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**Matt** · 07-07-2011, 07:42 AM

It's on like donkey kong.
Happy to be having these huge games in Newark and not on the road. That gives us a slight advantage alone. 0.5 pt favorite in this one. It's going to be a tight one. looking forward to the challenge.

**Matt** · 07-07-2011, 07:45 AM

Love the weather in the OAK v IWC game. Can the fair weather Assassins cope with the cold and snow?

**markc** · 07-07-2011, 08:36 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJMa20xXykI

Sorry, couldn't resist! GL Mike, big game for both teams.

**Matt** · 07-07-2011, 05:53 PM

Originally posted by markc View Post

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJMa20xXykI

Sorry, couldn't resist! GL Mike, big game for both teams.

hahaha

never seen that before.

**Kobeck** · 07-07-2011, 09:23 PM

for the first time in a long while the Warthogs are in a Don't Bother game ....

**Trivia Bytes** · 07-07-2011, 11:55 PM

Playoff picture … entering Week 16:

NATIONAL CONFERENCE

The North: Pennsylvania – division champs and they will host a wild card game. Their game with Portland has more of an impact to the Seals who are lusting for the division championship and a probable 1st round bye. The Seals only need one win to clinch both. Losses this week or next week by Anchorage, Cleveland, Iowa City and Murfreesboro would also assure the bye for them.

The South: Tulsa - division champs. The Tiger Hawks face Murfreesboro. Tulsa currently holds the rights to National Conference bye. A win and a Newark loss could possibly begin the cherished transformation into a team with home field advantage. However, a loss lets Oakland back into contention to snatch their current bye position, leaving Tulsa hosting a wild card game. Murfreesboro could lock up the division once and for all with a win.

At this point, we project Newark the division champs. Their official magic number is 1: either a win by them in the next two weeks or a loss by Lawrence. This week, Newark spars with 13-1 Norfolk. Truly, A Clash of the Titans. But in reality, the game has more meaning to Norfolk than Newark at this point. The Vipers are in a dead heat with division mate West Virginia for the AC East crown, a 1st round bye and home field advantage. Newark seems to have locked their division and are in good sanding for home field advantage. The other strong team in this division, Lawrence, is destined for a wild card berth and should officially lock that up with a win this week or next. Hartford is the victim of choice this week.

:arrow: The West remains an open book. Both front runners play the two front runners from the AC North.
Oakland is travelling to Iowa City, a team in a desperate race with Cleveland for the AC North division championship or wild card berth. Iowa City got creamed last week by Cleveland. And Oakland also lost … and to a nondescript SLC team. We think both teams are much better than what they showed us last week. This looks to be a make or break game for both teams, as the sand in the hour glass has almost run out.
Vancouver still lurks in the shadows of the West by being only one game behind Oakland. They face that Cleveland, you know, the team that hung one on IWC last week by a score of 42-9. Ouch! Oakland may have found itself celebrating a little too much with the sparkly grape juice in the locker room after its come from behind victory over the Phantoms the previous week. And after the rude awakening call, complements of SLC, we believe Oakland has revisited the division standings and have found those pesky Killer Whales still right up tight against their rear ends. So game on for all … IWC, Cleveland, Oakland, Vancouver.

AMERICAN CONFERENCE

:arrow: The North – see the write up in the NC-West. This is a show down of the two top teams in each division. Playoff implications abound for all teams involved.

The South – we are naming Murfreesboro champion at this point. Their magic number is one. Either a win by them or loss by Houston gets them the coveted playoff berth. They also remain in play for a potential first round bye. They face Tulsa.

:arrow: The East – see discussion below for Viper-Bulldog match up. West Virginia faces Vermont and should easily roll into a comfortable position for next week’s scheduled game against Norfolk. A loss by Norfolk puts the Beasts in the driver’s seat for home field advantage, if they win.

The West – Portland is our projected champion. Their magic number is also one … a win or loss by Anchorage seals the deal for the division and a 1st round bye. They meet Pennsylvania this week.

Trivia Byte Game Preview: 13-1 Norfolk visits 10-2 Newark.

The only other time a 13-1 team met a 12-2 team this late in the sesaons (2nd to last week) was ten seasons ago, in 2009, when 10-2 Lawrence visited 13-1 Portland. Lawrence won that encounter 31-21 and went on to play in the Imperial Bowl, losing to Hartford.

This year seems to be a matchup of huge proportions. Both teams exhibit a lot of similarities starting with how these two teams are built and ending on their resulting game strategy. Strangely similar.

Both teams prove themselves on the defensive side of the ball. The Vipers are 6th in points allowed per game and the Bulldogs are third. Quarterbacks facing the Vipers have ended up with the fourth worst rating while quarterbacks facing the Bulldogs have had the worst rating in the league!

On offense, both teams make it a point to establish the run in this pass first, pass second and then, pass again, league. The Bulldogs have run the ball the 3rd highest amount of times and have the 5th highest total rushing yards. The Vipers have the 2nd highest amount of rushing attempts and lead the league in rushing yardage. And this alone may be what lures opposing defenses to sleep because both teams have also have lethal signal callers that can and do deliver the killer strikes to very talented receiving corps. Newark has put the ball in the air the second fewest times in the league and Norfolk has the third fewest attempts, Newark has the seventh best pass completion ratio and Norfolk the eighth. Newark leads the league in yards per attempt and Norfolk is third.

3rd Down Conversion: 3rd down conversion ratios are a stat that we follow a lot. Third down is a down that continues a drive or forces a team to give up the ball. We have found that almost all teams in contention for a playoff have either a good offensive 3rd down success, or good defensive 3rd down success. A few teams have both and Norfolk is one of those teams. Norfolk has third best offensive 3rd down conversion percentage in league, 47.7% and also third best defensive 3rd down conversion percentage, allowing opponents to a meager 33.5%. Look at that differential: 14.2 percentage points.

This differential is second highest in the league and barely misses league leading Pennsylvania at14.4 percentage point diff, Tulsa is next at 11.3 percentage point diff, then IWC at 8.5 followed by Newark and Lawrence at 6.1 each. Just to round out this discussion, the three lowest differentials were Hartford at a negative 12.6 percentage points (meaning they allowed other teams better success on third down than themselves; Houston at 11.9 and then Orlando at 11.5. As expected there are many teams that had similar success as their opponents on third down … so most teams hovered at a zero point differential. We believe that anything over a 4 point is statistically significant, either good or bad. West Virginia is the only other team besides the teams mentioned above with a 4 point diff, 4.1. We anticipate that these teams will be the power brokers in the upcoming playoffs.

Sunday should be very interesting to see how these two teams square off. The Bulldogs credentials include wins over NC-North Champ Pennsylvania, and AC powerhouse West Virginia while losing twice to Lawrence. Norfolk’s credentials include wins over AC-North hopefuls Iowa City and Cleveland, AC-South Champ Murfreesboro, AC West Champ- Portland, power house Lawrence and a loss to division rival West Virginia. Home field advantage in this game is Newark’s. Balance seems to be the key in both teams’ game strategy. But surprise is the deadly punch of the Viper and Bulldog game plans as no one never knows where or when that next punch may come. Looks to be a great game – and it should be … the second game in the history of the league that features such highly rated teams at Week 16.

**VitoStallion** · 07-08-2011, 11:38 AM

my team may suck but I'm whipping somebody's ass this week

**Matt** · 07-08-2011, 12:51 PM

excellent write up TB.

I'm at the point where I know that this game means as much to us as it does them. If we lose, and tulsa wins, we've lost our homefield. I absolutely don't want that. I want to go out and win out here. THat's what champions are supposed to do. Not saying we're there yet, but that's what is supposed to happen.

looking at gameplanning for this one and it's insane how similar our teams are. I just hope the ball bounces our way more than it bounces Norfolks.
Really excited to get this one underway

**Jave** · 07-09-2011, 07:09 AM

Heading off to the Motley show, threw in my gameplan earlier then I wanted to. I would normally be confident however with Wingfield still on the bench for the 3rd consecutive week, it leaves a gaping hole in my defensive line. Everyone's going to have to step it up a notch. Are we a playoff team or not...that will be decided this week.

**r00k** · 07-09-2011, 09:35 AM

No matter what the outcome, I am thoroughly enjoying prepping for this game ... yet still, I am also having a tough time deciding on a final game plan.

We very rarely play the Bulldogs and this year's game is so huge.

GL Matt, see your Bulldogs on Sunday and

that my decisions are good ones.

**r00k** · 07-09-2011, 09:39 AM

Wow, the other marquee games should make this Sunday a real exiciting day for the IFL.

**Matt** · 07-09-2011, 11:27 AM

Me as we'll r00k
I've been spending all week thinking about what to do and I will spend some time this evening finalizing what I've been thinking about doing.

GL and really looking forward to it.

**Mike17** · 07-09-2011, 12:52 PM

Originally posted by markc View Post

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJMa20xXykI

Sorry, couldn't resist! GL Mike, big game for both teams.

Oh it's on now

Perkins and Co. are playing for respect!

**BuddaKINGII** · 07-09-2011, 05:55 PM

We need this game plus we need Cleveland and IWC to lose! C'mon Guys You Can Do It!

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