Now, if you don't check up on the games as they are going on, you might only really look at the games as the symbols on the prediction page. You will look at Week 1 and see 
in some assorted order. None of these were extremely shocking. All but two was the home team, and one that was away was one of the strongest teams in the league. This wasn't a lineup where it would be extremely unlikely to get all 7 right and get 4 TPE from it. If you care slightly more about the games, you might check up the scores and indexes, and then things get a little more interesting. Arizona and OCO, 2 of the top 3 defenses in the league on paper, scored over 40 points each, Arizona doing so despite having one of the weakest offenses in the league on paper. There were two games that went to OT, when we normally don't even get one. Still, nothing extremely unusual...
Then we watch the stream. OCO vs ARI, last 5 minutes of the game, and the Outlaws are down by 8, starting at their own 21. They drive all the way down the field, slowly and methodically, as the sim does, and get into the end zone and hit the 2 point conversion! Game tied. Only problem...too much time on the clock. Still, the ARI defense is supposed to be good, and they tighten up before they get to midfield. It's 3rd and 14...and then the Defense takes a nap, is unable to tackle Evans when he catches a pass 5 yards in front of the first down line, and is tackled only at the ARI 36 yard line after a gain of over 30 yards. 53 yard field goal for the win. And there were only 20 seconds left on the clock after that play, too.
Next game up? BAL at CHI. Quick question, what the hell was that sim play calling? Usually it's too conservative. Through 2 drives from each team, each team had 1 first down total. Somehow it was 6-0 Chicago, because the sim decided to go for it on 4th down inside BAL's own 40 twice. One of Chicago's ensuing drives was 3 straight incompletions into a field goal. Really, the passing game was doing its hardest to keep Baltimore in this game, especially considering the two red zone interceptions on the part of George O'Donnell. Of course, one was completely wiped out when 2 plays later a wide receiver fumbled the ball and gave Chicago another instant possession in field goal range. At the start of the 4th quarter, the Hawks were down 23 to 6. Then dumb things happened, because this stream needed to be filled with dumb things. Chicago was driving, too! ...and then a third hugely damaging interception from O'Donnell, pick 6. Three and out on Chicago's next possession, and Baltimore's only down by 10! And they're driving now, too! ...interception from Chika, returned to Baltimore's 40. Chicago drives into field goal range...and then takes back to back sacks and is knocked out of it. Baltimore goes on a long, slow drive, and punches it in. Down by 3...with just one problem. There's only 2:13 left. Chicago is safe to just run, run, run out the clock...and then they fumble the ball with 3 seconds left, 56 yard field goal for the tie. We're headed to overtime, where the Hawks would drive into field goal range, only to get sacked out of it, punt, and the Butchers would slowly drive down for the touchdown to win the game.
Sailfish at Yeti wasn't too notable, but it would be notable to point out that both of those quarterbacks, in their first game, outplayed Luke Skywalker of the Hahalua minus a 60+ yard TD run at the beginning of the game. Then dumb things happened, because this stream didn't have enough of them. HON vs SJS was pretty standard until 3 minutes left in the first. Then the stream noticeably started to chug. It wasn't completely unwatchable at this point, but it was concerning and annoying. The game ended up only being a 3 point difference, which definitely didn't feel accurate to what was on the screen.
Then the stream began to chug again, even harder this time. AUS vs NOLA with about 6 minutes left in the first fell to what felt like a 5 frame per second count. In the second quarter, it fell to about 1 frame. Then, 5 seconds PER frame. One second, Cole was going back to pass, next second, he had thrown a pick six and the kickoff had already taken place. There was a period of time where an entire NOLA touchdown drive took place and the first frame of it we saw was Bodenhammer entering the end zone...after a kickoff, return, and an incomplete pass had already taken place on the next Austin drive. We next picked up the game partway through the third, with NOLA up 14 nothing and Easton Cole throwing another interception, this one giving NOLA an instant red zone opportunity. With 10 minutes left in the 3rd, they went up by 21. Several drives later, with the details lost to the sim files, Austin was only down by 7 and was driving to tie. That last drive was smooth, as the Copperheads drove into the end zone and came back after looking like they were dead. Overtime was also smooth, as again the team that got the ball second in overtime won, Nola coming out on top. Begin allllllll the Trump jokes the live chat could think of.
BER vs NYS would also be a very uneventful game, if not for the chugging. Somehow it was even worse than the Austin vs Nola game once the second half hit, I think the 3rd quarter had less than double digit frames. Not per second, the entire quarter had around 10 frames displayed on stream in total. And then the 4th quarter was even worse, with only 7 frames in total. The Silverblacks completely blew out the Salamanders, but nobody was talking about it, because nobody could see it.
The last game was a relative snoozefest by comparison, with Yellowknife winning comfortably both on the field and on the scoreboard. There also wasn't any stream lag this time.
Despite all the craziness of the week, 40 people by my quick count called all the games perfectly, which I'm guessing isn't a small number. As one of those people, I was stressing out heavily, and yet was happy when Chicago didn't let a 10 point game with 3 minutes left out of their grasp and NOLA decided to make up for losing so many late leads last year by winning their overtime game as well. This week had approximately 5 games that were absolutely insane to watch take place, for various reasons, each of which would be by far the most interesting game in an average week.
Side note, sorry team for fumbling in the red zone, the points they got off of that would have been nice for them not to have.
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in some assorted order. None of these were extremely shocking. All but two was the home team, and one that was away was one of the strongest teams in the league. This wasn't a lineup where it would be extremely unlikely to get all 7 right and get 4 TPE from it. If you care slightly more about the games, you might check up the scores and indexes, and then things get a little more interesting. Arizona and OCO, 2 of the top 3 defenses in the league on paper, scored over 40 points each, Arizona doing so despite having one of the weakest offenses in the league on paper. There were two games that went to OT, when we normally don't even get one. Still, nothing extremely unusual...Then we watch the stream. OCO vs ARI, last 5 minutes of the game, and the Outlaws are down by 8, starting at their own 21. They drive all the way down the field, slowly and methodically, as the sim does, and get into the end zone and hit the 2 point conversion! Game tied. Only problem...too much time on the clock. Still, the ARI defense is supposed to be good, and they tighten up before they get to midfield. It's 3rd and 14...and then the Defense takes a nap, is unable to tackle Evans when he catches a pass 5 yards in front of the first down line, and is tackled only at the ARI 36 yard line after a gain of over 30 yards. 53 yard field goal for the win. And there were only 20 seconds left on the clock after that play, too.
Next game up? BAL at CHI. Quick question, what the hell was that sim play calling? Usually it's too conservative. Through 2 drives from each team, each team had 1 first down total. Somehow it was 6-0 Chicago, because the sim decided to go for it on 4th down inside BAL's own 40 twice. One of Chicago's ensuing drives was 3 straight incompletions into a field goal. Really, the passing game was doing its hardest to keep Baltimore in this game, especially considering the two red zone interceptions on the part of George O'Donnell. Of course, one was completely wiped out when 2 plays later a wide receiver fumbled the ball and gave Chicago another instant possession in field goal range. At the start of the 4th quarter, the Hawks were down 23 to 6. Then dumb things happened, because this stream needed to be filled with dumb things. Chicago was driving, too! ...and then a third hugely damaging interception from O'Donnell, pick 6. Three and out on Chicago's next possession, and Baltimore's only down by 10! And they're driving now, too! ...interception from Chika, returned to Baltimore's 40. Chicago drives into field goal range...and then takes back to back sacks and is knocked out of it. Baltimore goes on a long, slow drive, and punches it in. Down by 3...with just one problem. There's only 2:13 left. Chicago is safe to just run, run, run out the clock...and then they fumble the ball with 3 seconds left, 56 yard field goal for the tie. We're headed to overtime, where the Hawks would drive into field goal range, only to get sacked out of it, punt, and the Butchers would slowly drive down for the touchdown to win the game.
Sailfish at Yeti wasn't too notable, but it would be notable to point out that both of those quarterbacks, in their first game, outplayed Luke Skywalker of the Hahalua minus a 60+ yard TD run at the beginning of the game. Then dumb things happened, because this stream didn't have enough of them. HON vs SJS was pretty standard until 3 minutes left in the first. Then the stream noticeably started to chug. It wasn't completely unwatchable at this point, but it was concerning and annoying. The game ended up only being a 3 point difference, which definitely didn't feel accurate to what was on the screen.
Then the stream began to chug again, even harder this time. AUS vs NOLA with about 6 minutes left in the first fell to what felt like a 5 frame per second count. In the second quarter, it fell to about 1 frame. Then, 5 seconds PER frame. One second, Cole was going back to pass, next second, he had thrown a pick six and the kickoff had already taken place. There was a period of time where an entire NOLA touchdown drive took place and the first frame of it we saw was Bodenhammer entering the end zone...after a kickoff, return, and an incomplete pass had already taken place on the next Austin drive. We next picked up the game partway through the third, with NOLA up 14 nothing and Easton Cole throwing another interception, this one giving NOLA an instant red zone opportunity. With 10 minutes left in the 3rd, they went up by 21. Several drives later, with the details lost to the sim files, Austin was only down by 7 and was driving to tie. That last drive was smooth, as the Copperheads drove into the end zone and came back after looking like they were dead. Overtime was also smooth, as again the team that got the ball second in overtime won, Nola coming out on top. Begin allllllll the Trump jokes the live chat could think of.
BER vs NYS would also be a very uneventful game, if not for the chugging. Somehow it was even worse than the Austin vs Nola game once the second half hit, I think the 3rd quarter had less than double digit frames. Not per second, the entire quarter had around 10 frames displayed on stream in total. And then the 4th quarter was even worse, with only 7 frames in total. The Silverblacks completely blew out the Salamanders, but nobody was talking about it, because nobody could see it.
The last game was a relative snoozefest by comparison, with Yellowknife winning comfortably both on the field and on the scoreboard. There also wasn't any stream lag this time.
Despite all the craziness of the week, 40 people by my quick count called all the games perfectly, which I'm guessing isn't a small number. As one of those people, I was stressing out heavily, and yet was happy when Chicago didn't let a 10 point game with 3 minutes left out of their grasp and NOLA decided to make up for losing so many late leads last year by winning their overtime game as well. This week had approximately 5 games that were absolutely insane to watch take place, for various reasons, each of which would be by far the most interesting game in an average week.
Side note, sorry team for fumbling in the red zone, the points they got off of that would have been nice for them not to have.
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