Predictions and Power Rankings Week 4

Friday, September 15th Kevin Kousaie

Predictions

After 2 weeks of struggling for everyone making picks this week 3 predictions were way better. Jon finished last getting 69% of his games and Willie won with 74%, so we were all close. This week I plan to pull out of last place in the standings. Here are my picks in bold like always.

Division 1

Iron Wolves vs Centurions

Demario is too good of a QB and has a fantastic roster with him.

Jagerbomb vs A-Team

They win a close game because they keep their composure.

Division 2

Pocket Rockets vs Average Joes

They have more size and should be able to win 90% of all jump balls.

Nice TDs vs Idaho Udapimp

Idaho has too many players missing.

KOLB vs Thunder Buddies

Steve knows KOLB and what works against them so he should be able to pull out a W.

Idaho Udapimp vs Pocket Rockets

Idaho has too many players missing.

Division 3

Red Cats vs Villains

They will get revenge for the loss a few weeks ago.

Villains vs Phoenix NA

I don’t pick my team’s games.

Red Cats vs Pocket Rockets

Just a feeling I have.

Division 4

Trolling Holers vs Iron Wolves

I have a feeling Trolling Holers break cap.

Sour Peeps vs Bines Low Fat

More experience playing at this level.

Airborne vs Top Shooters

Marvin running will be an issue in this game for Airborne.

Cyclones vs Mustard Cubs

More experience.

Mustard Cubs vs Jaggy & Chill

They just have the more talented team.

Division 5

Phoenix vs Los Pollitos NA

I don’t pick my team’s games.

Bear Hood vs My Ball Zach Ertz

They have more experience and the best player on the field.

Blue Badgers vs Slot Machines

They play a good defense.

Big Booties vs Low Expectations

They have struggled to score points, but this week they score 4 TDs and win by 2 scores.

Drama Club vs Jungle Squad

More experience and this week I think Nico takes it easy and doesn’t force any bad throws.

Les Last Calls vs Les Nomades

The connection that Guillaume and Seb have is almost impossible to stop.

Ledgendaries vs Mimosa Crew

Mimosa Crew have the better overall roster that has more experience.

TD Hunters vs Binettes

Gold has Justin to rely on when he gets in trouble.

Free Agent #1 vs Tropic Thunder

More experience, better team.

Power Rankings

3 weeks in and the rankings are getting easier, but I’m still having an issue in a few of the divisions. Here are my rankings following week 3 being played.

Division 1

1- A-Team

2- Outlaws

3- Iron Wolves

Division 2

1- Nice TDs

2- Idaho

3- Thunder Buddies

Division 3

1- Double Dippers

2- Red Cats

3- RawSAuce

Division 4

1- Jagys and Chill

2- Bines Low Fat

3- High on Audibles

4- Udaho Idapimp

5- Cyclones

Division 5

1- Phoenix

2- Blue Badgers

3- Grizzlies

4- Bear Hood

5- Mimosa Crew

Normally by now you have an idea of who the top teams are, but this season it’s just not that simple. I hope that it will get easier each week, but that depends on who keeps winning and who loses and by how much. (ed’s note: I mean, yeah?)

Final Thoughts

Boy does it ever suck to be a Jets fan now. For years this team has struggled and after building a good roster that can compete for at least a playoff spot and adding Aaron Rodgers it looked like they might be heading somewhere. The highlight of Rodgers in NY was him running out with the flag to open the season. Rodgers lasted a total of 4 plays before tearing his Achilles and being done for the year. As a Packers fan this was a great trade 2 second round picks for a 39-year-old who didn’t even last week 1 (ed’s note: but they lose another second round pick because he didn’t play enough games, so the injury sucks for the Packers as well!).

Does Rodgers retire or does he come back? My bet would be on him hanging it up and walking away from the game. (ed’s note: leaving a ton of money on the table…) He was 90% sure he was done before this season and now with the injury and being 40 next season. Retire, wait 5 years, get your gold jacket and enjoy all that money you made, you have nothing left to prove.

That’s all for this week, while you’re out there this week remember we are playing a game for fun so enjoy it while you can.

Word from the Mouth: I Don't Watch the Games! edition

Wednesday, September 13th Kevin Kousaie

If you’re a football fan it was a great weekend for you (ed’s note: unless you’re a Jets fan…). You got to play on Saturday, watch college after that, sleep in on Sunday, then watch NFL all day, unless you played in Brossard with the rain.

How would you feel if you were Kadarius Toney after that game he put together, 1 catch 1 yard, 1 run minus 1 yard and 3 or 4 easy drops. This guy is a bum. All these athletes love social media and post anything and everything, but Thursday after the game he deleted all his because of the messages he knew he was going to get. To me that’s a llama fart move. Deal with the good and the bad.

Recap

Division 1

Iron Wolves vs Lockdown (29-12)

Lockdown tried multiple players at rusher, and they all had trouble with Alex having the most success getting 1 sack. Neither of these teams blew up the stat sheet. Before half Lockdown had a chance to make it a close game, but failed to score so Iron Wolves were up 22-6 at half. Lockdown opened the second half with the ball and scored, now they needed their defense to step up and get a stop, they couldn’t and the game ended with that being the last points of the game.

Division 2

I wasn’t able to catch any of the D2 games this week but Willie was in one and I think Terry reffed one, so you’ll get your coverage.

Division 3

RawSauce vs Phoenix (45-15)

Both teams scored to open the game with Phoenix getting their convert and a 7-6 lead. RawSauce took off after that, scoring on every drive except their last one. Phoenix went the other way with Kevin throwing 4 picks. Antoine owned Phoenix with 112 yards and scoring 5 total TDs, 4 on offense and a pick 6 to end the game.

Phoenix vs Pocket Rockets (28-29) OT

What a rollercoaster this game was. Both teams came out and scored early in the first half before settling in. Both teams struggled at times on defense either with players being out of position or just missing tackles. Once the defenses figured it out, most of the big plays were taken away. Ali had 2, but I’m sure I threw him 3 picks with 2 coming on the goal line. With a 20-16 lead late in the game Phoenix was inside the redzone looking to put the game away, but on fourth down Leo batted the ball away. Now in the shadow of their endzone PO threw a ball to Phil who made a defender miss and walked into score and take the lead. There was 5:30 left and Phoenix was down 2. Phoenix was able to score, get their 2-point convert, leaving 26 seconds on the clock. Pocket Rockets had 1 timeout left. PO hit Phil along the sideline for 20 followed by Ali for a 28-yard TD. They failed on the convert and with 11 seconds left Phoenix couldn’t score and we went to OT. Pocket Rockets won the toss and wanted the ball and went for 1 which PO found Mike for the convert. Phoenix elected to go for 2 and the win. Pocket Rockets stayed on the goal line and when I threw the ball to the middle of the endzone, Leo was able to get up there and pick it off to seal the win.

Division 4

I did not get to see 1 snap of D4 this week and can’t remember hearing much about what went on in those games. (ed’s note: stunning coverage!)

Division 5

TD Hunters vs Low Expectations (14-21)

In this game we saw two very good friends go head-to-head for the first time at the QB position. The atmosphere was good, but no room for gifts. Matthieu's first presence in the red zone ended with an interception by Goldrick. TD Hunters then made several plays to get the first TD of the game. After making it 14-0, everything fell apart for them. The TD Hunters offense lost momentum when Matthieu became the rusher, and the Low Expectations offense came back to life when a ten-yard pass to Christopher became a 36-yard TD due to a missed tackle. And another missed tackle led to Marcel's 45-yard TD. The score was 14-14 with 4 minutes left. TD Hunters tried to move slowly to run out the clock, but a muffed snap and a sack by Matthieu forced them to take a risk that led to an interception. 4 plays later, Low Expectations added a TD for the win.

Mimosa Crew vs Bear Hood (12-37)

I was really excited to see this game until realizing that both teams were missing their QB and in Bear Hood’s case, their backup as well. To end up with this many points is a big surprise. Mimosa played poorly on both sides of the ball. On offense they didn’t run great routes, they dropped balls and you had some bad throws. When you get to defense, they just didn’t show up and play like they normally do. Bear Hood had Dave play QB and he looked good making reads and easy throws. If these two teams meet again expect to see a much better game.

Phoenix vs Slot Machines (40-20)

Giovanni had Slot Machines in the lead (14-12) when they scored with 4 minutes left in the first half. That’s when Phoenix woke up and took control of the game. Vince scored on a 3 yard TD with Felix getting the 2-point convert. Slot Machines turned it over giving Phoenix a very short field and another score and 2-point convert. The score at half was 28-14 Phoenix and Phoenix was starting with the ball and went down and scored to seal the game at this point. Phoenix ran 60 plays in the game compared to 22 for Slot Machines. It’s very hard as a new team to overcome a team controlling the clock and the tempo of the game.

Studs & Duds

We are only 3 weeks into the season and it's already getting hard to pick out the winners and losers each week. This week a few picks were easy to make, and some came down to who they played.

Studs

Division 1

- Stephen Harripersaud was 28 of 35 for 334 yards, 8 TDs, 3 2point converts and threw 1 pick.

Division 2

- Alex Gonzalez in his 2 games caught 11 passes for 224 yards, 6 TD, 2 2point convert. On defense he made 5 tackles and had 1 pick.

Division 3

- Antoine Théroux played 2 games and made 11 catches, 184 yards, 5 TDs, 2 1point convert. On defense he made 13 tackles, 2 pick and took 1 back for 6.

Division 4

- Jean-Francois Rolland-Leclerc was 21 of 31 for 254 yards, 5 TDs, 4 1point converts and 1 pick through the air. JF also ran 2 times for 8 yards and had 1 pick on defense.

Division 5

- Guillaume Dubuc Lacombe went 21 of 26 for 241 yards, 6 TDs, 2 1point converts with 1 pick in the air. He also ran 1 time for 5 yards. On defense he made 2 tackles and had 4 picks.

Duds

Division 1

- Centurions for not being able to put a team out to play after their first game. (ed’s note: didn’t they have 3 injuries in that game? Jeez, Kev…)

Division 2

- Thibaud Daoust 2 tackles and 1 sack in 2 games just doesn’t cut it especially when that sack was on the last play of the half, and they need time to reach the endzone.

Division 3

- Kevin Kousaie for not putting enough air on the ball to get over the defender in OT.

Division 4

- Trolling Holers defense minus Andre, the rest of you just showed up and did nothing on that side of the ball.

Division 5

- Big Booties for giving up 83 yards total and only winning by 2 points, now that is embarrassing.

There you have it, your winners and losers for week 3.

Predictions and Power Rankings Week 3

Friday, September 8th Kevin Kousaie

Predictions

What a mingebag week last week was for everyone on the media team. Terry won the week for a second time in a row, but only picked 45% of his games right. If the media team doesn’t start scoring better, we might have to keep our picks silent because this is embarrassing.

Now for this week’s picks and like always they are in bold.

Division 1

Outlaws vs Centurions

They have the better team.

Centurions vs Lockdown

They have loads of talent and I can’t see them going 0-2.

Lockdown vs Iron Wolves

I’m going to assume their full team shows up and they get it done.

Division 2

Average Joes vs KOLB

Jason finds the weak link and exploits it all game long.

KOLB vs Nice TDs

KOLB isn’t ready for the talent on this team.

Thunder Buddies vs Pocket Rockets

Pocket Rockets will be a bit rusty and will get off to a slow start.

Division 3

Double Dippers vs Pocket Rockets

They have the more talented team.

Mustard Tigers vs Villains

Villains are way more athletic.

Phoenix vs RawSauce NA

I don’t pick my team’s games.

Mustard Tigers vs Red Cats

Avery plays his ass off and gets his team in the win column.

Phoenix vs Pocket Rockets NA

I don’t pick my team’s games.

RawSauce vs Double Dippers

I figure by 5pm that RawSauce has been sitting around drinking all afternoon and should be an easy game for Double Dippers.

Division 4

Top Shooters vs Trolling Holers

They have the better overall team.

Bines Low Fat vs Mustard Cubs

More experience at the QB position.

Sour Peeps vs High on Audibles

Rob is the better QB who should protect the ball better.

Mustard Cubs vs Royale with Cheese

They have more speed.

Drama Club vs Udaho Idapimp

Drama Club is missing their QB.

Division 5

Bear Hood vs Mimosa Crew

Curren won’t be there so Mimosa Crew will be QBless.

Binettes vs Blue Badgers

I think they figure it out this week.

Jungle Squad vs Los Politos

Sam is the best player on the field.

Slot Machine vs Phoenix NA

I don’t pick my team’s games.

Big Booties vs Legendaries

More experienced QB.

TD Hunters vs Low Expectations

They have the better QB in Gold.

Tropic Thunder vs Legendaries

Better overall athletes.

Free Agent #1 vs Les Last Calls

They have Seb who might be the best player in the division.

Free Agent #2 vs My Ball Zach Ertz

More experience.

Those are my picks for this week, hopefully they are better

than last week’s picks.

Power Rankings

With 2 weeks down and most teams having played at least 1 game doing my rankings this week was a bit easier. Over the next few weeks, it should get easier once we really know who each team is.

Division 1

1- A-Team

2- Outlaws

3- Iron Wolves

Division 2

1- Nice TDs

2- Idaho

3- Thunder Buddies

Division 3

1- Pocket Rockets

2- Villains

3- Double Dippers

Division 4

1- Jagys and Chill

2- Bines Low Fat

3- Iron Wolves

4- High on Audibles

5- Royale with Cheese

Division 5

1- Phoenix

2- Mimosa Crew

3- Free Agent #1

4- Blue Badgers

5- Los Politos

A few teams were given the boot and that means a few teams moved up and some onto my list for the first time this fall season. I know my list isn’t perfect but it’s what you get since I’m the one ranking teams.

Final Thoughts

We are just a day away from the NFL season starting and we get to see the Lions vs the Chiefs to kickoff Thursday night football. I know I’m old and it might seem stupid to say, but I miss primetime games being good games and you had to earn one of those games. Now everyone gets them and more than half are plug ugly games. Go back to having just Monday night and Sunday night games. Tickety-boo the Thursday games until Thanksgiving like they used to be.

I know most of us were at the field on Saturday, but did you happen to catch the Colorado game? Is it possible that Deion turns that program around in just 1 season? An even better question for you is how many games can Travis Hunter play both ways before getting burnt out and having to take time off? Is it possible for him to win the Heisman or is it just going to end up in the hands of a QB like most major awards nowadays.

I’m going to let you go (ed’s note: are we on the phone or something?), but before I do remember that we are all out there to have fun and play a game, so take it easy and don’t kill anyone. See you Saturday.

Word from the Mouth: Over 10 Yards! edition

Wednesday, September 6th Kevin Kousaie

What a great weekend for football. The weather was great with loads of great games and countless players balling out looking in midseason form.

Jon posted an article about how the clocks work and if you didn’t know how they work, you should take a quick look.

Hope you all took advantage of the long weekend because you know what’s coming. Fall weather and that means rain, but even better (ed’s note: better? As in rain is a good thing?) you get all the leaves changing color and for all the pumpkin fans out there you get pumpkin spice drinks.

Recap

Division 1

Lockdown vs A-Team (25-32)

Dave struggled this week throwing 5 picks and only 3 TDs. Andrew balled out scoring 3 TDs and getting 1 pick on defense. Lockdown is a newly formed team, but all have experience playing flag and looked good most of this game. Simon played smart, not forcing many throws. In the second half it looked like A-Team was going to lose, but Andrew got his pick and returned it for the game winning TD.

Outlaws vs Iron Wolves (40-26)

Outlaws jumped up 22 points 8 minutes into the game, it looked like the game might be over early, but slowly Iron Wolves clawed back into the game. Rory and Marvin were studs for Outlaws scoring 5 TDS and 2 picks between them, it was hard for Iron Wolves to match up with that combo of height and speed. New player for Iron Wolves Isaiah was the one bright spot for Iron Wolves, scoring twice and countless blocks on defense as a rusher.

Division 2

Thunder Buddies vs Average Joes (26-18)

Defense was the big winner in this game. Between both teams there were 7 picks and 2 sacks, which made it a very low scoring game. (ed’s note: 26-18 is low scoring?)

Division 3

Mustard Tigers vs Phoenix (26-44)

What a difference a week makes for a team. Last week it looked like Phoenix shouldn’t be in D3 and this week they really stepped up on both sides of the ball. Early in the game Phoenix stepped up on defense and had short fields most of the first half. Phoenix had 5 picks and 3 sacks on defense and Khalil was up in Brian’s face all game long. At half the score was 25-6 Phoenix and in the second half the teams were even with both teams scoring 19 points. Jeremy led the way for Phoenix with 2 TDs and 3 picks, but it was a complete team effort. Alec had a rebound game from last week where he struggled to catch the ball and this week he caught everything, even bad passes. I want to apologize to Mustard Tigers for being a dick and calling timeouts late in the game when we were up, which isn’t cool. So, sorry about that.

Division 4

Bines Low Fat vs Drama Club (32-26)

Bines were only 6 players and for a roster their size, that isn’t good. JF had a good day going 20 of 28 for 206 yards and 5 TDs. Thomas balled out getting over 10 yards (ed’s note: I’m assuming this is a typo, but I’m leaving it indicating Kevin believes that over 10 yards is balling out) and scoring 3 TDs. Ben was the player that pops off the stat sheet, but Roxanne was the player Simon relied on when a play was needed. Roxanne had 8 catches and scored twice. The difference maker in this game was Shawn who had 5 sacks and was in Simon’s face most of the game.

Division 5

Slot Machine vs Drama Club (20-2)

At the start of the game, nothing was working for the two QBs. Slot machine had difficulty connecting with the snap which allowed Roxanne to have a safety on the first play while Drama Club had too many incomplete passes. Slot Machine decided to change the center and it changed everything. Drama Club had their chances as two of their interceptions put them in a really good position, but they just never managed to find their rhythm thanks to 2 interceptions and 2 sacks from Karmina.

TD Hunters vs Los Pollitos (19-25)

Los Pollitos and TD Hunters had a good game to watch. Despite dropping passes in key situations, they both found ways to put points on the board. The momentum changed sides when Samuel joined Louis-Philippe on the last play of the first half and on the first drive of the second half for two TDs (ed’s note: I have no idea what “joined” means in this context, but I picture a Voltron sort of thing). Losing by six and with 3 minutes to go, TD Hunters had time to cross the field and bring the game into overtime, but they couldn’t complete enough passes to succeed.

Phoenix vs Binettes (34-12)

Mathieu played a good game for a first timer. Julien and Mark were great for Binettes getting 10 catches for 115 yards and 2 TDs, then making 11 tackles, 2 sacks, and 1 pick on defense. What they needed was a third player to step up and make an impact. On the Phoenix Side of things their offense was led by Vince and Felix, but everyone caught the ball at least 3 times each. The difference in this game was defense. Gabe set the tone with her rushing, getting 1 sack for a safety, but forcing bad throws all day leading to 4 picks. What Phoenix did well was making tackles and not allowing YAC.

I’m sure you’ll want to know more about what happened, so wait until Wednesday night (ed’s note: that’s tonight!) and Terry will have the podcast up then.

Studs & Duds

Week 2 down and everyone is playing their asses off, so making my picks was a bit difficult. Here is who busted their ass this week to make a difference in their team’s games.

Studs

Division 1

- Rory Kelly killed it in his 2 games played. He pulled in 18 catches for 248 yards and 5 TDs. On defense he made 5 tackles and had 1 pick.

Division 2

- Max Rosenfeld had 3 catches for 29 yards and made 6 tackles and sealed the win with a pick.

Division 3

- Terry Babalis went 40 of 52 for 289 yards, 6 TDs and ran 1time for 2 yards.

Division 4

- Francis Martins caught 5 balls for 45 yards and 1 TD. Francis also made 4 tackles and had 2 picks.

Division 5

- Kordell Holness-Lightbody made 7 catches for 124 yards and 3 TDs. On defense he had a pick 2 and that’s it.

Duds

Division 1

- David Daoust 5 picks thrown.

Division 2

- Victor Okoro only 1 catch for 5 yards, for a player of your skillset you need to make a bigger impact in the game.

Division 3

- Kevin Kousaie for pulling an Armenti. So you all know what that is, it’s when you’re up late in the game and you use timeouts to score another TD and extend the lead. (ed’s note: I would 100% call unsportsmanlike conduct on this as a referee and I encourage all referees to penalize Kevin any time you feel like it)

Division 4

- Iron Wolves for allowing Kris to throw a pass which is an automatic forfeit which might hurt them come playoff time.

Division 5

- Nico Poitevin for his 3 picks and not scoring any points on offense.

There you have it, my Studs and Duds for week 2.

Congratulations if you made it, better luck next week if not.

Rules of the Game: Timing

Sunday, September 3rd Jon Evans

This is a reprint of an older article about the timing rules in the MFL, but it’s been updated to reflect some rules that have changed as well as giving some more clear examples of how things work.

So, if you want to know about how the clocks in the MFL work, read on!

The Game Clock

MFL games are played in two halves of 22 minutes of partial stop time each.

That seems pretty straight forward, but a lot of people aren’t sure of what is meant by ‘partial stop time’. Well, the game clock starts and stops as follows:

- The game clock is stopped at the start of the game until the first snap of the ball, unless the referee has deemed that the scheduled game start time has passed and will indicate to the time keeper to start the game clock.

- The game clock is stopped on all scoring plays and remains stopped through the convert (if applicable) and only starts again on the first snap of the ball after the change of possession.

- The game clock stops on all changes of possession and remains stopped until the first snap after the turnover. So, if you get that late interception for that one last chance to drive down and win the game, you don’t need to call a timeout!

- The game clock CAN be stopped on all penalties. The non-offending team can choose to stop the clock after accepting the penalty, but they must inform the officials that they wish to stop the clock, otherwise it will continue to run.

- The game clock will also be stopped during the administration of a penalty. So while the refs are discussing the call and moving the bags, the game clock is not running!

- The game clock stops on all timeouts called and remains stopped until the next time the ball is in play. Timeouts last 15 seconds, and the referee will blow the play in once they have deemed both teams are ready, assuming they get ready in a reasonable amount of time!

- The game clock always starts running on a snap of the ball, except for during convert attempts.

Okay, so that covers the game clock. Simple enough, right?

The Play Clock

There are of course two clocks in football, so now we’ll cover the play clock.

The play clock determines how much time an offensive team has to put the ball into play before being called for delay of game. Here’s everything you need to know about the play clock:

- The play clock is generally started at 45 seconds.

- The play clock begins counting down for a play as soon as the previous play is over. This is why teams often find themselves running low on time after longer plays since they are losing time while they get to the distant huddle.

Teams face this issue at all levels of football, but it’s part of the game! In fact, this timing is exactly what is done in the NFL.

- The play clock starts at 25 seconds on all plays where the clock is not started until the ready for play whistle is blown.This encompasses:

- A convert attempt

- The first play after a convert attempt is completed

- The first play after a turnover

The only exception to this is at the start of a half where the play clock begins at 45 seconds when the ready for play whistle is blown.

The clock is shorter on these plays because it only starts once the bags have been placed and the referee has blown the play in, rather than as soon as the last play ended. The length of time it takes the referees to place the bags and for teams to get ready on these plays is often much longer than a normal play, so 45 seconds might be too short, but it would be too long if we gave 45 seconds once the play was in fact ready.

The End of a Half

The last timing rule that seems to confuse some players is how the “Last Play” system works.

In the MFL, once the game clock reaches zero time remaining, the next play blown in by the referee will be announced as the last play. “Last Play” will always be announced before the play is blown in, so both teams should always be aware that it is the last play of the half.

Here’s a couple of examples:

- The game clock is at 5 seconds and counting down, at 3 seconds left the referee blows the play in. During the play the clock reaches 0 seconds. Before the next play is blown in, the referee will announce that the upcoming play is the last play.

- The game clock is at 10 seconds and counting. The referees are in the process of placing the bags and leaving the field. Before the referee can signal ready for play the time expires, so before whistling the play in, the referee announces that it is the last play.

So you can see that the timing of when a play is blown in is very important at the end of a half! If a ref blows a play in with 1 second left then there are two plays left, but if they only get it in a second later, it’s the last play!

So, that raises the question of when is the play blown in? For a play to be blown in, it requires the following:

- The bags are set for the upcoming play

- Both referees are in position

- The entirety of the offense and the football are behind the line of scrimmage

This last point can lead to some interesting clock manipulation. For example, let’s say that the offense wants the next play to be the last play of the half and there are 20 seconds left after a play. Let’s say that it’s fourth down at midfield and the offense just wants to throw it up one time, but they don’t want to give the other team the chance to do the same. Well, if they just have one player wait on the defensive side of the line of scrimmage until the play clock reaches zero, they can then get onside and the referee will announce that it’s last play before blowing it in. This is because there are zero seconds on the clock and the referee could not blow the play in until the offense was onside. This may seem like a small thing, but I have seen it done right and wrong many times in my career as a player and a referee!

I hope that makes everything about timing in the MFL completely clear to all our players!