Two weeks ago, people had a pretty easy answer for which was the worst team out of the 6 in the prospect bowl. After all, while two teams were winless, one of them had lost two close games, by a combined total of less than 1 possession. The other winless prospect bowl team led for a total of 5 minutes, and lost both games by double digits.
The Brooklyn Atlantics are not just no longer the obvious answer for the worst team in the Prospect Bowl, they are not an acceptable answer for that question. It started last week, Week 3. For one, the other winless team in the Tokyo Drifters lost again. But more importantly, the Brooklyn Atlantic dominated a game from start to finish. After about a quarter and a half of play, the Atlantic had a 6 point lead off of a 7 minute long drive and a Field Goal created almost entirely off of winning the Battle for Field Position. Then, disaster struck. The stout Atlantic defense, which had not let the Llamas cross midfield yet, suddenly was caught napping. John Schulze outpaced the entire defense, and could not be caught, leading to a 78 yard touchdown on a drive that looked dead in the water. Brooklyn despaired. On one play their domination for the entire game was undone. You could feel the momentum in the stadium turning around. Then, Frankie Lantz received the kickoff at six minutes and forty seven seconds left in the half. He took the kick out of the front of the endzone, took it straight down the defenses throat, paused just a moment for blockers, and then outraced everyone else in the same way Shulze had seconds earlier to retake the lead and reverse the momentum right back in the Atlantic's favor. The Liverpool Llamas would have to do a lot of work to regain it. Their defense began the work by bottling up the Atlantics offense deep inside their own territory, Brooklyn's special teams doing a terrible punt would continue the work, and the Llamas took advantage of starting on the Brooklyn 37 by punching it in for a score on their first possession after halftime. The Atlantics were down again and another kick return touchdown was not in the cards. After their next drive started strong, Peterson threw a gift to Tayshawn Crunk of the Llamas and they took over possession in Brooklyn Territory for the second straight drive. However, the drive went nowhere this time, with a sack from GOAT TANK pushing them back to midfield. With 6 minutes left in the quarter, another 6 minute long drive from the Atlantics leading to a field goal took place, although again, they were unable to punch it in for a touchdown. They retook the lead by 2. Now, it was the Llama's turn to give the Atlantics another short field, after a 36 yard punt with a 14 yard return that involved 2 broken tackles and punt returner Charles Woody making another defender miss his tackle entirely. Remember that name, it will be important later.
The next 3 minutes of game time would see the last of the scoring for the day, as the Atlantic had a short 16 yard drive put them in position for another Field goal, stretching the lead to 5. 2 plays later, Trent Blackburn, the Llamas quarterback, would try to make magic happen again, as he rolled out to his left, then ran back to the right and finally tried to go with the man who had scored the long touchdown earlier in the game, John Schulze. However, John was covered by Charles Woody, and he pounced. He picked off the ball and there was nobody between him and the endzone. The game was basically over, but there were still 10 minutes left. During those 10 minutes, the Atlantic had one of the best series of defensive performances by any team so far this prospect bowl, as throughout the entire 4th quarter, the Llamas had 6 possessions, on which they gained 8 yards, turned the ball over 3 times including that Pick 6 and a turnover on downs, and sacked Trent Blackburn 3 times. However, the offense which should have ran up the score a bit more during this time floundered a bit. Despite gaining possession inside field goal range twice during the 4th quarter, due to penalties both drives ended up outside of field goal range and they had to punt, or in the case of the second one would have had to punt if the game hadn't ended right there.
The Atlantics Week 4 game saw them go up against a team that was supposed to be a powerhouse, but had found themselves winless up to that point: The Tokyo Drifters. At first, it looked like the Drifters were going to show everyone the form they had been lacking for so long. The Brooklyn Atlantics Defense, which had sneakily been one of the best units in the league, appeared to show up to the game slow and lacking in some readiness. On the first possession of the game, the Drifters marched through them like a hot knife through butter, scoring a touchdown and barely looking fazed.The Atlantics, for their part, were able to drive into the Red Zone, but were unable to punch it in yet again. The Brooklyn Defense found their great form again, however, as for the rest of the quarter the Drifters were unable to gain yardage. In the second quarter, a James Gath penalty turning a 2nd and 24 into a 1st and 10 on the Brooklyn 44 was all the help the Atlantics needed to get into field goal range and cut the deficit to one. After a couple more punts, pushing the Drifters back into the shadow of their own end zone, Tokyo appeared to finally regain some life. For the first time since the first drive of the game, they got a first down. Two plays later, Drifter's quarterback Jackie Daytona stepped up the pocket and passed to Julian Joseph. D'Brickashaw Minshew Sr. was covering underneath, picked off the poor decision, and returned it to the Tokyo 10 before being brought down. One play later, Matt Peterson of the Brooklyn Atlantics finally threw for his first touchdown of the Prospect Bowl in the 4th game of the season, and Brooklyn took the lead and any momentum the Drifters had left after the first drive of the game.
The Tokyo Drifters had another good drive to open their second half, cutting the lead to 3 on a possession that started in Brooklyn Territory, but a few drives later, after an amazing punt that pinned the Drifters at their own one, they were forced to punt from there and Brooklyn was able to respond with a field goal of their own from a drive that started in Tokyo Territory. After another drive from the Drifters, which got into Brooklyn territory before stalling, the Atlantics pulled together something that they had not done yet all season. From a drive starting deep in their own territory, not helped out by a great return or solid defensive play, one of those 6+ minute clock munching drives ended in a touchdown. Helped out by a quick unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to get out of their own Red Zone, after Matt Peterson stretched the play out for a short while, he passed to Mark Callous, who fought off James Hoffman for 25 yards after the catch before Hoffman was finally able to bring him down at the Drifters 35. A few plays later, Darren Pama dropped a pass on first down, only to save the drive with a catch, broken tackle, and quick stretch across the line to keep the drive alive and get to the Drifters 10. 3 plays after that, Matt Peterson threw to Mark Callous for Peterson's 2nd touchdown and Callous' first. With a 13 point lead and only 5 minutes to go, it would take the Tokyo Drifters turning the clock back to the first drive of the game in order to win. After a pair of drives that cut the time to 3 and a half minutes, not even that would be enough. The Drifters drove down on a drive that was too late to make a difference, and ended the game on the Brooklyn 11 after a sack from GOAT TANK. Richard Leaking won defensive player of the week with 1 sack and 9 tackles for his performance in this game.
The Brooklyn Atlantic, who appeared to be dead in the water just two weeks ago, have undergone a stunning turnaround. After the last 2 weeks of play, Matt Peterson is no longer statistically the worst passer in the league, indeed in week 4 he was probably the best quarterback with by far the highest passer rating. Callous' 75 yards and a touchdown also was one of the best performances in the league from the wide receiver position. He has also somewhat solved his case of the dropsies, and his performances in the last two weeks skyrocketed him up to being the 2nd best wide receiver statistically in the league, behind only Mark Walker. Lebby Newton has also improved, and is around the 5th best receiver statistically with 184 yards and a touchdown (technically he's 7th in yards, but the 2 above him have only about 10 yards more and no touchdown). The defense has a number of standouts, with Bonifacius Van Den Hueval, GOAT TANK, and Raylan Crowder each having 2 sacks, and Charles Woody being tied for 2nd best among secondary players, with the second most pass deflections at 6, and an INT returned for a touchdown. The only member of the secondary with a surefire claim to be better is James Gath with his 8 deflections and 2 INTs, one returned to the house.
Meanwhile, the Kicker Lucky Dickerson has definitively been the best Kicker over the course of the season thus far. Being one of two players who have a perfect percentage of field goals and extra points, Dickerson stands out above Vince Hammerson due to the 4 more field goals kicked and the higher difficulty; Dickerson has already kicked half a dozen field goals between the distances of 40 and 49 yards out. Meanwhile, the offensive line has extremely tightened up over the last couple of weeks. While they do not have a single standout as good as Ninton Quelson with his 14 pancakes and 0 sacks given up, Macho Weber and his 16 Pancakes and 1 sack given up is definitely tied for second with Kentdavion "Davie" Davis. Meanwhile, Pama who has not been a standout catching the ball, has turned into a stud blocking, with by far the most pancakes for any TE at 14 and only one sack given up. The player who probably most needs to improve out of the Linemen, not counting the linemen who are robots with no manager, is probably Marlon "BB" Alexander, who while not having given up a sack yet, only has 1 pancake over the course of 4 games.
The Brooklyn Atlantic 2 weeks ago were the worst team in the league. Heading into the winner-take-all playoffs, their good form at the end of the season is actually technically meaningless; they are still going away to Amarillo, Texas, to face the Tumbleweed who beat them twice. However, both the Tumbleweed and the Tiburon Landsharks come in on a bit of a lull, the Tumbleweed tumbling down to the same record of the Atlantic, while the Landsharks dominated their first 3 games before being dominated in return by the Liverpool Llamas, who the week before the Atlantic beat by 2 possessions. Perhaps more importantly than the bad form that the Tumbleweed are now in for the playoffs in a week's time, is the change in mood in the locker room.
Darren Pama can probably talk about it best. "If we had one single more game like we did in the first two weeks against the Tumbleweed, tempers were going to flare in the locker room. I can't imagine what's going on in the Tokyo Drifter's locker room, for example, especially after losing 3 close games to get blown out by the team who everyone thought was the bottom feeder 2 weeks ago. But in our locker room, after the touchdown in week 3, I was about to go down to the secondary and scream in their faces for a bit, I was so mad. But then things changed and we turned it around. It happened again when on the first possession of the game, our defense got made to look like a college level squad, but we were able to grind it out and turn it around again. Besides those pair of possessions, our defense has been the best in the entire prospect bowl over these past 2 weeks, I will hold that against any other team out there."
Pama had a lot more to say about the situation his team currently found themselves in. "Now, obviously, we'd like a bye, or at least a chance to play our game against the Tumbleweeds at home this time instead of away again. But we found ourselves in the harder group this time, and our first couple of games...we didn't play well. Almost none of us did. That said, now we can do something that we weren't able to a couple weeks ago when we last talked. The Atlantic can walk out of here with our heads held high, confident that we showed what we are capable of on a football field. And now, something is a little different than when we played the Tumbleweeds last time. We're out for revenge. Their name is stupid, they play in a terrible state, and perhaps the only important bit of trash talk for our game next week, they look weak. They couldn't get any offense going against the Landsharks or the Cavalry, and I know that our defense, if well prepared, can play just as well as those two. Like, the Llamas just put up 33 against the Landsharks. We held them to 14. The Cavalry gave up 10 and 13 points to the Drifters, and we were right in line with that by holding the Drifters to 10. Heck, the Tumbleweeds gave up more points to the Cavalry than the Cavalry usually get! The Tumbleweed are on their back foot right now and we are going to do our best to keep them there."
When asked about what would happen if they lost for a third time against the Tumbleweed, Pama chuckled and then gave his answer. "See, that's the best part about all of this. We have a built in excuse for whatever round we lose in up until the championship, while being in the best possible position to win each game assuming we make it there. 2 weeks ago, everyone thought that not only were the Tumbleweed better than us, we didn't belong on the same football field as them. If we lose to them again, then it's same old same old, they just had our number. If we WIN, then they are all under the gun for choking to a team that looked like a JV team while playing them 2 weeks in a row. And then, against the Landsharks, all the pressure's on them again. Because they're still the Landsharks. Despite having their first loss just happen, they're still the team everyone thinks are the strongest in this competition. And yet, having just had their first loss, they are mortal right now. I have no idea if we can beat the Landsharks, but I do know that the best possible game to face them in is their next game, the only one left that they will play having lost their last game."
"As for the Finals, well, we're not expected to make it there, but if we do, then we either get home field advantage against a team we've already beaten, or are going against the best team in the International division who are supposed to be a better team. And yet, we can also say we're facing a team we've beaten by 2 possessions, or a team that lost to the team we just beat by...how much was it? 3 possessions? Simply put, we are playing with house money right now. We got everything we wanted out of this prospect bowl, and if we lose next week, or the week after, or the week after, that's OK. Now we're just trying to go for more and see just how far momentum can take us."
(2783 words, if Prospect bowl stuff counts, then 1.5x multiplier)
The Brooklyn Atlantics are not just no longer the obvious answer for the worst team in the Prospect Bowl, they are not an acceptable answer for that question. It started last week, Week 3. For one, the other winless team in the Tokyo Drifters lost again. But more importantly, the Brooklyn Atlantic dominated a game from start to finish. After about a quarter and a half of play, the Atlantic had a 6 point lead off of a 7 minute long drive and a Field Goal created almost entirely off of winning the Battle for Field Position. Then, disaster struck. The stout Atlantic defense, which had not let the Llamas cross midfield yet, suddenly was caught napping. John Schulze outpaced the entire defense, and could not be caught, leading to a 78 yard touchdown on a drive that looked dead in the water. Brooklyn despaired. On one play their domination for the entire game was undone. You could feel the momentum in the stadium turning around. Then, Frankie Lantz received the kickoff at six minutes and forty seven seconds left in the half. He took the kick out of the front of the endzone, took it straight down the defenses throat, paused just a moment for blockers, and then outraced everyone else in the same way Shulze had seconds earlier to retake the lead and reverse the momentum right back in the Atlantic's favor. The Liverpool Llamas would have to do a lot of work to regain it. Their defense began the work by bottling up the Atlantics offense deep inside their own territory, Brooklyn's special teams doing a terrible punt would continue the work, and the Llamas took advantage of starting on the Brooklyn 37 by punching it in for a score on their first possession after halftime. The Atlantics were down again and another kick return touchdown was not in the cards. After their next drive started strong, Peterson threw a gift to Tayshawn Crunk of the Llamas and they took over possession in Brooklyn Territory for the second straight drive. However, the drive went nowhere this time, with a sack from GOAT TANK pushing them back to midfield. With 6 minutes left in the quarter, another 6 minute long drive from the Atlantics leading to a field goal took place, although again, they were unable to punch it in for a touchdown. They retook the lead by 2. Now, it was the Llama's turn to give the Atlantics another short field, after a 36 yard punt with a 14 yard return that involved 2 broken tackles and punt returner Charles Woody making another defender miss his tackle entirely. Remember that name, it will be important later.
The next 3 minutes of game time would see the last of the scoring for the day, as the Atlantic had a short 16 yard drive put them in position for another Field goal, stretching the lead to 5. 2 plays later, Trent Blackburn, the Llamas quarterback, would try to make magic happen again, as he rolled out to his left, then ran back to the right and finally tried to go with the man who had scored the long touchdown earlier in the game, John Schulze. However, John was covered by Charles Woody, and he pounced. He picked off the ball and there was nobody between him and the endzone. The game was basically over, but there were still 10 minutes left. During those 10 minutes, the Atlantic had one of the best series of defensive performances by any team so far this prospect bowl, as throughout the entire 4th quarter, the Llamas had 6 possessions, on which they gained 8 yards, turned the ball over 3 times including that Pick 6 and a turnover on downs, and sacked Trent Blackburn 3 times. However, the offense which should have ran up the score a bit more during this time floundered a bit. Despite gaining possession inside field goal range twice during the 4th quarter, due to penalties both drives ended up outside of field goal range and they had to punt, or in the case of the second one would have had to punt if the game hadn't ended right there.
The Atlantics Week 4 game saw them go up against a team that was supposed to be a powerhouse, but had found themselves winless up to that point: The Tokyo Drifters. At first, it looked like the Drifters were going to show everyone the form they had been lacking for so long. The Brooklyn Atlantics Defense, which had sneakily been one of the best units in the league, appeared to show up to the game slow and lacking in some readiness. On the first possession of the game, the Drifters marched through them like a hot knife through butter, scoring a touchdown and barely looking fazed.The Atlantics, for their part, were able to drive into the Red Zone, but were unable to punch it in yet again. The Brooklyn Defense found their great form again, however, as for the rest of the quarter the Drifters were unable to gain yardage. In the second quarter, a James Gath penalty turning a 2nd and 24 into a 1st and 10 on the Brooklyn 44 was all the help the Atlantics needed to get into field goal range and cut the deficit to one. After a couple more punts, pushing the Drifters back into the shadow of their own end zone, Tokyo appeared to finally regain some life. For the first time since the first drive of the game, they got a first down. Two plays later, Drifter's quarterback Jackie Daytona stepped up the pocket and passed to Julian Joseph. D'Brickashaw Minshew Sr. was covering underneath, picked off the poor decision, and returned it to the Tokyo 10 before being brought down. One play later, Matt Peterson of the Brooklyn Atlantics finally threw for his first touchdown of the Prospect Bowl in the 4th game of the season, and Brooklyn took the lead and any momentum the Drifters had left after the first drive of the game.
The Tokyo Drifters had another good drive to open their second half, cutting the lead to 3 on a possession that started in Brooklyn Territory, but a few drives later, after an amazing punt that pinned the Drifters at their own one, they were forced to punt from there and Brooklyn was able to respond with a field goal of their own from a drive that started in Tokyo Territory. After another drive from the Drifters, which got into Brooklyn territory before stalling, the Atlantics pulled together something that they had not done yet all season. From a drive starting deep in their own territory, not helped out by a great return or solid defensive play, one of those 6+ minute clock munching drives ended in a touchdown. Helped out by a quick unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to get out of their own Red Zone, after Matt Peterson stretched the play out for a short while, he passed to Mark Callous, who fought off James Hoffman for 25 yards after the catch before Hoffman was finally able to bring him down at the Drifters 35. A few plays later, Darren Pama dropped a pass on first down, only to save the drive with a catch, broken tackle, and quick stretch across the line to keep the drive alive and get to the Drifters 10. 3 plays after that, Matt Peterson threw to Mark Callous for Peterson's 2nd touchdown and Callous' first. With a 13 point lead and only 5 minutes to go, it would take the Tokyo Drifters turning the clock back to the first drive of the game in order to win. After a pair of drives that cut the time to 3 and a half minutes, not even that would be enough. The Drifters drove down on a drive that was too late to make a difference, and ended the game on the Brooklyn 11 after a sack from GOAT TANK. Richard Leaking won defensive player of the week with 1 sack and 9 tackles for his performance in this game.
The Brooklyn Atlantic, who appeared to be dead in the water just two weeks ago, have undergone a stunning turnaround. After the last 2 weeks of play, Matt Peterson is no longer statistically the worst passer in the league, indeed in week 4 he was probably the best quarterback with by far the highest passer rating. Callous' 75 yards and a touchdown also was one of the best performances in the league from the wide receiver position. He has also somewhat solved his case of the dropsies, and his performances in the last two weeks skyrocketed him up to being the 2nd best wide receiver statistically in the league, behind only Mark Walker. Lebby Newton has also improved, and is around the 5th best receiver statistically with 184 yards and a touchdown (technically he's 7th in yards, but the 2 above him have only about 10 yards more and no touchdown). The defense has a number of standouts, with Bonifacius Van Den Hueval, GOAT TANK, and Raylan Crowder each having 2 sacks, and Charles Woody being tied for 2nd best among secondary players, with the second most pass deflections at 6, and an INT returned for a touchdown. The only member of the secondary with a surefire claim to be better is James Gath with his 8 deflections and 2 INTs, one returned to the house.
Meanwhile, the Kicker Lucky Dickerson has definitively been the best Kicker over the course of the season thus far. Being one of two players who have a perfect percentage of field goals and extra points, Dickerson stands out above Vince Hammerson due to the 4 more field goals kicked and the higher difficulty; Dickerson has already kicked half a dozen field goals between the distances of 40 and 49 yards out. Meanwhile, the offensive line has extremely tightened up over the last couple of weeks. While they do not have a single standout as good as Ninton Quelson with his 14 pancakes and 0 sacks given up, Macho Weber and his 16 Pancakes and 1 sack given up is definitely tied for second with Kentdavion "Davie" Davis. Meanwhile, Pama who has not been a standout catching the ball, has turned into a stud blocking, with by far the most pancakes for any TE at 14 and only one sack given up. The player who probably most needs to improve out of the Linemen, not counting the linemen who are robots with no manager, is probably Marlon "BB" Alexander, who while not having given up a sack yet, only has 1 pancake over the course of 4 games.
The Brooklyn Atlantic 2 weeks ago were the worst team in the league. Heading into the winner-take-all playoffs, their good form at the end of the season is actually technically meaningless; they are still going away to Amarillo, Texas, to face the Tumbleweed who beat them twice. However, both the Tumbleweed and the Tiburon Landsharks come in on a bit of a lull, the Tumbleweed tumbling down to the same record of the Atlantic, while the Landsharks dominated their first 3 games before being dominated in return by the Liverpool Llamas, who the week before the Atlantic beat by 2 possessions. Perhaps more importantly than the bad form that the Tumbleweed are now in for the playoffs in a week's time, is the change in mood in the locker room.
Darren Pama can probably talk about it best. "If we had one single more game like we did in the first two weeks against the Tumbleweed, tempers were going to flare in the locker room. I can't imagine what's going on in the Tokyo Drifter's locker room, for example, especially after losing 3 close games to get blown out by the team who everyone thought was the bottom feeder 2 weeks ago. But in our locker room, after the touchdown in week 3, I was about to go down to the secondary and scream in their faces for a bit, I was so mad. But then things changed and we turned it around. It happened again when on the first possession of the game, our defense got made to look like a college level squad, but we were able to grind it out and turn it around again. Besides those pair of possessions, our defense has been the best in the entire prospect bowl over these past 2 weeks, I will hold that against any other team out there."
Pama had a lot more to say about the situation his team currently found themselves in. "Now, obviously, we'd like a bye, or at least a chance to play our game against the Tumbleweeds at home this time instead of away again. But we found ourselves in the harder group this time, and our first couple of games...we didn't play well. Almost none of us did. That said, now we can do something that we weren't able to a couple weeks ago when we last talked. The Atlantic can walk out of here with our heads held high, confident that we showed what we are capable of on a football field. And now, something is a little different than when we played the Tumbleweeds last time. We're out for revenge. Their name is stupid, they play in a terrible state, and perhaps the only important bit of trash talk for our game next week, they look weak. They couldn't get any offense going against the Landsharks or the Cavalry, and I know that our defense, if well prepared, can play just as well as those two. Like, the Llamas just put up 33 against the Landsharks. We held them to 14. The Cavalry gave up 10 and 13 points to the Drifters, and we were right in line with that by holding the Drifters to 10. Heck, the Tumbleweeds gave up more points to the Cavalry than the Cavalry usually get! The Tumbleweed are on their back foot right now and we are going to do our best to keep them there."
When asked about what would happen if they lost for a third time against the Tumbleweed, Pama chuckled and then gave his answer. "See, that's the best part about all of this. We have a built in excuse for whatever round we lose in up until the championship, while being in the best possible position to win each game assuming we make it there. 2 weeks ago, everyone thought that not only were the Tumbleweed better than us, we didn't belong on the same football field as them. If we lose to them again, then it's same old same old, they just had our number. If we WIN, then they are all under the gun for choking to a team that looked like a JV team while playing them 2 weeks in a row. And then, against the Landsharks, all the pressure's on them again. Because they're still the Landsharks. Despite having their first loss just happen, they're still the team everyone thinks are the strongest in this competition. And yet, having just had their first loss, they are mortal right now. I have no idea if we can beat the Landsharks, but I do know that the best possible game to face them in is their next game, the only one left that they will play having lost their last game."
"As for the Finals, well, we're not expected to make it there, but if we do, then we either get home field advantage against a team we've already beaten, or are going against the best team in the International division who are supposed to be a better team. And yet, we can also say we're facing a team we've beaten by 2 possessions, or a team that lost to the team we just beat by...how much was it? 3 possessions? Simply put, we are playing with house money right now. We got everything we wanted out of this prospect bowl, and if we lose next week, or the week after, or the week after, that's OK. Now we're just trying to go for more and see just how far momentum can take us."
(2783 words, if Prospect bowl stuff counts, then 1.5x multiplier)
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