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"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." - Charles Dickens

After enduring the longest forced offseason in TSL history, the League was back with a vengeance in Week One and all was right again.  The snow fences, masked faces and check-in gates gave the Rose Garden a different look and feel but... it was football again.  We were back.  

Until we weren't.

We on the QB Power Rankings Committee had planned to use our article this week as a venue to express our anger and frustration at the events of the past couple of weeks.  Anger that the League was shut down after all the precautions were taken and everything had been done right.  Anger that there are individuals out there who are jealous of what we have in the TSL, and want to take it from us purely for spite.  We had a long list of grievances to air, and we knew exactly how we were going to write about it...

We would write an entire article "Power Ranking" the WNY Football Leagues and their Commissioners.

But as is usually the case, the wisdom of Topper prevailed, and he convinced us that it does us no good to focus on the actions of other Leagues.  It's easy to get caught up in the finger pointing and petty Facebook messages and all of that, but at the end of the day it doesn't make our League any better.  What makes us better is to continue to work on ourselves and being the best Football League we can be.  That means having the best people, the best communication, and the best (and safest) product for our players.  They say the best revenge is living well, so hey, let's do that.  The only spot that really matters in the League/Commissioner Rankings is #1, so here is the best Football League/Commissioner in Western New York:

1. Topper Sports League - Patrick "Topper" McGovern

The hours of work and calls and emails that Topper had to endure to get us back on track must have been exhausting, but we're back in business now because he continued to fight for us.  Did you have a great time on Saturday?  So did we, and it's a testament to his efforts (and ALL the TSL players that stepped up to offer to help) that that was possible.  Thanks for all you do Topper.  We are loyal to you, because you continue to be loyal to us.

That being said, part of getting "back to business" with the League is doing what we always do - Power Ranking your League QBs.  So without further adieu, here are the Week Four (Week Two?) Rankings with a Bonus #11-15 shown in the chart below:

#1 Bobby McConnell - Eyes Downtown, The Angels - Previous Rank (#1)

Last Week:  Beat Tight Ends in Motion 46-29 (Eyes Downtown) and Uncle Rico's Time Travelers 35-32 (The Angels)

Why He Should Be Higher:  Well he can't be HIGHER than #1, but he's the highest scoring QB (46 PPG) in the Top Division for an undefeated team, and that's a pretty good resume.  Also undefeated as the QB of The Angels in D4.  Not bad.  We realize that his 46 PPG is a small sample size as Eyes Downtown just played their first game on Saturday, but it's currently the highest for a team in ANY division outside of Frodo Swaggins (D3 - 54 PPG) and The Bambs (D6 - also 46 PPG).

Why He Should Be Lower:  He shouldn't be.  But if we were nitpicking?  We seem to recall a team called MATTY'S Angels that used to blow away the competition.  Why are they only winning by 2.5 PPG with the #1 QB in the League under center?  We'll give them some more time to gel before we pass judgment on Bobby's ability to lead a team of Angels.

Next Week: Marketing Mayors (Eyes Downtown), Over Compensators (The Angels)

#2 Chris Cole - Public Enemy - Previous Rank (#2)

Last Week:  Beat Gryffindor 27-21

Why He Should Be Higher:  Bobby's resume is good, but it doesn't have "defending D1 champion" on it.  Didn't Chris win their last head to head game in the 2019 Championship game?  Eyes Downtown's winning streak is currently at one game; Public Enemy is at LEAST four, having swept the playoffs last year at Bobby's expense, and starting this season 2-0.  Don't wins matter more than PPG?

Why He Should Be Lower:  Okay, points per game matter a LITTLE to us, and Public Enemy is putting up 32.5 per game this season so far.  That's not only two scores less than Eyes Downtown, it's actually slightly less than Marketing Mayors too.  And although they can't control their schedule, Public Enemy's only two games this season were against the team with the worst record in D1 last year, and a brand new team.  Shouldn't they be winning by more?  We're splitting hairs here of course; we won't know how the top QBs really stack up until they play against each other this season.

Next Week: Marketing Mayors, Tight Ends in Motion

#3 Mark Dalfonso - Marketing Mayors - Previous Rank (#3)

Last Week:  Beat Why So Serious 33-19

Why He Should Be Higher:  His 33 PPG are 0.5 better than Cole?  Look, Marketing Mayors plays BOTH Eyes Downtown and Public Enemy next week, so if Dalfonso is going to move up in the Rankings he knows what he's got to do.  Will going 2-0 next week vault him to the Top Spot?  Shouldn't it?? 

Why He Should Be Lower:  Oh, he shouldn't be LOWER.  The Top Three is carved in stone right now.  Until one of these guys gets upset by another D1 team (or a D2 team in a Crossover week... wouldn't that be something) they are the Top Three in the League.

Next Week: Eyes Downtown, Public Enemy

#4 Dean Thompson - Peachy Platoon - Previous Rank (#4)

Last Week: Beat Sticky Bandits 25-18

Why He Should Be Higher:  If he wanted to be higher, he should have moved Peachy Platoon up to D1.  Wasn't that rumored to happen last year?  Dean is still kicking ass in D2 though as Peachy picks up their first win of the season.

Why He Should Be Lower:  Peachy Platoon is averaging 26 PPG, which is 7th in D2.  Ouch.  We know Dean's an athlete and his defense is without question better than everyone else on this list, but to stay in the 4th spot in the QB Power Rankings, he's going to need to up his game offensively.

Next Week: Jabronies

#5 Matt Newman - Slytherin That End Zone - Previous Rank (#6)

Last Week: Beat Bullet Club 31-28

Why He Should Be Higher:  Slytherin is the only undefeated Team in D2 and they have the highest PPT (32.0) in the Division.  Better record and better PPG than Dean Thompson.  How is Newman not #4??

Why He Should Be Lower:  There's an argument to be made that Slytherin are winning in SPITE of Newman, not because of him.  We hear he threw a number of picks against Bullet Club and was lucky to walk away with the win.  Can't reward that with a Top Four spot in the Rankings!  If Slytherin keep winning though, Newman can force his way up another spot.

Next Week: Hobrauhaus Buffalo

#6 Mike Thomas - Sticky Bandits - Previous Rank (#7)

Last Week: Lost to Peachy Platoon 25-18, beat Hofbrauhaus Buffalo 36-28

Why He Should Be Higher:  There might not be a hotter QB in the TSL right now than Mike Thomas.  The Sticky Bandits have the second best record in their division after being written off by many as "not ready for D2" and Thomas has consistently won since converting from Wide Receiver to Quarterback.

Why He Should Be Lower:  The Sticky Bandits are third in D2 in PPG, where Mike is behind not only Newman (correctly ranked ahead of him) but also the Jeff Easton/Ricky Austin two headed dragon of Bullet Club.  We don't really know where to rank either of those guys yet because they seem to be splitting the job for now (we have Ricky at #15 today), but there's an argument to be made that whoever ultimately gets the most reps for Bullet Club could be a half step ahead of Thomas.  

Next Week: Morning Wood

#7 Vince Taverna - All We Do is Quinn - Previous Rank (#8)

Last Week: Beat Vaspian 45-20

Why He Should Be Higher:  Undefeated team, +41 point differential in D3.  There were rumors that AWDIQ would decline this session after some key personnel changes but... we can't resist... all they do is (q)win.

Why He Should Be Lower:  Undefeated team, +41 point differential in D3... am I describing Quinn, or am I describing the FAR higher scoring Frodo Swaggins?  Both teams have identical records and point differentials, but where Quinn is averaging 37.5 PPG, Frodo is averaging 54 PPG.  Tough to argue that Vince deserves this spot more than Scotty right now, but he's been doing it longer, so Vince gets the edge for now.  Oh, hey, look who Quinn plays next week...

Next Week: Frodo Swaggins

#8 Scott Drosendahl - Frodo Swaggins - Previous Rank (#10)

Last Week: Beat Family Feud and Some Dudes 68-41

Why He Should Be Higher:  To recap the above: same record, more points than his primary competitor Vince Taverna.  Also, Frodo Swaggins is now the highest scoring team in the league in any division, with 54 PPG.

Why He Should Be Lower:  The only argument for dropping Scott's ranking is Frodo's schedule.  They played a new team in Untouchaballs the first week and then... a brand new team from a lower division that they beat up on this week.  Family Feud and Some Dudes is no AWDIQ.  Scotty's killing it, but this week seems like a pretty solid preview of the D3 finals, so let's wait and see how that goes before we push Mr. Drosendahl any higher.

Next Week: All We Do is Quinn

#9 Alex Buchlis - Tight Ends in Motion - Previous Rank (NR)

Last Week: Lost to Eyes Downtown 46-29

Why He Should Be Higher:  After over a year lost to injuries and pandemic, Alex made his return in a losing effort against Eyes Downtown.  Almost everybody loses to Eyes Downtown; not everybody could drop nearly 30 points against them.  There are four D2/D3 QBs ahead of him in the Rankings today, and Alex has won both of those divisions before.  There's an argument to be made that he's more accomplished than half the people ahead of him right now.

Why He Should Be Lower:  A year is a long time off, and Alex is still winless in 2020.  The Tight Ends schedule doesn't get any easier as they play Public Enemy next week, and a 0-2 start may bounce Alex out of the Top Ten.  It begs the question though: how high could he rise with a win over Chris Cole?

Next Week: Public Enemy

#10 Joey Batts - Gryffindor, Cunning Stunts - Previous Rank (#9)

Last Week: Lost to Public Enemy 27-21 (Gryffindor), lost to Buffalo Solar Solutions 46-37 (Cunning Stunts)

Why He Should Be Higher:  Gryffindor were neck and neck with the D1 champs in the closing minutes of their game.  How many QBs above can say they've gotten that close to beating THE champs?  Shouldn't a struggling D1 QB be rated above a thriving D3 QB?  Wouldn't Gryffindor beat AWDIQ head to head?  

Why He Should Be Lower:  Since moving up to D1, Gryffindor has lost a lot of games, no way around it.  Joey continues to play well against the top teams in the League and he deserves to be Top Ten (if not higher).  People who have played against him would agree.  But any argument about "why he should be lower" would be squarely based on his W/L record, which (other than Cunning Stunts) hasn't been great.  Joey plays new D1 team Why So Serious next week, which should be a good opportunity to get another D1 win under his belt.

Next Week: Why So Serious

A few quick hits on the QBs on the verge of cracking the Top Ten... but not quite there yet:

#11 Patrick "Topper" McGovern - All the stress of government bureaucracy and restarting the League has not been great for our Commissioner's game.  He may be #1 in the Commissioner Power Rankings, but Topper drops to #11 in the QB Power Rankings after starting the season 0-5 (0-6 if you could his subbing appearance for Dilf's, which, you know, we do).  

#12 Pete Nguyen - Has yet to win a game as QB but Why So Serious is playing against the absolute best touch football teams in WNY, so let's keep that in mind.  Pete is actually playing fairly well; his receivers and defense need to step up as well if they hope to beat Gryffindor this week.

#13 Joe Miano - An absent Joe Miano drops two spots in the rankings this week as backup Dave "Bro" Kleckler QBed Jabronies to a big 37-36 win over Hofbrauhaus Buffalo.  We don't think there will be a QB controversy here, but starter Joe is 0-1 and backup Bro is 1-0... 

#14 David Eickhoff - Grey Hair - Don't Care are 2-0 with the second highest PPG in D3 (38.5); that's actually a hair better than AWDIQ, and we rated Vince a lot higher... is Grey Hair ready to make this a three way race for the D3 title?

#15 Ricky Austin - Ricky played well in his only appearance so far this year, but he's only played about 25% of the Bullet Club season so far.  At some point does Jeff Easton just overtake Ricky on the QB Rankings?  Tough to rank teams that seem to be switching QB's every week (Dilfs, Morning Wood etc).

Final Observations:

• Mountain Dew Me is 2-0 with 90 points scored and 12 points allowed... are they really averaging a 45-6 win through the first two weeks?  I'd hate to be the next team to play them... especially if I were the 0-6 QB of TOX desperate for my first win of the season.
• 6 points per game allowed is by far the best in the League on Defense right now.  Who's #2?  Practice Squad with 11, the OTHER undefeated team in D5.  Take a look at those D5 standings and you'll see two teams with massively positive point differentials, and then six other teams in the negatives.  I wonder what odds the Godfather would put on these two meeting in the Finals.
• Speaking of point differential, The Angels are +5 and leading their division.  That is the worst division leading performance we can recall, but... does it matter?  The goal is to win games, and they have.
• We've talked about the best, but what about the worst?  Two weeks into the season the lowest offensive PPG in the League belongs to Interdimensional Lightning Falcons and the highest defensive PPG belongs to Tight Ends in Motion.  Two weeks is a small sample size - we don't know anything about the Falcons, but we suspect Dave Baker will find a way to right the ship quickly for Tight Ends.
• There are still 14 undefeated teams and 14 winless teams after two weeks of action.  That's not very unusual this early in a season (some teams have only played one game) but in a couple weeks it'll be interesting to see who's still in the ranks of the unbeaten (or unwon? there must be a better word for that).

That's it for this week.  No, we don't have any fancy charts yet.  Even though we like pointing out stats like the ones above, the data isn't REALLY useful until each team has played at least a few games, so that's when we'll start publishing those.

As always, if you have any thoughts on why you hate this article (your team’s QB should be ranked higher?  you miss our long, badly written paragraphs and don't like this week's new format?  you're curious how those Commissioner rankings would have looked?) please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..   Remember, with the COVID regulations we have in place at the fields this year, it's a lot harder for spectators to watch games... which means it's a lot harder for the people on the QB Committee to watch your games.  If we're not writing about the action in your games, odds are we didn't see it.  Please email us to tell us what you're seeing out there - make our lives that much easier.

What's YOUR ranking?

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