AC West: week 12

[Guest]

Yawn. Utah wins again and could wrap up the division before the season is even 2/3rds of the way done.

Phenoix wins against a solid St. Paul team, which was also celebrated in Denver. But St. Paul is still very much in the playoff race - with a game again Dakota in week 15 being the key for them.

Los Alamos wins convincingly in Dakota showing that they are a team to be taken seriously. And shockingly, they did it without Cucumber.

Denver loses again. They only have the future to look forward to now.

[Guest]

Denver defensive rookie of the year update (still one game missing):

1 LCB Kurt McCloud (DEN) 641.5, 5 int, 7 passdef, 26 ctc, 312 psply, 84.7 pdpct, 34 tkl, 8 ast. 1(20)
2 WLB Carlos Melnick (DEN) 546.9, 27 tkl, 11 ast, 7.5 sk, 5 hur, 0 qbkd, 0 int. 4(17)
(#3 has 517 points so McCloud continues to pull ahead)
7 SILB Kendall Downs (DEN) 442.6, 45 tkl, 20 ast, 2.5 sk, 2 hur, 0 qbkd, 0 int. 2(26)
16 RCB Bobby Wrighster (DEN) 340.9, 1 int, 5 passdef, 16 ctc, 230 psply, 80.5 pdpct, 19 tkl, 5 ast. 1(15)

In addition to his pass rush % (5.7 after 11 games), Melnick's tackle % is also quite good for a guy who seemed to have no run d when drafted (9.9%). I don't think he's going to be a dominant run stuffer or anything but at least he is not exactly a one dimensional guy coming off the edge. Still only light green in development. I can't wait to see what he does next season.

Also worth noting that Bubba Corbett continues to be right up there on the defensive player of the year list, in spite of missing one game due to injury. He would probably be leading the league in tackles with the extra game and has been pretty solid in pass defense.