Derwin James vs. The World & King of the Hill - Week 3 Recap

It was an interesting week in Madden competition, that was for sure.

In King of the Hill, we had returning champs looking to keep their winning streak alive with Pavan Lakhat and Las Vegas Raiders Henry Ruggs III. And of course, there was Derwin James, who has been untouchable this season, actually looked beatable for the first time.

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Let’s go over what happened this week.

If you missed the first two episodes of Derwin vs. The World, then you missed him defeat Lil Baby and Quavo by a combined score of 97-3. Point being, Derwin is pretty good at Madden 21.

Enter three-time Grammy Award winner Darius Rucker. Rucker was playing Madden NFL and topping the charts since before Derwin was born. He’d even competed in celebrity tournaments back in the day.

As it turns out, Rucker can still play. Keeping the score down to just 7-0 at the end of the first half. In the second half, he managed a pick six, making this the first touchdown scored on Derwin the whole season.

To Derwin’s credit, he was never nervous. He even punted to Rucker with two minutes left in the game to make things interesting. In the final seconds, Rucker threw an incomplete pass in the endzone, and the game ended 14-7 Derwin.

He might’ve left with an L, but Rucker showed that maybe Derwin can be defeated. He even gave a shout out to Derwin’s next opponent, Lil Yachty, and openly said Derwin couldn’t handle zone coverage in the nickel.

I guess we’ll have to see. 

K’Lavon Chaisson vs Henry Ruggs III

The story of the NFL rookie bracket has been the growth of Henry Ruggs III as a Madden gamer. With each win, Ruggs’ skill grows.

His new challenger this week was K’Lavon Chaisson, an absurdly gifted defensive end and first round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Chaisson wanted to send a message early, making aggressive throws and trying to expose Ruggs’ defensive scheme.

Chaisson was determined to put Ruggs on his heels with his passing attack, but Ruggs came away with some early INTs. Chaisson then had to play catchup and forced some ill advised throws that led to even more turnovers.

Ruggs continues to dominate the competition in the NFL rookies bracket. His next opponent is Los Angeles Chargers’ LB Kenneth Murray. We’ll see if Murray gets some game-winning pointers from his teammate, Derwin James. Otherwise, the Ruggs-train might just keep rolling. 

Pavan vs CleffTheGod

The first quarter was very methodical between these two elite MCS competitors.

Pavan opened up with some runs to grind some yards and get a look at Cleff’s defensive scheme. But before Pavan could get a quality read, Cleff came away with an outstanding User Pick to halt Pavan’s opening drive.

But just as it did last week, Pavan’s defense was on point. Pavan came away with two pick-sixes in the first quarter, going up 14-0 before in the first quarter.

Cleff would not be deterred. He went to work on offense and came up with a huge bomb for the game’s first offensive score to make it 14-7. That was the score going into the second half.

The heavy defensive battle continued in the second half as Cleff came away with a field goal after a big drive. Pavan was marching in the fourth quarter, approaching the two-minute warning. He went for it on fourth down to keep the drive alive, but Cleff came up with a critical sack for excellent field position.

But in the end, it was Pavan’s defense that saved the day. For the second week straight, Pavan won a couple close battles, this one without a single offensive point and less than 50 yards of offense. He’s going to need to get things going if he wants to advance beyond next week. But in the meantime, Pavan has been putting up a defensive clinic.

- Daniel Williams (Follow Dan on Twitter @thatDanW)

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