Week 6 Preview, 2009

Division Battles, By Jesse Kizima 
Today is the start of week six in the eSFL and several teams are playing in must win games. The Boot Hill Balut is in a situation where a loss basically sends them to the Gunner Bowl tournament planning table. The Perdew Pulverizers are not in such a terrible situation since they are only one game out of the final Appalachian playoff spot, but a win is needed to build ownership confidence. This is the opening week of intra-division play, and we will get a good idea of how each division stands as far as overall division supremacy.

The 2-3 Texan Bruisers will face the defending champion Boot Hill Balut for the first time in their brief history. The Balut are the worst team in the league this year after a disappointing performance in last weeks loss to the Frost Furrious Flurries. The Balut have been decimated by the injury bug all season, and their lack of depth has shown each and every week. You know a team is bad when their bench has 80 percent zeros each week. On the other hand, the Texan team hope they have rebounded from a slow start and are expected to win their second straight contest. With Mike Turner, Matt Scaub, and Anquan Boldin they should have no trouble in their quest. Lets look at a few position match ups and their projected performance:

QB-Mcnabb vs Schaub-will be the leagues top quarterback this week with around 31 points. Schaub probably will land around the number four ranking for that position with 26 points.
EDGE-Balut

RB-Moreno/Wolfe vs Turner/Thomas-This is a no brainer and will be the difference in this contest. Turner will rank 26th overall for the week with 24 points and Thomas will even higher at around 15th with 26 points. The Balut runners will rank 21 with Moreno gettting around 19 points while Wolfe will rank in the 100's with around 9 points.
EDGE-Bruisers

WR-Boldin/Burrelson/Jennings vs  Massaquoi/Walker/Johnson-With Massaquoi you don't know what you will get. Mike Walker will put up his guaranteed 15, and Johnson will be the leagues leading wideout of the week with 7 catches for 103 yards and a touchdown. The Bruisers will have solid play from all three players with Burleson having the teams best score of the three. Boldin should put up solid numbers and will rank 13th for WR points this week. Jennings will rank 37th with only three catches but a touchdown or two most likely could catapult him up the scale.
EDGE-Bruisers

Special Teams-EVEN

Defense-Larry Foote will lead all IDP with three sacks and 7 tackles this week for the Balut. The Bruisers will get enough points from the crew to win, but nothing remarkable.
EDGE-Balut

Overall-The edge has to go to the Bruisers. The Balut team simply doesnt have enough players to reach the 136 points that will be needed to win this game. 

Prediction- TEXAN-136  Boot Hill-123

In the other games this week:
Zima vs Big D-The Zima team in all rights should be 0-5. This team was given a week 3 win and a miracle win in week 4 have them looking like a contender. Don't be fooled. The new acquisition of wideout Owens will not help.
Prediction- Big D-156  Zima-118  

D at Whitmore-The Workehorse have been living the high life this season, getting great play from a bunch of bad players. This week they will find the loss column as the Crownholders show them what the Global division is all about. I expect this to be the leagues biggest blowout of the week.
Prediction-Crownholders-176  Workehorse 118

Pardue vs Fields-In what will be the game of the week the Fields Fanatix will taste the agony of defeat in a close nail biter. The Bruisermakers are on their way to their first ever Ballistic Bowl and the Fanatix will not be in their way this week. The Bruisermakers' Peterson and Roddy White will make Fields sick to his stomach with 50 plus games.
Prediction-MFIC-184 Fanatix- 179

Kav vs Frost-The Kavanators have performed slightly better than most would have thought at season beginning. The Frost team has rebounded from a disappointing '08 campaign and looks to go to 4-2 and solidify a playoff spot. The Flurries have to much firepower for the Kavanators who will be wearing the special uniforms this week. The helmet with the man eating the women is amusing, but it wont be enough to deter the Flurries' Drew Brees and DeAngelo Williams.
Prediction-Frost 142 Kav-133

Perdew at Temp-The Pulverizers will begin to see numbers add up in their win column and it starts this week. The Texas Boy's from Temp have a solid team and are a real contender for the title, but this week belongs to the desperate Pulverizer squad. Eventually luck has to turn their way and their third overall point ranking will finally get them some wins.
 Prediction- Pulverizers 155 Texas Boy's 142

Good luck to all this week, because we know thats what its all about.