A 1-3 week put us in our place a bit. The unpredictability of this league never ends. That moves us to 6-10 on the year. A perfect week would put us above .500, but the odds for that are as good a Houston win (Spoiler Alert spoiler alert).
Byes:
Free Jacks, Old Glory
Arrows v. Giltinis
The team from Toronto that’s currently based in Atlanta is visiting New Orleans to ‘host’ a team full of Australians based in Los Angelos. Make sense?
LA has been the class of the league at home in their first two matches. They’re ran up scores and blew teams out. Except those teams were a Free Jacks side that looked terrible in their opening weekend and a Seattle side that just looks underwhelming. A resurgent Toronto side is their first true test.
Toronto stormed back over the last 3 halves of play. Their 1 – 2 record doesn’t say much about how they actually play. can they expose the underwhelming Giltinis defense? Can they hold the Giltinis offense back enough to give themselves a chance late? And can LA play on the road? I think this is a much closer match up than people are expecting. And I think Toronto scrapes through with a slight win.
Winner: Toronto
NOLA v. Gilgronis
If you believe in either of these teams, you’re justified. NOLA’s attack has been prolific. Austin’s defense has been underestimated. The biggest question I have is the value of a bye v. playing this early on. Austin has the momentum. NOLA could use help at fly-half. Yet, I think this goes the way of the home team.
Winner: NOLA
SaberCats v. Legion
San Diego is back at home. Chris Robshaw makes his MLR debut. It’s game four on the Legion schedule, but it’s going to look like a preseason match up for the men in red.
If you’re Houston, what are you going to fix from your two shutouts? This is a good roster playing like a terrible team. This team doesn’t need adjustments. It needs an offseason. I advise they go for the posts whenever possible, get whatever they can out of this game, and try to carry a little steam into next week’s match against… LA.
Winner: San Diego
Warriors v. Seawolves
Is Utah coming back to earth? Will the bye propel Seattle? I say ‘no’ to both. Seattle has big talent coming in, but they won’t clear protocol for this match. At the end of the day, Utah has a sense of who they are, while Seattle would’ve been better playing last week and trying to find their own identity.
Winner: Utah
Rugby ATL v. RUNY
The last time we saw RUNY, they were on the wrong end of a stunning blowout against NOLA. Again, did the bye give them time to adjust or allow the bad taste to linger for two weeks?
The RATLers spent last week on the right side of a blowout against San Diego. This team’s defense looks real. I think territory plays a big role in this one. Ben Fodden needs to force this game into the Atlanta half and take every opportunity for points. But I don’t think they will.
Winner: Atlanta
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