Aubrey gets his kicks, Miller Time gets to 4-3, and Sunday at Sports Ballers is a rematch

Jim Miller did the arithmetic for me Monday morning, before anyone had kicked a ball in Philadelphia.

"Tonight is simple arithmetic," he said. "We're 4.34 behind, my kicker against their Downs, so I need Brandon to outscore him by five. What I'm watching is the same thing I always watch: does he make the kicks he's given. Dallas has to get him in range, and that part isn't up to me."

Dallas got him in range. Brandon Aubrey scored 13 points Monday night, It's Miller Time beat Likely 2 Punt 97.86 to 93.2, and Miller Time is 4-3. Miller Time went into the night at 84.86, and Aubrey's 13 took it to 97.86. Likely 2 Punt went in at 89.2 with only Downs left and finished four points higher. Jim asked for five. He got nine.

I've spent most of two weeks writing about that kicker, and about the call Jim made to keep starting him while Tyler Bass was putting up bigger weeks on the bench. So let me say this plainly, because fair has to cut both ways: on the one night it was all on him, the veteran delivered, and the owner who stood by him gets the win. Jim also told me Monday to ask him the kicker question after the final, and he'd answer it. The final is in. I'll be asking this week, and you'll read what he says here.

What the win buys

Here's what 4-3 means on Sunday. Sports Ballers beat the Fumblers 108.72 to 76.38, and the Fumblers came into the week as the best team in the Diablo. That makes Sports Ballers 6-1 and still unbeaten inside the Remote. Miller Time is two games back, not three, and goes to Sports Ballers on Sunday for the biggest regular-season game it has played this year.

A correction I owe you

On Sunday night I called this the first meeting with the Remote leader. It isn't, and I should have caught it. These two teams opened the season against each other in Week 1. Sports Ballers haven't lost a division game, and Miller Time's one division loss came in that opener, so Sports Ballers won the first one.

That changes what Sunday is. It's a rematch, and it matters past the standings. The league's second tiebreaker, right after winning percentage, is head-to-head. Lose on Sunday and Miller Time is three games back with Sports Ballers owning that tiebreaker outright, and a three-game lead with the tiebreaker in your pocket plays a lot like a lead of four. Win, and the season series is split, the gap is one game, and the Remote is a race again.

That's what Monday night was worth. Without Aubrey's nine-point edge, Sunday would have been about hanging on. Now it's about catching up.

What Jim said about Sunday

I asked Miller about Week 8 before Monday's game, and he gave me the answer I expected from him, which is not a criticism.

"Sports Ballers are two games up, and a division game counts twice in a race like this," he said, "but I don't rebuild a plan for one opponent. We set the chart on who's producing and who's healthy, same as every week."

That's Jim. Over the last week he's told me he picks on the whole body of work, that he writes down a short run instead of trading on it, and that he doesn't sign names, he signs production per dollar. A man that consistent isn't going to throw out his chart because the opponent has a better record.

And he's right that it counts twice. A win takes one off their column and puts one in his. I'd only push back a little on the second half. A game that counts twice is the one week I'd want an owner to look twice at the small calls, the ones nobody thinks about until they decide a Sunday. Monday night was a small call deciding a week, and this time it broke Jim's way. That doesn't mean it always will, and it doesn't mean it won't.

The one change he did name is a return. Montez Sweat, the Chicago pass rusher, has been serving a suspension. Miller said Monday that it runs through this week, and that "when the league posts him reinstated, he goes back on the chart." It hasn't posted yet. If it does, Sunday is the week to have him.

What the other side looks like

Casey Monroe, who covers the Remote division for BSN, put it well on Monday, while the Fumblers game was still being played out. In his view, Sports Ballers' showing against the Fumblers was the strongest evidence yet that they're the real thing. But one week doesn't tell him how they match up with Miller Time's defense, which had allowed the fewest points in the league through Week 6. He said he'd hold his Week 8 read until Tuesday, and I've learned to trust a reporter who knows when not to guess.

I agree with him, and I'll go one step further. All year this team has been built to keep the other side off the board, with Roquan Smith and Alex Singleton at linebacker and Trey Hendrickson up front. Sports Ballers score. Miller Time stops people. One of those identities has to give a little on Sunday, and I'd rather be the team with the defense when it does.

My take: Sports Ballers are the better team on the record, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But the gap on the field is smaller than the gap in the standings, and they haven't been tested by a defense like this one since the opener. If Sweat is back, I like Miller Time's chances more than the standings say I should.

The rest of the stretch

After Sunday it's at IR Kings, who beat Fifth Quarter 98.7 to 77.3 behind 21.5 points from Javonte Williams and are 3-4. Then it's home against Kamehameha, who just beat All Strong 113.08 to 107.02 and look like a team that's decided not to be anybody's easy week. That's three straight division games, and none of them matters like the first one.

It started in Week 1 against Sports Ballers. It may get decided in Week 8 against the same team. Monday night made sure Miller Time shows up to that one with a chance, and that's more than Jim had in hand when he did the arithmetic on Monday morning.