Week 8 is in the books and at our halfway point, every team has at least 1 win and 1 loss. San Jose was 7-0 until they ran into Houston this week and now both teams are 7-1 along with the Portland Storm. The Midwest division is a 4 way logjam, all 4 teams within 1 game while Denver, Oklahoma, and Honolulu would be the current wildcards.

New Jersey is back as the current #1 seed in the National Conference after their 4th straight win but there are 7 teams 1 game behind at 5-3, so it's not a given the Generals stay #1. The New York Stars are one of those teams at 5-3 so even the East division crown isn't given. The Baltimore Stars are also 5-3 despite a negative point differential. Considering they are coming off a 1-15 season, the Stars have to be pleased. Washington looked back on track after routing the champs week 1, but injuries have hit the Federals offense hard, and they sit at 4-4 right behind Baltimore.

Georgia and Shreveport are tied atop the South at 5-3 while the Southeast (Florida division) has a 3 way tie at the top, all 5-3 of course. Jacksonville, Orlando, and Florida will have quite the battle over the final 8 weeks.

Statistically the rushing leader page looks a lot cleaner now there are no WR on the first 2 pages. Thank you all for your cooperation, I actually got off CR long enough to notice. Sorry, but it will be awhile before I forget dude's nastiness. We have 16 RBs on pace for 1000 yard seasons, 2 on pace for 1500. One probably won't get there as David Koresh will not play the next 2 games due to his 2nd concussion of his career. Good thing I have 3 other healthy RB I'm not afraid to use. Robert Byrd of Portland leads the league with 796 yards on the ground.

Receiving wise we have just 2 on pace for 1000 yards, and a TE is leading the league. Marvin Reyna of Georgia leads the league with 63 receptions and 694 yards while Jim Dallas of Houston leads the league with 6 TD receptions and leads all WR with his 506 yards, trailing only Reyna. Francis Snow, also of Houston has an interesting stat line, 5 receptions for 99 yards and 3 TDs.

Since we're on the subject of Houston, it's not easy replacing a legend like Tony Dean but QB Bryan Franklin is doing a pretty good job so far. Franklin leads the league with 2206 yards and 21 TDs. He has a 300+ yard lead on Derek Joyce, but his TD pace is over the moon. The entire league has seen just 5 QBs throw for 10 or more TDs, with only Franklin and Don Ferguson of New Jersey over 13. Ferguson holds the record with 64 back in 1996, but if we were still in 4.5 Franklin may be challenging that mark. As it is, Franklin currently leads Ferguson 21-16 and trails only San Jose's Jake Plummer in QBR. Safe to say CJ found his new QB.

The league record for kick return TDs is 6, set by Gregory Shea of Memphis back in 1977 and the punt return TD record is 2, set in 1991 by Florida's Robert Romero. William Haubert of Arizona has already tied the punt return TD record as he has 2 so far with a long of 81 yards. Anthony Milan of Orlando is on pace to tie the kickoff record with his 3 TDs so far while Chicago's John Gates has 2 scores. Altogether we have had 7 kickoff return TDs and Haubert's 2 punt return TDs this season.

We have a lot of good kickers in this league and Florida;s Daniel Pitts has 27 FG already, on pace to break the record of 50 set by John Bazile of Washington in 1985. We have 4 kickers at 100% success rate and 7 more over 90%. Only 7 XP kicks have been missed league wide this season and San Jose will end the year 0/0 at their current pace. Robert Rodriguez is 17/17 in FGs but the SaberCats must be going for 2 always as he has not even attempted an XP yet. Not a big surprise Smirt going for 2, that's usually what he does.

We have 3 players with double digit sacks already led by Portland's John Clark with 12. Charlotte's Joshua Salazar has 11 and Oakland's Elliott Johnson has 10 to go with his league leading 17 hurries. If you combine sacks/hurries Johnson's 27 leads the league by 6.

One aspect of 4.6 has been the shift from passing to running the ball, and the DB numbers are down as a result. Alfonso Ballance of Orlando leads the league with 5 INTs while Ronald Sparling of Michigan leads with 21 knockdowns. Both are well off the league record pace of 15 INT and 47 knockdowns.

Bruce Million of Shreveport is on pace for a dubious record, as he has 21 missed tackles so far and the record is 41. Gotta wrap up Bruce. We have some high fumble and sack allowed numbers but nothing on a record pace.

Good stuff Greg.....love it!

****side note****

The Houston Gamblers have allowed 63 points this season which isn't even the lowest in the league. Portland has allowed 62 points through 8 games.

The thing is Portland has allowed 62 points but 28 came in 1 game versus the Outlaws (4th Total offense) and the Gamblers have allowed 63 points but 33 came in 1 game versus the Generals (2nd Total offense).

If you take out the outlier game from each team, then Portland is allowing 4.86 points per game and Houston is allowing 4.29 points per game.

The Alltime Record for points allowed in a season is held by Portland (110-1990) when Setherick owned the team and the Gamblers lowest total was (165-1985)

Now neither team is on pace to break the Alltime record and they probably won't but their is a chance.

Portland's remaining schedule and opponents offensive rank

San Jose Sabercats 17th
Arizona Wranglers 14th
Charlotte Hornets 25th
Washington Federals 19th
Chicago Blitz 18th
Oakland Invaders 31st
Michigan Panthers 23rd
Cleveland Thunderbolts 26th

Houston's remaining schedule

Memphis Showboats 10th
Honolulu Hawaiians 8th
San Antonio Gunslingers 21st
Oakland Outlaws 4th
Southern California Sun 29th
Oklahoma Outlaws 4th
San Antonio Gunslingers 21st
Philadelphia Bell 30th


Portland clearly has the easier schedule as they don't face a top 13 offense the rest of the season. Houston on the other hand has 4 games remaining against top 10 offenses.

It's just something to watch as the season continues.

I would have lost a lot of money betting you were wrong if you told me Smirt was 17th in offense.

I didn't look until CJ pointed it out, but I would have bet Smirt was in the top 10. His team is 7-1 and 8th in total points, so I would have just assumed he was a lot higher than 17th. That's actually scary when you think about it because how good will his team be when that ranking climbs?

A lot of it is who you play. The division with CJ is rather brutal. You got 3 plugged in GMs who battle dome + I've got Wart next.

Here's the truth. If you're in a division with Infinity and give me one more elite defensive GM off the top of your head....that's 4 games where you won't extract any fun or stats. Maybe you could deal with 1 Infinity but tack in 1-2 more in your division where the D is aligned to not give anything up. You might as well quit. That's why when you can....you have to bang around the AWOL and the passive GMs.

11 games in and my defense has 5 shutouts!!!! It has to be a record but I'm too lazy to check 32 teams × 25 seasons!

I've given up 80 points in 11 games so I still have a shot at the record of 110!

I've never been a defensive guy so this is a mystery to me....I'm guessing it's a combination of Luck/schedule/gameplanning but I have no idea if we can keep this up.

Setherick, Smirt & Infinity have always been the defensive gurus.....I'm usually just focused on my passing game and offense.

You could do it. I vary how I play but if I laser focused on defensive and not preventing points I could probably *** for tat battle with Warthog in MFN-2 for example with a good competitive battle.

I see the Armor Giraffe's out there in a league with 58 points allowed through 11 games or whatever it is - Blondie's experimenting and locking down.

It's tricky. Generating offense vs. locking down defense and yeah, I see you popping off everywhere and we're battling with QBs in D & D. You're maintaining my wicked pace in QB production.

Example, without getting into detail of what I look for....

But if I peer in and have an opposing AI GM or a jobber GM with a certain weakened position and/or strategy flaw - it's open season. Braveheart - CHARGE - to create stats.

Ima give up points playing like that. Whereas if I played it differently I could easily shut out AI or the jobber GM but bore myself watching the game.

Honestly, I'm no defensive guru either. I often think it might be a function of my offensive style, run the ball, control the clock, keeps the defense rested and fresh.

And as for as MFN-2 goes, I only allowed 54 points last season with 7 shutouts. But I also finished second in points scored, just 7 behind smirth. (But of course smirt beat me in the conference championship.)