In case you haven’t noticed, and judging by the twitch turnout, you haven’t (Major League was such a great movie), the DSFL kicked off with weeks 1 and 2 last night for a total of 6 games. There were a few surprises, though.
I’ll start with the bad news: Penalties were a bit severe. Many drives began and ended with penalties. Also, while I joked about it a bit in the intro, I felt the low turnout was a shame. We don’t have many active players in the DSFL, but we should want them to care about it, and feel excited for these games.
The good news, and there are more than one of these.
These are NOT prospect-level games. I was personally very worried about this, but a lot of these games were fun as hell to watch. For example, over the 6 games, and average of 15.3 points per team were scored, only 4 points fewer than all teams had in Week One of the NSFL. League passing leader Christian Adams is on pace for a 3400+ yard season, which would have been good for third last season. With Adams continuing to improve, expect a really exciting season, possibly MVP level.
Teams have identities. @Ballerstorm’s decision to create filler bots was a fantastic idea, as it gave every team placeholder players to fit a scheme that are still going to be good depth for many seasons to come. But what it ALSO did was allow each team to put together a rough system pre-draft, and some teams really took advantage of it. The first place San Antonio Marshals have a shutdown defense and a smash mouth offense. The Norfolk SeaWolves have a devastating passing attack. The Tijuana Luchadores have tight ends as their #1 AND #2 leaders in team receiving yards. I didn’t even think that was possible.
This is a phenomenal learning tool, and not just for new players. The strategies we’ve seen in the DSFL are kind of amazing, really, and I think a lot of players would benefit from seeing how they work. What’s more, the DSFL GMs actually seem willing to TALK about what they are doing. While there is great strategy in the NSFL, GMs tend to remain tight-lipped for fear of giving up an advantage. Also, NSFL GMs might want to see which players are showing up for games and talking about them to see who is really going to be a spark plug in the locker room. There’s one other thing, though, that I feel is hugely overlooked. We are developing future GMs. Every DSFL team has had to build a depth chart from nothing, has had to decide on initial playbooks and sliders, had to draft prospects and sign free agents. By the end of the season it will be clear which GMs do the work and know their team. GM promotion is an odd thing in the NSFL, because it’s really hard to tell which players really have what it takes. Well, we now have TWELVE GM prospects with on the job training. Need a GM or co-GM? Maybe look here first.
Okay, let’s talk a little about last night’s games.
We started off with the Norfolk SeaWolves (whose name and logo are really growing on me) hosting the Chicago Blues. @`To12143` and @Perry87 became the first GMs to lead their DSFL team to a win, and @Jiggly_333 became the first GM I felt sorry for. Norfolk’s offense was unstoppable at home. The SeaWolves passing and rushing attack combined for 414 total yards, and it wasn’t just volume. RB Lewis-Moore rushed for 4.1 YPC, and Adams had a 121.4 passer rating. By the way, their offensive line gave up ZERO sacks. The aptly-named Blues were down 14-0 halfway through the first quarter, and that’s basically how it stayed. Their sole touchdown came off of a pick six (the only INT Adams threw). Final score: 30-13 SeaWolves.
From there it only got worse. The Tijuana Luchadores, led by @loco and @Sleepy hosted the Portland Pythons for an absolute slaughter. Well, maybe not. This was actually a very decent defensive battle for most of the game. At the end of the 3rd quarter, the Pythons were only up 16-3, but two fourth quarter turnovers allowed another 10 points, sealing any chance of comeback. Obviously, the Luchadores are a very strong team (boasting the most TPE in the league), but @RainDelay and @Anti-Hype really just suffered from a lot of bad luck. 10 penalties and 3 fumbles (2 lost) will keep any team from scoring, and the Luchadores benefited from an AMAZING game from Season Four prospect Brent Lane, who was 4/4 on field goals, including two from 40+ yards.
Week One ended with possibly the most dominant defensive performance the league may EVER see from a visiting team. Despite QB Aaron Rasheed throwing two interceptions, despite taking an insane FOURTEEN penalties for 125 total yards from an offense that managed under 300 total yards, the San Antonio Marshals forced FIVE turnovers and kept their end zone clean for an impressive 23-6 win. Only 6 of those 23 points came from offense, by the way, the rest from a pick six and three field goals. Kansas City Coyotes QB Shawn Brady, who @124715 and @WinstonKodogo gave up next year’s second round pick for, had 136 total yards on 44 drop backs. He also had four turnovers. It was a huge win for myself and @bovovovo.
After such a big loss at home, Kansas City was probably not looking forward to hosting the Luchadores. Bad enough to have your team wrecked by call-ups, but to have to play what appeared to be the two best teams in the DSFL on opening night? Well, they were ready this time. Shawn Brady had something to prove, and he proved it. 167 yards and 3 TDs to 0 INTs is impressive enough when you have Big Bot coming at you all game, but he did that despite one of his receivers being a bot. Not a DSFL filler bot, mind you, a REAL bot. He made CatchMachine14 look GOOD, though, with 3 catches for 31 yards and a TD. This game looked like the Luchadores were going to win, especially after a 9-7 lead in the second, but Kansas City shut them down for the second half, coasting to a 29-9 victory.
Just as the Coyotes were likely surprised at how well they played in Week Two, the Marshals maybe went into their second game with a bit too much confidence. After winning 23-6 on the road, surely a home game would be easy. This was the weirdest game of football. After a scoreless first quarter, the SeaWolves found the end zone first on a pass from Adams to Hunter Mason (who now has three TDs in two games). They missed the extra point, though, going up 6-0. It would take until halfway through the third quarter for the Marshals to answer back, kicking a field goal to make it 6-3. On the very next possession, though, Adams got sacked for a safety, resulting in a 6-5 score. Norfolk punted, and the Marshals drove the very short field for a touchdown, returning an earlier favor and missing the extra point as well. The score was 11-6 with 21 minutes left to play, and was scoreless from that point on. Despite being at home, the Marshals got called for 9 penalties for 85 yards, bringing them up to 23 penalties over two games. Hopefully that’s not something to look forward to.
Finally, on the last game of Week Two, we had a REALLY close one as the Portland Pythons hosted the Chicago Blues. For the last 52 minutes, the lead was never more than four points. Both teams really struggled to make big plays, but the key stat of the game was third down conversions, where the Pythons went a staggering 0-14, 0-15 counting their one 4th down attempt. What makes this particularly painful was that the Blues entered the fourth quarter up only 16-13. Even with Blues QB Mark Strike throwing TWO fourth quarter interceptions, Portland couldn’t tie it up, though they got one chance to do so. After an interception set up the Pythons offense at the Chicago 35, the offense stalled on the 28, bringing out Nugent for the 45 yard attempt, which missed. The Blues went on to win the road game 16-13, dropping the Pythons to 0-2.
After Night One, the San Antonio Marshals are in first place with the only 2-0 record (one at home, one away), but the Chicago Blues are a team to watch closely. Despite opening with two road games, they sit at 1-1. The Norfolk SeaWolves (1-1) are also looking like strong playoff contenders, having almost upset the Marshals on the road and currently leading in tiebreaker stat of Points For, with 36.
I highly encourage more folks to tune in on Thursday for round two. Some matchups to look forward to below.
Week 3:
Marshals at Luchadores. These two teams met in preseason in Tijuana as well, with the Luchadores squeaking out a 14-10 lead. I expect another close game.
The currently winless Pythons will look to prove their worth against the visiting SeaWolves, who have proven they are not to be taken lightly even as a visiting team.
The Coyotes host the Blues in a game that has to mean more to the Coyotes. Starting the season with three home games and losing two of them would kill their season right off the bat.
Week 4:
Tijuana at Norfolk. How will Christian Adams fare against the best pass-rusher in the league? Can the Luchadores TE-led offense keep up?
Pythons visit Chicago for the first rematch game of the season. With Chicago having barely won on the road in Portland, will luck be on the Pythons side this time?
The Coyotes travel to San Antonio for a tough game against the Marshals. Shawn Brady will need to step up big this time, but at least they know what to expect.
((give 50% of the payout to bovovovo, since he did all the work making the Marshals great))
GRADED
I’ll start with the bad news: Penalties were a bit severe. Many drives began and ended with penalties. Also, while I joked about it a bit in the intro, I felt the low turnout was a shame. We don’t have many active players in the DSFL, but we should want them to care about it, and feel excited for these games.
The good news, and there are more than one of these.
These are NOT prospect-level games. I was personally very worried about this, but a lot of these games were fun as hell to watch. For example, over the 6 games, and average of 15.3 points per team were scored, only 4 points fewer than all teams had in Week One of the NSFL. League passing leader Christian Adams is on pace for a 3400+ yard season, which would have been good for third last season. With Adams continuing to improve, expect a really exciting season, possibly MVP level.
Teams have identities. @Ballerstorm’s decision to create filler bots was a fantastic idea, as it gave every team placeholder players to fit a scheme that are still going to be good depth for many seasons to come. But what it ALSO did was allow each team to put together a rough system pre-draft, and some teams really took advantage of it. The first place San Antonio Marshals have a shutdown defense and a smash mouth offense. The Norfolk SeaWolves have a devastating passing attack. The Tijuana Luchadores have tight ends as their #1 AND #2 leaders in team receiving yards. I didn’t even think that was possible.
This is a phenomenal learning tool, and not just for new players. The strategies we’ve seen in the DSFL are kind of amazing, really, and I think a lot of players would benefit from seeing how they work. What’s more, the DSFL GMs actually seem willing to TALK about what they are doing. While there is great strategy in the NSFL, GMs tend to remain tight-lipped for fear of giving up an advantage. Also, NSFL GMs might want to see which players are showing up for games and talking about them to see who is really going to be a spark plug in the locker room. There’s one other thing, though, that I feel is hugely overlooked. We are developing future GMs. Every DSFL team has had to build a depth chart from nothing, has had to decide on initial playbooks and sliders, had to draft prospects and sign free agents. By the end of the season it will be clear which GMs do the work and know their team. GM promotion is an odd thing in the NSFL, because it’s really hard to tell which players really have what it takes. Well, we now have TWELVE GM prospects with on the job training. Need a GM or co-GM? Maybe look here first.
Okay, let’s talk a little about last night’s games.
We started off with the Norfolk SeaWolves (whose name and logo are really growing on me) hosting the Chicago Blues. @`To12143` and @Perry87 became the first GMs to lead their DSFL team to a win, and @Jiggly_333 became the first GM I felt sorry for. Norfolk’s offense was unstoppable at home. The SeaWolves passing and rushing attack combined for 414 total yards, and it wasn’t just volume. RB Lewis-Moore rushed for 4.1 YPC, and Adams had a 121.4 passer rating. By the way, their offensive line gave up ZERO sacks. The aptly-named Blues were down 14-0 halfway through the first quarter, and that’s basically how it stayed. Their sole touchdown came off of a pick six (the only INT Adams threw). Final score: 30-13 SeaWolves.
From there it only got worse. The Tijuana Luchadores, led by @loco and @Sleepy hosted the Portland Pythons for an absolute slaughter. Well, maybe not. This was actually a very decent defensive battle for most of the game. At the end of the 3rd quarter, the Pythons were only up 16-3, but two fourth quarter turnovers allowed another 10 points, sealing any chance of comeback. Obviously, the Luchadores are a very strong team (boasting the most TPE in the league), but @RainDelay and @Anti-Hype really just suffered from a lot of bad luck. 10 penalties and 3 fumbles (2 lost) will keep any team from scoring, and the Luchadores benefited from an AMAZING game from Season Four prospect Brent Lane, who was 4/4 on field goals, including two from 40+ yards.
Week One ended with possibly the most dominant defensive performance the league may EVER see from a visiting team. Despite QB Aaron Rasheed throwing two interceptions, despite taking an insane FOURTEEN penalties for 125 total yards from an offense that managed under 300 total yards, the San Antonio Marshals forced FIVE turnovers and kept their end zone clean for an impressive 23-6 win. Only 6 of those 23 points came from offense, by the way, the rest from a pick six and three field goals. Kansas City Coyotes QB Shawn Brady, who @124715 and @WinstonKodogo gave up next year’s second round pick for, had 136 total yards on 44 drop backs. He also had four turnovers. It was a huge win for myself and @bovovovo.
After such a big loss at home, Kansas City was probably not looking forward to hosting the Luchadores. Bad enough to have your team wrecked by call-ups, but to have to play what appeared to be the two best teams in the DSFL on opening night? Well, they were ready this time. Shawn Brady had something to prove, and he proved it. 167 yards and 3 TDs to 0 INTs is impressive enough when you have Big Bot coming at you all game, but he did that despite one of his receivers being a bot. Not a DSFL filler bot, mind you, a REAL bot. He made CatchMachine14 look GOOD, though, with 3 catches for 31 yards and a TD. This game looked like the Luchadores were going to win, especially after a 9-7 lead in the second, but Kansas City shut them down for the second half, coasting to a 29-9 victory.
Just as the Coyotes were likely surprised at how well they played in Week Two, the Marshals maybe went into their second game with a bit too much confidence. After winning 23-6 on the road, surely a home game would be easy. This was the weirdest game of football. After a scoreless first quarter, the SeaWolves found the end zone first on a pass from Adams to Hunter Mason (who now has three TDs in two games). They missed the extra point, though, going up 6-0. It would take until halfway through the third quarter for the Marshals to answer back, kicking a field goal to make it 6-3. On the very next possession, though, Adams got sacked for a safety, resulting in a 6-5 score. Norfolk punted, and the Marshals drove the very short field for a touchdown, returning an earlier favor and missing the extra point as well. The score was 11-6 with 21 minutes left to play, and was scoreless from that point on. Despite being at home, the Marshals got called for 9 penalties for 85 yards, bringing them up to 23 penalties over two games. Hopefully that’s not something to look forward to.
Finally, on the last game of Week Two, we had a REALLY close one as the Portland Pythons hosted the Chicago Blues. For the last 52 minutes, the lead was never more than four points. Both teams really struggled to make big plays, but the key stat of the game was third down conversions, where the Pythons went a staggering 0-14, 0-15 counting their one 4th down attempt. What makes this particularly painful was that the Blues entered the fourth quarter up only 16-13. Even with Blues QB Mark Strike throwing TWO fourth quarter interceptions, Portland couldn’t tie it up, though they got one chance to do so. After an interception set up the Pythons offense at the Chicago 35, the offense stalled on the 28, bringing out Nugent for the 45 yard attempt, which missed. The Blues went on to win the road game 16-13, dropping the Pythons to 0-2.
After Night One, the San Antonio Marshals are in first place with the only 2-0 record (one at home, one away), but the Chicago Blues are a team to watch closely. Despite opening with two road games, they sit at 1-1. The Norfolk SeaWolves (1-1) are also looking like strong playoff contenders, having almost upset the Marshals on the road and currently leading in tiebreaker stat of Points For, with 36.
I highly encourage more folks to tune in on Thursday for round two. Some matchups to look forward to below.
Week 3:
Marshals at Luchadores. These two teams met in preseason in Tijuana as well, with the Luchadores squeaking out a 14-10 lead. I expect another close game.
The currently winless Pythons will look to prove their worth against the visiting SeaWolves, who have proven they are not to be taken lightly even as a visiting team.
The Coyotes host the Blues in a game that has to mean more to the Coyotes. Starting the season with three home games and losing two of them would kill their season right off the bat.
Week 4:
Tijuana at Norfolk. How will Christian Adams fare against the best pass-rusher in the league? Can the Luchadores TE-led offense keep up?
Pythons visit Chicago for the first rematch game of the season. With Chicago having barely won on the road in Portland, will luck be on the Pythons side this time?
The Coyotes travel to San Antonio for a tough game against the Marshals. Shawn Brady will need to step up big this time, but at least they know what to expect.
((give 50% of the payout to bovovovo, since he did all the work making the Marshals great))
GRADED
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