Charge of the Gladiators

LEGION – The 2018 season marked a divisional realignment in the Legion of Defense, as the league did away with their old tiered division set-up, and converted three divisions into two.  Beginning this season, the revamped Legion now has two divisions – the Centurians and the Gladiators – made up of 6 teams each, and with the new alignment came a new scheduling formula for the regular season.   Under the guidelines of the new schedule, teams have played an out of division round robin schedule in weeks 1-6, where each team has now played every team in the opposing division.  That portion of the schedule is now done, and teams are preparing for the second half of the 12 week regular season in which match-ups will be based on a ladder schedule within the division.  For the next 6 weeks, the #1 ranked team in each division will be matched against the #2 each week ( along with #3 vs #4 and #5 vs #6) insuring an exciting and brutal race to the playoffs.

With the cross division round done, the Gladiator Division is showing itself to be the stronger division thus far.  Following a 5-1 result in week 6, the Gladiators emerged out of the first half of the season with a collective divisional record of 22-14. What this means is that the Gladiators are looking much more likely to take the Standings Wildcard spot (a spot that dodges wildcard week), and with the Points Wild Card in mind, the Gladiators have 3 of the top 4 scoring teams so far on the season. The Gladiators also hold the top 2 positions in the sack race. All that, just to say that the Gladiators are in good enough shape to take 4 out of the 5 playoff spots come playoff time.

MARQUEE MATCHUP ALERT!!!!!

The Clowns and The Freaks are at it again. In the first game of what could be many in the divisional portion of the schedule, the AF#4 Suspension Freaks (6-0-0) and the AF#9 Insane Clowney Posse (5-1-0) are going to butt heads once again. The Freaks are the #2 scoring team in the league going into this matchup posting a total of 398.5 points on the year, sits at first in the sack race (27.5), and has taken Defense Of The Week honors in weeks 3* and 6.  But the Clowns are the #1 scoring team with 400.5 points, 2nd in the sack race (25.5), and has also earned 2 Defense Of The Week awards,  in week 4 and 5. This is the Matchup of the two hottest teams in the legion – two of the hottest teams in the Association, in fact, and no slight to The Cavalry (5-1-0) or Sleeper Agent (3-3-0), but the rematch of last years Wildcard Week game and of 2016’s Legion Bowl V  is sure to be a game that everybody will be tracking.  These two rivals have faced each other 7 times in their franchise histories, and it’s been amazingly one sided, with the Clowns winning 6 of those matches; the sole Freaks victory, however, was for the League Championship two years ago.  This. Will. Be. Epic.

ALL IDP LEGION TEAM (Week 6 Update):

 

Team Defense Tiers

How They Were Drafted

1. Jaguars
2. Vikings
3. Rams
4. Eagles
5. Texans
6. Saints
7. Ravens
8. Lions
9. Chargers
10. Panthers

How They Stand After Week 6

1. Jets
2. Bears
3. Ravens
4. Bills
5. Steelers
6. Texans
7. Seahawks
8. Dolphins
9. Rams
10. Packers

The top 2 picks in the draft are not even in the Top 10 for their position.  Out of the 8 first round selections used on team defenses only 2 of them are in the top 8 currently. Team Defenses were a priority in the draft, but these results show a different story in which team defenses almost should have been ignored in the early rounds then picking up a dark horse like the Steelers, Jets or Bears.  You know what they say hindsight is 20/20. If these managers were able to go back I’m sure we would see fewer defenses picked in the top round.

Centurions: Battle Royale

With 3 teams sitting at a record of 3-3, and 2 teams at 2-4, this Centurion Division is going to be a real battle, as everybody is within striking distance.  Looking at total scoring, there seems to be 3 teams solidly ahead of the rest: Mighty Pats (2-4-0) 300.50 points scored, Chinese Bandits (3-3-0) 301.50, and AF#14 Roxteady (3-3-0) 351.00 points. I think its fair to assume we will mostly be seeing a combination of those 3 in the weekly premier matches (#1 vs #2) for the Centurions Division.  Though they’re sitting at 3-3-0, if Gates Of Delirium proceed on getting the luck of low scoring opponents could be a dark horse of the division.

The Gladiators that are not Freaks and/or Clowns

The Cavalry have scored 70 points less than the Big 2 in the division, but are also sitting at 5-1-0 for the year.  After falling under the shadow of his rookie class (Agents and Freaks) in his first 2 years in the Legion, Coach Dan “The Polish Rifle” Mayhoff and The Cavalry will look to keep the Sleeper Agents down to a negative record this week and finally make a push for that elusive playoff spot.  Sitting at 3-3-0 for the year the Agents have an uphill climb for a playoff position as their Division is stacked at the top. Lacking good production from their top picks, the Agents have put together a well rounded roster with a bunch of depth and even though there’s no single player to rely on week to week, they do have many defenders producing.

Down But Not Out

Some teams’ path to the Division Champion playoff spot are much tougher than others, but regardless of standings there are other ways into the postseason.  After the Division Champs are named, the team with the next best record in the Legion will get the last finalized non-wildcard week spot.  After that, the next spot is strictly based on total points scored.  So that takes out the 3 teams with the best records, and the team after those 3 that has the most points scored.  That effectiverly takes out the 4 best teams, leaving the rest to fight for the Sacks Wild Card. Currently the sacks race is a 2 man affair between the Clowns and Freaks – yes the same teams that are leading the points race and that have a combined record of 11-1), so it is very likely that those teams will have their own playoff spots before the sacks are even counted.  Being still so early in the season on top of it being anyone’s race for division leads, teams at the back of the pack may be better off on strictly focusing on winning the sack wildcard.

Whichever way the ball winds up bouncing when the dust is settled, the one thing that’s certain is that the next 6 weeks are going to be filled with some bloody, bare knuckled gridiron warfare in this new Legion format.