I'm still doing the allocation draft so my blog time is short. Most games will be touched on briefly but Week 7 saw a pair of games with huge implications for January. Headlining the week is the battle of the undefeated, 6-0 Portland @ 6-0 San Jose. The winner would have the upper hand for home field advantage in the American Conference, although the winner of the first Memphis/Houston game would be right on their heels. Portland won the game but San Jose still enjoys a 3 game lead in the Pacific despite the loss, so all is still good in San Jose.
Storm 23 SaberCats 19
The game started with 3 punts before mistakes created some early scoring. San Jose's second punt pinned Portland at their own 8 and Abraham Jackson sacked Oscar Willis in the end zone for an early 2-0 SaberCats lead. San Jose got the ball right back on the free kick but Jake Plummer was sacked himself, fumbling in the process to set up the Storm in scoring range. Oscar Willis threw a 24 yard TD pass to Jeffrey Frost for the 7-2 Portland lead. The Storm defense has been the best in the league, but they had no answer for Mark Hsu today (5-187) and the first of his 2 TD receptions allowed San Jose to retake the lead 9-7 after 1 quarter of play.
Portland would take the lead back for good on the second Oscar Willis TD pass, this one to Jose Moses, and the Storm led 14-9 at the half. That lead would be extended to 17-9 before the second Plummer to Hsu TD pass cut the lead to 17-16 late in the 3rd. The rest of the game was field goals and Portland shut down the SaberCats offense in crunch time as they didn't threaten to score after a FG made the score 20-19.
Gamblers 51 Showboats 31
The first Memphis/Houston game featured 82 points, 979 total yards including over 300 rushing, 39 first downs, 11 red zone trips and 4 early lead changes. Both QBs threw 3 TD passes to 3 different receivers but Tony Dean was turnover free on 26/32 passing while David Allen threw 4 INTs. It would take way too long to recap all of the scoring in this game, but Donald Turner's second rushing TD gave Houston the lead for good at 17-14. Turner had 3 rushing TDs for the second consecutive week, though his 122 yards weren't quite last week's 206. Memphis was led by Mark Glenn who caught 4 passes for 160 yards, and his 37 rushing yards gave him 197 total for the game.
Stars 21 Hornets 19
Baltimore QB Jon Snow tossed 3 TD passes, 2 to Knob Creek to help the Stars maintain a 1 game division lead. Charlotte went toe to toe with Baltimore all day, but red zone inefficiency cost them, as they had just 1 TD and 4 FG in 5 red zone trips while the Stars cashed both of their trips in for TDs.
Federals 23 Bandits 19
Two likely playoff teams battled today and Tampa Bay amassed over 500 yards of offense but could not convert any of their 4 red zone trips into TDs. Bandits QB Melvin Driggers threw for 435 yards and a TD to Thomas Whitley but he also tossed 2 INTs. Tampa held a 19-13 lead early in the 4th, but Scott Bieber led Washington to 10 unanswered points for the come from behind win.
Panthers 20 Bulls 19
It's not often a 1st place team has QB issues but the Panthers do at the moment. Adam Scales has been turning the ball over a lot lately so Michigan opted to let 3rd year QB William Mauriello take some snaps, and it was even worse. Scales got the majority of playing time and finished 19/26, 240 yards with a TD and 2 INTs. Mauriello completed 2/11 for 12 yards and an INT. Two of the 3 total interceptions came in the 4th quarter, enabling Jacksonville to turn a 17-10 deficit into a 19-17 lead with just over 5 minutes to play. The Michigan QB duo led the Panthers down the field (1 of Mauriello's completions came on this drive) for the game winning FG inside the 2 minute warning.
Stallions 23 Force 23 (OT)
Georgia played their second straight OT game and settled for the walk off tie with a FG at the final gun of the overtime period. Birmingham had 447 offensive yards but scored just 6 points in 2 red zone trips and Gerald Hinton was wide right on a 49 yard FG attempt at the end of regulation that would have won the game for the Stallions. In the OT period, Birmingham got the ball first and kept the ball 7:45 as they drove to the Force 1 yard line, but had to settle for the 18 yard FG. Georgia then drove for the tying FG and Donovan McNabb is dumbfounded somewhere.
Express 20 Sun 16
Gene Ingram had 177 total yards, 144 receiving and a TD to lead Southern California but it wasn't enough to overcome 2 Tristan Arnold TD passes as Los Angeles defeats the Sun. This was a back and forth game with 3 ties and 4 lead changes. The last lead change came inside the final 2 minute warning on a short Arnold TD pass to Daniel Franks.
Wheels 12 Thunderbolts 9
The first 58 minutes of football produced 4 field goals, 2 for each team, before Cleveland broke the 6 all tie with 1:51 to play. Detroit then drove for the game tying FG with 0:48 to play. Cleveland's Michael McGowan was trying to lead the hurry up offense when he tossed a costly interception, setting up Kent Olden to boot the game winner.
Gold 34 Wranglers 9
Arizona got their best game out of a QB in a long time but the Wranglers defense gave up over 500 yards to Denver in today's loss. Jake Peralta had a double eighty/double TD day with 82 rushing (1 TD) and 80 receiving (1 TD) on 6 catches. QB Andrew Brewer tossed 3 TDs and 305 yards through the air while Brian Thornton ran for 102.
Renegades 38 (NY) Stars 16
David King had 169 yards receiving with 2 TDs to lead Orlando over New York. The Stars led 10-7 early in the 2nd qtr before the Renegades went on a 24 point run to close the half and seize control of the game. The final points of that flurry came on a fumble recovery return for a TD by Chung Hill.
Blazers 21 Bulls 3
Sidney Maggard completed 29 of 33 passes, albeit for 213 yards, to lead Florida to a ball control victory over Philadelphia. Maggard threw 2 TD passes to Ray Parker and the Blazers were a perfect 3 for 3 in the red zone.
Maulers 29 Invaders 10
Pittsburgh possessed the ball for 15 more minutes than Oakland, yet were out gained. Pittsburgh held a slight 12-10 lead in the 3rd quarter when the Maulers defense came up with 2 huge plays to propel Pittsburgh to victory. First, Preston Gervais returned an Andrew Moreno interception 30 yards for a score, then Brett Korn returned an INT 25 yards for a score. The 4th qtr was non dramatic and Pittsburgh gets the W.
VooDoo 31 Steamer 7
Bruno Wilson threw for 329 yards and 4 TD passes as the VooDoo rolled the Steamer today. Eric Duncan caught 2 of the TD passes as part of his 4-123-2 afternoon. Shreveport could only generate 181 offensive yards and William Neal missed 2 FG attempts.
Generals 17 Breakers 7
New Jersey got a TD run from Sam Beckett and a Ric Flair TD pass to Roger Rabbit as the Generals won an offensively challenged game today. The box score was pretty similar for both teams except red zone and penalties. The Generals were the more penalized team coming into the game but the Generals were only flagged once while Boston committed 5 penalties and all of the game's points came in the red zone.
Blitz 38 Hawaiians 24
The first 3 quarters saw 3 ties and 3 lead changes before Chicago scored 14 unanswered 4th quarter points to defeat Honolulu. The Hawaiians offense racked up the yards and scored 21 points in 4 red zone trips, but QB Derek Henry tossed 2 INTs and the Honolulu defense allowed Chicago to run for 227 yards. Jay Kinder ran for 157 yards and a TD while Walter Lemay ran for 98 and 2. The Blitz also got a TD run on Donald Brown's lone rush of the game, as Chicago ran for an Al Bundy-esque 4 TDs today.
Gunslingers 20 Outlaws 3
This was the anti Memphis/Houston game as the teams combined for 340 yards and 1 offensive TD today, a Willie Benge TD pass in the 1st qtr to give San Antonio a 7-0 lead. The other Gunslingers TD came on the second half kickoff as Thomas Earl Petty returned it a league record 110 yards (29th different player with a 110 yard return), extending the lead to 17-3.
