Ultimus Week - S10

[majesiu]

1. PBE PT

2. SHL PT

3. Root for the Underdog: Pick an away team in an upcoming game and try to convince yourself (and us) why they can win. (Must be completed before the playoff series you write about)

This is quite confusing since the New Orleans Second Line despite defending the title this season are technically an underdog since they are going to play away game at Baltimore. They were really unlucky during the regular season and suffered annual loss @Yellowknife and a stunner against Orange County. But after all what cost them the home field advantage was the final game against their rivals. So let's go step by step what NOLA have going for them:
- Top QB in the game 5026 passing yards, 60.2 completion percentage, 56 longest pass, 40 passing touchdowns with just 12 interceptions for an oustanding 98.3 passing rating.
- Smallwood is continuing his resurgence and is really efficient with his game, albeit on lower volume. He still run for 2nd most 15 TD and received for 3 more TD.
- Speaking of receiving threats NOLA corps was solid enough with Charlie Law (1283 yards, 12 TDs) and Alexander LeClair (1032 yards, 11 TDs). Addition of Carlito Crush put them up in the elite territory though (1425 yards, 6 TD).
- Defensive talent is also top notch with secondary that averages ~800 TPE. Sadly this, combined with a great offence, means that not many defending snaps to amass stats are available. Despite that, they had just 12 Interceptions all season, probably because offences opted out to focus on running game instead.

4. 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

Both first-round series were certainly interesting ones. Baltimore Hawks and Colorado Yeti played an open game heavily focused on scoring while Orange County Otters and New Orleans Second Line focused on the defensive side of the game.
Just compare the player of the games from those matchups:
Offensive POG: Borkus Maximus III - QB (NO): 26/46, 236 yds, 1 TD, 0 INT
Defensive POG: William H. Harrison - FS (NO): 8 Tck, 2 Sck
Offensive POG: Avon Blocksdale - QB (BAL): 31/52, 340 yds, 2 TD, 0 INT
Defensive POG: Haruki Ishigawa - LB (COL): 17 Tck
Quarterbacks were, as usual, the heroes of the show, but the Otters Defense was that much more potent and did an admirable job in covering the deadly trio of receivers - Charlie Law, Alexander LeClair and Carlito Crush were very much under control. Only Second Line player with more than 50 receiving yards was Paulo DiMirio. In the ASFC finals, there were 7 players like this. Harrison had interesting plays, but Ishigawa had a lot of them with 17 tackles.

COL vs BAL
First Downs 14 26
3rd Down Efficiency 4/8 10/17
4rd Down Efficiency 0/0 0/1
OCO vs NOLA
First Downs 14 19
3rd Down Efficiency 2/13 6/17
4rd Down Efficiency 0/0 1/1
This gives an even better image of how defensive minded the NSFC game was. If NOLA was able to get to 3rd down they were almost invincible after. What's funny is that Colorado was able to score 28 on just 14 first downs, they really moved quickly down the field, shame they surrendered 2 picks including a defensive touchdown.

So given that analysis and conference finals numbers, I think defence deserves the Playoff Series MVP nod and in the more defensive minded game - so out of our Conference Finals the William H. Harrison is certainly standing out with his two crucial sacks and 8 tackles. I'm looking forward to what he can