BEVERLY HILLS, MICHIGAN – Something special filled the air Thursday night – a cloud that brewed confidence into some, and shakiness into others. It was a night of blown leads, huge comebacks and clutch shots in big moments. Game 1 set the trend for the night when Kentucky Mike and Abbey held a 15-10 lead over Matt H. and Flowers, yet could not close the game, or even score another point, ultimately losing 21-15.
Four additional games followed the same theme – one team notched at least 15 points while hanging on to a lead, yet ended up losing the game.
- Game 8 – Paul and Abbey appeared firmly in control with a 17-9 lead, while Nick and Roger were wobbly from taking so many early punches to the mouth. Then Nick and Roger collected themselves and ripped off a 12-0 run to win the game, 21-17.
- Game 9 – We’ll have more on this later in the recap, but Craig and Joe had a commanding 15-1 lead over Flowers and Mike R. Somehow, they lost that game 21-18.
- Game 15 – Another one that will be discussed in more detail momentarily…Kentucky Mike and Mike R. had a 17-10 advantage over Roger and Craig. Take a wild guess what happened next – that’s right, Roger and Craig roared back for a 21-19 victory.
- Game 22 – Turley and Paul were on the cusp of a dominating win, leading JG and Kentucky Mike 19-10. Blowing a 19-10 lead is painful, usually accompanied by giving up big chunk rounds. That’s not what happened in this game. JG and Kentucky Mike clawed all the way back for the win, doing so across the final six rounds of the game, a feat that seems almost impossible considering 48 total bags were thrown during that stretch and Turley and Paul could not manage tallying two final points. JG scored seven of his team’s points during the comeback, while Kentucky Mike pitched in five points, including the finishing touch with an 8-5 round over Turley.
The games mentioned above almost had company from five more games of the same pattern. However, the leading teams recovered after blowing late-game advantages and still won the game. Chaos. That’s the best way to describe this week.
GAME OF THE NIGHT
Not surprisingly, Game 9 takes honors for Game of the Night. The ending has been spoiled, but let’s revisit the details of how this one unfolded.
As a reminder, this was a showdown between Craig and Joe against Flowers and Mike R. (or “Big Mike”).
Even though Joe came out firing, averaging 6.25 points per round (“PPR”) through his first four rounds, Big Mike battled pretty evenly during that stretch, only giving up five points.
Craig was the monster who couldn’t be contained in the early part of this match – he tallied 10 points for his team thanks to dominating rounds of 9-3 and 10-6 against Flowers. Those big chunks, combined with Joe chipping away against Big Mike, yielded an early, dominating 15-1 lead.
In the ninth round, Flowers collected three points against Craig, followed by Big Mike collecting three more points in the 10th round. In the 11th round, Flowers scored two more points, suddenly cutting their deficit to 15-9.
Despite Craig’s early dominance, he continued to hemorrhage points in the middle parts of this match, giving up three points in round 13 and four more points in round 15. Joe attempted to halt all of this momentum with a point here, point there, but the tsunami was already hitting land.
When Big Mike added three more points against Joe in the 16th round it gave his team a 19-18 lead, capping a ridiculous 18-3 run while rebounding from the early 15-1 deficit.
In the 17th round of this marathon, Flowers drained a cornhole and muddied the board with his other three bags, causing Craig to chase hero shots in order to stay in the game. He couldn’t connect, missing two airmails and a tough push shot, ultimately only landing one bag on the board. Flowers’ 6-1 advantage was the final nail in the coffin, wrapping up one of the most amazing runs we’ve seen this season in a comeback victory (and “choke” for Joe and Craig).
During the 23-3 run, Flowers scored 17 of his team’s points, helping him win the head-to-head battle against Craig, despite Craig’s dominating start to the game.
MUSHROOM STAMP MOMENT
Let’s rewind to Game 15, where Kentucky Mike and Big Mike held a 17-10 lead over Roger and Craig
through 10 rounds of action. Roger’s 10-4 advantage in the 11th round tightened the score, 17-16, followed by Craig tacking on three more points in the 12th round (7-4 advantage), giving his team a 19-17 lead.
Kentucky Mike bounced back nicely with a 10-8 win in round 13 against Roger, tying the game at 19-19 and setting the stage for the Mushroom Stamp Moment (“MSM”). Craig found the bottom of the hole four times in the most clutch moment of the game. Meanwhile, Big Mike couldn’t keep up, scoring just four points of his own.
Craig’s four-bagger with the game tied 19-19 earns this week’s MSM, and frankly there was no other moment that could compete for MSM honors. For good measure, Craig posted the best PPR of all four players during the match, shooting 6.43 points per round.
This week’s box score is below.
| Week 4 Power Rank | Name | Week 4 Wins | Week 4 Losses | Week 4 Win % | Week 4 Saves | Week 4 Chokes | Week 4 Comebacks | Week 4 KPM | Week 4 Gross Points Per Round | Week 4 Toss Accruacy | Week 4 Cornholes Per Round | Week 4 Cornholes | Week 4 Cornholes Per Game | Week 4 Gross Points | Week 4 Gross Points Per Game | Week 4 Net Points For | Week 4 Net Points Against | Week 4 Net Points For Per Game | Week 4 Net Points Against Per Game | Week 4 Net Point Differential | Week 4 Foot Snags |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roger | 3 | 2 | 60% | 1 | - | 1 | 19.9 | 6.2 | 81% | 1.5 | 45 | 9.0 | 187 | 37.4 | 97 | 80 | 19.4 | 16.0 | 3.4 | 0 |
| 2 | Matt H. | 6 | 0 | 100% | 5 | - | - | 19.6 | 6.1 | 73% | 1.6 | 52 | 8.7 | 201 | 33.5 | 126 | 49 | 21.0 | 8.2 | 12.8 | 0 |
| 3 | KP | 4 | 4 | 50% | 2 | - | - | 19.5 | 6.1 | 76% | 1.5 | 77 | 9.6 | 310 | 38.8 | 144 | 147 | 18.0 | 18.4 | (0.4) | 0 |
| 4 | Nick | 9 | 1 | 90% | 6 | - | - | 19.4 | 6.1 | 79% | 1.5 | 100 | 10.0 | 414 | 41.4 | 204 | 134 | 20.4 | 13.4 | 7.0 | 0 |
| 5 | Jake | 5 | 4 | 56% | 5 | - | - | 19.4 | 6.0 | 72% | 1.6 | 75 | 8.3 | 288 | 32.0 | 131 | 134 | 14.6 | 14.9 | (0.3) | 0 |
| 6 | Kentucky Mike | 3 | 5 | 38% | 2 | 1 | - | 19.4 | 6.1 | 80% | 1.4 | 65 | 8.1 | 274 | 34.3 | 142 | 141 | 17.8 | 17.6 | 0.1 | 0 |
| 7 | Turley | 4 | 5 | 44% | 3 | - | - | 18.9 | 6.0 | 83% | 1.3 | 68 | 7.6 | 306 | 34.0 | 159 | 156 | 17.7 | 17.3 | 0.3 | 0 |
| 8 | Joe S. | 4 | 2 | 67% | 4 | 1 | - | 18.5 | 5.8 | 73% | 1.4 | 46 | 7.7 | 185 | 30.8 | 106 | 67 | 17.7 | 11.2 | 6.5 | 0 |
| 9 | Paul G. | 2 | 6 | 25% | 2 | - | - | 18.2 | 5.8 | 83% | 1.3 | 65 | 8.1 | 302 | 37.8 | 118 | 142 | 14.8 | 17.8 | (3.0) | 0 |
| 10 | Mike R. | 3 | 4 | 43% | - | 1 | 1 | 15.6 | 5.0 | 68% | 1.1 | 49 | 7.0 | 218 | 31.1 | 115 | 134 | 16.4 | 19.1 | (2.7) | 0 |
| 11 | JG | 7 | 4 | 64% | 4 | - | - | 15.1 | 4.9 | 72% | 1.0 | 61 | 5.5 | 301 | 27.4 | 192 | 194 | 17.5 | 17.6 | (0.2) | 0 |
| 12 | Flowers | 4 | 5 | 44% | - | - | 1 | 13.3 | 4.3 | 64% | 0.9 | 51 | 5.7 | 253 | 28.1 | 141 | 176 | 15.7 | 19.6 | (3.9) | 0 |
| 13 | Craig F. | 1 | 8 | 11% | - | 1 | 1 | 13.1 | 4.1 | 56% | 1.0 | 55 | 6.1 | 240 | 26.7 | 111 | 187 | 12.3 | 20.8 | (8.4) | 0 |
| 14 | Abbey | 1 | 6 | 14% | - | - | - | 13.1 | 4.2 | 62% | 0.9 | 35 | 5.0 | 172 | 24.6 | 94 | 139 | 13.4 | 19.9 | (6.4) | 0 |