NLTP NewsRoom Hub - LBT vs INC (A)

LBT was swept by NIP last week to push them down to 1-3, while INC split LST last week to put them at 2-2.

In terms of community power rankings, LBT moved from #7 after W1 all the way down to #11, so a huge drop. It's time to maybe start worrying about this team, but then again LBT did play NIP last week, and even though they got swept, it was pretty close, so who knows.

For INC, they moved up from #9 after W1 to #6, so that split did wonders for them. This team might actually be pretty good, but it remains to see if they're just good or if they can be great.

INC swept LBT in a rather convincing fashion, making me worry a little bit more about LBT and also feeling more confident in INC's playoff chances. After LBT won the first half of the series 4-3, INC put their foot on the gas pedal and continued to win the next three halves to get the sweep.

Espeluznante had another solid week on offense, leading the week in caps with 13, resulting in the 10 OGASP and the 100 ONISH. He also had 517 hold, which ranked 2nd this week. Espel has been having a great season, which will just add to the mythos of the S7 MLTP All-Star. pk actually got caps this week, so that's a big step up, and he also had 430 hold to get the 77 ONISH. For LBT, bergie had five caps and 494 hold for the 83 ONISH, while Smooth lagged behind the other three offenders with just two caps and 332 hold for the 33 ONISH. The INC offense was the better pairing this match.

Maradona led the week in prevent for the second week this season, but only had 39 returns so his DNISH was 85, meanwhile sonder had 599 prevent and 56 returns, which ranked 6th and 5th this week, respectively, for an 88 DNISH. The INC defense has been really good together, with three straight weeks with amazing prevent. For LBT, chucky had 561 prevent and 56 returns for the 90 DNISH, while Ralph Wiggum continued to have a low amount of returns with 38 this week and 440 prevent to get the 56 DNISH. It seems like Ralph just doesn't like getting returns, which is fine but it seems to be hurting them each week. chucky is doing fine each week I guess, but it's not translating into wins.

While LBT had more returns, more returns, and less pops than the Incrediballs, INC led in pretty much every other category across the two tables. INC had 344 more seconds of prevent than LBT, which has become a trend for this team, out-preventing their opponent every week. The huge disparity in prevent also led to INC having a better P/HA by 0.10 and a better P/R by 2.44 seconds. INC also had great RIB% and QR% compared to LBT and the league in general. They had a 34.92% RIB rate, which ranked third for the week, and had a 28.93% QR rate, which ranked fifth. Compare that to LBT, whose 24.31% RIB rate placed 10th and 23.10% QR rate placed 11th for the week. A solid week for the INC defense here.

Looking on the offensive side of the tiles, you can see that while the difference in hold for INC and LBT wasn't that much, just 116 seconds, what really set INC apart from LBT were three stats : H/G, F/G and GHO. INC had a 8.055 H/G, which ranked third this week, while LBT placed 8th with a 7.0475 H/G ratio. For F/G, LBT ranked 7th with a 0.260 ratio, which is pretty average, but INC came 1st this week with a 0.173 F/G, which is wild because INC had 24 more grabs than LBT as well. Every 10 grabs, INC had one less flaccid than LBT, which is a big difference. INC also had 46 good handoffs, which came 3rd this week, while LBT had 10 less at 36, which was good enough for 9th. These three offensive stats set the INC offense and LBT offense apart, and gave the INC offense the true advantage.

For my Player of the Match, I'm taking Espeluznante again, because when you get over 60% of your team's caps for the week, you deserve a card. Leading the week in caps and coming second in hold this week is no small task, and Espel accomplished both of them this week, so congrats on another POTM. Thank god I can just recycle cards now.

CONCLUSION

A very solid INC sweep puts them now tied for third in the standings at 4-2, and has them looking like a genuine playoff contender. When was the last time a pk team actually made the playoffs, because I don't think I was around when that happened, and I've been playing since Season 5. For LBT, getting swept two weeks in a row now puts them at 1-5 and tied for last place in the league, leading to a plethora of concerns about their team composition. The offense is flacciding too much and not really gelling well, while the defense seems to be struggling to keep the flag in base. chucky might have to make some changes fast, because they're going up against the Cyclists next week, which will be a tough battle.