And another one bites the dust! And so there are now no more undefeated teams and the race towards the end of the season and the top seeds are in full earnest. There’s a new top team in town but for how long? Indianapolis has somehow positioned themselves inside the playoff cut with winnable games left to go; can they hold out and cause some chaos? And Carolina continues to Carolina; can they figure it out in time to make the cut themselves?

VOTING BREAKDOWN

Welcome back to late season uniformity! BJ Loveless is probably the most against the grain here this week having Lexington and Indy still sitting pretty high and Nashville lower than most. Ernest & Walters are your two pollsters to give Denver some love after a big upset but with the team still having a lot of work to do to be relevant this season there wasn’t much more they got than that.

the homebodies

#16 Indianapolis Ramblers (4-4)
You’ll see a trend here with these topic but here are the Ramblers squeezing into the cut line for the rankings but also the 12^th place cut for playoffs with a 4-0 home record to their name. Going 6-6 will probably not be enough for most teams or at least will cause you to sweat out the tiebreakers when we do the full breakdown on the scenario show. Next up for them is a home game vs #15 Houston to keep the streak and playoff hopes alive as well a home game vs #10 Lexington in week 13. The road games will be their ticket into the dance though as they play a lowly #24 Chicago team and an up and down #14 Carolina. Indy has dropped a few head scratchers on the road already so nothing is a given but 6-0 at home and beat Chicago should give them enough to get in safely.

#13 Albuquerque Atoms (4-4)
Another team that is 4-0 at home but can’t seem to get it done on the road are the Atoms this season. The next two games for them have them playing the #24 Warriors and the #23 Riverhogs and so they should be able to hit that 6-0 mark at home but closing out on the road to #17 Bossier City & #21 Los Angeles will be where we see if they can make the cut in their first season as a pro team. Personally, I see Albuquerque easily reaching the 8-4 mark and possibly pulling a home wildcard game which could see them extend the home record before hitting some serious competition in the quarters but all of that will most likely rest on their result against the Steamers.

road warriors

#5 Mexico City (6-2)
Nobody is perfect on the road but Mexico City is one of the few to only drop a single game and it was to a top team in #2 Arizona. Home field for them is also not perfect but a 3-1 record there with their only loss to a #1 Canton is good enough in my book. Being a strong team at home is one thing and good to see out of a club that wants to make it to the postseason but with only one team securing home field throughout and a few teams having home game opportunities you need to be a able to win on the road if you want to go all the way. The Aztecs should roll over #25 Queen City on the road this week but the big matchup for them, outside of their two home divisional games, will be the final week at #9 Nashville as that will most likely decide Mexico’s fate of a 1^st round bye or having to win at home again in the wildcard round.

#7 Fort Worth (5-3)
Fort Worth are better on the road this season (3-1) than they are at home (2-2). The flurry of divisional games are set to start for the South with a home and away split for the their two remaining games but the road game to watch for them will be the massive matchup in week 13 when they go to face #1 Canton to knock them off their perch and possibly give the Toros enough firepower in the Strength of Victory stat to make a top 4 push.

week 11 premier matchup

#2 Arizona Scorpions @ #4 Florida Storm(-3.5) | O/U 37.5 | SEPT. 23th 8:15 PM EST
Here’s a game that I expected to be two undefeated teams on a collision course for the top overall seed but now it’s two teams coming off of a loss and Florida is coming off back to back losses at that. Last week I spoke on not wanting to run into an angry Mighty but now it is angry Mighty vs an angry Eddie in a no holds barred cage match on Monday Night. A loss for Arizona would probably be enough for Canton to coast to #1 overall seed in the playoffs and see Arizona tumble down the divisional leader ranks to out of the top 4. But a Florida loss will put a good bit of pressure on them in their division when it comes to just winning it and securing that strong tiebreaker. Two high flying offenses coming together usually means a low scoring affair and I’m not sure who wins but it won’t be by more than 3. Cliff Allen sequel anyone?