Task 5:
My focus has almost always been on my player, Darrel Williams when it comes to writing tasks revolving around this league. Obviously, seeing as I've cranked out over five thousand words in just two of my articles alone about Darrel's career I could once again crank out some 800 words about how Darrel has done this and he's also done that. But in my opinion, I wanted to take a look at a season that is near and dear to my heart; the S19 DSFL campaign. Darrel would go on to win a bunch of awards and an Ultimini, but one team that interests me from that season is the S19 Norfolk Seawolves. The Seawolves were led by Gimmy Jaroppolo, who led the team to an incredible, amazing, and astonishly impressive 0-14 record. My question that I wanted to explore in this little 800 word writeup was how bad were the Seawolves in S19? And how close were they to pulling it off and actually winning a game? While I could just look at the final box score and say; hey, look! The Seawolves only lost this game by 7! That's the game they came the closest! Writeup over. Instead, I want to look through the play-by-play to determine at what exact moment were the Seawolves closest to winning an actual football game against a real(or other bot team). It realistically should be against the Coyotes, as they were the only other bot team in the league that year. Let's start with Week 1.
Oof. This definitely isn't the game. The Seawolves were already down 35-0 in the end of the second quarter, and the Buccaneers coasted to an impressive 42-6 victory. Norfolk is already 0-1 and they had no chance from the opening kickoff to the final play in this game. Week 2 is a much different story. In a battle with the Coyotes, the Seawolves were able to keep it close and in the fourth quarter, Gimmy held the ball with the Seawolves only down three. First and 10 on their own two yard line however led to a sack, and Gimmy took a safety deep in his own endzone. The Coyotes got the ball back, quickly scored a touchdown, and put the game out of reach for a 32-17 victory over the Seawolves. Week 3 we see Norfolk take their first ever lead of the season, but it was quickly taken back in the second quarter, and the Pythons ran away with the game. However, 7-3 in the first does at least somewhat compete with 20-17 in the fourth on your own two yard line. On to Week 4!
This really does beat into you, hoping that something will change, that Norfolk will put it together. But they really just can't. Don't forget they lost all four of their preseason games too. All eighteen of their professional football contests ended with a loss. Around Christmas 2019, someone posted a meme of a crying Baby Yoda with the caption "Norfolk when it's time to sim". I understood that back when I knew that Norfolk was bad, but I didn't expect this bad. Myrtle Beach went up 17-0 on the Seawolves, but they fought back to make it 17-14 before the Buccaneers pulled away. Another contender for closest time. Week 5 is a similar game, where the better team pulled away in the second half, but the Seawolves were within three at halftime. These games are winnable; if they had good players and not bots running around the field waiting for someone to kick their asses to the curb. Tijuana's next in Week 6.. and yeah, they didn't score more than three points. Next game. The Seawolves travel to Minnesota, and pull within 11 at the end of the game. Not their best performance. Week 8 maybe? Norfolk once again takes a lead! They were up 13-10 in the second quarter. They still can't get more than four points ahead of an opponent... and these leads are always in the first half.. but it's something. Running out of words here, so let's quickly run through the last six games. Week 9, Seawolves go up 3-0, nothing else good happens. Week 10, game is tied at half, but Coyotes score twice in the second half to win. Week 11.. uh.. another battle with Tijuana. Not a contender. Week 12, the best chance they had was at kickoff and down 31-3. Next! Week 13, the Seawolves were down ten but had the ball near midfield with five minutes to go. The drive stalled and the game ended. Week 14, another game against Tijuana. Once again, not a contender.
Okay.. that was rough. Again, it's the life of being a bot team that isn't meant to win. In my opinion, the best chance the Seawolves had to win one single game was Week 2 against the Coyotes. If Gimmy finds his inner John Elway and leads the Seawolves 98 yards down the field and the defense holds against another bot team, the Seawolves find their win. Second place goes to Week 8, I guess? This was sad but interesting all around.
My focus has almost always been on my player, Darrel Williams when it comes to writing tasks revolving around this league. Obviously, seeing as I've cranked out over five thousand words in just two of my articles alone about Darrel's career I could once again crank out some 800 words about how Darrel has done this and he's also done that. But in my opinion, I wanted to take a look at a season that is near and dear to my heart; the S19 DSFL campaign. Darrel would go on to win a bunch of awards and an Ultimini, but one team that interests me from that season is the S19 Norfolk Seawolves. The Seawolves were led by Gimmy Jaroppolo, who led the team to an incredible, amazing, and astonishly impressive 0-14 record. My question that I wanted to explore in this little 800 word writeup was how bad were the Seawolves in S19? And how close were they to pulling it off and actually winning a game? While I could just look at the final box score and say; hey, look! The Seawolves only lost this game by 7! That's the game they came the closest! Writeup over. Instead, I want to look through the play-by-play to determine at what exact moment were the Seawolves closest to winning an actual football game against a real(or other bot team). It realistically should be against the Coyotes, as they were the only other bot team in the league that year. Let's start with Week 1.
Oof. This definitely isn't the game. The Seawolves were already down 35-0 in the end of the second quarter, and the Buccaneers coasted to an impressive 42-6 victory. Norfolk is already 0-1 and they had no chance from the opening kickoff to the final play in this game. Week 2 is a much different story. In a battle with the Coyotes, the Seawolves were able to keep it close and in the fourth quarter, Gimmy held the ball with the Seawolves only down three. First and 10 on their own two yard line however led to a sack, and Gimmy took a safety deep in his own endzone. The Coyotes got the ball back, quickly scored a touchdown, and put the game out of reach for a 32-17 victory over the Seawolves. Week 3 we see Norfolk take their first ever lead of the season, but it was quickly taken back in the second quarter, and the Pythons ran away with the game. However, 7-3 in the first does at least somewhat compete with 20-17 in the fourth on your own two yard line. On to Week 4!
This really does beat into you, hoping that something will change, that Norfolk will put it together. But they really just can't. Don't forget they lost all four of their preseason games too. All eighteen of their professional football contests ended with a loss. Around Christmas 2019, someone posted a meme of a crying Baby Yoda with the caption "Norfolk when it's time to sim". I understood that back when I knew that Norfolk was bad, but I didn't expect this bad. Myrtle Beach went up 17-0 on the Seawolves, but they fought back to make it 17-14 before the Buccaneers pulled away. Another contender for closest time. Week 5 is a similar game, where the better team pulled away in the second half, but the Seawolves were within three at halftime. These games are winnable; if they had good players and not bots running around the field waiting for someone to kick their asses to the curb. Tijuana's next in Week 6.. and yeah, they didn't score more than three points. Next game. The Seawolves travel to Minnesota, and pull within 11 at the end of the game. Not their best performance. Week 8 maybe? Norfolk once again takes a lead! They were up 13-10 in the second quarter. They still can't get more than four points ahead of an opponent... and these leads are always in the first half.. but it's something. Running out of words here, so let's quickly run through the last six games. Week 9, Seawolves go up 3-0, nothing else good happens. Week 10, game is tied at half, but Coyotes score twice in the second half to win. Week 11.. uh.. another battle with Tijuana. Not a contender. Week 12, the best chance they had was at kickoff and down 31-3. Next! Week 13, the Seawolves were down ten but had the ball near midfield with five minutes to go. The drive stalled and the game ended. Week 14, another game against Tijuana. Once again, not a contender.
Okay.. that was rough. Again, it's the life of being a bot team that isn't meant to win. In my opinion, the best chance the Seawolves had to win one single game was Week 2 against the Coyotes. If Gimmy finds his inner John Elway and leads the Seawolves 98 yards down the field and the defense holds against another bot team, the Seawolves find their win. Second place goes to Week 8, I guess? This was sad but interesting all around.
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874 words![[Image: Sig.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/s2FkFNLh/Sig.png)
