It’s Week 15 in the 2024 NPIFL season and the competition at the top has proved too intense for some teams. The Brymbo Storm and Lloyds Leviathans are the latest teams to drop out of Super Bowl contention, leaving five teams competing for four slots.
Before we start the roundup, O’s HC Nathan Adams went 3-3 again with his picks, which is NFLFQS being generous with his cryptic readings and is now 38-46 on the year. Meanwhile, the Best Bench of the Week went to Adams, who had 62.22 points stemming from a monster miss in benching “Tier 3” receiver, Jordan Addison (35.30).
NPIFL Week 14 Roundup
St Lewis Rams 113.62 – 120.62 Santos
In a huge battle for the Metro (not the Mets, the Metro, this isn’t about the Mets, although it could be, should this be about the Mets? The Mets are gonna get a home run, the Mets! Soto! $765 million deal with the Mets!), Santos XI finally threw down their enemy and smote the Rams’ ruin upon the mountainside.
Santos saw some great performances, especially on Monday night, where they were in a 20-point hole. The day was saved by a lightning strike from Chase Brown (21.30) and CeeDee Lamb (19.40), who complimented 15 and 16-point performances from RBs David Montgomery and De’Von Achane.
St. Lewis fought valiantly, considering they were battle-weary and missing multiple key weapons on bye weeks. However, even a 28.70-point performance from Justin Jefferson on top of 18.20 from Rome Odunze wasn’t enough, and the Rams will be hoping to slime past either the XI or the 49ers in Week 15.
St. Lewis HC Lewis Done spoke to NFLFQS and didn’t hold back:
“What a week! The rag-tag bunch that the storm cobbled together did us proud. The smugness of Santosser was nearly slapped off his face and we ended up just one play away from the win. Easily our best loss of the season and the rush of watching Rush; what a rush!”
“This week we turn our attention to NFL coaches’ wives and how the hell anyone can question Bill Belichick’s girlfriend as that’s far more interesting than playing Jordan.”
Meanwhile, Santos HC Christopher Faulkner had the following to say:
“I talked last week about our relentless spirit and we cannot let go of that now. Every week in the past month has been a final for us and we’ve come out looking like a champion squad.
I really want the playoffs for this unit. The performances of Chase Brown and David Montgomery this season deserve it.”
The Rams will attempt to insert themselves back into the top four against Tyreek or Treat in Week 15, while the XI take on the Leviathans.
Eagles Raid Steelers (4-10) 120.96 – 115.18 YAI Chubble (10-4)
In what was the biggest surprise of the week, the ERS raised their game just enough to take down You are in Chubble. YAIC were without Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson and Terry McLaurin, but still looked like they had the win in the bag.
That, however, was not the case, mostly thanks to a mammoth day from their Bengals stack of Joe Burrow (24.56) and Ja’Marr Chase (39.10). This game is further evidence of the ceiling a good stack can get you, which is something other teams like the Storm try to emulate with cheap, Colts-esque knock-offs.
Chubble had a fairly rough day that was almost papered over by an immense performance by Zach Charbonnet (34.80) and 19.10 points from Khalil Shakir.
ERS HC Dan Gittins told NFLFQS on Thursday:
“I don’t quite know how we pulled it off… But we did… Luck was finally on our side, even with forgetting to trade a TE… Oliver must be so embarrassed, beaten by me… I hope his shame haunts him…”
The ERS prepare to take on the 49ers in San Wrexham, while Chubble have a winner-takes-first-seed game against the Love Train.
Brymbo Storm (7-7) 107.52 – 158.58 SW 49ers (9-5)
The Brymbo Storm have melted away as the season progressed, and their 4-1 start has been followed by some very disappointing form. With barely a whimper, the Storm fell out of Super Bowl contention against the rampant 49ers, who were without some key RBs on bye weeks.
With little to cheer for, Brymbo saw only 1 TD outside of their QB, underlining what has become a huge struggle for the team in the past 6 weeks. This is an all-too-regular theme with the Storm, who will have to pick themselves up or risk the humiliation of losing to their cross-city rivals for the first time in franchise history.
Maxwell opted not to discuss the previous game, but instead sent a blunt, five-word message to his next opponent, the Brymbo Originals:
“We’ll still beat the O’s.”
As is tradition, 49ers HC Chris Blockley blanked NFLFQS again when asked for comment, so in turn, NFLFQS is going to return the favor in this roundup. However, it would be unprofessional to not mention Josh Allen, who broke history as the first player to throw for 3 TDs and run for 3 TDs in the same game, recording 51.88 points on the day. Congratulations Josh, the Storm are so glad you did that in Week 14 and not earlier.
Next up, the Storm have that fabled derby ahead, which they are 3-0 in all-time, while the 49ers host the ERS.
Brymbo Originals (6-8) 96.30 – 139.74 Love Train (10-4)
The Brymbo O’s failed to break 100 points in a game the Love Train ran away with. The Josh Jacobs trade was much talked about here, as he recorded 3 TDs for 24.60 points on the day. Given the O’s don’t even start Deebo Samuel, you have to scratch your head about this one. DK Metcalf, the other player sent to Brymbo, recorded 6.90 points in Week 14.
This was another huge week for the Love Train, who are on a five-game winning streak. Along with Jacobs, TLT were mostly propelled by 35.80 points from Puca Nakua. As for Brymbo, 22.70 points from Kyren Williams and 19.00 from Baker Mayfield were not enough to get the W.
Interestingly, it could have been a different story if Josh Jacobs had remained an O (which would have stopped Mike Evans from joining TLT and meant Garrett Wilson [14.90] remained in Brymbo) as that would likely mean Jordan Addison (35.30) would have started. Easy to say with hindsight, but NFLFQs wonder if Adams has learned a lesson about trading elite RBs this year.
Adams sent a blunt message to his players and his cross-town rivals, who they face next:
“We need to do better, but the hour of vengeance is upon us.”
HC Damen Griffiths was delighted with his team’s performance and urged them to keep up the pace for their remaining games:
“It’s been a hard slog over these past few weeks, the club as a whole has really had to hunker down and go on an incredible run to confirm our place in the NPIFL playoffs. There’s no letting up, me and the players have to be laser-focused each and every week to give us the best chance of becoming the first-ever 3-time NPIFL champions.
“Having swiped some weak and inexperienced coaches out of the way we’re more than ready to make a deep run, starting with a warm-up to show Bailey what we’re made of this weekend. Choo fuckin choo yeah.”
The Love Train look to lock down the No. 1 seed when they host YAIC, while the O’s descend down the hill and look to raise their game against the Storm.
Tyreek or Treat (2-12) 102.22 – 153.80 OE Pats (6-8)
Tyreek or Treat are back in the losing column after a brief respite. The Treat were second-best against an elite performance from Old England, who saw multiple big days across the team. Brock Purdy (22.10), Bijan Robinson (19.10), Jauan Jennings (24.50), Jaxon Smith-Njigba (19.10) and Jason Sanders (16.00) all broke 15 points, with Garrett Wilson (14.90) and Tank Bigsby (13.70 ) also having good days.
ToT saw two big performances from Tyreek Hill (23.10) and Isaac Guerendo (25.80), but no one else broke 10 points and this one got a bit out of hand early on.
Pats HC Aminul Hassan spoke to NFLFQS and rued the timing of his team’s form:
“Too little too late from my guys. Just gotta hope the Storm beat in the Originals in the Big Brymbo derby for us to sneak into the consolation playoffs.”
The Treat host an increasingly desperate St. Lewis in Week 15, while the Pats try and sneak into FIPB contention against the WWC.
WWC (5-9) 91.06 – 124.52 Lloyds Leviathans (7-7)
The WWC fell to a third-consecutive defeat in Week 14, with the Leviathans never really being in any danger. The loss all but ends the season for the franchise, who need to beat The Pats, the Storm to win and make up 125 points to surpass the O’s.
The WWC saw some good performances, with Chuba Hubbard (18.70), Jerry Jeduy (14.90), Kyler Murray (17.96) and Drake London (10.5) breaking 10 points, but with so many barely breaking 5 points, it was a rough outing.
Meanwhile, Jalen Hurts (24.22), Rachaad White (23.90) and George Kittle (18.10) were the standouts on a Leviathans team that didn’t exactly get going. While Najee Harris (11.30) and Amari Cooper (12.50) had solid outings, there were multiple players who had an off-day.
WWC HC Christopher Ward shared his thoughts on his team’s performance, summing it up succinctly:
“They’ve given up completely. They say they don’t even like potatoes.”
In Week 15, the WWC hope to down the Pats in style and get a little help from the Storm in order to make the FIPB, while the Leviathans could ruin Santos XI’s Super Bowl ambitions.