Week 11 Monday 18:00 ET
The Diablos head into this NRC South clash on the bubble in the playoff picture. Their 7-3 record gives them an opportunity to push for the playoffs now. And with quarteback George McAfton coming off his best game of the season the fans are getting excited about possibly featuring in the post season. Last week vs the Shamrocks he threw for 317 yards with 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. Mexico City will be hoping for more of the same because when these 2 teams met in week 5 McAfton threw 3 picks. They still ended up winning the game 19-13 as Lancers quarterback Trey Maison III threw 2 interceptions himself. Diablos wide receiver Picu McCullough also had his best game of the campaign so far a week ago. 11 catches for 129 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Whilst the Diablos will likely rack up the amount of times they hand the ball off to young running back Maddison Axel, they should have a lot of success throwing the ball against a very poor performing defense. The Lancers give up an average of 299 yards per game through the air making them one of the worst in this category. Watch out for their Leading edge rusher Cason Fine to have an impact this evening. He will want to add to his 8 total sacks. 3 of which came in the first meeting between these sides and he also had a forced fumble that day.
The Lancers who’s record stands at 5-5 have always put up a good fight in their games. All 5 losses have finished 1 score games. And this is down to the offense who average 30 points per game. Quarterback Trey Maison III is 4th in the RFL for total yards this year. And he does a superb job of spreading it around with his 2 6ft 5inch receivers John Johnson and Trey McLeland leading the way with 750 yards each and 5 TD’s each. But it’s Lancers tight end Zach Hobbs who leads the team in catches and also in touchdowns with 8 so far.
The Diablos defense will surely have plans to key in on him especially in the red zone, as they did in week 5 when they limited him to 62 yards and zero touchdowns. Another edge rusher who had 3 sacks that game was 30 year old Marvin Woolfolk. And he will be a danger man again tonight as he leads the team with 11 sacks on the year to date. Coach Forbes has really got the defense playing well this year and whilst they don’t take the ball away any more than average (ranked 17th) they only allow a very impressive 19 points per game against them.
Thank you to Cameron Reed and Pat McNeill for the head to head record:
The series is currently tied at 4-4 with the Diablos coming out on top in the last 2 meetings.
The Verdict:
I don’t see the Lancers being able to stop an improving Diablos offense. And I believe that George McAfton is going to continue to ride this wave of form he’s on the last 5 weeks. We can expect the Lancers to put up a bold showing when they have the ball and it would be no surprise to see another 1 score game.
Diablos 31 vs 24 Lancers