After a reasonable effort from Anquan Boldin, the Uprising had an 12.1 point lead to open the day. With most of the action early we have seen a few outstanding performances amongst a sea of mediocre- and worse. Lets take a look at the early returns:
#1 Phoenix Uprising vs #3 New York's Finest
Live Projections: NYF 171.58 over PHX 161.41
MVP Candidates:
For Phoenix, the only two players that have had truly championship caliber days are DE JJ Watt (19.5) and RB Arian Foster (19.2) while S Harrison Smith did his part (14.55) as well. New York's Randall Cobb had a big game (19.15), while DB Desmond Trufant, a castoff from the Uprising, gave the Finest his finest (13.5) effort. No player has been able to rise up and clinch the game for either team yet- Phoenix has another half from LB Alec Ogletree and CB Stephon Gilmore, and has to hope they can make some plays, because New York is back just twenty points and still has QB Peyton Manning and RB Marshawn Lynch yet to play, along with WR Doug Baldwin and another half from S Barry Church and TE Jason Witten. The final player active in the matchup is Uprising kicker Connor Barth.
Disappointments:
There have been several notable busts on both sides of the ball: NY's veteran RB Steven Jackson left the game after just five touches, with a quad injury, and could only put up 3.2 before his departure. For Phoenix, QB Drew Brees imploded under the bright lights, turning the ball over three times, getting sacked five times, and finishing with just 5.82. WR Eric Decker was a non-factor, scoring 3.1, while WR Charles Johnson and TE Travis Kelce scored 5.3 and 5.1 respectively.
What might have been:
Which ever team loses will have some obvious regrets; New York wasted a 20.4 score from WR Eddie Royal, leaving him on the bench. Phoenix could have used Karlos Dansby's 11.0 where Avery Williamson scored 2.5 and TE Jordan Cameron went off for 16.3 that will remain underutilized.
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