5 teams got their first win of the season this week. Los Angeles edged Honolulu 23-18 in a battle of 0-4 teams, Arizona beat Oakland 30-10, Cleveland crushed Denver 50-3, Florida crushed Tampa Bay 49-7, and Baltimore beat Charlotte 22-10 in another battle of 0-4 teams. These results leave Honolulu and Charlotte as the only teams without a win so far. Hopefully better days are ahead.

What strikes me the most are the lopsided scores, almost like our little dot players took their frustrations out.

On the flipside, 3 formerly undefeated teams lost this week as Southern California beat Jacksonville 21-17, Shreveport beat New Jersey 21-6, and New Orleans beat New York 26-3 in a battle of 4-0 teams. New Orleans joins Memphis as the only 5-0 teams in the league. The Chicago Blitz have also yet to lose but they had a tie and lead the Midwest with a 4-0-1 record.

The Southwest still has the overall best record at 14-5-1, 9-0-1 outside of division. The East is right on their heels with a 14-6 record, 10-2 outside of division with both losses coming today. The East does have all 4 teams above .500 while San Antonio is exactly .500 with a 2-2-1 record.

I'll probably write a little more about stats after work, I still have to do 4 game plans and get ready for work. Was watching South Park reruns when I kept seeing ads for their new streaming episode After Hours on Paramount +, so I spent 46 minutes watching it. Just a warning if you plan on watching it, you'll see an awful lot of Randy's junk as he started an OnlyFans.

Man, time flies during the holidays, it's been awhile since I've added to this. I probably won't do much right now, still trying to wind down from a busy 10 days of work. The holidays are always busy for us, although I could have not worked Christmas if I didn't want to but that's too much money to pass up. I don't have any kids so idc about celebrating with family on the 26th.

New Years Eve is a mandatory work night and again, too much money to pass up anyway. I no longer drink but even when I did, I didn't care about New Years Eve. I didn't see the point of making a fuss about turning a calendar page. I also don't like drunk holidays. When I drank, I didn't need an excuse of it's St. Patrick's Day, let's get smashed.

We actually had our best week of sales in several years and we handled the crush well. I've worked there the longest but most of our driving staff have been with the company 10 years or more. We're all good, which is why the store can schedule light and still get stuff out on time and we get more runs and more money.

Anyway, these last 2 weeks I've had one less day off each week and had shopping/family stuff which severely cut into my personal time, so something had to give and this was one of them.
Just wanted to explain why I haven't done this lately.

Enough about my job, I'm not thinking about that again until Wednesday night.

I haven't even been looking at other box scores, just my own so I have no idea who is doing what atm. Since I last updated this, every team now has a loss as Memphis lost to Pittsburgh in Week 7, New Orleans was shutout by Birmingham in Week 8 and Chicago lost to Cleveland this week.

Memphis, New Orleans, and New York all have 8-1 records, tied for the best in the league. The Chicago Blitz are 7-1-1 as the 4th team with just 1 loss. On the other side of the spectrum, every team has at least 2 wins except Los Angeles.

Let's look at each division...the Pacific is a 3 team race with San Jose tied with Southern California for first with 4-5 records while Honolulu has won 2 in a row after a 1-6 start to pull within 1 game. Los Angeles is just 1-8 but only 3 games back of the division lead.

This division has the tall task of playing the Southwest this season which is probably the main reason nobody is over .500. San Jose still has the league's #1 offense and #6 defense but they have allowed 159 points the last 6 games and injuries are piling up. QB Larry Henderson's neck is only 19% healthy and missed a chunk of their last game despite no backup QB on the roster. Not an ideal situation with 8-1 Memphis and 6-2-1 San Antonio on the schedule next 2 weeks. If they can get healthy, they can make a run the last 5 weeks of the season even if they lose the next 2.

Southern California has been streaky, starting the season 0-2 before winning 4 in a row, but are now currently on a 3 game losing streak. The Sun's offense/defense rankings aren't good (21st/27th) but they are +19 in turnovers.

Honolulu started out 0-5 before winning 3 of their last 4 to get back into the division race. The Hawaiians have the #18 offense and #28 defense.

Los Angeles has struggled this season at 1-8, and their rankings reflect that (27th offense, 30th defense).
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In the West division, Portland enjoys a 2 game lead on Oakland. The Storm have been winning with defense as they've only allowed 20 points once this season. The Storm have scored 22 points total in their 4 losses and their season ranks are 25th offense and 10th defense.

Oakland has made the playoffs 2 of the last 3 years but they'll need to take advantage of their soft schedule to make it 3 of 4. The Invaders face just 1 team with a winning record the rest of the season, but will their 26th ranked offense score enough? Defensively, they are #17.

Arizona sits at 2-7 and will need better play from their 28th ranked offense and 23rd ranked defense if they want to make a run at the division title.

Denver is also 2-7 and they struggle to score points. They have the 31st ranked offense and they've scored double digits just twice, with a high mark of 17. Defensively they are 26th.
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The Southwest is doing Southwest things as the 4 teams are a combined 23-2-1 outside of division play. San Antonio is in last place despite having the 9th best record in the league at 6-2-1. Memphis leads at 8-1 while Houston and Oklahoma are tied at 7-2. It's looking quite likely that all 4 teams will make the playoffs while the rest of the conference better win their divisions if they want to play in January.

Memphis has the #3 offense and #8 defense and their lone loss came at the hands of defending champion Pittsburgh. They are 2-0 in division.

Houston's ranks are #5 offense and #20 defense. 20th isn't great but they were 29th last season plus they just beat the defending champs 6-5. I haven't looked at the box score yet but holding Pittsburgh to a FG and a safety is pretty **** impressive.

Oklahoma has the #2 offense in the league to go with the 13th ranked defense. The Outlaws still have 4 division games left plus a game against the champion Maulers.

San Antonio has a similar schedule as Oklahoma, 4 division games to go plus a date with the champs. They have the #9 offense and defense, and still project as a playoff team despite being a "last place" team.
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Chicago has a 3.5 game lead on Michigan with 7 to play and look like a good bet to win the Midwest again. The Blitz won it last year with a 7-9 record, but this year they already have 7 wins. They have the #16 offense and #11 defense.

Michigan is just 4-5, 3.5 games behind Chicago but they have yet to play the Blitz, and a sweep would make things interesting. The Panthers have the #8 offense and #19 defense.

Detroit is 3-5-1, 4 games behind. With only 7 games left, that deficit might be too large to overcome. The Wheels have the 30th ranked offense and 15th ranked defense.

Cleveland is 2-6-1, 5 games behind and they are closer to elimination than contention. Despite that, the Thunderbolts have scored more points than they've allowed this season, 198-181. Their offense is ranked 7th, defense 12th but they have a negative 13 turnover margin, 3rd worst in the league. Better ball security would have made a difference as they started the season with 3 straight OT games, losing 2 and tying 1. Additionally, they have 3 other one score losses. Probably the best 2 win team in the league, not that's anything to shoot for.

Continuing with the National Conference in a minute, but first...

"Man, time flies during the holidays, it's been awhile since I've added to this. I probably won't do much right now,"

I guess I lied lol. I just started typing and next thing I know, I have a long post.

The National Conference has 7 teams with at least a 6-3 record and these are the current playoff teams. The defending champs have already lost 2 games but Pittsburgh still has a 5 game lead with 7 to play so it's just a matter of time before they clinch the Atlantic. The rest of the divisions are much closer.

Orlando leads the Southeast with a 7-2 record but they have yet to play 6-3 Jacksonville. The Renegades have the #13 offense and #3 defense.

Jacksonville has the #6 offense and #13 defense and their 2 games remaining with Orlando are the only 2 they have against teams with a winning record.

Florida is 3-6 and has work to do if they want to make the playoffs. The Blazers have the #23 offense and #25 defense.

Tampa Bay is struggling at 2-7 and a big reason for that is the #32 ranked offense and averaging a minus 1 in turnover margin. That puts extra stress on their 22nd ranked defense.
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New Orleans is 8-1 with a 2 game lead on Birmingham. The VooDoo have allowed more than 12 points just once this season and they are ranked #2 in yards allowed. Offensively they are ranked 14th.

Birmingham is 6-3 but they already beat New Orleans once and a sweep could make a division title in play for the Stallions. They have the #10 offense and #4 defense.

Georgia is 3-6 with the #17 offense and #18 defense. The Force have not had a single one score game this season, winning by 17, 27, and 16 while their losses have been by 32, 10, 22, 27, 9, and 23.

Shreveport is 3-6 with the 22nd ranked offense and 14th ranked defense. The Steamer have topped 20 points just twice this year, both wins.
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Pittsburgh is still having an excellent season despite 2 losses already. They have the #6 offense and #1 defense, although they have had 3 games already scoring less than 14 points. They just lost a game to Houston by a 6-5 score, the first time they've been held to single digit points since Week 13 of 2005. Their scoring margin is still a gaudy 262-46, but they've shown some vulnerability, and their health has been bad.

Washington is 2-7 and has had a tough schedule. The Federals have lost 6 in a row but 5 of those came against current playoff teams. They have the #20 offense and #32 defense, although 8 teams have allowed more points.

Baltimore is 2-7 with the #24 offense and #29 defense. The Stars have had salary cap problems but those seem to be clearing up in the future. Next year's dead cap for Baltimore is half of what it is this year.

Charlotte is 2-7 with the #19 offense and #31 defense, #32 if you consider points allowed as they are the only one to have allowed at least 300 so far.
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The East has been the 2nd best division so far with a 16-6 non division record. The New York (NY) Stars lead the way with an 8-1 record. They have only played 2 current playoff teams, losing to New Orleans and beating Jacksonville in OT. They can't control their schedule but they are winning games and that's all that matters. They have the #11 offense and #5 defense.

Philadelphia has owned the East the last 7 seasons but that streak is in jeopardy. They do still have both games against New York to play but the Bell only have 1 sub .500 team left on the schedule, so they'll likely need to sweep the Stars to win the division. They are ranked 12th on offense and 7th on defense.

New Jersey used to own the East last century but now are just wildcard contenders. The Generals magic number is 20...if we score 20 we win, if we don't, we don't. New Jersey is 5-0 when scoring 20 or more and 0-4 when they don't. The Generals are ranked 15th in offense and 21st on defense, and have been helped by a +12 turnover margin, 3rd best in the league.

Boston is 4-5 with the #29 offense and #24 defense. They have a turnover margin of +11, 4th best in the league. The Breakers play teams above .500 the next 4 weeks before finishing the last 3 against sub .500 opponents.

San Jose's Larry Henderson leads the league in passing by a wide margin but there are other QB's having better seasons. Henderson has 4,630 passing yards through 11 games, 786 yards ahead of 2nd place Glenn Burns of Memphis. Henderson is 8th in yards per attempt and taken a league high 75 sacks. Only John Barrios of Southern California (69) is close.

One area Henderson has greatly improved is throwing INTs, as he only has 14 this year, 11th most in the league and has a nearly 2:1 TD:INT ratio. Henderson has led the league in most INTs thrown 3 years in a row and has struggled to maintain even a 1:1 ratio, so he's actually playing his best ball this season from that perspective.

I'd dig deeper into the stats but the game sim will run soon so I'm in a time crunch.

New Jersey's Vic Mackey leads the league with 1,147 rushing yards and has a career high 7 TDs. Mackey is currently the only one over 1000 yards but we should have at least Felix Vaughn (Pitt) and Randy Savage (Hou) join that club this week as they are both less than 20 yards away.

Vaughn's teammate Kenneth Allen leads the league with 10 rushing TDs.

We have four 1000 yard receivers already and Lee Ramos doesn't have as big of a lead as you might think. The San Jose star WR does lead the league in the triple crown categories (130-1582-10), his 10 TDs are tied with 3 others while New Orleans WR Benjamin Jones is 2nd with 109 catches for 1,363 yards. It's worth mentioning that Ramos has to share with teammate Lynn McLaurin, who is 3rd in both catches (98) and yards (1,217).

We've had 23 kickoff return TDs, with 6 players having at least 2. Jean Shoemaker (Tampa) and Barry Stringfellow (Birmingham) have 3 each. We've also had 4 punt return TDs.

Irving Thornton (Memphis) leads the league with 20 sacks and also sacks + hurries (43 total, 23 hurries). J.J. Kilroy of Houston has 29 hurries to lead the league and also has 11 sacks while Pittsburgh's Jose Simmons has 28 hurries with zero sacks...none. Every single other player listed on the front page of the hurries list has at least 2 sacks except Simmons, and the list goes down to just 9 hurries so truly an outlier stat.

Marty Johnson of Southern California leads the league with 8 INTs. San Antonio's Brian Webb is 2nd with 7, but he's taken 3 of those back for TDs. Webb is tied with 2 others for 2nd most INT return TDs in a season, trailing only Gordon Wong's 4 for the 1988 Jacksonville Bulls.

If I wanted to I could play a near error free ball.

POINT DIFFERENTAIL (Week 12)

Pittsburgh Mauler +238 (9-3)
Memphis Showboats +213 (11-1)
New Orleans Voodoo +202 (11-1)
Orlando Renegades +188 (9-3)
San Antonio Gunslingers +186 (8-3-1)
Houston Gamblers +171 (10-2)
Oklahoma Outlaws +163 (9-3)
Birmingham Stallions +151 (9-3)
Jacksonville Bulls +138 (9-3)
New York Stars +129 (10-2)
Chicago Blitz +85 (8-3-1)
Philadelphia Bell +43 (7-5)
Michigan Panthers +26 (6-6)
Cleveland Thunderbolts +25 (4-7-1)
Portland Storm +8 (6-6)
New Jersey Generals +4 (7-5)
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
San Jose Sabercats -42 (4-8)
Detroit Wheels -56 (4-7-1)
Southern California Sun -66 (5-7)
Boston Breakers -88 (5-7)
Georgia Force -90 (4-8)
Shreveport Steamer -90 (4-8)
Honolulu Hawaiians -101 (4-8)
Florida Blazers -106 (4-8)
Arizona Wranglers-123 (3-9)
Oakland Invaders -124 (5-7)
Tampa Bay Bandits -135 (3-9)
Washington Federals -148 (3-9)
Los Angeles Express -164 (1-11)
Charlot Hornets -199 (3-9)
Baltimore Stars -215 (3-9)
Denver Gold -226 (2-10)

Additional Random Observations (Week 12)

☆Only 13 teams have a winning record
☆American Conference only has 5 teams with winning records & 4 teams come from the Southwest.
☆National Conference has 8 teams with winning records with all 4 divisions having at least 1 team & 3 divisions having at least 2 teams with winning records.
☆13 of the 16 teams with a positive point differential have a winning record, 2 teams sit at 6-6 & 1 team sits at 4-7-1.
☆While its known the Southwest Division has the best combined record 38-9-1 (.792), it's the Pacific division which has the worst combined record 14-34 (.292).

Next season, the schedule has the Southwest paired with the West and the South.

Teams play divisions from the other conference every 4 years and in 2005 it was Southwest vs South.

Teams play divisions from the same conference every 3 years and in 2006 it was Southwest vs West.

2009 Non Conference Schedule

Pacific vs East
West vs Southeast
Southwest vs South
Midwest vs Atlantic

2009 Conference Schedule

Pacific vs Midwest
West vs Southwest
Southeast vs East
South vs Atlantic

Well New Jersey will use backup QB Kevin Via at least the last 2 regular season games as Sam Axe has a neck injury. It's similar in severity to what Larry Henderson of San Jose had to deal with. After watching Henderson play through his injury, the thought crossed my mind to keep playing Axe, however I decided against that.

Mainly I want to see if Via still sucks or if he learned anything riding pine. I spent a lot of money to bring him here and I'd like to get something out of it. On top of that, QB play is not as integral to my offense as it is to San Jose. The SaberCats like to throw, and throw a lot while I prefer to have a balanced attack.

I'll probably end up sitting Mackey too, his knee is 54% and his ankle is also dinged. While he IS an integral part of my offense, I have a pair of rookie RBs to sub in plus a couple vets so I'll be fine. Not like we're gonna beat New Orleans anyway.

I just looked him up: neck injury.

Neck injury at 60 or lower....even lower than 70.

Neck injury is the singular body part to most get wrecked further, if played. If I played a QB like that it was because I'm stubborn and didn't want to miss out on play knowledge + I attempted to take every precaution to overpower the opponent/avoid an injury potential as much as possible. (only fling short passing, limited medium - remove 1 or 2 that are problematic......)

But, yeah, neck injuries overall get jacked the most when played.