Derwin James vs. The World & King of the Hill - Week 4 Recap

The show is called Derwin James vs. The World for a reason. It wasn’t until last week where it looked like Derwin might be beatable at Madden NFL 21. But after days of hearing about how Derwin might get his, he clearly wanted to send a message.

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Let’s get on with it.

Lil Yachty started driving and it looked like we were going to have a contested game. But as we’ve learned this season, you cannot throw it deep on Derwin. Something about that ball in the air makes Derwin hungry. Maybe it’s just a thing for NFL safeties. But deep passes just don’t work.

It ended … well … it ended. 

Yachty was an exceptional sport about this. But it’s become clear that Derwin doesn’t want to just win, he wants to prove he’s the best. He’s also proven that it’s physically impossible for him not to lean on that gas pedal. 

Henry Ruggs III vs. Kenneth Murray

Henry Ruggs III has been plowing through the competition since Week 1 of King of the Hill. Not only has he been relentless on offense, but his defensive skills have skyrocketed each week. Through the first three matchups, Ruggs has outscored his opponents 61-6.

It was more of the same this week as he faced incoming challenger, Los Angeles Chargers’ Kenneth Murray. Ruggs was scoring at will and took advantage of Murray’s deep throws to come away with INT after INT.

Henry may have tossed another challenger aside 49-7, but the story for him was the dropped passes. Ruggs’ own Madden counterpart dropped a couple passes, including one in the endzone. Ruggs was … unhappy with his Catch rating.

We’ll have to see if there are any adjustments made.

Beyond that, Ruggs moves on to his next opponent, Denver Broncos’ Jerry Jeudy. Ruggs and Jeudy were also teammates back at Alabama, so this one has some history behind it. 

Pavan vs. Joke

Speaking of matchups with some history, following Ruggs’ convincing win was a battle between two of the most talented players in the Madden Championship Series. Both Pavan and Joke are belt winners and are looking to start this season with a statement by winning it all in King of the Hill.

Part of Pavan’s struggle last week was offense. He just couldn’t get much going, which is not what you want in your head when you’re going up against Joke. Joke came down with two huge INTs in the first quarter. Those turnovers proved costly, as they led directly to Joke’s early 14-0 lead.

Pavan started to answer though, throwing a massive TD on 4th and 2 to make it a one-score game. He followed that with a big 4th down stop, giving him excellent field position with a minute to go in the first half. That gave Pavan a field goal to make the score 14-10 at halftime.

Joke received the ball in the third quarter, but was forced to punt. Pavan answered again with a long drive that ate up the rest of the quarter and kicked it through the uprights to bring the game to 14-13.

With Pavan locked in, Joke’s offense began to struggle a bit. But his defense remained strong, coming away with an INT and continued to pound the rock with Bo Jackson to make it 21-13.

That gave Pavan the ball with under two minutes left and just a single time out left. He started chipping away yards with Michael Vick under center. But before Pavan could really start moving, Joke’s stellar defense came through once more with another clutch INT. Joke not only took away $8K for the win, but he dethroned Pavan and is the current King of the Hill.

- Daniel Williams (Follow Dan on Twitter @thatDanW)

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