Fantasy World League Forum

New York at Orlando

New York could win their 8th straight game if they manage to leave Orlando with a victory.  Orlando looked better last week against Ohio with QB Jon Denton starting his first game of the season.  Denton is still a quality QB but will have to play his best game ever to defeat 7-0 New York.

New York by 10

Raleigh-Durham at Ohio

Big game for Ohio, a win here makes Ohio .500 and back potentially in the playoff race.  The team are playing very well, the loss of DE Rameel Connor could hurt them though.  Jamal Robertson is still a threat in the air but as always rushing the ball the o-line needs to make holes.  Raleigh are making a lot of changes this week but playing away will put them at a disadvantage, HB Mike Green returns to start and there are also many o-line changes and changes defensively.  These may not work instantly but its good to see Raleigh trying something new.

Ohio by 7

Birmingham at Sacramento

Who will start at QB for the Surge ?  GM Paul Johns keeps changing his mind as often as he does his underwear (that is often by the way).  It looks like Todd Bouman will start again but the Surge are hoping that the new offensive line shuffle will work and the leagues lowest ranked offense will play better.  For Birmingham theres many changes also, Seth Burford returns to start and for the 0-7 Fire the only way surely is up.

Sacramento by 10

Frankfurt at San Antonio

Big game for both teams, Frankfurt are away in a huge game and a loss here would drop them to an unthinkable 3-5 record.  San Antonio are on fire and are the 2nd best team in the AFC and have won 6 straight games.  Huge order for QB Rohan Davey and co but they are the current champs, they need to win huge games like this.  Riders QB Michael Bishop threw for a career high 400+ yards last week and should do well in this game even against a tough Galaxy defense.

Riders by 7

Montreal at Mexico

Another big game this week, this time for Montreal.  Mexico have the advantage being at home and need to win this game if they want to stay in the playoff hunt.  At 5-2 Montreal cant afford to lose this game what with the Knights epic clash coming up very soon.  Montreal are slowly getting back to full strength as Lawrence Phillips started last week and played well.  Mexico are a very good young team but are still not accepted into the higher echelon of teams.  Mexico did upset Montreal just two weeks ago in Montreal and a win here would give them the head to head advantage, a big game for both teams.

Montreal by 3

Paris at Amsterdam

Paris winning 4 straight games ?  A huge EFC clash here between two 4-3 teams fighting to get to the playoffs.  Paris have won 4 straight but now travel to Amsterdam to face the EFC East leading Admirals.  Both teams are playing very well but Amsterdam get the advantage because they are at home.  If the tough Admirals rushing offense can get going against Paris it should open up the passing attack for QB Heath Rylance.  Paris under QB Petrus Penkki have won 4 straight and their defense has played very well lately making Paris a tough team to play.  They rank only 13th on offense and 14th on defense but the team are making big plays week in week out.  But with Amsterdam being at home with a well balanced side (8th offense, 6th defense) the Admirals should win a big tiebreaker here.

Amsterdam by 7

Rhein at Berlin

Rhein are playing well (11th offense, 8th defense) but have won just 3 out of 7 games.  Rhein have lost a lot of tough games but last week they gained a huge amount of confidence in beating arch rivals Frankfurt.  Here they face another german rival, Berlin who after a 0-3 start have won 3 of their last 4 games.  The offense still cant run the ball and ranks last in the league but had a much better game last week.  A very close game here and a very important divisional game.

Berlin by 3

Scottish at London

This classic old rivalry moves to London where the Monarchs face a tough Claymores side who despite being 1-6 have been very explosive the last few weeks.  Scotland have the 2nd best offense but one of the worst defenses, London will be looking to bounce back after going just 1-3 their last 4 games after a 3-0 start.  Londons offense and defense are playing well but they are losing too many close games.  They need a big win to stay in the playoff hunt here and being at home might just give them that.

London by 7

Austria at Barcelona

Austria could move to 8-0 but face a tricky game away in Barcelona, the Dragons arent playing well offensively or defensively and they cant seem to find a starting HB.  Austria are playing very well and should shut down the Dragons offense but Barcelona will have a slight advantage being at home.  If Austria can find a rushing attack they would be a brilliant side and one of the best but until their offense explodes and they win some games by 20+ points some people still arent taking them seriously.

Austria by 10

Offense wins games, Defense wins ************:

Austrias Defensive ranks in the FWL-Stats after week8:

#1 in Total yards - Opponents
#1 in 1st Downs - Opponents
#1 in 3st down Conversion - Opponents
#1 in Rushing yards - Opponents
#1 in Passing yards - Opponents
#1 in Team Rushing - Oppontens
#1 (tied) in Interceptions
#2 in Scoring - Opponents
#2 in Sacks
#2 in Team Passing - Opponents....

But no individual player really on top of the individual stats. A total team effort.....
Remember the Power rankings: Austrias opponents: 26 wins..... Next best: 19 wins....

And:
Average experience of ADK-starters on Defense: 2 years....

Does not look THAT bad, hey  8)

I agree with that!

Hey taht are the admirals! and I did that with only 5 victories so that is an avg of 3.8

Top 3 of the avg are

Sacremento/Frankfurt 4.0 (12/3 and 16/4)
Amsterdam 3.8
Austria 3.25

so you want to say that the Admirals and Sacramento are the best teams in the league, right?  ;D ;D ;D

Dont think Niki's saying that but some teams have a soft schedule.  The 1999 St Louis Rams and the 1972 Miami Dolphins had the softest schedules of any Superbowl winner ever.  Thats taking nothing away from those two teams but its a bit different if you are playing against a 9-2 team in the season than a 2-9 team.

Also to me Austria are a great team but so many of your games are won by 7 or less points.  You could be 5-4 instead of 9-0 quite easily.  If you did a 'Chicago Bears 1985' on your opponents and won most games 30-3 like New York then i think everyone would put Austria higher up.

Either way you win games, like i keep saying the full potential of your team hasnt happened yet, once that happens things could get scary

just wanted to say that Nikis stat is nonsense.

if a team goes 1-13 and the win comes agaisnt a 13-1 team that team would be the leader in his statistical view. nonsense.

i agree with you taht ADK is not a top team in the league but we discussed that several times and it starts to get boring. No, ADK is not a top-top team but we are damned good right now. And I am very happy with that.....

Well last week on the power rankings below the standings you were top then New York 2nd.

Austria 7-0      OHI SAC SCO BAR    LON BER RHN
New York 7-0  OHI SAC SCO BAR    BIR MEX RAL

You had both played 4 same opponents, but New York had played MEX (tough game 2-0), RAL (0-3 at the time) and the only other different team was BIR (0-4)

Austria played LON 3-1 at the time, Berlin (0-0) and Rhein (2-0)

So to me New York has the weaker schedule at the moment.  BUT the main thing which stands in peoples minds is that New York were destroying the competition, Austria even though undefeated have won 6 games by 7 points or less.  If K John Anderson wasnt having an All-FWL year then those could easily be losses.

People arent knocking Austria because of you, theyre knocking Austria because of the way theyre beating opponents, sounds bad but at the moment Austria are the worst 9-0 team ever.  You have  agreat great team so dont take that the wrong way but in the past any 8-1 , 9-0 teams are better than the Austria this year.

Like you say though next year is the year you think Austria will be really powerful.  On your way there already, a few games of say 30-10 and people will be thinking how great you are.  Like i keep saying its scary as i dont think Austria have played to their full potential yet, your most dangerous WR Matthew Hatchette has been out and you keep changing players and changing offenses which i think is dangerous

Its good to get players gametime but i wouldnt mess up the DarkKnights run by playing backups or rookie QB's.  You changed the offense which went more to a rushing offense with dink and dunk passes , earlier in the season with Anes throwing bombs to Hatchette you looked stronger.

As i said before if my team were 9-0 i would hardly change a thing, if it aint broke dont fix it as they say.

'If' you can get past Paris this week (tough game) you have a great chance at going undefeated but we shouldnt say that as when we did about NY they then lost !

Just noticed that at the bottom of the standings it has the strength of schedule....

New York opponents are 21-43
San Antonio opponents 18-30

Ohio and Sacramento - 38-26

In the EFC....

Austria - 23-33
Berlin have the hardest schedule with 32-24 at the moment.

Most of the teams with the hardest schedules are the ones with the worst record, eg SCO 33-23, Birmingham 37-27.

So if anything San Antonio have had one of the easiest schedules then New York then Austria out of the big teams.

The most impressive teams are Amsterdam at 5-3 (29-35 Strength of Sched) and Ohio at 4-4 with a tough 38-26.

I do love looking at all the stats !!

I'll have to try to run this program on past seasons, would love to know what is the best FWL team of all time who won the FWL Bowl and who had the hardest schedule

i am not 9-0 , i am 8-0

AND i do not understand your post as it is not my feeling that people are knocking on ADK (well.... David maybe a little bit) AND it is my genuine opinion that ADK is not a top-top-team and maybe we are the worst 8-0 ever regarding offense.

But we are winning, which simply makes me happy.

So please let us stop this "Austria is a good team but....."-talks. It is really getting boring.

Here is my opinion:

We are probably the worst 8-0 team ever. (Can a team that starts 8-0 be "bad" anyway?)
We probably have the best defensive stats ever for a team after week 8 as regards ranking.
We won´t finish 14-0 but 11-3 rather. STILL FANTASTIC!!!!
We won´t get to the Bowl. We are not strong enough for that. Watch out for Frankfurt, they will recover and travel to the big game.
And hey last but not least: I did a fantastic job as GM to build up this team. Even if it is not (yet) the best in the FWL.

POINT!

Dont take all these discussions to heart so much , we're just discussing how good/bad higher ranked teams really are.  To me Ohio could be 7-1 if they hadnt had one of the toughest schedules to start the year.

What you have done with Austria is brilliant, and like you say they are probably a year away from firing on all cylinders. But dont take it to heart so much peoples comments.

We would all love to be 8-0 whether that means we win every game by 1 point or 30 points.  Its Austrias first winning season since 2002 (Season 6) so i think the fans are happy as anything !

Just like when David rebuilt Montreal its great to see Austria being built and all the pieces working.  Two seasons ago you had the 17th ranked defense, two seasons later the top ranked defense.  It proves that if GM's trade / draft good players then they can make a turnaround.

My vote for best ever FWL Bowl winning team would go to the 1999 Austria DarkKnights.

They are the only FWL Bowl winning side to have the #1 offense and #1 defense, they were #2nd in total points and #1 in points allowed.

They had only two defeats, away to London (A 7-7 team) and away to Rhein (A 12-2 team).  9 of the 12 regular season wins were by 14 points or more.  Austria crushed their opponents that year.  They allowed just 8 touchdown passes, only 545 rushing yards (1.9 average) and 4 touchdowns.

They scored 35 offensive touchdowns and allowed just 12.

They had an incredible 83 sacks , 9 players had 5 sacks or more.  They did breeze past Frankfurt 21-9 in the playoffs but as you know they had an amazing win in one of the FWL's best ever games, a 16-12 win at Rhein thanks to a last minute interception.  They did need overtime to beat Birmingham in FWL Bowl III but that season Austria were brilliant and avenged their loss to Frankfurt (and also to London later in the year)

I did not say that! The fact is you won all games so far and at the moment you are the only remaining unbeaten team so taht makes you the best team of the league!

but it was just making an point that Sacremento and Frankfurt are stronger then many people think.

But if you think that stats are nonsense, why do you start with posting your nonsense? it is forum people discus about that kind of things! If you only bring up the good stats it is only a matter of time that people write about teh bad sides! I don't think that is an attack from other people on you and/or the AKD but now I am only talking for myself ofcourse

oh, now i understand: You say " a team that beats strong teams is strong". Good point.
But on the other hand: SAC lost to inferior teams.

So i guess the conclusion is not right.

BTW: I expect FRA to got to the Bowl this season. no matter how poor they have played so far in some (but of course not all!) games.......

It's a bit of a deceptive stat for that very reason, because the "strength of schedule" depends in part on the team's own performance. A team that loses, boosts the W column of its opponents, and a team that wins, boosts the L column of its opponents. True, they play other games, but you _tend_ to expect to see losing teams face "stronger" schedules in retrospect.