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.
