European League of Football Week 4 Standouts

This week in the European League of Football was rather predictable in most of the games. There were some standouts of course, but fewer than previous weeks, especially considering last week’s viewing. This could be because of the lack of close games as this week there was only a single one-score game. That’s more than the usual number, but many familiar names will appear in this rendition of the standout performances due to the bigger teams continuing to cruise through the lower-level competition. As is fairly clear, there is such a big gap between the top 4-5 teams and everyone else. Let’s see who performed this week.

Surge Defensive Unit

Now this certainly was not predictable! Firstly, all six of the AFI prognosticators had predicted that the Raiders would come out on top against the Surge. Secondly, it seemed most people in the sphere of ELF media had it being a back-and-forth high scoring affair. That’s not what happened, to say the least. The Surge locked the door on possibly the best offensive unit in the league. It’s hard to name every player on that defense that had certain moments, but Zec was standout alongside the DBs that are currently the only team that’s managed to contain the McClam, Haun, and Schneider receiver trio. The front seven kept the running game extremely limited and got after Raiders QB Christian Strong for four sacks which stifled any progression that Tirol tried to make. The Surge may have been somewhat of a question mark to some people before, but no longer. They have more wins this season than the last two years combined.

Tomiwa Oyewo – Munich Ravens

Oyewo is another player who has been a fairly regular feature in these series because he just simply keeps on putting up numbers. It was expected that he would be a big part of the rushing and receiving offense and yesterday that was in full effect once again. He had both a 70 + yard rushing touchdown and a 60 + yard receiving touchdown. Combined with the consistent yards he was picking up all game he had 212 yards and 3 TDs. It was a comeback after a quieter performance last week. This was also a dismantling of a Dragons team that still had hype around them even after their recent loss to the Raiders. Oyewo ran all over them for 148 rushing yards and two touchdowns on close to 10 yards per carry. Teams are starting to conclude you can slow down Oyewo or Castle, but not both, and not for long.

Tony Tate / Matt Vitale / Dawid Brzozowski – Wroclaw Panthers

Tate needs to allow other receivers to be on these lists. Another awe-inspiring performance for 174 Yards and 4 TDs. He is unquestionably in the top 1% of the receivers in this league. Vitale, of course, was on fire again going for six touchdowns, 283 yards on the day and a perfect passing rating, he is continuing to defy everyone’s preseason expectations.

Brzozowski also added another key performance for his surprising breakout season, 104 yards and two touchdowns. All three players are probably near the top of the MVP or OPOTY conversations. The only reason they are not higher on this list is that the Enthroners are a torrid team defensively and have lost one of their best defenders in French LB Fernandez.

Malik Stanley – Hamburg Sea Devils

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— Hamburg Sea Devils (@SeaDevilsHH) June 26, 2023

In some spaces of the media, it was suggested that the Sea Devils were not using Stanley as effectively as they could have. Coming into this game he did have 256 yards and only a single touchdown, so it was a valid concern, even more so with the slower start than what was expected from the two time champion contenders. Until he dropped 116 yards and 4 TDs on the Berlin Thunder. He caught every touchdown that Haire threw, had double the yards of any other receiver on the team (who was actually a running back) and was the leading offensive player in the whole game. Safe to say they used him effectively in this one.

Reece Horn – Frankfurt Galaxy

This was the other surprise that was alluded to earlier, Frankfurt rather comfortably dealt with the Musketeers. Cluley deserves a mention for coming into a team where they’ve lost their franchise QB and performed to a very high standard, with 297 passing yards and 3 TDs on the French defense. Horn was responsible for 186 yards and a touchdown of that production; he was the leading skill position player by over 100 yards, so he was an easy inclusion on this week’s list. He has had a slightly slower start than expected but with this performance, he has more than tripled his seasonal numbers.

Honorable Mentions

Another largely offensive collective of players as the league struggles on defense for the most part, but some players performed very well but didn’t quite make the cut of the elite performances.

Juan Flores-Calderon – Milano Seamen (147 Receiving Yards, 1 TDs)

Benjamin Plu – Fehervar Enthroners (167 Receiving Yards, 2 TDs)

Jadrian Clark – Rhein Fire (335 Yards, 6 TDs, 1 INT)

Lee Pitts – Wroclaw Panther (2 INTs, 3 Breakups, 1 TD)

Weston Carr – Vienna Vikings (113 Receiving Yards, 3 TDs)