AFL Quickplay Week 9—Which Week Is This?

Andrew Nordmeier
Saturday May 23, 2015

Apparently my logic doesn’t work too well. Each of the last two weeks I have given what seemed like good suggestions only to have them backfire and put up big fat zeroes. Two weeks ago it was Randy Hippeard/Bernard Morris and last week it was the wrong call on Erik Meyer/Nathan Stanley.

I was in the right spot with the San Jose quarterback as they rang up 83 points on Spokane last week and destroyed the Shock. I just had the wrong name. Rats. Hopefully this week, we can give you three quarterbacks who will actually play and score you points.

Let’s see how things look overall before we dive into this week. Byes are in play so this will be a very interesting week in one of our divisions.

The top spots are getting tighter with Legnbaz now claiming the top spot with 1548 points. Right behind them is the South Phoenix Bombers with 1546 and my team, the Unemployed Punters at 1544. The Cincinnati Rockers and Phantom Furballs round out the top five.

Weekly totals got erased so I can’t say who did well and who didn’t. Apparently, the game thinks we are in Week 10 already despite Week 9 not even having kicked off. If that’s true, then this is a huge problem and I am going to get hosed on points. Hopefully, it’s not the case and it’s just a minor error. I hope.

If it still works, let’s look at the Week 9 schedule all games are today (Saturday)

Spokane at Las Vegas 5 p.m. Eastern

Portland at Orlando 7 p.m.

Philadelphia at Tampa Bay 7:30 p.m.

Jacksonville at New Orleans 8:00 p.m.

Cleveland at San Jose 10:30 p.m.

BYES: Arizona and Los Angeles

(block goes here)

Eastern Division

We have to take Dan Raudabaugh as he is a weekly fixture this far into the season. Philadelphia lost for the first time this season in its last outing. They should be able to bounce back against Tampa Bay. Of note, fullback Tommy Taggart is on inactive reserve so Raudabaugh should be able to score more passing touchdowns instead of handing them off.

I’ll take another turn with Shane Austin despite the matchup. San Jose is the best team in the league right now but Cleveland could give them a solid game. I like the way Cleveland has been playing lately and with a depleted division still to go, this makes sense.

Southern Division

I’m taking TT Tolliver again this week since he had a solid outing in his last game and looks like he is the prime target of Jason Boltus. He’s fourth in yards with 801 and is the first wide receiver to 20 touchdowns. Please tell me why not to take him, if you can.

Derrick Ross gets the call again especially with Taggart out. He leads the league in yards, carries and touchdowns. Enough said.

West Division

This is the part of the show where we have to choose two players from Las Vegas in their game with Spokane. The rest of the West is off which makes this difficult. We’ll take Jomo Wilson at wide receiver since he’s been the most consistent threat all season and he’s coming off a 10-132-3 game against Arizona. He looks like the offense runs through him.

Our other choice is kicker Ernesto Locayo since Russ Gornall is on recallable reassignment. The Outlaws don’t have much to offer in fantasy past Wilson, so we’ll take their kicker to fill the mandatory spot.

That leaves us a quarterback and a receiver for the Pacific Division.

Nathan Stanley is white-hot with 15 touchdowns in his last two games and can’t be benched. We’re not going to get any real word on Erik Meyer and as long as Stanley is hot, they might as well let their star quarterback rest up. Stanley gets the call this week (and hopefully it doesn’t backfire on me).

Reggie Gray is the receiver I am taking from the Sabercats. He leads the team 53 catches for 566 yards and 14 touchdowns. He also has the ability to take a kickoff back to the house for a touchdown as well. Also, no other receiver on the Sabercats has more than 27 catches this season so you should go with the player with the most catches and thus highest likelihood of scoring.

I considered Mike Washington of Spokane as he’s having a solid year but his quarterbacking situation is a little messy now, even against Las Vegas. That game has the equal potential to be 42-35 or 77-76 and I think it goes to the lower end.

Unemployed Punters Week 9 (we hope) Lineup

Shane Austin QB CLE

Dan Raudabaugh QB PHI

Derrick Ross FB JAX

TT Tolliver WR TAM

Reggie Gray WR SJS

Nathan Stanley QB SJS

Jomo Wilson WR LVO

Ernesto Locayo K LVO