MB8 swept MIA last week to bring their record up to 4-2 and in the top half of the standings. Their defense has been surprisingly solid, while T-Swift, Spheroid, and Homer have been a great offensive trio.
DOW is 0-6 and looking for their first win. After a huge improvement in W2 where they won a couple of halves, they're trying to just get over that hump. Will they do that against the Master Boaters? Or will they have to wait another week?
DOW won one half, and kept two of the games close, which means that they're still improving. But in the end, MB8 prevailed and got their second sweep in a row. That means that DOW is now 0-9 and is on track to be the first winless B-Team in NLTP history. What fun!
T-Swift was the star for MB8 this week, with the 98.7 ONISH and coming second in caps with 11 and first in hold with 599 seconds. That's almost 10 minutes out of a 40 minute game week, which is huge. Spheroid was great as well, with the 85.5 ONISH, five caps, and 477 hold. Homer Jay had double duty this week, playing defense and offense. On offense he had the 72.4 ONISH, four caps, and 331 hold. All together, the MB8 offense combined for 20 caps and 1407 hold. For DOW, all four of their offenders combined for 8 caps and 1385 hold, which means that the three MB8 offenders were collectively better than the DOW's offense. Oink Oink had the most caps on the team with five and the highest ONISH with 69.7, while Gnas had 548 hold, which was 5th this week. Those are some positives, right?
For defense, Gleg had another great week, with 530 prevent, 56 returns, and the 96.1 DNISH. SB12 had 573 prevent, 36 returns, and the 69.7 DNISH, but still had the second-highest DNISH out of all the defenders in this game. Even Homer Jay was decent on defense, with 307 prevent, 43 returns, and the 59.2 DNISH. These three MB8 defenders combined for 135 returns and 1410 prevent. For the DOW defense, the highest DNISH goes to Corinth with the 64.5 DNISH, who had 241 prevent and 37 returns. The four DOW defenders combined for 110 returns and 994 prevent. They couldn't even break 1000 prevent with their defenders. Just not a good look for this DOW squad.
There was actually a pretty healthy dose of red and green cells for both teams, which is surprising to me, because with MB8 sweeping, I'd think that they'd have a lot more green than what they actually had. Oh well, let's just dive into this.
DOW actually had more tags and returns than DOW, which is impressive, but to be fair both teams were on the lower end of the spectrum here, with DOW ranking 8th and 10th and MB8 placing 10th and 11th in those stats. MB8 had almost 200 more seconds of prevent, with DOW having the second-least amount of prevent at 1461. MB8 had 1485 hold against, which was the third-most this week, while DOW's P/HA was 0.186 and dead last. MB8 had a better KD by 0.23 points, and had six more QRs, four more KRs, and eight more RIBs. Both teams were at best average for all three of those stats, with DOW actually coming 11th in each stat. DOW had a 23.58% RIB rate and 22.54% Quick Return rate, ranking 11th and 9th, while MB8 had a 29.71% RIB rate and 29.57% Quick Return rate, coming 6th and 4th. MB8's P/R ratio was 9.04 while DOW's ratio was 8.18, which was 8th for the week. A solid performance from the MB8 defense, based on the percentage stats and the QR, KR, and RIB stats.
MB8 had more than double DOW's caps but DOW had 200 more seconds of hold than MB8. The caps are more important in this context. DOW had 285 pops, while MB8 had 213 pops, which is 72 less pops for all of you math students out there. DOW's Score% was the worst in the league this week, at 5.29%, while MB8's Score% was the second-best this week at 11.60%. MB8 and DOW had the best and second-best H/G numbers, with MB8 at 9.03 seconds and DOW at 8.46 seconds. MB8 had a better F/G ratio by 0.05 but also had the least amount of good handoffs with 43. Both teams were also first and second in long holds this week, with DOW getting 29 and MB8 getting 27. Looks like both teams were very adept at holding the flag, but MB8 just did a better job at keeping the flag in base during those periods of defensive battles. The Chain% were pretty low for both teams, while MB8's 82.73% Spark rate was the highest this week.
A premier offensive talent, T-Swift showcased why he's been a top B-Teamer for multiple seasons. He was second in caps this week and led the week in hold with 10 minutes. He basically held for 25% of his week, which is amazing.
CONCLUSION
MB8 moves up to 7-2 after two sweeps in a row, and now sees themselves tied with GEH at the top of the standings. The benefits of having only five players seems pretty prominent here, as it allows the players to get chemistry and better together. Meanwhile, DOW goes 0-9 and sees themselves at the bottom of the standings. I really want them to get a win, but I also don't want them to win two games in a week. I really want those pretzels.
