WEEK 1 MATCHUPS: Part 2

I broke up the article into two parts...simply to make the reading easier.  Here is part 2!

Freemasons 115.5
Soup Can 108.5

WHAT WENT RIGHT: The winner of this matchup has gone on to win the division in each of the last three seasons...so, this was a huge win for the Freemasons.  A strong effort from the defensive line, who put up the top two of the top five totals at the position (it was the top two, but a stat correction removed a sack from Greg Hardy), lead the team to victory.  On offense, the players the Freemasons relied upon from last season showed up to play against the Soup as Cam Newton, Miles Austin, and Ahmad Bradshaw all had strong games.

COACH BELL CELEBRATES DEFEAT

WHAT WENT WRONG: Honestly, not a whole lot went wrong.  The difference in the game can be attributed to mostly to the battle on the defensive line.  The Soup Can were outscored 19-4 in the trenches, which proved to be the difference.  There are eight position battles to win in a game like this (QB, RB, WR, TE, DL, LB, DB, K)...and the two teams were spilt evenly with the Soup winning four (RB, WR, TE, LB) and the Freemasons winning four (QB, DL, DB, K).  The Soup was +19 points in the categories he won, but lost the other four by a combined 26 points...meaning the Freemasons were able to keep it close enough to pull out the win in the end.
"Hmmm...I was writing my thesis," Coach Bell muttered, "was there a game this week?"
There was a game, and this game likely just handed the Freemasons the division.

Counselor 124.5
Hurricanes 112

WHAT WENT RIGHT: Practically everything went right for the Counselor this week.  You need to have everything in your favor to knock off the Hurricanes, and Counselor did by posting the third highest score, while still leaving 18 useable points on the bench.  The Counselor had lost 6 straight to the Hurricanes, meaning you have to go all the way back to 2008 (the inaugural season) to find the last time a Counselor team won (they swept both games against the Hurricanes that year).  The series has been so lopsided that the Hurricanes won the previous 6 games by an average score of 128.5 to 98.  So, as you can see, coach Richard Council was ecstatic to pull this win out.
"Whew!" Council yelled. "Finally, I am not planning for next season after week 1!"

WHAT WENT WRONG: The Hurricanes were plagued by surprisingly uninspired play from their Wide Receivers and Defensive Line.  The Receivers put up a combined 9 points, with Wes Welker kicking in only 1 pt.  The defensive front combined to put up 2 points, with young Bruce Irvin registering the only goose egg in the contest.  The Hurricanes were explosive at the QB and RB slots though, with a combined 54 points, led by 21 points from Drew Brees and 22 points from Kevin Smith.

Fluffernutter 112
Riggins 108

WHAT WENT RIGHT:  Fluffernutter has owned Riggins in the past.  You have to go back to Week 7 of the 2009 season to find the last time Riggins was able to get a victory in this series.  In that game, the Fluff had one of their worst performances, with only 3 players reaching double figures, and putting up a meager 83 points.  Well, this team is not starting Matt Cassel and Brian Westbrook...they are lead by the amazing Ray Rice and Matthew Stafford.  The Fluff won this game with Adrian Peterson and his 20 points on the bench!  It is rumored that the Fluff was simply taking it easy on Riggins, treating the week 1 matchup as a pre-season scrimmage before their REAL first game against the Soup Can in week 2.
"I got two words for you," a clearly looking-ahead Coach Abbott exclaimed, "Champion. Ship."

WHAT WENT WRONG: The front four (DL & LB) simply did not perform well enough to win.  They registered just 15 points between the four players...or an average of 3.75 points a piece.  Otherwise, on offense Peyton Manning (20 points) lead a strong offensive showing.  The RBs dropped 30 points on the Fluff defense, and TE Aaron Hernandez kicked in another 11.  There wasn't much help on the bench, as Coach Holicky had 0 useable points there to help him out.  So, he started all the right guys...they just didn't score enough.