You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you jinx yourself and end up with the one thing you hoped to stand apart from. So it goes and so here we are with Power Rankings for Week 5 and they read as the standing do which is to be expected, I guess, as the teams who win are generally the stronger teams in a vacuum. There are still some interesting placements of note and teams and games to look further into as well as an actual full house of all 20 ballots! Shout out to the crew and without further ado here are the rankings!

VOTING BREAKDOWN

Fort Worth has their bye week and Florida blanks Charleston and so they flip spots this week. I saw it coming but hoped for a closer finish. The Dragons still have two believers left after a slow start to a season that they were hoping to be pushing for a title shot. Besides that the only thing that really sticks out to me is the spread on Indianapolis from as high as 7^th from Charles and as low as 19^th from the anonymous voter and nine unique rankings among 20 voters. Not too much to say this week so let’s move on along.

HERE TO STAY?

#12 Indianapolis Ramblers (2-2)
How far Indy has come from getting 69 points pinned on them in their franchise opener a few seasons ago to winning 9-6 last week over what looked to be a high-flying Nashville squad. The Ramblers defense has always been a bright spot despite some rough seasons in the past and they showed out here but can the offense come out to play and reward the defense? Motor City is up next and allowing nearly 30 points a game so if they can’t get the engines clicking vs a porous defense like that then they will be hard pressed to stay up here with the big dogs.

#14 Atlanta Swarm (2-2)
I thought Atlanta was supposed to fold after Albuquerque was given the green light to the majors? Two wins against teams struggling a bit and two losses against elite teams has put Atlanta about where I would expect them to be regardless of who may or may not have left. This week should begin to tell their story for this season as they face Mexico City who has looked strong but also not secured a signature win on the early season. Will Mexico end up using this game as a steppingstone before Fort Worth? Or will Atlanta show the league that they still have that fire in them and have what it takes to stay.

WEEK 5 PREMIER MATCHUP

#18 Albuquerque Atoms @ #2 Fort Worth Toros(-10.5) | O/U 48.5 | AUGUST 10th 9:00 PM EST
There’s two matchups this week between two teams in the top 16 but I’d like to go a different direction this week. The Atoms have been stuck at 18 for a few weeks now but each week have shown more and more of what was expected out of them and now the Toros get them after watching the Atoms go toe to toe with Baltimore before having it slip away late. This looks like a trap game and I don’t particularly like using that phrase as a slight to Albuquerque but Fort Worth has been taking care of business so far but may end up with too much to handle if the Atoms can come out strong. Fort Worth are going to come into this game as strong favorites but I do not see them covering until late and only if Albuquerque loses steam again. I’ll take a shot here and say a late field goal wins it for either team and that’s what puts us over the total for this one.