8) Awards season is a big part of the offseason festivities. Take the stand, in 400 words or more, for one or more players that are not your own, and argue why they should receive awards glory. They can be your teammates or anyone in the league. How did their stats and on the field contribution contribute to their case this year?
I would like to take a stand and argue for one of my own teams players this season again. But it’s not a Runningback, or a Quarterback, or even a great defensive player with amazingly flashy stats. I will push for a kicker. Yes, you heard right, a kicker! And I want to build or rather reaffirm the case for Venus Powers as Kicker of the Year. Powers may not have attempted a lot of 50+ yard kicks - or to be more precise: none - but the general field goal percentage was out of this world. Out of 36 field goals attempted Venus made 35 for a 97,2% field goal percentage. That may sound not too crazy, but let that sink in a bit: In the whole season Powers only missed one field goal. ONE! Next highest on field goal percentage are Dasistwirklicheinnachname and Kokot with around 96.5% and both attempted way less field goals with 28 and 29 respectively which is quite a big difference and still they both still have a lower percentage.
Add on top of that that Venus did not miss a single point after attempt the whole season. For the longest time Venus was working on adding to the record breaking streak of most consecutive field goals made, which by itself should already be a reason to be right up there for the award, not even counting the percentage or the perfect extra points percentage.
The only missed field goal Venus had was a 46 yard field goal in Week 13 on the road against the New York Silverbacks which did not matter because the game was lost anyway and this one would not have made a difference. Other than that single one you can look but there are no other ones on the stat sheet.
One can’t even argue that it was only because Powers did not have a lot of attempts, because she is certainly up there in the top five of total attempts with the highest number of attempts only being five more than Powers. At the same time the percentage with the higher number of attempts drops hard to under 90% for all of them. So for myself there is no question that Venus Powers was the best kicker this year and totally should win that award without any questions asked, because simply looking at volume or super long kicks does not tell the whole story with this season for her.
18) Choose your favorite non-playoffs game of this season, whether your own team or another. Explain what was so special and why the winner ultimately came out victorious, including key players and moments.
One of my favourite non playoff games this season was the Week 15 matchup of the Honolulu Hahalua against the Orange County Otters. It was the later half of the season and the playoff hope for my Hahalua was still alive, but they needed to win this game. The first half started promising with the Hahalua going into an early lead with a touchdown on the first possession of the game. After some great passes including a 43 yard one to Podolak, Ayers ran the ball in for the 7-0 lead after the successful extra point. Orange County answered with a field goal, but Honolulu quickly built up their lead with a field goal as well.
The second quarter did not see much action other than another field goal by Honolulu to go up 13-3 and building on their lead. In the third quarter Orange County was able to score their first touchdown, with Honolulu answering with their own one shortly after.
It came down to the wire in the last quarter when OCO score on two possessions in a row and equalize to a 20-20 score. With their playoff hopes on the line and 6 minutes to go in the last quarter Honolulu had to pull together one last drive to score. After a long drive that ended with a Powers field goal from 21 yards out OCO had one more chance. There drive was unsuccessful though and Honolulu pulled off the upset win on the road against the conference leading Otters.
Venus Powers was crucial in the game with their 3 field goals including the game winner in the last part of the game, with a great general defensive showing on Honolulu as well with Kackpoo recording 8 tackles and Fields recording 7 tackles, 1 sack and 2 defended passes with one of them in the last drive of the game which may have been the showstopper for Orange County.
30) Reflect on the two expansion teams. How did their first seasons go? What were their key strengths and weaknesses, and how are they poised to improve in seasons to come?
The Berlin Fire Salamanders and New York Silverbacks both had interesting seasons which started out quite differently but ended up around the same in the end. Their roads to what lead to their records are interesting to look at. Right in the first week of the season Berlin and New York battled in New York with Berlin grabbing their first win of the season against their expansion rivals. For the Silverbacks that was the start to a few rough weeks in the beginning of the season where they lost ten straight games, a lot of them by only a score or two, so no total blowouts, but still a horrible start for them. They did not lose faith though and started winning games with their Week 11 win against the Arizona Outlaws and then went on to win 3 straight. After that in the last 3 games they were able to grab one more win against the future Ultimus winners San Jose.
Berlin on the other hand started stronger with grabbing their first two wins in the first few weeks of the season, but falling off later with losing a lot of their games by a larger margin than the Silverbacks had. In the end they ended the season with the worse of the two records.
Both of them hopefully are on track for a brighter future. I think the Silverbacks are building themselves up for future success with a great core and will see general greatness soon, but Berlin has the stronger roster and may be able to grab more wins first, especially once Kaepercolin will improve at his new position.
New York will probably build on their core with free agency and future drafts but that will most likely mean their success is a bit further out than Berlins.
I would like to take a stand and argue for one of my own teams players this season again. But it’s not a Runningback, or a Quarterback, or even a great defensive player with amazingly flashy stats. I will push for a kicker. Yes, you heard right, a kicker! And I want to build or rather reaffirm the case for Venus Powers as Kicker of the Year. Powers may not have attempted a lot of 50+ yard kicks - or to be more precise: none - but the general field goal percentage was out of this world. Out of 36 field goals attempted Venus made 35 for a 97,2% field goal percentage. That may sound not too crazy, but let that sink in a bit: In the whole season Powers only missed one field goal. ONE! Next highest on field goal percentage are Dasistwirklicheinnachname and Kokot with around 96.5% and both attempted way less field goals with 28 and 29 respectively which is quite a big difference and still they both still have a lower percentage.
Add on top of that that Venus did not miss a single point after attempt the whole season. For the longest time Venus was working on adding to the record breaking streak of most consecutive field goals made, which by itself should already be a reason to be right up there for the award, not even counting the percentage or the perfect extra points percentage.
The only missed field goal Venus had was a 46 yard field goal in Week 13 on the road against the New York Silverbacks which did not matter because the game was lost anyway and this one would not have made a difference. Other than that single one you can look but there are no other ones on the stat sheet.
One can’t even argue that it was only because Powers did not have a lot of attempts, because she is certainly up there in the top five of total attempts with the highest number of attempts only being five more than Powers. At the same time the percentage with the higher number of attempts drops hard to under 90% for all of them. So for myself there is no question that Venus Powers was the best kicker this year and totally should win that award without any questions asked, because simply looking at volume or super long kicks does not tell the whole story with this season for her.
18) Choose your favorite non-playoffs game of this season, whether your own team or another. Explain what was so special and why the winner ultimately came out victorious, including key players and moments.
One of my favourite non playoff games this season was the Week 15 matchup of the Honolulu Hahalua against the Orange County Otters. It was the later half of the season and the playoff hope for my Hahalua was still alive, but they needed to win this game. The first half started promising with the Hahalua going into an early lead with a touchdown on the first possession of the game. After some great passes including a 43 yard one to Podolak, Ayers ran the ball in for the 7-0 lead after the successful extra point. Orange County answered with a field goal, but Honolulu quickly built up their lead with a field goal as well.
The second quarter did not see much action other than another field goal by Honolulu to go up 13-3 and building on their lead. In the third quarter Orange County was able to score their first touchdown, with Honolulu answering with their own one shortly after.
It came down to the wire in the last quarter when OCO score on two possessions in a row and equalize to a 20-20 score. With their playoff hopes on the line and 6 minutes to go in the last quarter Honolulu had to pull together one last drive to score. After a long drive that ended with a Powers field goal from 21 yards out OCO had one more chance. There drive was unsuccessful though and Honolulu pulled off the upset win on the road against the conference leading Otters.
Venus Powers was crucial in the game with their 3 field goals including the game winner in the last part of the game, with a great general defensive showing on Honolulu as well with Kackpoo recording 8 tackles and Fields recording 7 tackles, 1 sack and 2 defended passes with one of them in the last drive of the game which may have been the showstopper for Orange County.
30) Reflect on the two expansion teams. How did their first seasons go? What were their key strengths and weaknesses, and how are they poised to improve in seasons to come?
The Berlin Fire Salamanders and New York Silverbacks both had interesting seasons which started out quite differently but ended up around the same in the end. Their roads to what lead to their records are interesting to look at. Right in the first week of the season Berlin and New York battled in New York with Berlin grabbing their first win of the season against their expansion rivals. For the Silverbacks that was the start to a few rough weeks in the beginning of the season where they lost ten straight games, a lot of them by only a score or two, so no total blowouts, but still a horrible start for them. They did not lose faith though and started winning games with their Week 11 win against the Arizona Outlaws and then went on to win 3 straight. After that in the last 3 games they were able to grab one more win against the future Ultimus winners San Jose.
Berlin on the other hand started stronger with grabbing their first two wins in the first few weeks of the season, but falling off later with losing a lot of their games by a larger margin than the Silverbacks had. In the end they ended the season with the worse of the two records.
Both of them hopefully are on track for a brighter future. I think the Silverbacks are building themselves up for future success with a great core and will see general greatness soon, but Berlin has the stronger roster and may be able to grab more wins first, especially once Kaepercolin will improve at his new position.
New York will probably build on their core with free agency and future drafts but that will most likely mean their success is a bit further out than Berlins.
![[Image: 2LcBLtz.png]](https://i.imgur.com/2LcBLtz.png)
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