What a week football for the IFL. We had three different 0-5 teams get their first victories of the season, we had QBs come of age before our very eyes, we had old head QBs step in for struggling young bucks, we had young backup QBs take the helm for injured starters -- OH THE DRAMA! We also had some really cool special edition jerseys. With it being the weekend of May 4th, it's been unofficially dubbed 'Star Wars weekend' by the social media masses because of the ever-so-witty "May the Fourth be with you".
But as the tweet below says, these teams had success on the field too.. coincidence?!
But overall it was a quality week of football that was EASILY STREAMABLE on YouTube (iykyk) and the league got a lottttt more interesting as we approach the midway point of the season. Some of the bottom teams are trending up, while some of the top tiers are starting to trend down.
Here's what we learned in Week 8:
Jacksonville Sharks @ Tulsa Oilers
Result: 47-44 Jacksonville
What We Learned: Sharks might finally be putting it all together & Tulsa is consistently inconsistent on offense
Sharks QB Fred Payton Jr has been knocking on the door of a great game the past couple of weeks, and this week he EXPLODED for 6 total TDs (5 passing, 1 rushing). He looked great in this game and is the QB that Jacksonville NEEDS to be successful in the IFL. He was getting it done through the air and on the ground, with 179 passing yards & 53 rushing yards, and just LOOKED more comfortable out there.
If you are Jacksonville, even when Conor Blount comes back from injury you have to stick with Payton Jr moving forward. He brings an actual dual threat element to the offense that was missing in the first quarter of the season, and with how the Eastern Conference looks now — Jacksonville can start to make a run up the standings.
On the other side, Tulsa as a team and QB Daniel Smith are the most hot and cold team in the land. Here are their point totals of from the last 4 weeks: 56, 32, 72, 44.
This week their offense looked like a shell of itself. They managed to score with no time left to hit 44 points, to give a better idea of how this game actually went. RB Jarrod Ware looked good with 14 carries for 63 yards and 2 TDs, but the passing attack needed to be better to get them back in the game.
Consistency week to week has to be the focus for the Oilers moving forward and avoiding the hills and valleys of their offensive production over the past 4 weeks. They are in a great position to contend for a playoff spot, but they have to do themselves some favors first.
Green Bay Blizzard @ Sioux Falls Storm
Result: 46-38 Sioux Falls
What We Learned: It might be Lorenzo Brown Jr time in Sioux Falls & Green Bay’s offense might have regressed a bit
Sioux Falls got their first win of the season against a team they historically have great luck against, and part of the reason for the win is QB Lorenzo Brown Jr getting back in the action for the Storm. If you don’t know already, Lorenzo Brown Jr was the QB for the Storm for the years and had great success on the field. He retired at the end of last season (along with long time Storm HC Kurtis Riggs) and was thought to be riding into the sunset.
…but flash forward to this season, the Rattlers gave Brown Jr a call and he answered. His retirement lasted all of 1 game, but eventually Brown left the Rattlers and rejoined the Storm in late April. The Storm have had issues with efficiency on offense and Brown Jr came into the game on a handful of drives and seemed to really get the gears going for the team.
Sioux Falls ended up getting all 6 of their TDs on the ground (with Brown Jr counting for 3 of them) and you have to think that making the switch to Brown Jr is in the cards now. But a big shoutout to the Sioux Falls defense is in order as well, as they stepped up and stymied the Green Bay offense for much of the second half and held them to 15 points.
On the other side, Green Bay has some issues of their own on offense they will need to work out. Starting in the passing game, they need to get more production out of their WR group. Each game, it seems like a different WR steps up to be the leader, seemingly taking turns at who is filling the void left by WR Marquise Irvin when he left for the AFL. They need one of them to emerge as a consistent WR1 that they can lean on.
In the running game, Green Bay went with a 2:1 Pass to Run ratio, which is odd for them considering they have had multiple games with more rushing attempts than passing. Their identity is based on ground and pound rushing and stout defense -- they just didn't look like themselves out there.
Green Bay Kicker Andrew Mevis had three 40+ yard FGs & a deuce on the day to keep the Blizzard in it, but they will need their offense to stay true to their balanced attack moving forward in order to get back in the win column.
Frisco Fighters @ San Antonio Gunslingers
Result: 62-57 Frisco
What We Learned: Frisco’s offense was cooking despite being down an MVP & San Antonio defense continues to be their achilles heel
This game was by far the most impressive win of the season for Frisco. Coming off of their first loss of the season against the same team, their reigning MVP QB goes down with an injury in the first half, thrusting QB/WR Larry Harrington into the game to take over — and he didn’t miss a beat.
He stepped in and immediately started making plays on the ground and through the air (3 TDs through the air, 3 TDs on the ground) and maintained the offensive assault needed to keep pace with San Antonio. TJ Edwards went down after taking a hit on a 4th down play, where the commentators mentioned he was holding his wrist to his chest and later was seen in a sling. It is yet to be determined if he will miss extended time, but they have a more than capable option in Larry Harrington at their fingertips until he is able to come back.
Lionel McConnell also deserves a big time shoutout for his impact he made on this game, defensively and on special teams. He was clutch in the kick return game, and intercepted an attempted 2 point conversion and ran it back for 2 points to flip the momentum of the game late. He’s a weapon that plays on offense, defense and special teams for Frisco and manages to not just play in all three phases of the game, but he is impactful as well.
On the other side, San Antonio was in this game all the way to the end, to the point where they lucked into taking some shots into the end zone to take the lead in the dying moments of the game.
QB Sam Castronova had another phenomenal game, totaling 8 TDs (5 Passing & 3 Rushing) and offensively they spread the ball around through the entire team, with 4 different players having 4 or more catches on the day, but they just got outplayed by Frisco’s offense — plain and simple. This one had the potential to be crowned as a Off The Wall Certified Banger, but it became a ref show late in the game and ruined any chance it had.
Next week San Antonio will have one of the most intriguing matchups of the IFL season vs Duke City. But we’ll get into that later this week.
Quad City Steamwheelers @ Iowa Barnstormers
Result: 55-53 Iowa
What We Learned: Iowa’s Special Teams are damn good & Quad City’s QB situation got messy again
I mentioned in last week’s podcast episode that this had the potential to be a sneaky game of the week and it delivered! Iowa’s defense got 2 defensive TD returns, one an Interception for a Pick 6 and on a fumble recovery Scoop & Score. Iowa scored 28 unanswered points in the 2nd and 3rd quarters — with 22 of them being scored by the defense and special teams.
Iowa K Gabriel Rui put on an absolute clinic in the second half of this game, putting up 2 deuces and connecting on multiple FGs that ended up being the deciding factors of the game. Iowa’s offense was kinda “meh” once again, with Kyle King connecting on less than 50% of his pass attempts. But a win is a win and they all count the same.
For Quad City, right when you think they have the QB situation sorted out, it gets complicated. QB 1A Judd Erickson started the game and put up some really solid numbers with 198 yards and 5 TDs, but had a handful of very costly turnovers that Iowa was able to return for touchdowns.
QB 1B Mike Irwin came in the game towards the end, and was able to string together some scoring drives to come very close to pulling off the comeback attempt. We thought we knew that Judd Erickson was the guy moving forward, but now we don’t what the hell is going on anymore.
The good news for Quad City is that they managed to score 53 while not having a clear QB1. But the bad news is, we are 8 weeks into the season and you still don’t have a clear QB1.
Vegas Knight Hawks @ Bay Area Panthers
Result: 62-43 Vegas
What We Learned: Vegas is LEGIT & Bay Area’s streak of fortune came to a screeching halt
This game was a total beatdown by Vegas from the jump. Even though the final score was a 19 point difference, it was bigger than that — Vegas was ahead 62-27 in the beginning of the 4th quarter. Ja’Rome Johnson bounced back from a rough game against Duke City in a BIG way — scoring 5 rushing TDs on the day and leading Vegas to a 60+ point outburst for the third time this season.
The defense and special teams also stepped up for the Knight Hawks — where they held Bay Area to 27 points through the beginning of the 4th quarter and Jericho Flowers had a kick return TD for the second consecutive week. Vegas could do no wrong on offense and ultimately could have kept their foot on the gas if they really wanted to — 80 would have been within reach.
On the other side, for Bay Area the wheels just fell off. They lost a couple of players due to suspension from the San Diego incident, and reverted back to Felix Harper at QB. A lot of things went wrong for Bay Area and it just wasn’t their day. Defensively they had no answer for Ja’Rome Johnson and offensively they couldn’t get much going until it was way too late.
Through the first five games of the season, Bay Area had some good fortune with a couple things, but when you go back and re-examine the season so far — they are 5-1 right now, but they are two or three individual plays away from being 3-3 on the year. We’ll be tuned into how Bay Area bounces back next week vs the Wranglers.
Northern Arizona Wranglers @ San Diego Strike Force
Result: 54-45 San Diego
What We Learned: San Diego is must watch every week & Northern Arizona got back on track — despite the loss!
Going into this game, it was a bit of a coin flip in figuring out who would come out on top. Northern Arizona was in a bit of a rut on offense and working their way through it while riding a winning streak — San Diego was without 2 of their top receiving targets due to suspensions relating back to last week’s Bay Area incident.
But San Diego snapped back into form and put on a clinic on offense. Nate Davis finished the day with 224 passing yards & 5 TDs and he even got to show off the wheels a little bit with 5 rushing attempts for 19 yards and a TD right before halftime. The receiving corp for San Diego did a great job stepping up in place of Arthur Jackson III & Hoodie Rodgers and Davis spread the ball out amongst them pretty evenly amongst them. WR Jordan Kress had some big plays in the passing game and scored 2 TDs on the day.
One of the bigger stories of the game was the addition of K Conor Mangan to San Diego’s roster. Mangan was the kicker for the Philadelphia Soul during their recent issues and publicly shared his experiences and was able to get back on an IFL roster and made an impact on the game.
Mangan brought the dropkick back from the dead last season and it has spread a bit to other teams in the league. He was able to execute a handful of successful dropkick attempts, a field goal and a deuce — and in a bit of irony, outscored his the Soul by himself on the same day. Good for Conor.
On the other side, even though Northern Arizona lost they have to feel good about how they played in that game. Offensively they spread the ball around in the running game (which was something mentioned on last week’s podcast) and they were trading blows with San Diego until the 4th quarter when they threw an interception which turned out to be the ONLY turnover in the game by either team.
If they are able to get a turnover on defense or get a stop late, they would have had a chance to escape with a win. Getting a littttttle more efficient in the running game would be nice, but all in all sitting at 4-2 after how the offense has looked the past couple of weeks is pretty good and they’ll look to continue their upward trajectory next week against the defending champs.
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