S2 - Ultimus Week

[Bafetimbi Gomis]

Bottom Half: Write about why two of the four teams were not able to make the playoffs.

The bottom two teams in the league were the Philadelphia Liberty and the Las Vegas Legion. Both teams were expansion clubs playing in their first season in the league. Both clubs were pretty much expected to be the bottom two clubs in the standings which is what exactly happened, but for two entirely different reasons.

Let's start with the Legion. The previous GM RFFO tried to employ a win now strategy which he pretty much nearly all the picks in the next two drafts in order to compete for a championship right away. Some of the names they had were household names. If you look at guys like, Ramrio, Berc, LeClair, Stormblessed, Cox, Varga, and Savea, you would think this is a club that would at the very least compete for the playoffs. During the regular season though, that's where a lot of problems happened. I'll keep it short and say the main problem for the Legion was the lack of an o-line. They had nobody there which led to Savea only averaging 3 yards per carry, LeClair and Stormblessed not performing to expectation, and Berc getting sacked numerous times. If this team wants to compete, improving the O-Line will have to be the main priority.

As for the Liberty, they didn't have the same problems as the Legion, they kept their picks and drafted young. The Liberty GMs most likely expected that they would be making the playoffs the next season or two so they did not make the mistakes the Legion made. They are just a team with a good young nucleus, but also very inexperienced which is why they failed to make the playoffs. Although I do see the future being very bright in Philly.


Playoff Series MVP: Choose an MVP for one of the playoff series and write about why you chose them.

My pick for playoff serious MVP will be a rather controversial one. You don't normally see kickers be picked for playoff MVP, but that is who I'm picking. Kicker Cristiano Ronaldo of the Arizona Outlaws is the playoff MVP for the 2nd season of the NSFL. You're probably wondering why a kicker? You see, even though Cristiano was a bit quiet in the game against the Otters, where he only completed 1 of 2 field goals past the 40 yard line, it was in the championship game where Ronaldo shined. In the score sheet it was Ronaldo who had the most points. the defense did help him gain field position, but it was Ronaldo who made those picks past the 30 yard line. He made 5 field goals, one from the 18 and the rest past the 30 yard line for which all kicks he was perfect. He also a perfect two for two in his extra point attempts. Ronaldo was responsible for 29 of the 33 points the Outlaws had in that final game. Ronaldo also had 255 punting yards for the game. His longest put was a 64 yard punt which went inside the 20 yard line. That punt led to a very important safety the next player which gave the Outlaws 2 points.


Offensive Comparison: Compare one offensive player from each team in a series.

In the final game of the playoffs, neither team had their QB's show up for the big game. But I'm comparing them just for the hell of it. King Bronko wasn't great, but he wasn't bad either. His defense and his kicker bailed him out in order to win another ring. Bronko only completed 18/29 passes, thrown 238 yards with a 13.2 average yards per throw, and one touchdown pass. It's not the sexiest game for Bronko but he did make the important throws. His most important pass was a 25 yard throw to Charles Arthur Chess which started the scoring for the game.

On the other hand, Scrub Kyubee really lived up to his name sake. He basically played like a scrub. He passed under 50% by only making 14 our of 31 completions for the game, he threw for 111 yards, average of 7.9 yards per throw, 2 interceptions, and a measely 27.9 quarterback rating. It's real bad. I forgot to mention that he was sacked for a total 6 times. Yeah that's 6 fucking times. 2 of those sacks were damn safeties. He basically lost 36 yards due to sacks. Baltimore you really need to consider upgrading your QB for real.

Defensive Comparison: Compare one defensive player from each team in a series.

I'll be writing about the same exact game but this time comparing both players on the defensive side of the ball. I'm gonna be talking about Kurt Hendrix and Dental Dam. There was a bit of controversy involving Hawks players. Hendrix was one player who was involved in controversial actions to which he attempted to take down comments made by a fan about the team and had pursued legal action regarding those comments. The case was quickly thrown away by court which led to another black mark for the Hawks franchise. As for the game, Hendrix was largely inactive on the field. In a largely uneventful game for the Hawks, Hendrix only made two tackles, he did not do much else on the field, as like the rest of the hawks team uneventfully did not do much.

On the other side of the field, Dental Dam did not have any controversy at all. He's a quiet team first kind of guy. On the field, Dental Dam made 3 tackles, one was a tackle for loss of yards, another was a sack which caused a very important safety in the game that gave the Outlaws an even bigger lead. Dam was one of many very important figures in the Outlaws win.


Championship Game Recap: Do a recap of the best play from the championship game. Must be completed after the Championship Game


I think the best play in the Championship game was a sack made by Arbin Asipi to Scrub Kyubee which lead to a safety for the hawks. Some plays previous, the Outlaws were in a 4th and 9th situation in the Baltimore 24 yard line. Kicker / Punter Cristiano Ronaldo made a 43 yard punt that was returned by Farlane for 3 yards. Fast forward a few plays later, it's 3rd and 6 on the baltimore 39. Scrub Kyubee hikes the ball, Asipi is fighting his opposing lineman in order to get to Kyubee. He breaks free and gets to Kyubee who drops back and tries to run away and then he is sacked by Arbin Asipi for a loss of 7 yards and the safety. The entire defensive line starts celebrating over the safety and Kyubee is in utter disbelief and is pissed because of the result. It's this play that completed the meltdown of the otherwise great season the Hawks had. They weren't supposed to lose this game, but it was this play that turned things the other way for the hawks. They never recovered from the game and eventually loss in a blowout of 33 to 6.

[ErMurazor]

oh really nice to put this only for workdays when I have no time for it as I have a lots of work irl. very smart

rip 10 tpe

Hey man! This is going to be running at least until the end of today, Saturday 9/2 now!

[DeathOnReddit]

Offensive Comparison: Compare one offensive player from each team in a series. Can be completed at any point

King Bronko VS Mike Boss

Before the ASFCC game, you could argue Mike Boss had the better season, and was the better qb. With a better completion rate, more yards, and the better QB Rating. Bronko though, still had more tds, less INTs, and the better team around him, and most people knew Bronko would most likely win the matchup. During the game though, Bronko was terrible. He had only 1 td, with 3 ints and a qb rating of 50.5. Boss on the other hand didnt do much either, with only 1 td and a rating of 65.8. In what was supposed to be a good qb battle, both qbs fell flat on their faces, and it was their kickers, and defenses that tried their best to carry their qbs. Although Arizona did have the better kicker, and the better defense, so it was not what OC wanted. In order for OC to win, they needed to score a lot of points, and see if Bronko could do well. And with the way he played, had Boss actually played well and not be the pile of garbage he always is against Arizona, OC probably wouldve been able to pull off the upset and have an incredible upset happen.

Defensive Comparison: Compare one defensive player from each team in a series. Can be completed at any point

Delacour vs Rashad

In the Ultimus game, both the Arizona Outlaws, and Baltimore Hawks, had 2 great CBs they were counting on to shut down the opposing teams #1 WR, and create some turnovers. In the regular season, it was very hard to tell who was the better CB, with Delacour having 5 more tackles, forcing 1 more fumble, having 1 more fumble recovery, as well as having more pick sixes. Rashad on the other hand had 1 more INT, and 6 more passes defended. Before the ultimus, no one would fault you for saying either one was better. In the ultimus however, it was easy to tell that Rashad had the better game. He had twice the amount of tackles Delacour had, as well as having a sack. He also had a pass defended, which Delacour had none of. Again in a game which was supposed to be a great battle, one was better. Delacour fell flat and Im sure he was disappointed at himself. Of course in a game which Arizona dominated, there was probably nothing Delacour could do in order to change the result of the game, or even made it a closer game. Of course some of his teammates didnt do much either.

Bottom Half: Write about why two of the four teams were not able to make the playoffs. Can be completed at any point

Las Vegas Legion

The reason the Legion didnt make the playoffs goes all the way up to their front office. Before the season, they made so many trades, trading a lot of their draft picks for players who were good. Of course they forgot that a lot of the time some of these players go inactive, and no matter how good they were last season, others get better as well. In free agency they also gave Josh berc a huge contract. For one thing, all that money to someone you barely saw in the season, why? OF course this later came to bite them in the ass as he really wasnt good. And because of inactives, and over paid players. the Legion were bad.

San Jose Sabercats

Its hard to explain why the Sabercats missed the playoffs this season. At the beginning of the season they went 3-1 and it was looking like they would make the playoffs. Then they went on to only win one more game. I believe they missed the playoffs was because of chemistry. It seemed after their 3-1 start they werent able to play as a team and it showed with their losing streak. One of their gms later went missing, and now Lord Nibblers is their gm. I believe he will make them better.

Playoff Series MVP: Choose an MVP for one of the playoff series and write about why you chose them. Must be completed after the playoff series you write about

Jaylon Lee

If you had asked me who would be the MVP of the ultimus game I would say Tuck. And you would probably agree with me. There was no reason not to, Tuck was having an MVP season and while others on the team were good as well, they werent Tuck. In the ultimus game however, it seemed Jaylon Lee wanted to show the world, the Arizona Outlaws Defense wasnt just the Jayce Tuck show. He had 12 tackles, 1 pass defended, and 1 INT. It was one of the greatest single game performances, and even though others like Tuck and Arbin Asipi had good games. Lees was out of this world. Every one of his tackles were beautiful, and he was always in the perfect position for them. His INT was clutch, with the hawks on the outlaws side of the field. In a game where the hawks never scored a td, he was the main reason for it. He was the great wall of china, or Trumps, imaginary wall. There is no reason any one other than Lee should get the MVP, and I'm sure every other member of the Outlaws would agree with those words. Make the right choice, pick Lee.

Championship Game Recap: Do a recap of the best play from the championship game. Must be completed after the Championship Game

10:09 2nd and 14 BAL - 2 Kyubee, S. SACKED by Arbin Asipi - DT for -5 yds. The play results in a SAFETY!

I know what youre thinking. You're probably thinking "Really man? Your own play?" And yes. I am picking my own play, and some of it because it was me. But it was also a big play. Let me set the scene. It was 10-0 in the 2nd quarter, and the hawks were on their 2 yard line. Just the play before Kyubee was sacked by Isaiah Rashad on a CB blitz. Remember, this was still a close game, and anything could have happened. Kyubee got the ball from the snap cleanly and dropped back in his end zone. Looking down field no one was open, and there were defenders rushing him. He started scrambling around in the end zone, trying to make sure he wasnt sacked. He evaded one, evaded two, and they were on his tail. He looked down field for a pass when BAM. Hit by a DT who weighed 330 pounds. Luckily he was able to hold onto the ball and it wasnt 6 points. This would prove the turning point in the game as when the outlaws got the ball they went on to kick a field goal. The outlaws never looked back and when the game was over, the score was 33-6.

[Kendrick]

Championship Game Recap: In the Championship game between the Arizona Outlaws and the Baltimore Hawks, one play stood out. Charles Arthur Chess caught a dart from King Bronco and scampered 25 yards into the endzone. The play was exceptionally drawn up and it exploited a bad coverage plan in the early going of the game. This play kind of set off the pace of the game as the Outlaws started to run away with the game from the early goings. Chess needed up being the leading receiver for the Outlaws and Bronco ended up created quite the buzz with his strong play. Paving the way for their second straight title was made possible by some key blocks on the play that allowed Bronco some added time to swing it out wide to Chess. Chess made a couple defenders miss with open field jukes and then weaved his way inside the five yard line before leaping into the air over defenders. Chess is a speed option for the Outlaws and he showed great acceleration when he hit the outside of the field. The added bonus to this catch was that he at first only secured it with one hand and had to put two hands on it when contact came near him.

Offensive Comparison:

Defensive Comparison: Compare one defensive player from each team in a series in a side by side graphic. Can be completed at any point

Future Talent:

Conference Final MVP Sig:

[Saliva^]

Bottom Half:

The NSFC conference was more competitve with the last team recording a ''decent'' 5-9 record, so I'll talk about the two worst teams from ASFC conference. First of all, Las Vegas Legion. They decided to not wasting any time for the rebuild and drafted more ready guys in an expansion draft. Also, they made couple of trade for big players. Some of them are already busts, some of then are not, but at end of the day this tactic by a Raven fan placed his team at the bottom with a 3-11 record. They were somewhat ''decent'' at the defence (considering their record), but LVL's O-Line leaves a lot to be desired. Their future is looking sort of bleak - not much draft picks to have a rebuild, so it seems this is not the last time when we're gonna mention them in the Ultimus Week PT.
As for the Cats - they started the season with a good 3-1 record and then everything fell apart. Some L's straight + Hackett trade which made Bailey Cook asking out of his team because he wanted to play with A.C. (IRL friend) and the Cats managed to take only 1 win vs the Legion. 4-11 record, like last season, but at least they have two S3 first round picks, so they still have a nice future here.


Playoff Review:

Arizona vs Orange County

Once again, these teams squared up to each other in the ASFC finals. Last time, Zona took the win in a hard game and this one wasn't easier as well. The Outlaws' O-Line was more active, but Verns-Spector-Harris trio did everything to give them a run of their money. The problem for the Otters was Zona's defence also was doing a good job, hence OCO offense was getting points only from FG. Charles Artur Chess' TD was very improtant one for the Outlaws - having 11 point lead in a hard game always helps. Westfield cut the lead to 4 in the third quarter, but Arizona managed to hold their opponent's offense in the last quarter. 17-13, Zona once again makes the finals.

Baltimore vs Yellowknife

Yellowknife was looking for the first finals in their history so was Baltimore. Both teams went 8-6 in the regular season and everybody were expecting a bloody fight. And both teams didn't dissapoint, despite of the Hawks' 10-0 run in the first two quarters. Yellowknife tried their best to catch Baltimore from 0-10 to 7-10: from 7-16 to 14-16. They still had time after Cook's TD, but the Hawks didn't allow any points anymore. I need to say that Hawks' kicker Turkleton was the hero of this match: his 3 FG's helped his team a lot (9 out of 16 points).


Championship Game Recap:

Arizona vs Baltimore

Last time, Arziona crushed their NSFC opponents (Colorado) for the Ultimus Cup and they were about to do it once again. I can describe this game as the battle of the kickers and punters. Talking about them being underappreciated...after this match everybody should look at them more closely. Cristian Ronaldo managed to outscore his colleague 5-2 (15-6 in points) which gave Zona a good lead. Also, the Outlaws' defence once again showed their dominance by allowing only 6 points in the whole match, just like they did in last finals vs the Yeti. The only difference is our now-two-time-champs scored a little bit more. The final score is 33-6, utter dominance by the best team in the league. Not only Ronaldo was doing job for the Zona's offense - aforementioned C.A.C. and Mackworthy added their TD's to Zona's point count. We also have sort of an anti-hero - Scrub Kyubee from the Hawks completed only 14 passes of 31 attempts and allowed 4 points from a safety. As you can see - Baltimore had no chances (Zona had a 28-0 lead before Turkleton's FG, nuff said) and it remains to be seen if they can repeat this season's success without Gibson as this match showed to everybody that they can't do much against the ASFC powerhouse...perhaps nobody can't do shit vs the Outlaws, they are just too strong.


Playoff Series MVP:

I'm always trying to write PT's about safeties, but this time I'll change a position. Like I said, a lots of NSFL members are overlooking the kickers, but after this playoff series this thing could change, espcially after what Cristiano Ronaldo did. The Arizona Outlaws' punter was drafted in the 6th round (48th pick) and his team's management can be proud of this pick. He wasn't a first hero against the Otters' team in ASFC finals, but 5 points out of 17 total is a solid performance. Also, his 3 punts out of ten landed to inside 20. His one hour of fame, however came in the finals against the Hawks' team. He had a battle with his kicker opponent Turkleton where he overcame 5-2. 5 successful FG's in one match - I don't think this is a common thing to see. In total, he scored 17 points out of Zona's 33 - that's more than half of the team's total points. No wonders why this player was named the PoTG - it was his day. 4/4 from 30-39 yard distance is showing how accurate he is. In addition to this, his another punt (5 total) landed into the 20. Who would ever thought that the punter/kicker is going to be draft's huge steal lol.


Defensive Comparison:

The Arizona vs Orange County matchuo was more defensive and that's why I'll talk about the two def players. These players are - Dominic Verns from the Otters' team, who I named the most improved player and Jayce Tuck from the Outlaws' team, another interesting player. They both had a different style of a play - Verns posted 104 tackles (9 of them for losses), 12 sacks, 3 picks and 6 broken passes. Very solid for a safety, I'd say. Meanwhile, Tuck wasn't much of tackling guy (69, 19 of them for a loss), but he's a defensive end, not a safety. But then he has 23 sacks - he outduels every DE by a wide margin, also he has 3 forced fumbles + 2 recovered. And he forced one safety too. So it was interesting to see them in action as both teams were fine with a defence.

In the conference finals, Verns posted 8 tackles and 2 sacks. He did everything he could to stop the opponents and I can say he did very well for a safety. As for Jayce - 4 tackles (2 for loss) and one sack, pure DE stats. So he also did a fine job to not allowing Otters' offence to make a play. At end of the day, it's hard to say who won this battle, but certainly Jayce Tuck is the best DE in the league and Dominic Verns one of the best (if not best) safeties in the league.