Fantasy Football

Four areas that stood out Week 2 of the AAF

What did the Alliance of America Football bring us in week 2? Find out four areas that stood out in week 2.

4 Things Week Two of the AAF Brought Us

By Matty Miller

Week two in the Alliance of American Football brought us a lot of changes.  Some we had a feeling about, some didn’t see coming. It also brought us the very first shootout in the league as well as some poor quarterback play.  Both to be expected in a first-year developmental football league. The national media is paying attention to this league because let’s be honest, its still football.   

  1. Let us just give the Apollos and Commanders a big round of applause for both of their performances on Sunday afternoon.  The daytime game of the AAF gave us everything we wanted.  Points by two teams that stylistically, couldn’t really be any different.   The Commanders of San Antonio, playing in front of just shy thirty thousand fans, dominated the first quarter jumping out to a twelve nothing lead on early touchdowns by Kenneth Farrow and Logan Woodside throwing to a wide-open Evan Rodriguez on a bootleg.  The Apollos lost the time of possession battle, the third-down efficiency battle, the rushing battle, but ultimately won the war with the most glaring stat. Yards per play. The Apollos bested the commanders with an 8.39 YPP mark compared to 5.1 by San Antonio.  If this tells you anything. The Ol’ Ball Coach is going to big play you to death and he appears to have the playmakers to do it. Charles Johnson and Jalin Marshall might have emerged as the best wide receiver duo in the league. If Johnson keeps playing this way, I don’t think he will be an Apollo very long.  This was a great game and could be a preview of the league championship before its all said and done. If you ask the Commanders, they were one bad pick-six away from taking down the mighty Apollos. They will get their shot again, maybe in Las Vegas.
  2. Bad Quarterback play.  This was a theme in a couple of games this week.  With 3rd down efficiency typically being a key indicator in good vs. bad QB play.  There was more bad than good this week. I was most surprised by the performance of John Wolford after a great week 1.  The hotshots struggled as Wolford was a measly 14-22 for 194 yards 2 touchdowns and 2 really bad interceptions that both lead to Memphis points.  Going 3-12 on third downs may be a little cause for concern for the Hotshots, but they got it done with a huge comeback scoring two touchdowns in the final 12 minutes of play to get their 2nd win of the year over the Express.  Adding to the list of bad QB play (you can look up the box scores) Hackenberg, Nelson, Simms, and Austin Allen. Perez was sufficient but did not pile up a lot of yards on 24 completions and has still yet to throw a touchdown pass.  Each week, if we can get half the quarterbacks in the league to be decent, I think we will all still watch.
  3. The Iron Defense.  Let’s be straight, the Iron aren’t into points, they were genetically created in a lab to limit scoring as much as possible.  Giving up 9 points in two total games makes them the number one scoring defense in the league, by a pretty wide margin. I really can’t wait until week 5 when the Iron play host to the Apollos.  This one should be a really fun one to watch. Mark your calendars.
  4. The watch-ability of the AAF is actually better than the NFL.  Not because of the talent of play or the product on the field.  Chances are if you are reading this article you are a football junkie of sorts.  What I mean by the watch-ability is the fact that you can watch every single game of the schedule each week.  You can keep tabs on all teams equally throughout the course of the weekend. I run a gambling podcast and concerning the NFL, I can’t even watch the games I really want to bet on sometimes.  Whether gambling or fantasy football you really get to know what is going with each team and the league as a whole with the available time slots. Let’s not forget to mention the two and half hour game times and faster action on the field.  I have not seen any ratings from this week but for me and a lot of people who I have talked to, the AAF seems to be trending in a positive way. While there will be speed bumps, like when games get picked up on bleacher report live here in a couple weeks, trending is good.  

WEEK 2 POWER RANKINGS

  1. Orlando Apollos (LW-1)
  2. Arizona Hotshots (LW-2)
  3. San Antonio Commanders (LW-4)
  4. Birmingham Iron (LW-3)
  5. San Diego Fleet (LW-6)
  6. Salt Lake Stallions (LW-5)
  7. Memphis Express (LW-8)
  8. Atlanta Legends (LW-7)

If you enjoyed this article you can pick up more content covering the Alliance by subscribing to the ODDS ON AAF Podcast hosted by Matty Miller.     

Damond Talbot

NFL Draft Diamonds was created to assist the underdogs playing the sport. We call them diamonds in the rough. My name is Damond Talbot, I have worked extremely hard to help hundreds of small school players over the past several years, and will continue my mission. We have several contributors on this site, and if they contribute their name and contact will be in the piece above. You can email me at nfldraftdiamonds@gmail.com

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