IFL Week 2 is in the books, and what a weekend of games it was. From two separate overtime games on Friday night to the down to final seconds nail biters on Sunday & Monday, there were plenty of bad offenses, questionable decision making and even worse gambling picks blogged (Note: in fairness to me, I typed that before I got red hot and ended 3-0 on the weekend. Not a big deal!!!)
But it’s early in the season and everyone is getting into midseason form still — even the bloggers!
Each season of the IFL is so volatile and chaotic, so these early weeks are a prime opportunity to get a feel for how the next couple weeks — and potentially the rest of the season — may go.
Here’s what we learned in Week 2:
Sioux Falls Storm at Quad City Steamwheelers
The Result: 32-38 (OT)
The Bet: Sioux Falls +4.5 - Loser
What We Learned: Snapping the ball is important!
This photo is oddly poetic for how Sioux Falls evening went on the O-line.
Early season jitters are real — I get it. There is no pre-season in the IFL, and they only get a couple weeks in training camp leading into the season. But snapping the ball to the QB has to be something you implement in the game plan on Day 1.
Unfortunately for Sioux Falls, they could not get much momentum going on offense because of bad snapping all throughout the game — especially in the first half.
Every bad snap that was possible was achieved: over the QBs head, ground balls, low wobblers, the slow roller, the ‘huh’ — you name it! There were at least 6 that derailed the Sioux Falls’ offense, and they had to do so much improvising after bad snaps that they couldn’t get into a rhythm and ended up falling in OT.
If they can get this corrected, the Storm will be very good as the season moves on. I was really impressed with Billy Hall’s running abilities at QB, but those fundamental things gotta get cleaned up.
Tulsa Oilers at Frisco Fighters
The Result: 25-31 (OT)
The Bet: Over 89.5 - Loser
What We Learned: Billy Back may have been the straw that stirred the drink in Frisco.
This surely wound up being one of the many incomplete passes in the first half.
Coming into the game, Frisco were massive 16.5 point favorites — and for good reason. They were the best regular season team in the league in 2023 by almost every metric possible, and Tulsa had the worst record in the league in their expansion season.
Frisco had the 2023 IFL MVP returning at QB, Tulsa was still figuring out who would be their leader in 2024.
But the Fighters team that took the field on Friday night was not the same Frisco team that we have been used to seeing. They were stale, stagnant and unimaginative with their play calling in the first half. It took lots of improv by QB TJ Edwards to mount the comeback and narrowly come away with a win in overtime.
Credit to Tulsa for playing a physical game early on. New Oilers QB Daniel Smith found success early on with his trio of returning WRs, but they will have to have more consistency on offense throughout the game to be able to pull off games like this one.
It may be that the Fighters were knocking the rust off, but coach Billy Back moving on from Frisco last year and heading to Tucson this year was very apparent in this game.
Can Frisco pick up where they left off in 2023? They have a lot of the same ingredients that made last season tasty for their fans, but can they make it work this year without Billy Back calling the shots?
Iowa Barnstormers at Green Bay Blizzard
The Result: 24-35
The Bet: Over 91.5 - Loser
What We Learned: The era of Unders is here and Iowa can not pass the ball.
I shouldn't be surprised that we got a Big Ten game between the states of Iowa & Wisconsin, but here we are.
Would you be shocked if I told you that a football team from Iowa has trouble passing the ball on offense and clears the Under total by a mile? Laughes in Kirk Ferentz
I’ll lean towards positivity and say that Darius-James Peterson was knocking the rust off after missing the majority of 2023, but this Iowa offense does not look good. The only time they made any big plays or scored was on broken plays where DJP was scrambling and making people miss. That is certainly an admirable skill to have in your bag, don’t get me wrong, but you can not build an offense around schoolyard ball where the most agile player just tries to find ways to make things happen.
Even with DJP at QB, Iowa looked like the 2023 version of themselves — and that is a brutal look. 2024 is going to be a long year unless they can figure out how to effectively pass the football.
On the other side, Green Bay won't be the most exciting team in the league, but they are going to win ugly slugfest style games throughout the year like this one. The departure of Marquise Irvin in the offseason has been very evident through 2 games, so we'll have to see if there is a WR or two on the roster that can step up and fill that void.
Green Bay Unders may become the move.
Regarding the Era of Under:
Total Unders are 8-0 in the IFL through the first 8 games of the season.
I repeat: EIGHT and zero!
Nearly every game had pre-game point totals in the 90s, and only three games even came remotely close to hit their totals.
It will be very, very interesting to see how this shakes out over the next couple of weeks and how the bookmakers will adjust their totals accordingly.
Jacksonville Sharks at Massachusetts Pirates
The Result: 21-26
The Bet: Massachusetts Pirates ML - Winner
What We Learned: Massachusetts is a gamblers nightmare (or dream?).
Would have loved to see this throw live on stream!
Week 1: The Pirates are favored by 4.5. They win by 4 — don’t cover.
Week 2: The Pirates are favored by 5.5. They win by 5 — don’t cover.
I wish I had better analysis of this game, but UNFORTUNATELY the streams on both YouTube & Caffeine were DOA for the majority of the game, so I was only able to piece together what we could see from Facebook live streams from people on the sidelines at the game itself (yes, seriously).
We’ve got a 2 game sample size of Massachusetts so far, and it seems that they are playing to the level of their competition — whether that be up or down is yet to be seen. If these games are any indication of the rest of the season, we’re going to need to set up a GoFundMe for Pirates fans for every bottle of Aspirin in Lowell and have multiple stiff drinks ready at the final whistle — it’s going to be a stressful season.
Jacksonville has some predictable growing pains to go through in a new league with a different style of play than the NAL, but they'll be fine in the long run.
Vegas Knight Hawks at Arizona Rattlers
The Result: 45-43
The Bet: Vegas Knight Hawks +13.5 - Winner
What We Learned: Vegas QB Ja’Rome Johnson is a DOG & Lorenzo Brown Jr is back!
There were so many points of this game when this photo could have been taken.
Before we get too far into the specifics of the game, I would like to officially award this game with the first Off The Wall Certified Banger award of 2024. This highly prestigious award is given to games throughout the year that make you go "Wow, that was a banger" at the final whistle. Took some time for it to get going, but once this game started rolling IT WAS GOING!
What a game by Ja’Rome Johnson. He was slicing and dicing the Arizona defense all game — both through the air and especially on the ground. He was launching 40 yard bombs with ease to his WRs for big time plays and seemed like he was getting 10 yards per carry on the ground.
Johnson easily turned in the best single player performance of the season so far in this game and made one hell of a debut for Vegas. QB was the position that was a question mark heading into the season for the Knight Hawks, and it looks like they have their guy.
On the other side, Lorenzo Brown Jr is back! The retirement life wasn’t sitting well with Mr Favr...err.. Brown, as he signed with the Rattlers last week after an injury to Dalton Sneed in Week 1.
Zo ended up stepping in at QB to start the 2nd half, and he looked good! He battled back and nearly pulled off the comeback after only a couple practices with the team.
If Sneed misses time but is able to come back this season, it will be very interesting to see how the QB situation shakes out in Arizona.
San Diego Strike Force at Duke City Gladiators
The Result: 32-26
The Bet: San Diego Strike Force ML - Winner
What We Learned: San Diego might have a ground game & a great defense.. wait what?
The passing game was off the majority of the night for San Diego, but this throw in the final minute was a BEAUT.
The Nate Davis revenge game delivered for the Strike Force, but not in the way that you would think.
In 2023, San Diego's passing attack finished:
1st in Completions
1st in Attempts
1st in Passing Yards
2nd in Passing TDs
Meanwhile, San Diego's rushing attack finished:
14th in Attempts
13th in Rushing Yards
13th in Rushing TDs
(there were only 14 teams in the league last year)
Defensively, San Diego gave up the 2nd most Points Per Game (50.8) & 2nd most Yards Per Game (245.9). Not ideal!
Flash forward to today and San Diego scored 3 Rushing TDs and gave up less than 100 total yards of offense -- and only allowing 26 points! They managed to flip the script on 2023 in their first game, and won with a RUNNING GAME.
If San Diego develops a consistent running game and their defense plays even close to this level the rest of the year, they are going to be a SCARY team to play - because it is a matter of when, not if, Nate Davis will get in rhythm and get the passing game going.
On the other side, Duke City is a mess. They were nearly radio silent all offseason with their roster moves and didn't have an updated roster on their website before kickoff.
They were alternating QBs on short yardage situations, and they couldn't get Javon Kilgo into a rhythm and he melted down in the 4th quarter. As the situation has been with Duke City for the last few seasons, they have the talent on the field to compete but they just can't make it all work for some reason.
If Ja’Rome can stay healthy, he will be one of the best QBs in the IFL; he was great in GB last year until he got hurt, and Meylor being decent and local is likely why the Blizz went with him in the end.