Brock Purdy had a bye in Week 8, which meant Barry had exactly one real decision to make that week. Baker Mayfield or Deshaun Watson. Both on the roster, both healthy, both available. G.A.M.E. went with Mayfield, and Mayfield delivered 3.61 points. Watson put up 15.59 on the bench. Fast Eddys Chili won by less than five.
That’s the loss that should stick with this team, more than Sunday’s. Sunday was Carnivorous SilverBacks having their best day of the season, and nothing on the G.A.M.E. roster was catching them. Week 8 had the answer sitting right there.
And the decisions are the real story here, because the record on its own doesn’t say much. G.A.M.E. opened 4-0 and has now lost six straight. The easy read is a collapse, a good team that fell apart in October. It’s more complicated than that, and a little more embarrassing.
Start with the 4-0. Half of it came from one afternoon. The Week 3 doubleheader put G.A.M.E. up against Hitmen and Jack Passers at the same time, G.A.M.E. had its best day of the year, and it banked two wins off one score. It’s like getting paid twice for the same shift and deciding you’re rich. The other two wins came against Krypton Knights and Samurai Warriors on weeks when both of them struggled to score. Those all count. They also made a fast start look sturdier than it was.
Then the schedule got harder, and G.A.M.E. didn’t keep up. Some of those six losses you just accept. The team ran into better rosters having better weeks, and there’s no lineup trick that fixes that.
Two of them you don’t accept. In Week 4 against The Eh Team, G.A.M.E. started Rashee Rice, who scored zero, and Dalton Schultz, who barely scored at all. Roman Wilson and T.J. Hockenson sat on the bench with more than 12 points each. Start those two and G.A.M.E. wins. Then came Week 8 and the Watson call.
So the honest version of this team is 6-4. It still isn’t a contender, since the scoring has dropped off for more than a month. But it also shouldn’t be sitting on a six-game losing streak, and that part is on the dude setting the lineup.
It matters because every division winner in this league gets a playoff spot, and G.A.M.E. still hasn’t lost a division game. The problem is that overall record decides the division, and division record only breaks ties. Samurai Warriors are 7-3, three games clear.
G.A.M.E. gets Angels of Harlem next, a 3-7 team with no business lecturing anyone about lineups. Then Krypton Knights, Samurai and Hitmen to close the regular season. Win all four and it’s 8-6. If Samurai loses three of its last four, including the one against G.A.M.E., the two finish tied, and the tiebreaker goes to G.A.M.E.
It’s a long shot. A team that’s lost six in a row has to win four in a row and needs its rival to fall apart at the same time. But it’s still a path, which is more than most 4-6 teams get.
Three division games left. G.A.M.E. could use another Sunday that counts twice.
