As Week 10 of Season 41 approaches, the NSFC playoff race is a dogfight once again! Improbable but technically possible scenarios exist where either one or even both the 3-6 Baltimore Hawks and the 2-7 Berlin Fire Salamanders could yet make the playoffs. More realistically, the Cape Town Crash and Yellowknife Wraiths will battle for the 1-seed, while 6-3 Chicago, 5-4 Sarasota, and 4-5 Colorado will battle it out for the wildcard spot. All three of these teams have to play each other at least once in the remaining games, starting with Chicago @ Sarasota in a massive Week 10 contest on Monday. Since Chicago won their home game against the Sailfish in Week 5, a road win here would have the Butchers seizing a commanding lead in the wildcard race at 7-3 with a tiebreak over 5-5 Sarasota. The Sailfish will be hitting Chicago with everything they have to keep that from happening! Besides the obvious playoff stakes, these are two teams that do not like each other, so spectators and primetime TV viewers should be treated to a hard-hitting and fiercely-fought game that might come right down to the final possession!
To add another interesting wrinkle, both teams have rookie quarterbacks under center this season, Painted Penguin for the Butchers and Willier (that's "WILL-ee-ay") Miller for the Sailfish. Miller has been the talk of the league after throwing 18 touchdowns against just 2 interceptions through his first 9 career games, with his connection to 4th-year wideout Johnny Blaze Jr. proving especially productive. Penguin has looked like a more typical rookie quarterback, having thrown 13 INTs, but Chicago has adapted their offense well to his developing skillset, relying heavily on their two excellent running backs, Frank Dux and Lalu Zohri.
The running game would appear to be the key to this matchup. As Miller and Blaze Jr. have emerged, Sarasota's excellent running back Pete Zuh has been having an unusually quiet season. Can the Sailfish finally get him going if the pressure starts getting to the rookie Miller? And how will Sarasota's defense set up to counter Dux and Zohri? As we've come to expect, Sarasota runs out the best defensive backfield in the league, but Chicago relies on the pass less than almost any other team in the league this season. With the strength of their defense not positioned well against Chicago's strength on offense, look for the Sailfish to get creative, mixing in some unusual looks and DB blitzes to get their best defensive players involved on running plays.
Come season's end we might view this one game as the ultimate decider in the S41 NSFC playoff picture.
Prediction: 31, 24
To add another interesting wrinkle, both teams have rookie quarterbacks under center this season, Painted Penguin for the Butchers and Willier (that's "WILL-ee-ay") Miller for the Sailfish. Miller has been the talk of the league after throwing 18 touchdowns against just 2 interceptions through his first 9 career games, with his connection to 4th-year wideout Johnny Blaze Jr. proving especially productive. Penguin has looked like a more typical rookie quarterback, having thrown 13 INTs, but Chicago has adapted their offense well to his developing skillset, relying heavily on their two excellent running backs, Frank Dux and Lalu Zohri.
The running game would appear to be the key to this matchup. As Miller and Blaze Jr. have emerged, Sarasota's excellent running back Pete Zuh has been having an unusually quiet season. Can the Sailfish finally get him going if the pressure starts getting to the rookie Miller? And how will Sarasota's defense set up to counter Dux and Zohri? As we've come to expect, Sarasota runs out the best defensive backfield in the league, but Chicago relies on the pass less than almost any other team in the league this season. With the strength of their defense not positioned well against Chicago's strength on offense, look for the Sailfish to get creative, mixing in some unusual looks and DB blitzes to get their best defensive players involved on running plays.
Come season's end we might view this one game as the ultimate decider in the S41 NSFC playoff picture.
Prediction: 31, 24