Midterm grades 7-0 CORSAIRS HALFWAY TO HISTORY

Corsairs quarterback Andrew Luck (left) and Black Dogs defensive end J.J. Watt are the AWP's first-half offensive and defensive MVPs respectively.

By R.E. Porter
Associated Web Press

It's time again to hand out midterm marks for all the NFFA franchises, as well as the first-half superlatives. In many ways, it has been an unusual season so far. One team is undefeated, while four teams have won only two of their seven games — but the 12th Avenue Bakers aren't one of them.

First, here are the halfway honors:

Offensive MVP — QB Andrew Luck, Downtown Corsairs: The league’s leading scorer by almost 50 points, Luck already has 19 touchdown passes — only four short of the total of 23 he posted in each of his first two seasons. Without question, he is the surprise of the first half, surpassing older, more-celebrated signal callers.

Defensive MVP — DL J.J. Watt, East Nashville Black Dogs: Since Watt joined the Black Dogs in week four as part of a blockbuster trade with the 12th Avenue Bakers, the Dogs have been on a tear, scoring more than 182 points per game thanks in no small part to the addition of Watt’s 13.2 points per game. Watt has not only outscored all defensive players by double digits, he has outscored all but five running backs and all but five wide receivers, and is in the Top 50 among all scorers.

Top Coach — Ray Ray Lewis, Downtown Corsairs: Ray Ray has the Corsairs halfway to a perfect regular season, something accomplished only once in league history during the 2008 Black Dogs’ perfect 16-0 championship season. With the team’s 7-0 start, Ray Ray runs his regular-season record as head coach of the Corsairs to 16-5.

Top Exec — Buddy Ryan, East Nashville Black Dogs: The East Nashville GM gets the nod here on the strength of two big trades he negotiated. Prior to the draft, he traded RB DeMarco Murray to the West Nashville Beelzebubbas for their first round pick, number three overall, which enabled the Dogs to leapfrog the Fidalgo Island Sea Hogs and draft their franchise quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Then after week three’s games, he negotiated the six-player trade with the Bakers that brought J.J. Watt to the team.

The following are the team's midterm grades. The key players rankings in parenthesis are the players' points rankings at their position.

A+ Downtown Corsairs (7-0): At the halfway mark, the Downtown Corsairs have a perfect 7-0 record and a two-game lead on their closest competitor for the number one overall playoff seed. In addition, they have a five-game lead in the Linardo division battle with only seven games to play. The Corsairs' win streak has been fueled by the league's most potent offense that averages 178.9 points per game. But they've also been lucky — having had the fewest points scored against them, 136.3 points per game.
Key players: QB Andrew Luck, 324.4 pts. (1); RB Le'Veon Bell, 107.8 pts. (3); WR DeMaryius Thomas 104.2 pts. (4)

A- East Nashville Black Dogs (5-2): East Nashville sits atop the Jorge division, but the race is tight, with 12th Avenue and West Nashville one game back of the Black Dogs. The Dogs kicked it into gear in week four after acquiring the league's top defender, J.J. Watt. In addition to Watt, Dogs WR Antonio Brown and DB Prince Amukamara are the leading scorers at their positions.

Key players: QB Aaron Rodgers, 281.5 pts. (4); RB Matt Forte, 117.4 pts. (2), WR Antonio Brown 123.3 pts. (1); TE Antonio Gates, 78.3 pts. (3); DL: J.J. Watt, 92.4 pts. (1); DB Prince Amukamara 75.6 pts. (1)

B 12th Avenue Bakers (4-3): With Peyton He Hate Me leading their offense, the Bakers have their best chance ever for a championship. One game behind the Black Dogs in the Jorge division race, and tied with the Beelzebubbas, the Bakes have wins over both which gives them an edge in terms of the head-to-head tiebreakers.

Key players: QB Peyton He Hate Me, 292 pts. (3); PK Stephen Gostkowski, 73 pts. (1)

B- West Nashville Beelzebubbas (4-3): The Beelzebubbas are only one game back in the Jorge division, but have lost to both their primary competitors, the Black Dogs and Bakers. The team’s predraft trade for DeMarco Murray has paid off in a huge way, as Murray has emerged as the league’s top back, averaging nearly 20 points per game. What has hurt the ‘Bubbas is the quarterback play of Drew Brees, who is averaging 12 fewer points per game than he did in 2013.

Key players: RB DeMarco Murray 139.2 pts. (1); LB Luke Kuechly 75.7 pts. (1)

C- Cambridge Animals (2-5): The Animals knocked off their bitter rivals from 12th Avenue to close out the first half, and there are indications that DTA’s awesome awesomeness is kicking in for a second-half run for the playoffs. DTA’s beloved Tom Brady is beginning to look like the quarterback who won multiple Super Bowls. Combine that with the league’s top stable of running backs led by Jamaal Charles and Arian Foster, and the Animals are looking dangerous. They are only two back in the wild-card race with seven games to go, and appear to have the best chance to make the playoffs among the four 2-5 teams.

Key players: RB Arian Foster, 105 pts. (4); WR Devin Hester, 103.6 pts. (5); LB DeAndre Levy, 72.3 pts. (2)

C- Atlanta Smack Daddies (2-5): The defending champions have been snakebitten so far, with two of their losses by single-digit margins; which may not be surprising when you consider no champion has ever been able to repeat. One of their problems is they have had the third most points scored against them. Another is they are weak at running back — they don’t have a single back ranked in the Top 10 in scoring at the position. Still, like the Animals, the Smack Daddies are only two back in the race for the two wild-card berths.

Key players: WR Randall Cobb, 104.7 (3); TE Julius Thomas, 84.4 pts. (1); LB Levonte David, 65 pts. (5)

D+ Village Green (2-5): The Green are not only underperforming, they are a team in turmoil. They fired their star coach Stuart Smalley (23-23) and replaced him with a reanimated John Wayne (1-2). Holy shades of the Bakers! Now if all that weren’t enough, owner Dave Goodrow pulled a Bob Irsay last week and moved the team to Ames, Iowa in the middle of the night. Despite having the second-highest scorer in the league in Philip Rivers and a stud running back in Marshawn Lynch, The Green have the second-lowest point total for the first seven games. Even though they are only two games behind in the wild-card chase, it's hard to imagine The Green turning their season around.

Key players: Philip Rivers, 294.3 pts. (2); Marshawn Lynch, 92.5 pts. (5)

D+ Fidalgo Island Sea Hogs: How far the mighty have fallen. The Sea Hogs are used to being one of the NFFA's elite teams, but now without QB Peyton Manning for the first time in a decade, the Hogs are on the bottom looking up. But quarterback isn't really the problem. They would have the same record even if they still had Peyton. They have scored the fewest points, more than 300 points less than the high-flying Corsairs. They've also had the second most points scored against them. Even though they are only two games back for a wild-card spot, owner Tirik Obobber needs a miracle to get the Hogs back to the playoffs.

Key players: WR Jordy Nelson, 107.2 pts. (2); DB Leodis McKelvin 72.6 pts. (3); DB Harrison Smith 71.6 pts. (4)