A7FL PLAYOFF PREVIEW: SZN 10/WK 9

On Sunday Midwest and Northeast Teams Travel To Take On Opponents Neither Have Played This Season.

Author: MATT RYAN, A7FL BROADCAST ANNOUNCER

Win or go home season proved to be exciting if not controversial in the opening week of the 2024 A7FL playoffs, which have seen new stars emerge and veteran teams look to assert their place at the top of the league.

This Sunday opening round action continues, but two crucial second-round matchups that depending on who you talk to may be much closer than some would think they appear.

In our opening round, we have the Trenton BIC returning to action against the East Orange Renegades, as Cory Hammond and Deondre Haynes look to show that their veteran resolve and desire will not allow the team filled with players that are MVP, Offensive, and Defensive player of the year candidates such as QB Sterry Codrington, WR Ashante Worthy, even offensive lineman Dave Valley has taken a star turn being a key reason in their 2024 success.

In Nevada, we will see who gets their ticket to the A7FL’s national semi-final as the Insomniacs in the uncommon role as a two-seed to battle the division’s first champion, the Vegas Force.

With SickWidit locking in a one seed, they’ll move on to face the winner of our second matchup in the Silver state, as the OTT and Pit Bosses square off in a rematch of a 19-18 nailbiter late in the regular season.

While OTT continues to have questions at the Quarterback position, the Pit Bosses will still have to contend with one of the fastest teams in the A7FL, which features dynamic return Sayvionne Cunningham, alongside Gee Heard and Yodie Mak, who may not match Cunningham in speed but have proven to be two of the more durable athletes in the West.

For the Insomniacs it will depend on whether their depth and talent,  can control the pace against a Force team that early in the season made things closer than the defending champions would have liked to open 202, with the defending champs winning 38-25.

With the Force and Insomniacs now two games away from a Championship appearance, will Scooter Hamilton’s offensive juggernaut be able to outscore the FORCE and the speed of Jaden Webb?

Or will the fifth and sixth-best scoring defenses in the A7FL be the major factor? We find out this Sunday night when action out west throws off at 9:30 et/6:30 Vegas time.

While the Force and Insomniacs may be the closest game we see this weekend, the historic matchups between the Covington Heist and Paterson U in Asbury Park, and the Cin-City Chaos hosting the Baltimore Watchmen for the first time, are the games that have those in and outside the league buzzing.

For the Chaos and Watchmen, it is both an opportunity for redemption and an assertion of their place in the league.

To be one of two teams to have handed the Paterson U a loss from 2020 until this season, alongside being one game away from the A7FL championship means expectations are high for a Baltimore Watchmen team that one year ago on the same field they arrive on this coming Sunday, fell to what seemed to be an unstoppable Tampa NightCrawler team. 

For the Chaos, this is their second straight undefeated regular season and their second straight season welcoming an out-of-town team into their house for a crucial playoff matchup.

The Chaos’ offense outscored their opponents 430-50 in the season thus far, the closest team in that margin is the SickWidit, who’ve outscored their opponents by an impressive but somehow more paltry 324-84.

The Chaos alongside Tampa, the Trenton BIC, and SickWidIt are the only teams to have allowed less than 100 points in the 2024 season.

And much like in the NCAA, some may argue about the strength of schedule of both clubs walking into this Sunday, as the Watchmen faced former national champions in the Trenton BIC and Paterson U, alongside having to earn their spot in the final against a team in the Silk City Animals that came moments away from filling this side of the bracket.

The veteran experience of Jon Gause and Rokiem Chaney, the two men who alternate at Quatertback for the Watchmen, maybe the key in this game, but if the Chaos do shock the world for a matchup with the Trenton BIC in two weeks, where will that put them within the league’s pecking order?

In a matchup that prognosticators may have fewer questions about, Quatrel Huffin and the Paterson U play a non-East Coast team for the first time since 2021, as they host the Covington Heist inside Asbury Park Stadium.

Some may think this is a trap game for the U, who are coming off a drubbing of the DC Buzz in Baltimore this past Sunday, as the U could be looking past the Heist and an Eastern semi-final showdown with the Tampa NightCrawlers. 

For Skylar Hurd’s offense, the problem will come in the form of Paterson U’s voracious defense which features not only massive run lane-blocking humans, but also dynamic athletes like Nick Mays and Isaac Negron, the latter looking to win back the Defensive Player of the Year honor he snagged as part of the U’s 2022 squad.

Mays, who alongside Carlos Croslin and Angelo Lewis make up a core of Baltimore shoguns who’ve proven key in agitating opponents and bringing some of that classic Baltimore energy to a Paterson sideline filled with some of the most boisterous and chippy players in not only league history but in football history.

That ability to chirp their opponents in the same way a Sean Avery for the New York Rangers or the titular character Shoresy on Hulu’s show about hockey lifers still battling for their day in the sun has been a crucial weapon many Northeast teams use and may force the Heist to feel like strangers in a strange land this Sunday in the city the Boss made famous.

Pour some coffee on Sunday as we start things off with Football This Morning before throw off and then action across the league beginning LIVE from Cincinnati at 1pm et on A7FL.TV