 1 Eye Til I Die (6-1-0) still holds a 3 game lead over their nearest division rival after an easy week 7 bye-week victory, 177-112 over AF#25 Steel Curtain.  If anyone in the West is going to catch the One-Eyed Bandits, it’s going to be Dem Bucking Bronco’s (3-4-0) who started off 0-4  – including a Week 2 loss to 1 Eye – but have now won 3 in a row, dropping scores of 219, 255, and now 233 (-134 against Arizona) and will get a rematch with the league’s Raider franchise in Week 13.  As for the defending 2017 champion Firebirds (2-5-0) and for SF’s Bowmen (1-6-0), while neither’s season is officially done yet, the funeral directors are already taking measurements.

In the North Division, The Indy-structibles (1-6-0) lost a very tight one, 171-186 to The Dawg Pound (3-4-0) and become the first team of 2018 to be mathematically eliminated from a division title as the AF#2 WRATH OF ODIN (7-0-0) extended their lead over Indy to 6 games with their 215-183 win over Motor City (3-4-0).  It was as close as anyone else has come so far this season to beating the undefeated Norsemen, and now both Motor City and the Dawgs remain a looming 3 games back from Odin; they’ll play each other in Week 8 in what each team must view as a must-win game.

In a high scoring shootoout in the East, Northern Fins (4-3-0) has regained control of the division after beating Eagle has landed (3-4-0), by 227-204 to move into 5th place in the league both in the standings and in total scoring.  The Eagle and Jaw Breakers play each other in Week 8, while Steel Curtain must face a rebounding Who Dats squad, giving the Fins a chance to cement their division lead.