Recap of Week 4

• MATCHUP 1: BANDITS vs. OUTLAWS

Many referred to this as the Toilet Bowl. Two teams with winless records going head to head in the early morning match up in search of their first win. The final result was a convincing 30-0 Outlaws win complete with some performances that now has SAFL buzzing. One of those performances? WR turned QB turned WR Jeremy with 4 receiving TDs. Count em. 4 Tds. That's a SAFL record. QB Jawid further solidified his QB job with 5 more TDs thrown. The first play of the day produced the quickest TD in SAFL history from Jawid to Jeremy on a quick slant that Jeremy took to the house. Bandits? Well maybe they can blame the early gametime. Whatever the case is going 0-4 is not what they were thinking when they came into season so excited. With so much talent laying such an egg is incomprehensible.

Final 30-0 Outlaws.

• MATCHUP 2: SLUMDOGS vs. WOLFPACK

Slumdogs came in dropping their last 2 games. So you know they were fired up to reverse the trend. Midweek they announced Mike was the starting QB and that their would be no more QB controversy in the locker room. Slumdogs had only 6 players, so with no subs, they needed to come up big. Wolfpack also only featured 7 players so this was a test of will. Slumdogs came out firing early as Mike Chu ran in for a touchdown. Slumdogs scored another TD before Wolfpack can respond and by halftime it was 13-7 Slumdogs. Wolfpack however responded with a TD to open the 2nd half but Slumdogs shut them out rest of the way and ended up scoring twice more themselves. Final score was 25-14. Big news in Wolfpack camp? QB Parvesh threw 5 interceptions. Will he start in week 5 as the starting QB after 2 straight duds? Chris and Niraj had nice games for Wolfpack but the season continue to slip away from Wolfpack.

Final 25-14 Slumdogs.

• MATCHUP 3: EMPIRE vs. SAVAGES

This was voted as the GOW for Week 4. What a disappointment. After weeks of games with close scores and games being decided in the last few minutes this was our 3rd straight game without a frenetic finish. Empire and Savages both started with 3 and outs but Chris then found a wide open Ali Nobani for the games 1st score. Empire was able to keep Savages off the board again and scored another TD to make it 14-0. Savages then had the ball right before halftime but Irfan dropped a sure TD from Zulfikar and wasted a golden opportunity to put up some points. Savages however scored on their opening drive in the 2nd half to cut lead to 14-6. Empire immediately responded with a long scoring drive capping with another Chris to Ali connection. Zulfikar then conected with a long TD to Manju to cut the deficit to 21-12. However Savages defense was absolutely non-existent as they couldn't stop Chris and his accurate arm. The final result was a 34-12 blowout that keeps Empire blemish free on the season and exposes Savages as a team with glaring holes.

Final 34-12.

• MATCHUP 4: BELIEVERS vs. NO GAMES NO GIMMICKS

Surely an improved 2-1 NGNG team riding a 2 game streak facing a 1-2 Believers squad coming off of two blowout losses would've handled this game quite easily. If NGNG won they would've claimed sole possession of 3rd place but they came out absolutely flat. QB Aldo threw the first pass of his day right at Najeeb who returned it for a pick 6. The day didn't get any better as the defense missed at least 4 tackles as former QB of Believers Hamza took a 20 yard pass to the house. It was 21-12 at half. NGNG improved their defense in the 2nd half and closed the deficit to 28-26. With a last minute desperation drive QB Aldo found Khuram wide open twice for game winning scores. But much like how the day went for NGNG, Khuram shockingly dropped both passes to seal a stunning 28-26 loss. Believers are now riding high on new QB Razi's arm and are looking to make a strong second half push.

Final 28-26 Believers

• MATCHUP 5: STOP N GO vs. SPARTANS

This game was a much anticipated game between Stop N Go (2-1) and the undefeated Spartans squad. The Spartans started with the ball were held by Stop N Go. Stop N Go jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead. The Stop N Go offense looked very sharp from get-go. With 4th and goal to go, Anwar threw a jump ball into the left corner of the end zone where Jose made a leaping grab to snatch the ball and get the Spartans back into the game at 14-6. Stop N Go again drove down easily to make it 21-6. With their defense struggling, the Spartans offense responded and manged the clock well to make it 21-12 as Stop n Go couldn't score with their final possession of the half. Stop N Go started the 2nd half with another score as they were able to go down the field at will. The Spartans offense kept them in the game, scoring a TD to make it 28-19. The Spartans sensing they couldn't keep exchanging scores, buckled down and got a stop. With their up tempo offense, they were able to methodically move down the field to score again making it 28-26. Stop N Go went on a long drive and bleeding the clock in the process and were able to cap it off with a TD with a little more than 2 minutes left to make it 35-26. With all of their timeouts, the Spartans needed to score fast and get a stop. With the ball on their own 10, Anwar hit a long pass to Sajeel for a huge gain, and a couple of plays later hit Jose who made another great catch to cut it to 35-32. Needing a stop, the Spartans defense with the aid of some bad clock management from Stop N Go was able to get the ball back with about a minute and a half to go.

Anwar did a great job of not forcing any bad passes as he lead them to a 1st down with about a minute left. On a 3rd and goal to go with :38 left on the clock, Anwar completed a pass to Jose who was stopped at the 1/2 yard line setting up a 4th and goal play. With everyone expecting a running play, Anwar ran a play fake and rolled to his right, and threw back across the field to left corner of the end zone to hit Jose for what would be the game winning score. The Spartans converted the XP to make it 39-35. Both offenses had big days.

Final 39-35 Spartans.