Week #14

Could 2023 finally be the year?  OldNo7 beat Beaud by four spots to take a commanding 6 rank-points lead with 4 weeks left which will be very hard for Beaud to overcome.  How could anybody in the PQBFL not root for OldNo7 at this point?  This is Old’s 24^th season in the PQBFL and Old has only finished in the top half of the standings 4 times in 23 years, and each of those 4 teams it was barely in the top half (4^th out of 8 teams twice, and 3^rd out of 6 teams twice).  Old also finished exactly in the middle of the standings twice: in 2022 5^th out of 9 teams and in 2016 4^th out of 7 teams.  The other 17 seasons Old finished in the bottom half of the standings including a miserable 8-year stretch from 2003 to 2010.  Old has never finished second, let alone first.  And for those who still thought it’s not possible to quickly recover from a bad season to move quickly to the top, let’s remember that Old finished dead last in 2021 so in two years Old has moved from last to 5^th to now 1^st.  The loyal OldNo7 fans are waiting with excitement for the last 4 weeks of the season to celebrate.

The BeaudoinBrothers stumbled to last place with a dreadful TD-less performance in week #14 and has possibly lost any chance to repeat as PQBFL champs.  Nothing worked this week and CJ Stroud even got concussed so the outlook does not look any better in week #15 and there is no clear path to the championship for Beaud at this point in time.  Not even defense could bail the lack of offense with the Jaguars gaving up 31 pts to the Browns who were playing with rusty old man Flacco and without Chubb. 

The top of the rankings was amazingly tight this week with only 1.25 pt difference between first (Dec) and fourth (Wax).  Dec had a comfortable lead going into MNF but things got a bit uncomfortable when Tago+Waddle+Achane were all held scoreless in a pitiful home defeat against the Titans.  In that game, it is rather D Hopkins who saved the day for Dec with 18 pts for Dec’s first win of the season and first time in the blue since week #5.

The only tight battle in the standings at this stage is between third and fourth as Bas and Prof are currently tied and Prof holds the tiebreaker.  Prof beat Bas by a slim margin 1.75 pts this week and that was despite Ju Herbert scoring a goose egg and getting injured.  If Prof had not made that trade with Bas, Prof would have had no choice but to start D Carr this week.  Carr scored 13.75 pts on the bench but in a week where everything was so tight, it would have been the difference between 6^th place and 1^st place for Prof – a massive 5 rank swing.  If Prof does not beat Bas in the standings at the end of the season, that trade will turn out to have unforeseen catastrophic results.

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