By Noam Gumerman

The Carolina Flyers host the Las Vegas Bighorns with a chance to secure a spot in the UFA playoffs on the line. The Flyers come in as one of the best teams in the league so far in 2026, fresh off a dominant win over Houston last weekend, and sitting at 7-2, second in the South Division. The Las Vegas Bighorns enter the weekend as one of the UFA’s last two winless teams.

It’s a tale of two teams who couldn’t be on more different trajectories. Their paths diverged back in Week One, with a dominant Carolina win to move to 2-0 and drop Las Vegas to 0-1. But since the first week on, Carolina has only added pieces and put together even more impressive performances. 

Late arrivals Zeke Thoreson and Tobias Brooks have made huge impacts on the Flyers O-line since coming over from the college division (and Colorado Apex last year). An O-line that was already among one of the best in the league thanks to longtime stars like Allan Laviolette, Jacob Fairfax, and Garyson Sanner, and the emergence of breakout star Jacob Louie. 

The defense is rolling into this matchup on one of their best games of the year as well, forcing Houston into 30 turnovers and holding them to just 11 points. Matt Tucker is the hot hand heading into this weekend’s game, fresh off a dominant +10 performance which included a sick callahan early in the game too. 

The Flyers will be heavy favorites to take the win and one of the three South Division playoff spots, as they look to keep pace with the first-place and still undefeated Austin Sol. Tougher games are on the horizon as Carolina will close the season out with two tough games against Atlanta and Austin. Tune in to watchufa.tv for all the action or catch the game in person at Durham County Stadium.