NLTP NewsRoom Hub - DOW vs. GES (B)

Last week I was able to get out of doing the DOW B-Team matchup because they got blown out by like 30 caps, but I can't use that same excuse twice. This team didn't show any positives from the prior week, but hopefully they show some improvement here.

DOW plays GEH though, who took two games off of LBT last week and has proven to be a good B-Team. They have a solid roster of eight players, and should be able to rotate quite easily.

This match is looking to be another blowout for GEH, but maybe DOW can sneak a win in there somewhere.

This B-Team matchup had the most B-Teamers getting minutes, with a total of 16 players getting playing time, which I think is the max amount of players that can actually show up to a B-Team match, so kudos to DOW and GEH for drafting active rosters. GEH did end up getting the sweep, but this time DOW won a half and tied another one, so that's progress at least.

yung breezy and Jelly Rat powered the GEH offense, with breezy actually getting the most caps and most hold this week, resulting in the 10 OGASP and 100 ONISH. Jelly Rat had 448 hold and seven caps of his own, so solid contributions from them. slightest and Optic combined for two caps and 300 hold, so the depth also did decently. For DOW though, their best offender was GnasStrafDel, with 328 hold and four caps resulting in an 84.6 ONISH. Corinth, Thanos Ball, and Smally combined for seven caps and 551 hold, so three DOW offenders combined had the same output as Jelly Rat. Not a good look.

On defense the GEH defense had Wheelin, kooler, and hellyea all get 85+ DNISHs and combined for 110 returns and 1752 prevent. For comparison, all four DOW defenders combined for 122 returns and 1387 prevent, with their best defender, Trapsin, getting the 71.8 DNISH. Pen Fifteen for GEH also had a solid contribution, with 450 prevent and 28 returns, getting a higher DNISH than three of the four DOW defenders. GEH seemed to be better than DOW in everything this match.

Remember when LST led the week in 17/26 statistical categories last week? Well GEH led this week in 13/26 statistical categories, so at least for DOW that's progress. GEH led in caps, tags, returns, prevent, HA, P/HA, Score%, KD, QR, KR, RIB, RIB% and QR%, and they came second in hold, losing only to CYC.

For DOW, last week they came dead last in 16/26 categories, so let's see how many categories they came last in this week. DOW came last in pops, P/HA, H/G, F/G, and LH, so that's only five categories, which is a massive improvement from last week. Let's really dive deep into this DOW team though. Out of a total 52 stat categories from W1 and W2, they've come last in 22 of those categories, almost 50%. But, they didn't get totally blown out this week as compared to last week, and they even won a half, so that really bodes the question : when will DOW get their first win?

DOW is definitely getting a win this season, it seems like a likely event, because all it takes is a team to throw G3 by putting in their depth lineup and DOW puts in their strongest lineup and boom they have a win. Which team is their best chance of really getting that win though? The teams on their schedule are MB8, MIA, NIP, BCC, and LBT. I don't think they can get any wins against NIP, BCC, and LBT, because even their depth lineups are strong and can handle DOW's strongest four. It's up to either MB8 or MIA then, and considering MB8 swept MIA this past week, I'd say that MIA is DOW's best shot at really winning a game. Man this bet with Smally was smart, now I'm going to get pretzels.

Breesus or Wheelin could've gotten this card, and I took WheelinTimmy because his defense was great. If you took Breesus away from this lineup, I think Jelly Rat, slightest, and Opticball would've still been able to have success against this defense, whereas if Timmy was gone I'm not exactly confident in Kooler and hellyea holding the fort down. Plus Timmy had four caps and 116 hold to add as an offender, so that's always nice.

CONCLUSION

My analysis of this game kind of devolved into a guessing game of when DOW would get their first win, but to be fair, what do you expect me to say about this match that the stats don't already tell you. Teams that play against the DOW B-Team have led 30 out of 52 statistical categories, so it just seems like teams that play DOW get inflated stats. I'm reminded of the New Pingland Revolutions back in S17, where their B-Team had like one win, but there were some solid players on that squad. They just couldn't mesh well together to win two halves in a row. I think DOW has that same problem. For GEH, congrats on the sweep, you deserved it.