(S18) - PT1 - Defense wins Championships!

[ven_knight]

The Outlaws defense has been known since the beginning of the league for giving consistently good to astounding performances in terms of sacks, forced fumbles and tackles for loss. From my experience, when I arrived to the team in season 15, Arizona was in a great position to once again regain the status of a reliable defense following a disappointing season 14. This was possible because of the addition of some key players in the secondary in the S15 draft (safeties McKinnie and Mack, cornerback Knight), calling linebacker Lee up from the DSFL and bringing safety Barnes and cornerback Montgomery via free agency and trade.

The investment of draft capital and free agents really pay off during season 16. The defense finish in the top 5 with stats of 48 sacks (1st), 35 TFL (1st), 7/7 FF/FR (T-3rd), 66 passes defended (6th) and 9 interceptions (7th). The truly remarkable performance was in the playoffs which earned the Outlaws a trip to the Ultimus game by first winning against their rival the Otters on the road and containing them to just 3 points scored, plus adding 4 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and 2 interceptions.

For season 18, I see the Outlaws finishing with a top 3 defense, the key is having LB Raymond Vans keeping his performance of at least 1 sack per game and to see more takeaways from the secondary. I predict Arizona to end up in the first three on sacks and tackles for loss.