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+---- Thread: *YKW Game Review Weeks 1-3 (/showthread.php?tid=7197)
*YKW Game Review Weeks 1-3 - CDub2 - 01-25-2018
Hello friends. I've been pretty busy since that start of S5, so my media writing has taken a bit of a backseat. If you were a devoted reader during my Portland Pythons series, well time to rejoice. If you don't care about me, the Wraiths, or my feelings, whatever. I still get paid.
For a quick refresher: I pretty much sum up the games and dive down deeper into the stats to see if the score reflected what actually happened in the game. To see if the "sim gods" got it right. Also, due to the new media pay out, I'll be doing 3 weeks at a time to hit that sweet >1000 word count. Anyways, Let's start.
Week 1 vs BAL
What a way to start off the season. Aside from a Hawks touchdown with 36 seconds left, the game was pretty much in Wraiths control for the entire 60 minutes. The last second touchdown made the score seem a lot tighter than it was for the majority of the game. But do team stats show the same thing?
Well, mostly yes. But a little bit of no. First off, YKW was extremely efficient this game. Akselsen threw for over a 71% completion percentage, averaging 9.7 yards per pass. For those of you that don't get the importance of that stat, he's pretty much getting a first down 71% of the time he touches the ball. This large yards per play was likely affected by Eric Kennedy's absolutely bonkers game, but Akselsen still moved the ball down field at an incredible efficiency. This is showed by a 50% third down percentage.
On the other hand, BAL's passing game was less efficient. They ended up with more yards and less turnovers, but Blocksdale also had 16 more pass attempts and threw under 60% completion percentage. The real pain for BAL was that the drives were stalling in the Red Zone early in the games. Two first half field goals from inside the 35 are big time missed opportunities. So by no means is throwing for 419 yards a bad game, but Akselsen was on a different level and picked apart the BAL defence.
One of my other favourite stats is time of possession. BAL actually had better time of possession than YKW. This is likely due to YKW efficiency. Moving the ball consistenly, combined with a couple huge plays by kennedy really cuts down on the TOP. On the other hand, Baltimore's drives were longer in duration and none of their touchdowns plays were over 10 yards. Another factor is Baltimore took 5 more penalties than YK, for 30 more yards. Those are drive killers and prolong TOP.
Shout out to my dude Cameron Taylor for his 1st career INT and Pass Deflection. It only took an entire season.
Verdict: Sim gods got it right. Wraiths offense was too efficient
Week 2 - @ PHI
This was the second close game in a row. YKW managed to squeak out a 3 point win. The game winning score came with only 90 seconds left in the game, so this one came right down to the wire. In terms of game stats, the penalties were pretty even. The total yardage was heavily in favour of YKW, as was the turnover ratio. YKW also had more rushing yards and a better completion percentage in the passing game. Pretty much, the defence was creating turnovers and the offence was firing well. Any time you let a QB throw for over 400 yards, you're in trouble and that's exactly what happened to PHI this night. The Kennedy cheese was in full force. Even my favourite stat, Time of Possession, was fully in YKW favour. YKW controlled the ball for 5 more minutes than PHI. YKW only went three and out 4 times all game. Also, in the fourth quarter, YKW had possession for almost 12 minutes out of the 15 minute quarter. That is a great way to stage a comeback.
Aside from a pretty bad second quarter, this game was all YKW. The fact that it was only a 3 point win was surprising. Most of the stats were pointed in YKW favour. From 3rd down efficiency to TOP.
Verdict: Sim gods got it right. Score differential should have been larger.
Week 3 - vs ARI
Finally a game with a decent score differential. YKW took this game 46-29. The penalties were roughly the same, but this was another game where the Eric Kennedy cheese took over. He was pretty much unstoppable all night so I'll try to take a look at some of the other stats. First observation is how bad ARI offense was/how good YKW defence was. ARI only managed to get 9 first downs in the entire game. YKW managed to get 19 first downs. YKW accumulated 180 more yards than ARI. ARI had 3 turnovers, YKW had only 2. YKW had 5 more minutes of TOP than ARI. Pretty much every stat was in favor of YKW. One of the most absurd stats was how futile ARI's run game was during this game. Now, Mackworthy has been a top flight running back in this league for a long time. To hold a star like him to 29 yards from scrimmage is something we may never see again. The lack of the run game left ARI with 3 and longs pretty much the entire game. This resulted in many forced passes and punts, neither of which are particularily good for an offence. This also made Dean Jackson (punter) a very busy man. Something that YKW was happy to see, but not so good for ARI. This game could be chalked up to some early season rebuilding by ARI due to some offseason turmoil, or it could have been the home field advantage flexing it's muscle. Either way, when a defence can hold a star RB to under 30 yards on 12 attempts, football is a tough game to win.
Verdict: Sim gods got it right. Score was about right judging by the teams playing and the stats put up.
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Ready for Grading. 1017 WordsGRADED