Week 12 preview: Week of decisions......

[Mario ADK]

Week 12 marks some "do or die" games in the FWL. Let us scroll down the 9 games of this week:

Birmingham @ Ohio:
Quite an interesting one as Ohio needs to win to stay alive in the playoff race. Considered as the best "non-playoff-bound"-team, the Glory seek revenge of their surpising loss against the Fire a couple of weeks ago.

Birmingham has disappointed a lot this season and even a good 2nd half of the season won´t improve them much. Time for GM Kremer to see what backups can do for him?

Ohio by 10

Orlando @ New York:
Orlando needs a miraclo to get into the playoffs - and a win at New York. Both seem to be out of reach so the knights should have a relaxing day. After a great start, New York has shown some ups and downs since. But Orlando should not be much of a fear to them.

New York by 14

Rhein @ Raleigh-Durham:
Could be an interesting one for the Skyhawks as disappointing Rhein looks beatable. Whatever GM Cuadron does: Nothing seem sto work for the Fire, who has put out its playoff hopes early. Rhein has played some good football but the Skyhawks are better than it seems....

Raleigh-Durham by 3

San Antonio @ Mexico:
A clash. The Riders seem to be the best team in the FWL right now but playing in Aztec-Stadium is always a burden. Mexico will fight until the end as they know there is potentieal to go far this season. But to go far, they need to enter the playoffs and a loss with only 2 weeks remaining would hurt. Very important game.

San Antonio by 7

Sacramento @ Montreal:
It is looking worse than it is for Montreal. They are playing good football but struggle from time to time. With a weak schedule playoffs are for sure - but one can say that we expected more of them. Sacramento is still fighting for a playoff-spot but no way it seems that they can go past the Machine...

Montral by 17

Amsterdam@Frankfurt:
A big bang. EFCs top game. the willer will take away the EFC East almost for sure, the loser "might" struggle to get into the playoffs if Paris win again. Both teams are strong and Amsterdam almost beat mighty Austria but overall it is the Galaxy who seems to have recoverd from a bad season start: The Galaxy is playing solid, strong football again and they seem to be in shape for a back-to-back EFC-title. They do not play like a FWL-champion though... Not yet...

Frankfurt by 6

Scotland@Berlin:
Not really a game to watch. Embarrassing Scotland will be defeated just one more time... The Thunder should win but the management is hoping for the next season to start.... Bad year for them....

Berlin by 10

Barcelona@Paris:
Impotant game for Paris: They MUST win to stay in playoff-contention. Barcelona is playing some very disappointing football this season and is still preparing for next year, while Paris had an excellent 2nd half of the season until the DarkKnights came along with an FA-QB and destroyed them. Nevertheless: A MUSt-WIN situation for Paris....

Paris by 6

London@Austria:
Can FWL-Classic XXVI get better than this? The DarkKnights would have back-to-back EFC-WEST-championships if they win in sold-out Kreiner-stadium, wheras Londons GM compton battles to even the series against Kreiner (Kreiner leads by one win). LON-AUS was always unpredictable and it is the leagues most followed rivalry. Rumours say that Anes is back for ADK but Kreiner will wait until the very last minute to decide if he gives FA-QB Abrew another chance after his excellent 2nd-half-performance last week....
For all the stats fo the "FWL-Classic"-games turn to the thread in this forum....

Austria by 4

[jcompton-Orlando]

Kreiner stadium, eh? Hadn't noticed that one before...

[Niki]

Kreiner stadium, eh? Hadn't noticed that one before...

most stadium are only named after people after they are dead, but Austria is the exception on that rule, after the Arnold Schwarzenegger stadium in Graz (15,400 seats, regular player is Grazer AK and SK Sturm Graz) they also have a Kreiner stadium

[jcompton-Orlando]

Heh. There have been other exceptions, such as Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park in Chicago (named after then-living baseball team owners), so it's hardly surprising that Super Mario would follow in the footsteps of those giants.

[Niki]

oh well my opinion is that you can only name a stadium after that person is dead. But it is always better than when it is a sponsored stadium name (only exception on that is teh Heinz stadium because of the funny scoreboard).

[Mario ADK]

Kreiner stadium, eh? Hadn't noticed that one before...

yep. Right next to the Kreiner-monument in the heart of Vienna. If you visit Vienna next time make sure you visit the Kreiner-merchandise and gift-shop. It is worth to spend some money there.

We have Wodoo-dolls as well. 

btw: it is located at Kreiner lane #666

[Mario ADK]

Preview of FWL-CLASSIC XXVI:

QBs:
Whom is GM Kreiner going to start? Anes, the reliable, young leader? Or Abrew, who came out of possible retirement? Kreiner announced Anes as his starter days ago, but does a lot of thinking since..... Given the strong 2nd half against Paris much is pointing at Abrew.
Nevertheless: BOTH seem to top Londons Matt Lytle a bit. It is not only the ongoing fumblitis that Lytle still suffers, it is just the way he plays. Good. But not brilliant.
Austria 4pts

RBs:
When it comes to running the ball it is all about London. Rashon Spikes is reliable, has an excellent average of 4.4 and holds on to the ball. Austrias RBs are "ok" but do not have the tackle-breaking ability. Londons could score more ponts here but FB Clemens is injured and might have to be replaced by Sejuki, who has always been less than a factor everytime he played.
London 9pts

OL:
Londond O-Line is small, but brilliant in both pass-protecting and rush-blocking. They are tied for the fewest sacks allowed and open up big holes for Spikes. Amazing.
Austrias O is very strong, very good but not consistend. Excellent games like against Paris are often followed blubbers.
London 6pts

DL:
The injury to Londons Junior Ioane is a heavy blow for GM Compton. The question is: will he play? The rest of Londons D-line is good as well but all in all it seems that Austria has the better end on that posistion as the D-line is the core of the currently best defense in the world as they are #1 against pass AND rush.
Austria 6pts

LBs:
Two evenly strong units, but Austrias LBs seem to have the advantage due to the stats: Barr and Ishida are an atomic duo with a total of 14 sacks and 3 interception while Londons whole LB-squad has fewer sacks and interceptions....
Austria 7pts

DBs:
Londons Perryman is outstanding and the rest is good, but nothing compared to Austras league-leading secondary: Austrias incredible skills to overcome 3rd-down-conversions rely heavily on S Mayer, CBs Morland and Howard and the like... This will be the true test for Londons "grandma"-WR Latif Frim!
Austria 7pts

Special teams:
Clear advantage for Austria: Austria has the better kicker (Londons kicker is more of a fear for his own team as supposed to be a fear for the opponents...), the better Punt-Returner, the better Kick-returner, the better Punting-team....
Austria 7pts

FINAL SCORE: AUSTRIA: 31; LONDON: 15
Easy win for Austria.

[Paul-London]

After last weeks great performance in the second half i would personally start Abrew. Swapping QB's every week doesnt help your team, you need to be consistent.

Plus for me it would make a great storyline, despite being very good in London last year GM Compton cut Abrew which was a mild shock and now Abrew would be seeking revenge !

[Mario ADK]

Plus for me it would make a great storyline, despite being very good in London last year GM Compton cut Abrew which was a mild shock and now Abrew would be seeking revenge !

Hmmmm..... would be a good story indeed.... But what if he sucks like in the first half against Paris!?!?!?! I mean this is no regurlar game to me, it is "my" FWL-CLASSIC?

But in fact i will have to give that a deeper thought....

[Paul-London]

Well he sucked as he was out of football for 10 weeks until you signed him and started him a day later !

Anyway i'm not getting involved anymore but i would say to any team out there who is 10-1 i wouldnt create a QB controversy !  Even if Crandell is 4-0 in New York i'm sure Adam would keep Stambaugh as the starter if hes healthy

Anyway thats one great thing about the FWL, obviously less pressure of course but you have the same sort of decisions coaches/GM's have in real life

[Mario ADK]

After reviewing last weeks play-play i came to a decision:

Abrew was unable to connect long or medium passes all game long, his 2 bombs came from one swing-pass to HB Jackson when Paris was playing Goal-Line and from another mismatch by the Paris-D (Pass Long vs. Run). I do not trunst Abrew just as i trust the leagues current #4, Curt Anes.

Anes will be starter for the rest of the season.
Abrew will only play in case of injury and will be released after this season. Last weeks game against Paris was his first for ADK but maybe his last for the FWL..... Sad, but that´s life....

That is my final decision.....

[jcompton-Orlando]

* jcompton-London tells BJ Symons to start emulating Abrew even more in practice.

[Mario ADK]

har har... that is another stupid "playcall" by this overrated London GM-Coach Compton...

Better try to prepare your LBs and DBs for playing against HB Jacksons flat- and swing-routes and have your lousy special-teams practice instead of trying to simulate a backup who won´t start.....

[Paul-London]

har har... that is another stupid "playcall" by this overrated London GM-Coach Compton...

Hmmmmm, and this coming from the GM who is benching a QB who threw 3 td's in his last action and who will be released after the year !!!

[Mario ADK]

Hmmmmm, and this coming from the GM who is benching a QB who threw 3 td's in his last action and who will be released after the year !!!

No. This is coming from this genious-GM who spotted a FA-QB, signed him, prepared him and even did not take him out of the game after he started 2 of 14 for 13 yds and one interception.

Ever thought about why he ended up on the FA-list in the first place?

Abrew can be happy that he gets some money to play backup - and he is a good backup indeed. But he is not good enough to be my #1 - but i am sure he might be good enough to be #1 at some other teams.....

[Paul-London]

Well firstly you cant bench a QB during a game so you didnt have a choice whether he went 10 out of 50 or 30 out of 50 attempts !

Abrew was on the FA scrapheap just because theres a current trend in the FWL to not start older QB's.  In real life a QB who threw 14 td's and 3 ints the year before would be snapped up by many teams regardless of his age.

Thats one reason why i think limiting the amount of good QB's in the next few drafts will force people to use veteran QB's instead of disguarding them.  Same for many other QB's, Orlandos Jon Denton has been named FWL MVP in Season 11, named AFC Offensive Player of the Year in Season 11 AND 13 yet when he was benched this year in Week 1 not one team asked about Denton.  Dentons been the best AFC QB the last few years but no one wanted him mainly due to his age i would say.

This year out of the top 10 QB's in the league 7 of the 10 are 8 years or more.  FA QB Ingram Jones is one of only 3 QB's EVER to throw for more than 4000 yards in a season but all long hes been unsigned and then will retire at the end of the year.  I can understand teams not going near Shedrick Bonner as i dont think hes a huge upgrade but Abrew after throwing for 14 td's and 3 ints last year , i thought many teams would go near him.

[jcompton-Orlando]

In fairness, Paul, many teams are on a 2-QB rotation these days and at the time I did the Knights poll, there were only four unemployed QBs hanging around... now there are only three. I don't know that there's _that_ big of a problem.

[Paul-London]

But i cant remember the last time we had a big QB trade.  I think the last one was Curt Anes and before that Matt Lytle/Heath Rylance.

Last few years there havent been many blockbuster trades

[jcompton-Orlando]

But that's the thing... cutting back on the number of available decent QBs won't really stimulate trades either.

I think part of the problem is that there's two categories of successful QB in the league:

- Those with >90 in critical stats
- Those with totally average skills who still light up the field anyway for no apparent reason.

Teams guard the former like gold, and we've seen that simply having such a player does not guarantee success anyway.

Trading for the latter is the ultimate crapshoot. Was Charlie Ward moderately successful because of some magic randomness in the game, or was there a perfect storm created by the Mexico offensive line? Either way, it's extremely difficult for a GM to say "Yes, clearly, that player will do well for me."

And again, two-QB rosters mean there's really no room to trade out a QB anyway, unless the GM plans to replace one of the QBs with a FA fallback or get one in exchange--which, again, is tough if many teams only carry two QBs. If anything, the Lytle deal is probably a good example of why people _don't_ trade for QBs more often. Lytle/Blount was really not a marked improvement over Bonner/Philyaw. And before you say "Josh LaRocca and Stoney Case", the league is very, VERY different than it was in season 1--a quick look at the average stats on those Season 1 rosters makes that clear. Marco and Mario made very clever moves, yes, but today's defenses can still thwart a >90 INT QB--let alone a guy with 70s across the board.

(incidentally, the Season 1 Trades link is busted on the history page, it goes to Season 10.)

[Paul-London]

Yeah good point, i'll leave the draft as it is, add the odd decent QB but i wont put too many in and i wont put too few in

Thats what i love about the league, you still get random things, eg Charlie Ward and his terrible INT and then look at Travis Brown, worst INT amongst starting QB's but a very very good young QB.

Like you say it was totally different in the early days.  I was happy to see some 'big' trades though like Lytle moving to London and Rylance moving to Amsterdam

I think in the next few seasons it'll be interesting to see what happens when teams like Berlin/Barcelona and even myself lose their starting QB's to injury and have to start their youngster or get a new backup QB.

When i get home i'll try to find trades1.htm , doesnt seem to be a file on the server