Another week, another FFL defeat. This is all the more disappoiting because, before looking at the actual results, I thought I had won: I was down 10 points entering Monday Night’s game with Baltimore’s defense and kicker (Matt Stover) still to play for me while my opponent was already done.

I knew it was going to come down to the wire but when Stover hit a 50 yarder (which is worth 5 points in our league), I started to relax some more. Then I thought I had clinched the victory when B.J. Sams, the rookie punt returner for Baltimore, returned a punt for a touchdown. You see, in all the previous leagues I had played, special team plays count towards the accumulated defense score. So I naively thought that the returned punt all but gave me the victory. Wrong! It turns out that our current league doesn’t work that way. So instead of scoring 7, Baltimore’s defense only scored 1 while Stover racked me a total of 8 points. Adding that up gives you 9, one short of my opponent! Bummer…

On the plus side, Denver won their fourth game grinding a victory past Tampa Bay in another offensive struggle. Fortunately, they managed to get the running game going when it mattered most in the fourth quarter, leading by 3 and needing to chew up the clock. I’m not real happy with the way they’re playing (especially when it comes to their traditionally dominant running game) but they’re showing great resilience and the defense is pretty good. Most importantly, they’re finding ways to winning close games (they would have won against Jacksonville were it not for that infamous fumble). If they can find a way to muster more efficiency on offense, they’ll be pretty damn hard to beat.

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