9/19/18 - Eddie Brock, Freelance Investigative Reporter - Well, what a difference a year… and a week… makes. We start our early season breakdown with of course a semi-look back at the biggest story of 2017. That is of course the undefeated Championship in the CDL of the Uncanny X-Men. In ending the 2018 season at 15- 0, the X-Men was the first time in BSL history for a title winning team to finish with no losses. Just a little refresher, the 2017 CDL season was also going to end with the combined losses of the two title teams being just 2 no matter the outcome as the X-Men’s opponent, the Tanzmanian Devils who entered the games as CDL Champions in 3 of the previous 4 seasons mind you, went into the title game almost perfect, at 13-1, themselves. In the end the X-Men completed the perfect season and what many believed wasn’t possible. Now flash forward to Week 1 of 2018. The biggest question on most observers’ minds was how long would that streak continue? Was it possible to do it again? Or to even get close? Well, the simple answer to that was a resounding… Nope! It wouldn’t last long at all!
Week 1 in the CDL saw a matchup of divisional and familial opponents as the X-Men put the streak on the line and try to keep things rolling from the previous season against the up and coming Kashyyyk Kommandos. The Kommandos had completed probably their most successful season in the CDL last year with a 3rd place finish. They wanted to prove it wasn’t a flash in the pan. And well… that they did. The Kommandos dropped the X-Men and quickly ended the streak with a (181.35 – 144.69) steamrolling of the defending champion. It wasn’t even that close. Ever. A few solid defensive games and a late push by last years MVP, X-Men RB Todd Gurley made the score end up closer than it really was. So with the streak over how would the X-Men, who looked so unfocused and nonchalant in week 1 respond in week 2? Well, let’s just say that the hangover from last season’s undefeated championship wore off pretty quick. Week 2 came and the X-Men are the new Team of the Week in the CDL after putting up a more X-Men like 197 point performance. Like the week before but in reverse, only a ridiculous stat line by QB Ben Roethlisberger and his 39.64 point game for the Killer Tomatoes (0-2) made this one even look respectable. So now the question most observers are NOW asking… who are the real 2018 X-Men?! Only time will tell.
So to recap the 1st two weeks in totality for the 3 leagues of the BSL we continue where we started, with the CDL. Four undefeated teams remain. One OF COURSE is the Tanz Devils, who just keep rolling. We sometimes marvel at a team that has 5 CDL titles and 3 in the last 5 seasons can so quietly just keep things steadily in the win column but that is a different article for a different day. Joining the Devils are the MLT Predators and the team that stopped the Devils from a streak of 4 straight CDL titles, the Goldrush Hounds who won their title 3 years ago and lastly the aforementioned Kommandos round out the CDL’s (2-0) teams. Maybe the Kommandos are for real?!
In the FSDL, there are also 4 lossless teams remaining but here we have two (2-0) teams in each of the Allen-Walsh and Bryant-Stram Divisions as the Jedi Knights/Toad Lickers and Hebrew Hammers/Crazy Bisons respectively have come out of the 2018 gates swinging. Keep in mind that 3 of these teams are not know as power house franchises. The Bisons, Lickers and Hammers combined to go a collective (14-25) last season and now they have almost 50% of that win total in just 2 weeks! That is quite a surprising outcome and one of the many things we love about the BSL. Just when you think you have it figured out, the Bisons are (2-0)! Oh, and we should note that the Bisons have scored 258.65 in their (2-0) start, and last year’s 3rd place finisher, the Lucky Dog, have scored 281.30, are (0-2) and the only team in the Halas-Noll Division without a win. Life is so unfair sometimes!
We finish off with the TLSL. Here we have only 3 remaining undefeated teams and a completely different group of resumes from the (2-0) FSDL teams. In the FSDL we noted the undefeated teams don’t have a real pedigree, that isn’t the case at all in the TLSL with last season’s Champion FL Nittany Lions, last year’s runner-up Electric Mayhem, and last year’s 4th place team the Five Moves of Doom (formally The Bozos) all have started out (2-0). The Electric Mayhem, in particular, have come out of the gates with a fire that the CDL’s Uncanny X-Men wish they had done. The Mayhem have won BOTH Team of the Week awards in the TLSL so far and have already put up 378.65 point in just 2 weeks. Week 2’s 175 point game followed a Week 1 200+ point game, the 42nd such game in BSL history. Week 1 now ties week 4 as the 3rd most common week for a 200+ point game with the 4th 200+ Week 1 scoring output. The most common is Week 3, with 7 such games, and week 12 with 5. We have AB-SO-LUTE-LY no idea what that means, only that it is fun to count and track such useless BSL statistics. Another completely useless fact, of the previous 3 teams to score 200+ in the 1st week, only the TLSL’s Avengers in 2011 ended up winning a title. Soooo… there’s that! Until next time… WE are signing off.