Welcome to a new series called: Biggest Surprises & Biggest Disappointments of PML. Where we’ll be reviewing each division in the league and as the title states: identify the biggest surprises and disappointments of the season thus far. We’ll be trying to highlight a few points for each side per division. This is all personal opinion – so don’t get b*** hurt if there is something negative being painted about you and your team.
To start us off, we have the AFC North!
BIGGEST SURPRISES:
– Get the Gat… More like get the Vet: After Vet got removed from PML last edition, it was unsure when and if he would be back. However, he got his return as the Cincinnati Bengals. Where he sits tied for the top of the division. He has held two big wins against the NFC East to help him push for top of the division. Not a lot was expected from Vet upon his return but so far he has been holding his own and doing what he can to win games. It’ll be interesting to see how the AFC North turns out as right now it’s a three horse race. As long as he can limit the turnovers, there is a bright future for Vet.
– Benny & The Ravens… legit? kind of?: There were lots of questions around Benny when he finally got his shot and received the Baltimore Ravens for this cycle of PML. Would he be active? Would he be able to compete? What is his identity? Well, through eight weeks of football we could say that’s been answered. Through his first eight games, he’s faced a few division rivals, some of the best coaches in PML: Que, Codes, HypeMike, etc. Pulling ‘upset’ wins against the likes of Codes and Que. While only losing to coaches like Cammy, HypeMike and HD by one score or less. He’s nearly got it done versus some of the big guys, while actually getting it done versus others. Long story short, Benny is a competitor. He is active and good for the league. The last thing he needs to do, similar to HD is find consistency in his games and he’ll be racking up more wins in a matter of no time.
– Malik Willis: The Cleveland Browns quarterback situation is an interesting one due to the fact of having Deshaun Watson who is decently rated but on a horrible contract. Alongside a young and developable Dorian Thompson-Robinson we found Coach HD making a ‘blockbuster’ trade with the Green Bay Packers to acquire Malik Willis for a set of picks. Malik Willis and Dorian Thompson Robinson can be viewed as a similar type of quarterback, but HD didn’t trust any of his quarterbacks on the roster and made the move – unfortunately Malik Willis got injured in his first game as a Cleveland Brown and is out for the season. How this will effect his plans with him going forward? We will see.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS:
– T-Riley or T-Who?: Upon the team announcement being made, T-Riley was hyped by people (people being Nef) that he will be a good user and run away with the AFC North or at least compete heavily in it. Referring to him as someone who won money playing Madden before. That immediately put the league on notice, however, that hype quickly died down after a dominant win against the Falcons in week one when they faced the Broncos week two and got torn apart. Going forward, that one loss against the Broncos turned into a seven game losing streak. Bottom of his division, but only two games away from being tied a lot is up in the air and a lot can change but early signs aren’t looking good for T-Riley.
– The Cleveland Browns Record: Despite being top of the division, the Cleveland Browns sit atop of their division through eight weeks of football at 3-5. Getting a statement win versus the Baltimore Ravens to hold their lead at the top of their division and improving them to 3-5. However, with HD as he received his hometown team the Cleveland Browns and with the quality of talent on the roster the team that we’d be getting more output from the Browns and HD. That hasn’t been seen so far, but he’s getting wins in his division which ultimately might be the most important factor. However, there is still half the season left to play and if he wants to maintain the lead in his division with Benny and the Ravens creeping behind him he has to turn it around sooner rather than later and improve his form.
– Turnover Central: The turnovers in the AFC North are the most in the entire AFC. With all four quarterbacks (five or six, if you include the backups that have got a fair amount of reps) every quarterback in the AFC North is on watch to potentially lose their dev if they continue throwing turnovers in the air at this rate. In a way, this is expected as most people don’t consider this division the best ” passers ” in the league, however the rate of turnovers is still disappointing to see especially with the quality of quarterbacks in the division.
That is this weeks edition of the PML: The Biggest Surprises & Disappointments of the season. Next up we’ll be reviewing the AFC South. Thank you for tuning in and see you next time!
