League News Update 3-8

The NFA is underway once again and week 7 goes by. First off I'd like to take a look at the Yukon, Montana game this week. Montana got completely destroyed with a final score of 62 to 7. This game also was big for Yukon in 2 aspects, both injury related. Yukon Yeti star running back Tim Peterson is out for at least 10 weeks with a dislocated elbow, this injury took place early on in the game, so now 32 year old HB Ki-Jana Carter is the starter. The other main aspect is that Torry Mathis the star QB for Yukon was also injured early on, his injury took him out for the entire game and possibly a bit of next week's game as well. Ben Harris played most of the game at QB and he put up numbers that are starting to mirror Mathis' during his rise to fame. Despite playing less then half the game Torry Mathis still put up 230 passing yards and a touchdown with a completion percentage of 43. Ben Harris threw for 160 yards and 3 touchdowns with a completion percentage of 66. Ben Harris is looking very good at QB, and plays just seemed to click just as well with him or Torry Mathis as Harris was named the player of the game and also AFC player of the week. Another advantage to having Harris at QB is the incredible speed you get. Harris rushed for 42 yards and one touchdown on 4 attempts. These attempts also came on big 3rd down plays that were key in keeping the Montana defence on the field. Montana's defence simply broke down near the end and Carter was finally able to gain some ground, his total rushing for the game stands at 52 yards on 11 attempts. However the biggest reason for this blowout was probably the large amount of turnovers forced by the Yukon defence. Six takeaways led to a large time of possesion differential and with Yukon's offence on the field throughout it kept feeding the powerful Yukon defence when it did come onto the field. The five interceptions were fed by Lionel Nipper with 2, Rich Francis, Ted Watts, and Antwaan Mason all with 1 each. Montana's poor offence and the overwhelming offense of Yukon contributed to this huge blowout. However it will be very interesting to see how the loss of Tim Peterson affects the Yukon Yeti run at the playoffs. The other powerful team in the NFA kept rolling this week. The Boston Liberty beat the Mexico Bulls (game of the week) with a score of 34 to 14. Another interesting game to look at this week would be the Bar Harbor Captains at the Tiburon Sharks. While the Captains did manage to win this game with a score of 27 to 24, it felt as if the Captains could've pulled ahead by more if they'd tried. I'm not sure if this brinkmanship is intentional or not, but one particular move by the Captains has me suprised. The Captains did not start Adrian Justice, their recent accusition from the Madison Timberwolves. He was slated to be the starter for the Captains and to usher in a new era at the starting QB position, but he's being benched in favor of the Captains second string QB, Darren Poole. Poole has started a few games earlier this season and he does look to be a promising QB... at backup. However, we're going to leave the judgement calls to the Captains' manager and see what works for them, maybe he knows something I don't. We'll see the comparison soon enough as the Captains pay a visit to the Montana Grizzlies next week in what is sure to be an interesting match up after the Grizzlies recent blowout at the hands of the powerful Yeti squad. Meanwhile Yukon comes to Portland to face the 1 and 6 Flyers. Next week's game of the week is the Wyoming Wildcats at the Carson City Comets, both squads have won 6 games, but the Comets have an extra loss due to a bye week for the Wildcats. It should prove to be another interesting week in the NFA.