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+---- Thread: *The Philadelphia Liberty's Post Season History (/showthread.php?tid=22283)
*The Philadelphia Liberty's Post Season History - Blasoon - 05-20-2020
The Philadelphia Liberty and the post season aren’t two topics that are normally put together in the same sentence, in fact, Ephenssta and I both laughed when I brought up writing about this topic. However, it should be noted that the Liberty have had some interesting post season history, and broke new ground for the National Simulation Football League.
2018 – Season Three
In only their second season as a team, the Liberty were able to reach the playoff stage with a record of eight wins, five losses and one draw. Season three saw an incredible ending to the season with the Liberty winning seven of their last eight games. Season three also set the foundation for the Philadelphia/Baltimore rivalry, as Baltimore won the first game thirteen to ten, Philadelphia won the second game thirty-one to fourteen. Finally, in the National Simulation Football Conference Championship Game, the Baltimore Hawks won the rubber match between the two with a humiliating score of thirty-four to three.
2019 – Season Four
Season four saw the team get a slight measure of revenge heading into the playoffs against the Baltimore Hawks as their two wins against the Hawks allowed the Liberty to advance to the playoffs, despite both teams having a record of seven wins and seven losses. The Liberty would lose a heart-breaking game in the National Simulation Football Conference Championship Game against the Yellowknife Wraiths; losing twenty-six to twenty in overtime. What made it more devastating to Liberty fans was that they had been leading seventeen to three until the fourth quarter.
2021 – Season Six
Season six saw the Liberty’s best season to date. After being painfully kept out of the playoffs by the Baltimore Hawks in a similar fashion to the way the season four playoff picture unfolded, the Philadelphia Liberty won their division with a record of nine wins and five losses. The Liberty would also get a measure of revenge on the Wraiths, beating them in the National Simulation Football Conference Championship Game thirty-one to twenty-one. However, their first Ultimus Bowl visit would go awry, losing to the American Simulation Football Conference Champions, the Orange County Otters, twenty-three to seventeen.
2022 – Season Seven
In season seven, the Philadelphia Liberty achieved the best record in franchise history, winning ten of their fourteen games. The most notable of these wins would have been their week two win against the Colorado Yeti, beating them forty-six to thirteen or their week eight match up against the San Jose Sabercats, winning forty-four to thirteen. However, it should be noted that the Liberty’s record only gave them the second seed in the division. Despite this, the Liberty were able to establish a ‘Minutemen mentality’ First going to the frozen tundras of Yellowknife and exorcising the wraiths by beating them forty to thirty-one to win the National Simulation Football Conference Championship Game. Next, they travelled down to Orange County, and busted the Otters’ dam, becoming the first away team to win the Ultimus Bowl in league history.
However, the legacy of this Ultimus would be tarred by the Liberty’s inability to reach the playoffs for the next four years, which included a painful tiebreaker exclusion from the playoffs, and a fourteen loss, winless season.
2027 – Season Twelve
After four long years, the Liberty were able to overcome the pain of the winless season and three years of barely missing the playoffs and secure the second seed in the National Simulation Football Conference with a record of seven wins and seven losses. However, the city of brotherly love would be forlorn as their reunion with the playoffs would be cut short by an old rival in the Baltimore Hawks. In a devastating overtime loss, the Liberty were stopped from getting to the Ultimus Bowl thirty to twenty-four.
2028 – Season Thirteen
One year removed from a strong regular season, the Liberty would entrench themselves as a post season regular with an eight-win, six loss season. They would tie for the first seed in the conference, but ultimately be relegated to second seed through tiebreaker rules. Ultimately, in a conference championship game filled with big plays and high scoring offences, a seventeen point rally in the fourth quarter would prove to be too little too late, as the Liberty were beaten, fifty to twenty-seven by the Colorado Yeti.
2029 – Season Fourteen
By now, the Liberty had a pattern that they were unfortunately cuffed to. They would perform well in the season, even rack up some wins against the dynasties of the league, like in week eleven, when they beat the incumbent Ultimus Bowl champions the Orange County Otters thirty-one to nineteen. But near the season, the team would appear to not be able to maintain their momentum, losing their last three games and finishing the season with a nine and five record, and then facing long term rivals Baltimore Hawks in the Conference Championship Game. In any other season, this Philadelphia Liberty would have been stomped by the eleven and three Hawks; a team that were riding a five win streak into the post season. However, in a back and forth game which saw three lead changes in the first half alone, The Liberty were able to keep pace with the Hawks and mount a fourth quarter comeback to recover from the greater than ten point deficit that they had been suffering from to tie the game up with five minutes left. A crucial sack from Curtis Saul on Childish Gambino on third down would force Baltimore to punt and allow Kulture Fulture to kick a game winning field goal with nineteen seconds left in the game. Unfortunately, the Liberty would not be able to relay that success to the Ultimus Bowl, losing to San Jose thirty-six to twenty-four, however, I believe that this season firmly secured the Liberty as a sleeping giant team, that when provoked by the cracked bell tolling, would awake and pursue victory with a revolutionary precision.
2030 – Season Fifteen
Season fifteen went rather typically for the Liberty. They were able to secure a playoff berth with an eight and six record. Along the way they achieved a modicum of revenge against the San Jose Sabercats by shutting them out in week nine, twenty to nothing. However, there were just too many inconsistencies from the team, losing games to middling teams like the (seven and seven) Wraiths or the (six and eight) Outlaws. Ultimately, whilst this team made the playoffs, they were simply no match for the twelve and two Hawks. They would go on to lose the conference championship game thirty-four to thirteen. I would argue, however, that the worse feeling came a week later when they were forced to watch their rivals, the Hawks, win the most dominant Ultimus Bowl in league history, forty-nine to nothing.
2031 – Season Sixteen
Season sixteen marked a new era of change for both the league and the Liberty. Two new teams were introduced to the league; those teams being the Chicago Butchers and the Austin Copperheads. The expansion draft also had wider implications, marking the beginning of the end for Philly’s status as a perennial playoff contender. After scraping a seven win, six loss season, the Liberty won the tiebreaker against the similarly dispositioned Hawks, to enter the playoffs as the number three seed in the conference. In a game whose lead swung more than a pendulum, the Liberty were able to stay one step ahead of the Wraiths from up North, beating them thirty-five to thirty-four. They next met the number one seeded Butchers in the Conference Championship Game. Philly’s dominance in the third and fourth quarters would see them win their fourth Conference championship forty-seven to thirty-four. But as most of you know, this would not be a Philadelphia post season without some heartbreak. The season sixteen Ultimus Bowl game was contended by two teams holding a barely over five hundred record of seven wins and six losses. In a game where the Liberty fought back from a fourteen point deficit, they were ultimately undone with just ninety seconds left on the clock when Andrew Reese connected with Jeffrey Murphy for an eleven yard touchdown.
That would mark the last time that the Philadelphia Liberty would be in the playoffs. Since that fateful Ultimus Bowl, the Liberty have been at or near the bottom of the conference. However, as we are celebrating the team’s twentieth season, it should be commended that the Liberty have made the post season nine times in nineteen seasons. It should be commended that they have been conference champions for roughly a fifth of their existence, and despite the past failures, nobody can take away the Ultimus win they have achieved. Furthermore, as we look the future, the Liberty seem to be comprised of a young defensive core, which seems more than likely to be able to lead Philadelphia back into the playoffs.
1480 Words.
*The Philadelphia Liberty's Post Season History - Frostbite - 05-20-2020
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*The Philadelphia Liberty's Post Season History - Blasoon - 05-20-2020
(05-21-2020, 12:34 AM)Frostbite Wrote:4
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