The categories below are made to give respect to those who we believe have earned the highest Jewball achievements of the season. While some polls are limited to choices, some have write in ballots. Please consider what these players do on the field, what they do for their teams, the stats they accumulate, and how they impact the game each time they walk on the gridiron. Please note that the overall MVP award is a distinction given by our commissioner during the season recap (although he does consider the vote). Please only vote once. Make every vote count!! (Note: Most performance categories carry a 10 games played minimum)

It’s weird sitting here after the last regular game of the Jewball season has been played. No signups to post. No teams to send out. The randomizer has been put away for the year. Yes, we still have league playoffs and a chip but as we all know that is separate from Jewball. Our 20 week (this year 21) season came to an end with three games and perhaps the craziest and most beautiful thing we’ve ever done.

In game 1a it was Blop v. Gorilaz. Blop flying high after clinching a playoff spot in their defeat of the Stogies the previous week and gorillaz looking to win and lock up the 1 seed.  Admittedly, I saw almost none of the game…..although the good news is there wasn’t much of a game to speak of. Everytime I looked over it was Lego zipping a pass to another wide open wr or mighty scampering down the sideline for a big gain. Gorillaz opened the scoring first after mighty took a short pass to the house to make it 6-0. Blop moved the ball well during the first half but just could not punch it into the endzone. Next drive for Gorillaz it was Lego to Goldberg to make it 14-0. Blop drove again but a drive ending int to lego on a wobbly pass gave Gorillaz the ball right back. Gorillaz scored one more time to mighty on a bullet throw from lego to make it 21-0. Zinn took over for blop at qb and had a solid drive and a crazy catch by prime up the sideline but a redzone stall kept the score at 21-0. Gorillaz would keep the shutout intact. Jewball to mighty for the 2 scores and just making play after play in this one. All gorillaz needed now was a Semi Pro loss and the 1 seed would be theirs.

In game 1b it was GM v SP. The last time these teams saw each other it was Week 1 of leagues and it was a game winner from Avenger to Berk to win it on the last play of the game. This time the game would come down just as much to the wire. Green Machine took the ball first and had a new toy to replace Iceman for this one. He’s a kid a lot of us know from Tuesday nights and arguably one of the best players we’ve played with. Levy stepped in and Avenger went right to him. The first time, a great bat down by storm, but the second time it was a post corner run to perfection and it was Levy off to the races on a 75 yard TD to open the scoring. Extra point to levy as well and a quick 7-0 lead for GM. SP took the ball but went 3 and out and avenger and GM went back to work. After a few more avenger to levy throws, the SP defense caught on and a deep ball intended for levy was picked by pray and SP was back in business. Three plays later it was pray up the sideline following blocks by an all nighter solo for 6. extra point no good and it’s 7-6 GM. The next drive for GM started with more of the same, mixed in with a few avenger runs. It was 4th and 1 from the 49. Everyone on the planet knew where the ball was going… to levy. Except Avenger pumps and tosses a soft touch pass over to Fish (who was somehow also filling in for iceman) and takes it to the house for a 13-6 lead. SP would not go down without a fight and took the ball looking to answer right back. However, a pass intended for solo got stalked down by Bert (filling in for oppen) and picked by avenger. GM now had a chance to take complete control of the game. Thankfully for SP, GM turned it over on downs and they had the ball right back. No harm no foul. SP started to drive and three plays in it was a wild run around backyard football moment with stats leaking over the top for a pray to stats touchdown to cut the lead to 13-12. The lack of extra points for SP keeps them away from tying it up. GM would answer right back with a 8 play drive capped off by a leaping TD by fish to make it 19-12. SP did nothing with their next drive and the game was now on the line. A GM score would end it. A stop would give SP one more chance to try and win it. On third and long, Avenger throws a deep ball intended for levy into double coverage and the ball gets batted around before falling into prays hands and returned for 25 yards to give SP one more chance. Some say avenger was sacked before the ball was thrown yet others say the ball was off. No one really knows and it was determined it was too late to fight it out. One thing for sure is that we always go by the teammates. If someone on the same team determines that the other team is correct, that’s it. No need to argue it out.  SP would take the ball with a chance to win it. On first and 24 from the 49 pray launched one to portal who catches it in stride and looked like he would score right away to end the game…. except fish came flying in from nowhere to track down portal at the 2. SP would need to punch it in. Two plays later it was Solo with a beautiful hands catch to make it 19-18. Kut and Co now had a choice, go for two and win it or 1 and play for the tie. The Dan Cambpell in Kut won and SP would try for two to win the game. Pray dropped back and a well timed third rush by daveo right up the middle forced a quick throw. It was one on one with Avenger and Portal. Rookie on Rookie. Roy on Roy. But Avenger wanted this one badly and he jumped right in front of portal to knock it down and end the game. Jewball to Avenger for the 3 tds thrown and the game saving play at the end. (Fish probably could have gotten it also but no jewballs to a guy who’s not yet in jewball).

Both these teams and Blop v. Gorrilaz will see each other again when the playoffs and chip happen 4/19 IYH.

Week 16 started off with snow. Not the type that would be enough for a tackle game, but enough that the elements were in play and the snow would be coming down during the game. After a quick switch of the fields to WMS the games were ready to go.

On the first side of the field we had the 0-3 BLOP v the 2-1 GM. GM came into this game beat up and down Ice and Berk to injuries and out there to prove that they could still win shorthanded. BLOP on the other hand was almost back at full strength. While Spira was not back another old muppet was. It was the return of Ernie after not having played a game since October. Now the question was could Ernie be the missing link for BLOP and would they finally get that evasive fabulous win. The game started and almost immediately the answer seemed like no. From the other side of the field, we watched Ezra (chin?) take a ball to the house on the first possession and then follow it up with a pick six and extra point and just like that it was 14-0 GM. Finally, BLOP orchestrated a drive with quick dump offs to zinn and legs to make it 14-6. But the avenger to Ezra connection was strong in this one and after a few dump offs to daveo and kagan it was Ezra yet again for his second receiving td of the day to make it 20-6 GM. But then something turned. Avenger dropped back for the extra point and tried throwing a ball over zinn. Zinn snatched the ball out of the sky one handed and was running, a lateral back to dobs who just barely gets the next lateral off to prime as kagan came running over to grab the flag, and prime was off to the races for one of the most electric one point plays Leagues has seen. 20-7 now and BLOP gets the ball on offense. However, Ezra was a machine in this game and he picks off dachs yet again and three plays later, avenger finds him for his third receiving td. 26-7 and time running out. It was at this point that Logan just wanted to play the D and became the official d for both teams. Whether that was a turning point or just woke BLOP up things started happening. But similar to almost all the games BLOP has played thus far…. you cannot count them out. They are a second half team and they came out storming. A great drive with long balls to dobs and prime, ends in an Ernie 17 yard td. 26-14 and 15 minutes to go. three plays later Ernie picks off an avenger deep ball which leads to a dachs rushing TD and it’s 26-20 with 5 minutes left. Each team would get one more possession with the ball. Now in BLOPs last three games, they were in this exact same position, however each time the leading team was able to go on a drive to ice the game and put it out of reach. This game was looking the same……until an avenger pass was just a bit too high for press (who was filling in for ice) and landed in the waiting arms of Zinn. Zinn returns it to the 20 and Blop has four chances to tie the game up. three plays later its zinn once again to tie the game up 26-26. An extra point would give blop their first win of the season and put them right back in the hunt. Dachs dropped back and threw a dart on a curl route to….. Ernie!!! Whether Dax and Ernie practiced that route in their private meetings or dachs confused Ernie for dax in 2026, the Blunts of Prime picked up their first W. 27-26 over Green Machine. Now had this game gone the other way Ezra would be walking away with a no doubter of a jewball 3 rec tds, 2 ints and a pick six. But there is no one more deserving than Ernie. Welcome Back to the field Zeyonce.. and a jewball for you.

In game 1b it was colors of lego, bin, bz, kut, portal, and mandelbread vs.pray, blitz, goldberg, logic, rook and stats. Yes this game was 6s. After a few last minute cancellations we got 13 to the field for this one. Then a last second trade of Logan to the league game made this a 6 on 6. Nonetheless, with the snow falling down the game was played and what a game it was. Yes, it was a bit sloppy with the wet conditions but a back and forth contest till the end. Colors took the ball first and lego was off to the races and would not be caught. 1-0 colors. three plays later pray throws a pick to lego and lego hits kut in the back of the endzone for a 2-0 lead. Finally Dark got on the board after a pray dump off to rook who made everyone miss to take it 65 yards to the house 2-1. After a three and out by colors, dark took the ball back and methodically moved down the field and it was a pray toss to goldberg who took it in from 15 to make it 2-2 but wait….. goldberg called a flag guard on… himself?? After the review it was darks ball at the 2 yard line with no score so still 2-1. The next play dark tried a tush push throw that didn’t work so it was a flip to stats for a td but wait again…. seems like he didnt have three balls in. so it’s now 4th down from the .5 inch line to try and even the score at 2. After all that it was pray escaping from a bz sack (or flag guard) to find stats in the back of the endzone to finally tie it at 2. buy lego wouldn’t be stopped and he unleashed an absolute missile to portal from 60 out to make it 3-2 colors. a few plays later it was pray with a deep ball to logic trying to recreate the lego to portal magic, but rabin tipped it and it bounces around and gets picked by mandelbread. First play of the drive for colors its a toss back to portal who then laterals it back to mandelbread for a throw to lego who high points the ball, tips it to himself over logic and runs it in to make it 4-2. Dark now found themselves in trouble once again down by 2 scores. A quick cleat change by pray and maybe just maybe that would be the spark that dark needed. four plays later the cleats worked and it was pray up the sideline for a rushing TD to make it 4-3. That’s when lego made his first and only mistake of the day. A tight window throw to bz gets jumped by logic and its a pick six to tie the game up. Dark is back in business and it’s anyone’s game. Lego would answer back with a 40 yard strike to portal who put pray on skates (literally there was no footing). 5-4 colors and a stop would effectively end the game. But Dark did their best nfl playoff impression and a hook and ladder from Goldberg to rook ended in a 50 yard scamper down the sideline by rook to tie the game up. Dark got the ball back and had a chance to take the lead but after a good drive stalled on the 3 yard line to give the ball back to colors. All dark needed was a stop to at least secure the tie. but on the very first play, lego faked a handoff to portal and started running. There was only one man there. maybe the best flag grabber in jewball to stop it. but on this day lego would keep running. slipping and sliding stats could not come up with the flag on this wet day and lego was off to the races. 75 yards to the house and its 6-5 colors. Dark would now be playing for the tie on last licks. and dark marched down the field. after three huge catches by logic and a few pray runs. It was third and goal from the 8 to try and tie it. but with the slippery conditions and the enormous pressure from kut, bz, and mandelbread, an attempt at a bullet in the back of the endzone to logic, ended in a wobbly throw to the outstretched arms of portal for the game ending int. While all three rookies of portal, lego and mandelbread are deserving of a jewball in this one… lego was out there to prove his roy status with 3 passing tds, a rec td, and a pick on d. Have to check the rules about co-jewball winners but we all saw the portal’s stat line on the glasses cam and it was truly epic. 9 catches, 2 tds and an int should probably get him a jewball as well.

Who wants week 17. IJWT. VR is 2 weeks away!

Week 15 started with a return of Leagues. It had been a while since we last had a league game and after some bowl games and snow games it was back to regularly scheduled programming. We had a double dose of Leagues with BLOP taking on Gorillaz and Semi Pro taking on Stogies.

First up Stogies v Semi Pro

Both teams came into this game hungry and desperate for a win. Semi Pro had just lost a back and forth contest to Gorillaz by a td and Stogies got themselves pooped on by Avenger and GM. Stogies was shorthanded and without their star mexican QB in yaron, their stalking o lineman in bert, and their singing d lineman in daxy. This meant Gronk to QB and Werz and Whiskey would have to fill in. Semi Pro took the ball first and went a quick three and out. Stogies couldn’t answer and gave Semi Pro back the ball. Unfortunately for stogies, that was the only 3 and out for semi pro and the scoring started early and often. SP drove down the field methodically with quick passes to Glasses boy and Storm culminating in a 30 yard strike to stats for the first score of the game. A beauty extra point toe tap by Portal made it 7-0. Stogies would drive down the field again but a portal int in the red zone gave SP the ball back and once again they went to work. This time with quick strikes to vegh and stats ending in a storm td. 13-0 SP. Stogies again would drive down the field and put themselves in a position to score. Stogies again could not punch it in after a few bad drops in the red zone, it was SP with the ball once again looking to blow the game open. On 4th and 12 portal found the soft spot in the zone and waltzed into the endzone uncovered to make it 19-0. Finally, gronk started doing gronk things and the same play train started humming. Handoffs to werz and ross got the stogies into the red zone and a dump off to dk gave them their first points to keep the game within reach 19-6. It was now on the defense to make a stop. On 3rd and long Blitz jumped a route to storm but just could not hang on and gave SP a second chance. three plays later it was stats once again this time from 15 out to make it 25-6. A solo extra point made it 26-6. But Gronk went back to his game and started running and handing off and upping the tempo to try and keep his team in this one. However, the drops kept piling up and another redzone trip was wasted. five plays later it was storm finding the endzone for his second TD of the game and solo taking another extra point to make it 33-6. after a turnover on downs for stogies, SP would punch it in once more to stats and add on yet another extra point to solo to make it 40-6. Stogies would finally score on their last drive on a gronk 12 yard rushing TD for a final score of 40-12. an incredible game all around for SP and plenty of jewball candidates but its gotta be stats returning to jewball after a month off due to injury and scoring not 1, not 2, but 3 tds and playing stellar defense as always. Good to have you back stats.

On the other side of the Field it was BLOP v. Gorillaz. Gorillaz trying to keep their season going and move to 3-1 and in sole possession of first place and BLOP trying to pick a desperately needed first win of the season. Blop was missing someone though and it was a big someone, not just because of all the weight he’s gained but because of the talent he brings to the field. Zinn was off in NFL playoff mode and Blocks stepped in to see if he could settle down his Roy brother in lego. Gorillaz took the ball first and lego did lego things and ran one in and it was 6-0 in a flash. Blop was hungry and perhaps maybe too hungry and a forced throw to dobs leads to zada int and a pick six 13-0 gorillaz. Now BLOP really needed to get moving, unfortunately though this time it was mighty snatching the ball away from blocks and taking it for a 20-0 gorillaz lead. now blop was angry and led by their captain they started running angry. prime looked like a one man wrecking crew and forced the ball down the field ending in a dachs to legs td 20-7. after a gorillaz three and out, it was dachs going back to the well and just force feeding the ball to prime who was running like a man possessed. four plays later another td for prime and just like that it was 20-14 and we had ourselves a game. However, whether it was Lego feeling snubbed for Roy or just mighty putting on his cape, a long ball from lego to mighty made it 26-14. Dachs and prime would not be stopped and three plays later dachs found prime again. 26-21. Blop would get a turnover on downs the next possession and had four plays from the 20 to try and take the lead. An almost exact scenario that Gorillaz were in the last game against SP. hold on and don’t let the other team score. Gorillaz went to work and BZ sacked dachs (again eerily similar to the game against SP) to stop Blop in their tracks. a turnover on downs and no score. Gorillaz now took the ball back with a chance to ice it. A score would end the game. a stop would give Blop one more chance. Lego worked his way methodically down the field and ended with a shut up zada td to ice the game. 32-21 was the final. Mighty had quite the stat line with a receiving TD, 2 sacks and a pick six…. but that’s how you know he’s not getting the jewball. Instead it’s Zada who shockingly was quietly grabbing flag after flag across the middle and racking up catch after catch , oh and he had himself a TD and pick six as well. good stuff but shut up zada.

In game 2 it was Colors of Lego, legs, solo, steveo, rook, tom and werz vs. Dark of Pray, kagan, storm, prime, madelbread, oppen and kut. Dark got the scoring started first with a pray to oppen td who barreled his way through the defense for a 1-0 lead. two plays later a pray int of lego put dark back into scoring position but this time it was a handoff to mandelbread who threw it deep to kagan for a 60 yard bomb to make it a 2-0 lead. Lego would finally started clicking with his wrs. and would hit solo for a td to make it 2-1. Darks offense would then just stall. Whether it was the pressure from legs who had himself five sacks on the day or just the offense not clicking, dark could not get anything going. Colors took the ball back and lego started using his legs (pun intended) and capped off a long drive with another solo td, his second of the day to make it 2-2. Dark again would go nowhere and this time it was lego taking it himself on a rushing td from 25 out to make it 3-2 colors. finally, after a kagan int of lego, dark was able to manage some offense and a dump off to storm who scrambled in from 20 out tied the game at 3-3. Lego though wouldn’t be denied and marched down the field and hit werz on 4th and goal from the 3 on a pretty curl that would make the great dachs and dax jealous to take a 4-3 lead. After a lego int of pray, lego went back to the drawing board and hit solo yet again to take a 5-3 lead. A legs sack because no one blocked him ended any chance of a dark comeback and it was a 5-3 final. Jewball to solo for the monster game at wr with 3 tds. Between the two games combined, Solo had about 8 catches and six of them went for scores (extra points and tds). Shout out to Kagan who was absolutely everywhere on sunday. Between coming down to sub in the league game and then tracking down every single flag in game 2 was just incredible to see. Unfortunately, dark lost so no jewball for the bartender.

One last thing to touch on from Sunday is that we have another In both player of the week. Someone who not just won two games on sunday but absolutely dominated. And…..he kinda won three football games in the span of twelve hours. Lego Bomb you are this weeks in both player of the week. between the two games having 6 passing tds and 2 rushing tds and leading both games to victory, there is no one more deserving. We need to see you signing up for more boths to add you to the in both club but for this week you absolutely earned it. Keep building on that Roy resume.

Who wants week 16. In Both. IJWT. Happy bday J!

Week 14 Yarocap:
And just like that we enter week 14 of this bipolar manic season that has felt like 5 different seasons fused into 1, with 4 different ROYs , an endless winter, injuries out the ass and a commish who hasn’t really lost a game since he went on his donut only diet 3 months ago. Sunday started off bizarrely where team Dark led by Bron, mighty, Goldberg, Kagan, tbd, Zada and pray took on Colors with Avenger, Landy, BZ, Bert, Stella, Tom and Zinn. Except not so fast. Pray contracted the superflu and Zinn was in beauty rest mode, so in came rook to Dark and Prime to Colors. Rumor has it Pray and Zinn snuck off to the golf sim for a 16 hour session instead. The game was played at WMS on a brisk chilly morning, but the wind was a non factor and guys showed up on time for a change. Shout out to prime who drove in from Baltimore, got to the field early and it only took him 10 minutes to put on his cleats and smoke 2 blunts. Avenger starts with the ball and marched to mid field, where on a 4th and long threw a post behind maybe Tom? Who deflected it perfectly into the hands of Landy who trotted his way untouched for the first score of the game. Dark now with the ball, and the entire first half was a recurrent theme. Dark would move the ball but at some point would get wrecked by BZ who has been on an absolute tear, making sacks and just wreaking havoc up front, and their drive would stall out. Again and again despite their firepower. Colors next possession was a methodical one , as they marched to the redzone deep in dark territory. After a big sack by Kagan it was 4th and goal from the 25, where avenger would take off running after buying time. He gets down to the 10 yard line and is surrounded by Dark players, and instead throws a cross body cross field lateral to- LANDY again who plows his way in for another TD. Dark can’t catch a break, and after a turnover on downs avenger finds Prime on a beautiful post corner route where he burned someone on the defense I can’t remember who and it doesn’t really matter. 3-0 Colors pouring it on. Next possession a Bron pass is tipped by tom right into the hands of Stella who returns it for a pick6- almost. Stopped at the one but that didn’t matter because on the next play Avenger hits Bert on a quick slant and it’s 4-0. This game is now totally out of reach – or is it ? It’s 905 and team Dark holds a quick meeting, slaps each other, Zada starts not shutting up and invigorates some life into Dark. Finally some plays start clicking with up front adjustments and on a first and goal from the 15 Bron finds mighty who leaks from TE up the middle and finds the endzone. 4-1. Is there time? Dark thinks so. And the defense gets adjusted. Mighty to the line , and man does he bring it. After 2 incompletions and a big sack by mighty, Dark forces a quick 3 and out and gets the ball. Two plays later Bron finds rook on a slant and he quickly breaks a tackle and is GONE. TD to the Rook and it’s now 4-2. Same recipe and Dark forces another 3 and out and it’s 920. On first down after a designed screen, mighty takes it in his own hands and breaks 14 tackles and is off to the races ! Unbelievably it’s 4-3 , and Dark have last licks. If colors scores the game is over, and after picking up one first down, that was all they could manage and force Dark to take the ball and drive the full field for their final possession. On first down Bron checks for the quick out by Rook, but traps the defense playing short and goes over the top to Kagan who’s off to the races ! He could .. go .. all.. the.. way….. to the 9 yard line! As he gets tracked down by Avenger now playing deep safety. First and goal for Dark with all the momentum , and off a scramble avoiding performance enhanced BZ Bron finds Goldberg for the TD! Except it slips through his hands and it’s second down..then third.. then forth where Bron throws a gorgeous ball on a skinny post to Goldberg again for the TD- nope. Pass interference by Tom who single handedly saved a sure TD with that veteran move. And on 5th and goal for the game after being harassed once again by BZ Bron throws a jump ball to mighty and Landy was able to break it up and seal the W for Colors. Great game and great football Sunday. Notable stats were Mighty with 2tds and 2 sacks, Landy with a catching and rushing td, Avengers magic all day and saving the Kagan TD at the end, but the Jewball has to go to BZ picking up another 4 sacks and just being a damn menace all game, further adding to his case of top DPOTY contender. Great stuff BZ! Week 15 signup is out, Weague Leak this week for the earlies. Get out there for the final stretch of the season ! ¡Viva la Mexico!

Week 13 – Recap

Coming off the heels of an amazing Jesus Bowl in which green took the W from red by 1/2 a td…. we were on to week 13. The weather was up in the air but it smelled like snow. It tasted like a tackle game and by 7 am on sunday morning, we knew tackle it would be. On dark, it was pray, rabin, prime, zinn, logan, daveo, tom and oppen and on colors it was yaron, bert, landy, mighty, avenger, legs, steveo, and bz. Unlike the last snow game this was not a back and forth masterpiece but it was an incredible tackle game nonetheless. Colors started with a 3 and out and Dark took the ball and did the easy thing GIVE THE BALL TO PRIME. prime just ate up yards and brought dark into the redzone. a slant from 20 out to prime and a few broken tackles laters 1-0 dark. Colors put together a nice drive with handoffs to avenger and landy but on 3rd and short yaron throws an easy dump off to bz leaking from tight end….except the big nose tackle in rabin jumps up tips the ball to himself and falls down immediately, cradling the ball in his surgical hands. a dline int and dark with a chance to take control of the game. one play later it’s a 55 yard bomb from pray to zinn to make it 2-0. Another good drive by colors put them within striking distance and after a screen pass to legs with no one in front of him it looked like he would score. However, snow is wet and slippery and legs slips, gets back up and zinn out of nowhere scoots in and strips the ball… now normally this would be meaningless, but in tackle snow games…..fumbles are live. tom scoops up the recovery and gives dark the ball back yet again. 3 plays later its daveo in the back of the endzone with a sliding grab to make it 3-0 and the game is getting out of hand. after a 3 and out by colors, dark struck again with an oppen out route and carries steveo like a backpack to make it 4-0. colors still unable to get anything going on and its darks ball again with a chance to put the nail in the coffin. after a good defensive stop by colors it was 4th and 1 for dark from their own 24. In other words…when playing tackle…it was tush push time and indeed dark did in fact push the tush. With the whole team behind oppens backside he picked up an easy 15 yards for the first down. 3 plays later it was pray evading a sack and hitting logan who took it in from 25 out to make it 5-0. finally colors scored on their next drive on a beautiful strike from avenger to bz to make it 5-1. colors would score again on a slant to mighty who broke every tackle for a 70 yard score to make it 5-2. It was just too little too late. Rabin took over for dark and orchestrated a beautiful 8 play methodical drive capped off by a td to zinn on a wacky back and forth lateral play to make it a 6-2 final. A lot of worthy candidates in this one for jewball but it’s going to none other than the dad of jewball – Bin. Not only did Rabin have an int that we spoke about before….he had 4-5 huge catches throughout the course of the game taking on hits and knees to his back to keep drives alive. Capped off by the game ending drive td to zinn. Congrats Rabin! show these rookies what jewball snow games are all about.

Who wants New Years and Week 14. IJWT.

Week 12 Maccabowl brought us back to regular jewball following an incredible snow game from the prior week. We had white of Yaron, Bert, Kagan, mighty, O, prime, Stella, and zada vs Blue of Pray, BZ, goldberg, kut, steveo, tom, and zinn. The scoring got going early with Blue orchestrating a long drive with catches by Goldberg and steveo to put them inside the five. A quick curl to zinn made it 1-0. Unfortunately for White, they could not answer. Whether it was the pressure of BZ and Kut or just the extra donuts weighing yaron down it was long drives to the red zone that kept ending in turnovers on downs. Fortunately for Blue they moved the ball methodically with short passes to goldberg, kut, steveo, and tom and ended each of the first three drives with tds to zinn to take a 3-0 lead. Finally, yaron started clicking with his wrs and screen passes to mighty and prime led white down the field and culminated in a bert td to make it 3-1. Blue would answer right back with another long drive and it was pray to tom for a 4-1 commanding lead. But just like the story of chanukah, white would not be defeated so easily. Mighty started making people miss and miss some more and ended in a long td to make it 4-2. all of a sudden the game was in reach. after a great drive by blue to the redzone was intercepted by zada on 4th down, the opening was there. on 4th and forever yaron heaved a 55 yard pass up the sideline for stella, who secures the grab and walks in to make it a 4-3 lead. Blue would stall in the redzone once again and just like that the scene was set for a miraculous comeback. on 4th and 32 and white on their last chance to tie up the game, yaron dropped back, rolled to the right and heaved a chanukah miracle up the field. Zinn and goldberg and steveo all right there for blue to knock it down and walk away with the victory…..except like an oily latke the ball slipped by everyone and somehow landed in the lap of mighty for a first down. The game would continue for at least a few more plays. three plays later though it was 4th and 15 and an int by tom would end it. Blue takes the W 4-3. Shoutout to bz for 4 sacks in this one and 2 on the last drive that were so clutch. Jewball to zinn for the 3 tds.

In the late game it was the return of a QB who we had not seen or heard from in a while. The Self proclaimed greatest QB in jewball ever- Key. It was Blue of Key, rabin, pray, O, prime, rook, and Jesus (the cincinnati one) vs. White of yaron, justin, kut, mandelbread, tom, zada, and zinn. and what a back and forth game this one was. Blue scored first with a screen pass from key to prime for an early 1-0 lead. White answered back with a td to zada to tie it up. key right back to it was methodical, moving the ball down the field and then hitting rook in the back of the endzone for a 2-1 lead. Yaron answered immediately with an impressive drive of his own ending in a kuti td to make it 2-2. Eventually white got a defensive stop and took the lead the following drive with a long ball from yaron to zinn (unclear whether it was a receiving td or int and then fumble but a debate for a different day). Zinn ripped the ball away from pray and it was 3-2 white. However, the next drive after a flip from key to pray, pray rumbled in from 50 yards out after getting huge blocks from rook and O to make it 3-3. Yaron kept answering though and after a long drive flipped it to kuti in the back of the endzone for his second td of the day to make it 4-3. But this was a day that key was determined to prove he is the best and on 3rd and long threw a bomb over the middle to rook, who extended, dove, made the grab and got back up to score on a 65 yard td to tie the game up. it was 11:12 and it would be one more drive for each team. Yaron worked his way down the field hitting zada and mandelbread for a big gain and on 3rd and goal from the 2 tosses a quick out to zinn to take a 5-4 lead. Blue was now playing for the tie. A chance to at least not get that dreaded L on the stat sheet. Unfortunately, White’s defense had enough and 3 incompletions later it was 4th and forever to try and keep the game alive. A flip back from key to pray and pray scrambling and launching a deep ball to rook……just out of his reach. There would be no late game hail mary heroics like in the early slot. A valiant effort by rook to almost make another insane diving catch but the throw was just too far away. 5-4 white victory.  a huge shoutout to key for balling out. 3 tds no int and a bunch of Key runs to keep drives alive. A great game from the younger bro and hopefully we see more of him on the field soon. Another shoutout to big O with a bunch of sacks and an int on yaron and like 3 batted balls. Unfortunately both were in a losing effort. Jewball to captain knish for the 2 tds and just racking up catch after catch in this one.

Which now brings us to the In Both player of the week. We haven’t had one of these in a while (mainly bc i forgot) but this week there was one guy who picked up two W’s and just utterly dominated the entire game. Someone who is not new to the in both club but certainly most deserving. Zinn  you are this week’s in both player of the week. A total of 5 tds in both games on like 8 catches and threw a sack on the top of that as well. Good stuff Scoot!

Week 11 was supposed to be one league game and one regular jewball game but as the weather changed overnight and the snow started coming down the first jewball tackle game of the season and the first one in two years was looking like a real possibility. Fields would still need to be checked and sign ups need to be taken for the tackle game to become a reality but at 6:57 am on a blizzardy Sunday morning the scene was set. Tackle football was on. it was white of yaron, kagan, kuti, tom, landy, berk, e, zinn, and steveo vs. Blue of pray, prime, mighty, tbd, sam, bz, bert, and werz. The boys rolled up to the pristine white field and were ready to roll. White took the ball first and after a few short plays went for it inside their own territory but a mighty tackle stopped the first down and it was blue’s ball with a short field. Now when playing tackle football it’s sometimes nice to be playing with a guy who actually padded up and played in his past and with prime standing 7 yards behind the center, it seemed all but certain that a hand off to prime was a likely conclusion. However, Blue caught the defense off guard and play action to prime, who sold the fake, and mighty running a streak up the left sideline ended in a one play quick score to make it 1-0. White got the ball back and started moving methodically. yaron utilizing the speed of berk and zinn to create small gains. unfortunately berk went down after a tackle and would miss the rest of the game. Heal Up berk! that didn’t stop white though and after a hand off to E for a big gain, it was landy on a breakaway score to tie it at 1. Blue answered back immediately with a pray option toss to mighty who took it 65 yards for a 2-1 lead. yaron then hit steveo on a short pass and steveo breaks away from the defense for his own 65 yard score. 2-2. Blue again deciding that one play drives were working, flipped a toss to prime who broke 7 tackles and scores from 70 to make it 3-2. But white would respond each and every time. The next few drives were landy, landy and more landy. Yaron kept feeding him the ball and Landy kept breaking tackles for huge gains. Eventually he found the end zone again and it was 3-3. That was when the passing game for blue started clicking. pray hit bert on a beautiful corner route and bert was off the races, except the hunter became the prey and bert gets stalked down from behind by zinn on a forced fumble. Luckily Bert jumped on it to keep the ball. Next play it’s a mighty out route that he takes in for his second receiving td of the day and third td overall. 4-3 blue. Yaron and white went back to the same recipe and moved the ball down the field with Landy to bring it inside the redzone. After a short catch by E and a punch to prays nose, it was looking like White would once again tie this game up. However, next play yaron throws a prayer up into the endzone and mighty takes the ball away and seems to have a clear lane for a pick six but once again zinn tracks the ball carrier down and makes a td saving tackle. After a BZ incredible catch over yaron, bz caught a quick curl to make it 5-3. yaron answered right back to keep the game in check and it was landy again breaking tackles to make it 5-4. Blue decided to go back to jewball resident RB in prime and kept giving him the ball to grind out the tough yards. After a pray pass to TBD to bring them down to the 10 yard line it was looking as if blue would go up by two scores and effectively end this game. After some confusion in the huddle, blue came to the line with no play in mind. A same play of sorts. except Kagan got a great rush and had pray wrapped up. pray flipped the ball to Sam who tried fighting for extra yards and the ball got poked away. A fumble. Kagan scoops it up and is off to the races on a 75 yard fumble recovery td to tie the game up at 5-5. 15 minutes to go and just like that all the momentum swinging in white’s favor. blue gave the ball to prime for a few runs and it was now 3rd and long. pray heaved one down the sideline. it was landy and werz 1 on 1. Landy had the positioning but instead of catching it decided to knock the ball down. the safe play if you will. except with snow pup not out there, today was the day of the snow rat or the snowdent. mighty takes the tipped ball in for the score and snow angels ensue. 6-5 blue. Yaron dialed up a pretty nice drive and this time it was zinn for the score. 6-6. Blue had their chance at last licks. After a few runs by prime and catches by bz and werz, pray rolled out to the left and threw it deep saying “f it either prime or mighty are down there somewhere”. and on this day…the day the snowdent was born… it was the case. Mighty hauls it in for his 4th rec td and 5th td of the day. 7-6 final for blue. doesn’t even have to be mentioned but mighty with back to back jewballs just makes sense for our reigning mvp. Shoutout to the rooks who showed up to play tackle- landy, werz, berk. Landy no doubt would have had a jewball if white took the win.

We got chanukah party Tuesday, followed by week 12 maccabowl, followed by jesus bowl, week 13, and 2026 bowl. So much football over the next two weeks. In Both All. who wants week 12. IJWT.

Week 10 had one of the biggest games of the season on tap. Semi Pro v Gorillaz. Both teams coming off huge wins to even out their records at 1-1 and now being given the chance to jump into a three way tie for the 1 seed with GM and Stogies at 2-1. The storylines were set with Pray going up against his former team and the new rookie phenom in Lego trying to prove to his defending champ captain Rook that he can QB the Gorillaz to the promised land as well. The game started off how Lego ended the last one against GM, by running the ball. A LOT. three big runs by Lego plus one mighty scamper on a screen…ending with a quick slant to mighty for an early 6-0 lead. But Semi-Pro have some real battle tested vets on their squad. Led by guys like solo and storm, SP marched down the field using quick pass after quick pass and pray hitting solo on an out route in front of lego to tie the game at 6. Gorillaz offense took the ball back and did not change the recipe… runs, runs, and more runs and on 3rd and goal from the 15, lego fakes a handoff to mighty and bootlegs it himself to take a 12-6 lead. a strike to Captain TP for the extra point made it 13-6. SP again took the ball back and knew that they would have to up the energy if they wanted to hang around with Gorilaz. Enter DJCP. Portal, a sorta super rookie because he played some games last year, is nothing if not an energizer bunny. Whether it’s because he can’t stop talking or because he’s all over the field. Portal took catch after catch on this drive and ended up with a 12 yard strike to the back of the endzone for a td. After a vegh toe tap extra point it was again tied 13-13. Whether SP’s defense couldn’t hold up or Gorillaz are just a tough offense to stop, it only took one play for Gorillaz to make it 20-13 – a mighty screen goes for 70 to the house. Game was anything but over and SP marched right back down the field and into the redzone for a chance to tie it up once more. Pray dropped back, gave a quick shoulder pump to Werz who was filling in for stats, lego bites, Werz flew by him and all that’s needed is to secure the catch to tie the game up. Except sometimes things don’t work out as expected, the ball goes through his hands and it’s a turnover inside the RZ for SP. Lego made quick work to take a two touchdown lead and it was a 35 yard strike to rook up the sideline for a 26-13 lead. It was 9:15 and the game appeared to be over. At least that’s how the conversation seemed to have gone between pray and zada. but SP was determined to FIGHT back (get it bc of the fights :))). On 4th and 13 Pray heaves up a prayer down the field to storm who secures the catch and brings it inside the 15 yard line. Two plays later Mr. Meta goggles himself brings in his 6th catch and 2nd TD of the game to make it 26-19. SP is right back in it. Gorilaz take the ball back with a chance to ice it. If they score its over, if they dont SP has one final chance to try and go win the game. On 4th and 2 from their own 23, Gorilaz decide to go for it. Lego drops back and takes off to the right…he has a clear lane to pick up the first and continue their drive but perhaps it was some crazy jewball foreshadowing of the discussions that would take place during the week, it was ROY on ROY and portal dives to grab his flag just before the first down marker. New life to SP. 4 plays to punch it in and walk off the win. 1st down pray takes a shot into the endzone to vegh but its broken up by rook. 2nd down pray hits storm on a quick curl, storm breaks a tackle and takes the ball just inside the 10 yard line. SP has their chance. 3rd down pray takes the snap and starts rolling to the right. The plan is to hit vegh on an out, let portal unseat lego as the ROY on a block, and SP goes home with the W. Except Rabbi BZ had other plans. He somehow blows by the SP line and has pray in his crosshairs. Pray tries reversing the field but BZ was already calculating the exact amount of force in which to throw the pas hab’ah b’kisnin donut man to the ground (that’s for Rabbi BZ). BZ pile drives pray down for a 10 yard sack. It’s now 4th and goal from the 20 and win percentage for SP just went about as low as goldbergs hand gets on a flag guard call. On 4th down, pray drops back and gets flushed all the way to the left, throws it cross field to storm who breaks a tackle and has a lane, there’s daylight to the endzone and SP may just have a chance…. unfortunately the sea closed up pretty quickly and gorilaz grab storm at the 2 ending the game and securing their victory. An absolutely incredible game that will be remembered just for that and nothing else. 26-19 Gorilaz is the final. So many worthy jewball candidates for this win but it’s going to our reigning mvp and my bath buddy Mr. Mighty Rat. Showing just how elusive and quick he still is with the YAC and two tds in this one. #statsfortherat.

In Game 1b it was dark of yaron, zinn, bert, landy, steveo, and stella v colors of avenger, berk, oppen, prime, big E, and Eggo. Before we get into the game we have to talk about time…..this game started close to 8:30. Simply put, that is unacceptable. Nobody wants to be standing around in the cold waiting for the last few people to trickle in so the game can start and that’s especially true when it’s a 6 on 6. When we say the early game is at 8 that means cleats on at 7:55 throwing the ball around. Not getting into your car or finishing your coffee or taking a dump. It’s one thing to give a buffer of a few minutes but 830 is egregious and simply wrong. If you can’t show up at 755 then don’t play the early game. Now onto the game….From what I was told this was a back and forth battle as well but yaron had the win in hand until chumash plays called and zinn threw a pick six to Eggo to secure the Win for colors. I did see a really cool trick play that zinn threw back to yaron and berk picked off to return to the house as well as avenger on a 4th and forever just evading the entire defense to pick up a first with his patented stop and starts. Jewball to berk in this one for the 2 receiving tds, 1 rushing td, and pick six. doing it all for colors to pick up the W. Put Berk in the ROY convo!

In game 2 there was a lot of passing but not a lot of throwing…..maybe we will save this for Pray’s puzzles on TBI coming soon…..

Who wants week 11. IJWT

We start this week with the 1-0 Green Machine taking on the 0-1 Gorrilaz. Green Machine was looking to add on to their thrilling first walk off win against Semi Pro and Gorillaz looking to even up their record after a disappointing first loss to Stogies. The table was set, the players were ready. GM took the ball first and after going for it on 4th and short, could not convert. Gorillaz now had a short field to try and strike first, but four shots into the endzone that land incomplete ended their first drive as well. That’s when Avenger started picking up the pace. Hitting quick curls to dax and ice and using his legs. On third and goal from the 11, avenger rumbles behind oppen and ice to sneak by the pylon and give GM a 7-0 lead after the conversion.  Lego would answer right away with an absolute strike down the sideline to captain rook. The extra point was missed making it 7-6. Unfortunately for GM, that lone score early on was their offense for the day. Now that’s not to say they didn’t have some nice plays and good drives, but the wind picked up and the passing game disappeared. Gorilaz defense was swarming and the avenger couldn’t find any running lanes either. Speaking of running….Lego took captain knish’s advice and decided why throw the ball. Lego took off again and again and the GM defense was nowhere to be found. On one play in particular lego ran right past dax who appeared to look at lego, shrug, and continue his colorful conversation with Goldberg. Lego would finish the day with three rushing tds, each one more impressive than the next. GM eventually scored again at about 9:27 but it was too little too late. The game was well out of reach at that point. Gorillaz win this one 24-13. Jewball to Lego for the electric running and huge flag grabs on defense as well. Other notable play was oren being an absolute wrecking ball on d line to the tune of 2 sacks and 1 “sack” and Mighty doing mighty things with a pick and a sack.

One other note from this game was while I was trying to line judge it seemed like there were arguments every other drive. Unfortunately, as I learned on Sunday, reffing two games is impossible. Trying to get videos of both games while reffing two games is futile. I don’t know what all the disagreements were about, but as I heard from some guys afterwards, it makes the game unenjoyable. It’s a part of the game that there will be arguments, and in a weird way it’s a good thing because it means there’s a game on the line that’s worth fighting for, but it shouldn’t rise to the level of constant fighting. That’s when it becomes too much and ruins the game. So whether you absolutely need to make a call bc you just cant help yourself or you need to insist that the line of scrimmage is six inches further than where the defense spotted it… don’t let it become a fight. Really really ask yourself whether the win or loss is worth this fight before doing it and then go ahead and play ball. not saying don’t make calls– but be absolutely sure you would have made the play but for something illegal that the other team did.

Onto the other side of the field where the 1-0 stogies were looking to continue their hot start against blop who was playing their first game. Blop short handed after losing Spira for the season and not having Ernie in this one, got off to a rough start. After blop stalls on their first drive, cool yaron takes his first play of offense and throws a dump off to dk who takes it 70 yards to the house. DK just ran through the defense and nobody stopped him. 6-0 stogies. blop took the ball back but could not get anything going at all and the stogie defense was all over the place. Whether they were catching picks or hurting zinn, the blop offense was nowhere to be found early on. Yaron gets the ball back and rifles a throw into ross for a 12-0 lead. Suddenly a fire was lit under dachs and co and the offense started clicking. dachs hits zinn on a deep ball to put blop at the 1 and a short td to prime made it 12-6. Then arguably the greatest catch we’ve seen in leagues happened. Yes there is no film… I missed it bc who the heck films extra points but dachs dropped back and threw it high and behind zinn coming across the back of the end zone. Zinn jumps up, inverts his right hand 360 degrees and just absolutely sticks it one handed while somehow landing with his feet in bounds. It was jaw dropping and surreal all in one. 12-7 stogies. Cool yaron never took his foot off the gas though and marched right back down the field with a td to daxxy to make it 18-7. Blop answered right back with a prime rushing td to make it 18-13. not one to be outdone yaron takes the snap and throws a five yard curl to blitz. Now whether blitz was inspired by the zinn catch from earlier or whether he just put the team on his back, he started to rumble. After a zinn missed flag, blitz was off to the races. 2 minutes later and he was in the endzone on a bumbling, rumbling and stumbling trek from 70 out. You can almost hear Chris Berman yelling “he… can …go… all… the… way”. 24-13 stogies. On the next possession dachs hit zinn on a gorgeous deep ball to make it 24-20 and we had ourselves a game. dachs gets the ball back with a chance to take the lead at 9:26. The drive stalls out and now yaron takes it back with a chance to ice it. A score and stogies move to 2-0. In one of the most methodical drives we’ve seen from yaron, he made throw after to throw to march stogies down the field and capped it off with an absolute dart to the back of the endzone to blitz who made an incredible fingertip catch (yes i dont have the video of this either) to end the game. A valiant effort by blop -but not enough- and stogies move to 2-0. Yaron had himself a game and in two games with stogies has matched his league win total from the past two seasons! The trash man is on a mission. While yaron deserves a jewball, blitz had himself a day with some huge flag grabs on defense and the two tds on offense. Jewball to the blitz. Captain stella another league game, another two ints for him. After being laughed out of draft night….stogies are the team to beat and in sole possession of first place with four games to play.

Game 2 was a weird one. Maybe it was the new guys, maybe it was the randomizer or maybe it was giving the ball to the wrong team on two straight drives. It was the colors of pray, bin, bert, kagan, prime, rook, and zinn vs. dark of yaron, jerry, gronk, stats, tom, werz, and whiskey. colors took the ball first and scored immediately with a pray to prime strike. after a 3 and out colors got it back but pray and yaron forgot they were not on the same team and after exchanging ints to each other, it was pray lateraling to rook after the int for a 60 yard pick six. 2-0 colors. yaron finally found the endzone a few drives later by hitting stats in the back left corner. 2-1. Unfortunately for dark that’s when the game went out of control. pray lost his pants and yaron throws a curl to werz who tries to put the moves on prime and either after realizing he wasn’t going to escape or being mesmerized by primes incredible tailoring of prays pants, he laterals it back to….kagan who turns around and waltzes into the endzone for a fumble recovery td. 3-1. The next drive for colors pray hits rook for a td to make it 4-1. Gronk had a rec td for dark at some point to make it 4-2 but after a kagan short pass that turned into a 70 yard score it was all but over for dark. except….gronk wanted to get in on the action of throwing it to the other team and after orchestrating one of the best drives of the day for dark throws a pick six in the red zone to zinn to end the game at 6-2. I don’t know if we can have multiple jewball winners from one game but the line play of rabin, kagan, and bert was just awesome. 6 sacks combined between the 3 of them. regardless….jewball to rook for coming off a huge league game in game 1 and then turning around and bringing it again in game 2 with a rushing td and rec td and just all around hustle all over the field. never Settle down rook.

Week 8 is here. Bowl season starts next week. best time of the year for football. Come get it. IJWT