(S21) - Ultimus Week

[GoonerBear]

1) Playoff Predictions, Reviews:
Written: Give a short write up of one or multiple playoff matches. If completed before the airing of the sims, give your predictions; if it is afterwards, give a review of the game.

The ASFC Championship featured a pair of franchises with plenty of history, several titles, and, with the upset in the NSFC Championship, shaped up to give the winner the inside track at adding another Ultimus to their cabinet. The showdown between the two best scoring offenses and defenses did not disappoint, with plenty of each on display. Alex Dasistwirklichseinnachname opened the Otters' account with a field goal at the end of a 12-play drive after they stalled New Orleans in four plays.

The Second Line would call the shots the rest of the half, however, holding the Otters down while Stan Francisco struck the end zone twice and Herbert Prohaska made it two full possessions near halftime. Orange County immediately stayed in the game with a 4-minute TD drive, capped with Franklin Armstrong hooking up with the rookie Remon Kurisoto. With more defensive holding in both trenches, Orange County tied the game after Armstrong ran for it from three yards out. Marcella Toriki put the Second Line back on the advantage, though with enough time, the Otters gave themselves a chance with a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, though decided to take their chances in overtime. The ball, thankfully, came back into Otter hands when New Orleans could only manage a field goal. The Second Line defense held on after allowing one first down on the drive, however, and Orange County only spent one play in enemy territory, and the rookie wideout who snagged the first TD was unfortunate in the clutch as he dropped the pass that might have kept the game going.

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2) Playoffs MVP
Written: Wrote about a heroic performance on the field by any player this playoff season. Why do they deserve to be called the MVP of the playoffs?

In the Ultimus, it can be no one except Forrest Gump. A player racking up 100 yards rushing or receiving in the championship game contributed a lot to his team's performance. A player rushing for 100+ AND receiving for 100+ was doing it all, and Forrest ran and ran and ran, whether he got the ball behind the line or through the air. His touchdown in the 3rd helped put the kibosh on the Yellowknife Wraiths in the middle of him keeping the chains rolling, keeping lots of possession time for the Second Line, and all in all starring in a suffocating of Yellowknife.

A total of 28 touches out of 87 plays the Second Line ran from scrimmage, 102 yards on the ground from 25 handoffs and 3 catches for 119 yards, one for 36, one for 34 and a touchdown from 49 yards out broke the game wide open and stacked another trophy in New Orleans' case. Amid Stan Francisco rolling up on 353 yards going 22/37 and 3 touchdowns to 1 interception and Marcella Toriki putting on a better day rushing with 25 rushes for 123 yards and a touchdown as well as more receptions (7 for 44), he had stiff competition in that game and should be grateful he was only jockeying with teammates for MVP and celebrating the title.

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8) Revenge
Written: Write 200 words about a team you’d like to get revenge on next season and why. Did they knock you out of the playoffs? Blow you out?

Always and forever, it is the Orange County Otters. The other California club, down the coastline, representative of everything snooty and snobbish about SoCal we in the North despise. They are the Patriots of this league. It frightens me what sort of sorcery they have going on that's built them 8 titles and only one playoff miss since the league's inception. That and they beat us good in both our encounters this season. 27-10 in the season opener. 34-16 in the return match. 34 yards for my guy in the first game and 40 in the second. No touchdowns. Absolutely irritated me. This carries over from my last create as well. It has always been a great feeling to get one over on them once in a while, especially in those seasons before the SaberCats finally won a championship. Things look about the same now as they did when my last create entered the league. Team's in a rebuild, Orange County is in perpetual contention, they're set for this QB to soak in the life force of the blood of innocent virgins to keep him sustained the full 15-season term...I hope we start beating them down sooner rather than later, though I can wait. The cork will pop off all the louder when we get ours on them. Something ain't right in there. And I will take joy in slaying the dragon every time.

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20) Nostalgia
Written: What is your happiest memory in this league?

The night the SaberCats won their first Ultimus. I was psyched for the game already. We finally built everything up and we finally got things to go our way. We were ready to go, and to be honest, we had a good feeling we had the game when we saw our opposition would be the Philadelphia Liberty. Not that they made it easy - we didn't pull away by more than two scores until the third, then late in the fourth as the cherry on top. Everything worked well in concert - three rushers grinding yards and possession time, all hands on deck on the defense getting stops, tackles, a pick, two fumbles...the game was a good back-and-forth for a while and we were nervous our slow start would kill us, sure. Once Flash caught our first touchdown of the game to get within 1, though, we believed pretty hard we could do it. The celebration in that locker room that night was on when Orosz punched it in with not near enough time for Philly to dig themselves out of a two-score hole. The first time I had a player in any sim league in a championship game and at that point, the first time I had a player in any sim league win a championship. The first one was the sweetest. Thinking back on it now, it made a lot of the rougher seasons before and the playoff heartbreaks and the stalled postseason pushes worth the struggle.

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