Week 5 of the NPIFL season saw a titanic struggle between two winless teams. To say this was a desperate clash doesn’t do it justice, and Brymbo Originals fans saw a near certainty turn into an evening of horrors on Sunday. Meanwhile, both the league’s undefeated teams tasted defeat as the NPIFL refused to take shape, leaving almost everyone with everything to play for.
ERS (1-4) 148.38 – 130.00 Originals (0-5)
While the Cincinnati Bengals lost a shootout on Sunday, their skill players balled in NFL fantasy. The chief beneficiary of this in the NPIFL was the ERS, who after a slurry of last-second moves (including a very bizarre trade), picked up their first win of the season in what other managers had dubbed “The 0-4 special.”
The win means they are three games back of first, albeit with one less superstar on their roster. The ERS traded Davante Adams (their third pick in the draft) to the SW 49ers for Allen Lazard and Alexander Mattison. They then proceeded to not play either, leaving many fans scratching their heads at why the trade was made.
As for the rise of the players on the field, they put up the league’s best score in Week 5, largely on the back of the Bengals. QB Joe Burrow (33.78) threw 5 TDs and 392 yards, and 193 and 2 TDs of those went to Ja’Marr Chase (37.30). This helped pull the ERS out of a huge hole, while four positions went for 12-15 points to consign the O’s to darkness.
The O’s will be devastated by the loss, and not just because of the amount of talk coming from their HC from Thursday to Sunday. In fact, the change of tone observed in the comments between Thursday and Sunday night do tell the story for the Originals:
“This is the start of what’s to come for the O’s. … We have arrived. … With my first win on the horizon I feel that my team are finally listening to me. … Your plan isn’t gonna work because the O’s will take their first W this week. … Also I would still d*ck Dan with a full-strength team (Don’t quote that).”
“I’m actually gonna go 0-5 
. Sh*t. F*ck this. I’m gonna delete the app in the morning. Dan doesn’t even want to win! Why couldn’t he just stay down???”
As for what happened on the field, Brymbo put up the second-highest score in the NPIFL in Week 5, so to lose comfortably was really something. They had a 74-point lead before the ERS touched the ball, and were predicted a slam-dunk, 30-point win on Saturday.
Brymbo’s 130 points came on the back of several solid days, including 15 points from both Josh Jacobs and Kyren Williams, 12 from Kenneth Walker III and 16.50 from Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo.
Factor in 23.4 from Baker Mayfield, 22.60 from Garrett Wilson and 10 from the Seahawks D and the O’s were ruined by the cruelest of destinies and lowered by the most outrageous of fates.
An extremely painful defeat was made a little worse by Tee Higgins being on the bench, with the Bengals WR going for 83 yards and 2 TDs for 24.80 points. If Adams had started him over Jordan Addison, the O’s would have squeezed a 148.7-148.38 win.
We spoke to both Adams and ERS HC Dan Gittins on Wednesday:
“I’m front page news 
,” Gittins said. “It’s not often I’m speechless 😶… But I really don’t know what to say… We worked hard to get back on track… Let’s hope we can keep this going. It’s nice to be back winning.”
The tone was substantially more serious in the Brymbo camp:
“Obviously we haven’t been up to scratch and we deserve to be where we are however we are looking to get a few wins on the board to make the look better than 0-15.”
Adams unknowingly hit on an interesting preseason projection in his comments, as his cross-town rivals were predicted a 0-15 season. While the Miners are 4-1, the O’s are 0-5. Perhaps the soothsayers got the wrong Brymbo team?
After going winless against the entire Plas Coch division, Brymbo has to pick itself up again and prepare to face the Metro, starting with the WWC. The knowledge that they need to win 9 of their next 10 games to have a shot at the postseason will be heavy on HC Nathan Adams.
As for the ERS, they take on the 4-1 SL Rams in another must-win fixture. It will be interesting to see if they can turn the toughest of starts into one of the biggest storylines in NPIFL history.