The MVP Case for Jamie Graham: is the secret to his winning weekend grinding at the gym?
Holy Bag Brawl. Holy Jamie. Holy Fire Cornhole??? One of my early favorites (look back at the power rankings preview we did) Jamie Graham steamrolled this weekend winning the final 21-2 against Tony Smith. Let me repeat, 21-2 against. Tony. Smith. In the words of Stugotz, Jamie Graham… is… baaaaaaaaack.
Against 9 other professional cornhole players, Jamie gave up, on average, 6.67 points per game. That’s incredible. You can’t dream up a better performance. If I won all of my Thursday League matches 21-6 or 21-7 I would telling the local pros they’ll be seeing me on TV soon.
In the final against Tony Smith, Graham played nearly perfect. Smith had the unfortunate reality that we have all had, his bags were typically an inch or two in the wrong spot and it created bully bag opportunities. Graham knocked pounced on these opportunities, turning difficult push shot opportunities for Smith into out of play bags. It’s a very frustrating game to play against when roll shots and bully bags throw wrenches into your planned next shot and Tony took a few risks that didn’t pay off. Jamie Graham played at a level few can reach for an entire weekend against this level of talent.
Credit American Cornhole League
Credit American Cornhole League
In doubles, The GOAT and Graham won the final 22-16 against Creekkiller and Foreman (what a name pairing, it just sounds like a movie amiright?) on a Matt Guy step-out slide shot 4-bagger to win the round 12-7 and to complete the weekend sweep for Graham. An extremely impressive shot for anyone that snuck around a Foreman bag halfway in the hole, but Guy made it look easy per usual.
This kind of performance leaves me with a few questions, like, when will Fire Cornhole get more respect amongst baggers? Will Fire Cornhole ever give up it’s stranglehold on the field? And who knew a Planet Fitness membership would net Jamie a 1.11 DPR and a shocking 6.67 PAPG (points allowed per game)? Myself, I’m hoping to see this performance roll (ha, get it) into the rest of the season.
-Andrew