Task #1
The Arizona Outlaws pretty much strolled their way to the Ultimus this season, losing just two regular season games as they made their way to the familiar hurdle of the playoffs — where they have arguably been one of the most unlucky teams around, in terms of losing games that they would ordinarily be considered the clear favourites. The slight hiccup against the San Jose Sabercats was somewhat concerning at the time but when you take a step back and think about it in context, it was never likely to be anything more than a speed bump. They played one of their better games in week 10 and we played one of our worst, so they took the deserved win. The other loss in the regular season was against the Austin Copperheads. The Copperheads are always a tricky game for Arizona to navigate and frequently push us to the absolute limit, so this one wasn’t really too much of a shock. Thomaslacher had been a disruptive force all season and that really didn’t change in this game, as he gave Cortez a torrid evening. Thankfully, we had Burfict put in a performance of a similar calibre, ensuring that things weren’t all one sided. The sum of their parts just turned out to be greater than ours on this occasion.
Outside of those two games, it really did feel like we were an unstoppable force at times, especially early on in the season when the offense was really playing lights out football. To my knowledge, we set a few records along the way and our offense was the best in ISFL history — in no small part thanks to the performance of our quarterback, Cortez. It certainly also didn’t hurt having 2 top 5 receivers and two running backs that are both capable of dismantling a team single handedly on their day.
While there were plenty of big names and familiar faces making plays to get us to where we needed to be, there were also some solid performances from new blood. Marcus Jones assumed my role from the previous season, filling in at whatever spot was required of him in the box. Given the somewhat limited snaps he played, his stats were solid and it’s good to know that we’re going to have a strong linebacker core moving forward, as Koniecpolski comes towards the end of his career. Young Bernie Sanders also had a pretty good rookie season at Guard and will only improve as the seasons pass, in one of the most thankless positions in the game.
After reaching the playoffs, the usual mix of conversations, nerves and memes were flying around. After getting burned so many times, it’s inevitable that people would be a little concerned in regards to the fate that the sim would decide for us. Knowing that we were to face either the Austin Copperheads or the New York Silverbacks really didn’t help the situation too much either. The Copperheads have, as previously mentioned, always been a bogey team for the Outlaws and the Silverbacks had unceremoniously dumped us out of the playoffs the previous season on their way to the Ultimus themselves. From a historical point of view, the omens really weren’t looking too great.
Thankfully, we put in one of the best performances of the season, as we completely shutout the Silverbacks. Nakamura and Memes split the workload as they had all season and both delivered excellent numbers — particularly Nakamura, who was a threat both through the air and on the ground, as he put up 178 yards of total offense. I also had perhaps the best game of my career, racking up 4 tackles, 1 TFL and 2 sacks — one of which was a strip sack and recovery. It’s still not quite as good as Lucid Dream’s strip sack, recovery and TD that I got to witness in London but it’s a step in the right direction. All in all, it was a great performance all around. A defense pitching a shutout and the offense putting up 442 yards is always going to leave you in good stead.
That lead us to the Ultimus, where we would face the Sarasota Sailfish, a team that had been champions as recently as S28. While there was plenty of reason to be optimistic — especially given our regular season win over them, with a fairly healthy scoreline of (I believe?) 41-17. I don’t want to be as cliche as to say “sim gonna sim” or any of that nonsense, as we knew this was always going to be a close game. Sarasota have a stacked roster and have consistently done well recently. We certainly didn’t play anywhere near as well as we had all season and really just struggled to get going — with our first touchdown finally being scored in the 4th quarter. Realistically, by that point, the game was already over. The Arizona curse continues.
The Arizona Outlaws pretty much strolled their way to the Ultimus this season, losing just two regular season games as they made their way to the familiar hurdle of the playoffs — where they have arguably been one of the most unlucky teams around, in terms of losing games that they would ordinarily be considered the clear favourites. The slight hiccup against the San Jose Sabercats was somewhat concerning at the time but when you take a step back and think about it in context, it was never likely to be anything more than a speed bump. They played one of their better games in week 10 and we played one of our worst, so they took the deserved win. The other loss in the regular season was against the Austin Copperheads. The Copperheads are always a tricky game for Arizona to navigate and frequently push us to the absolute limit, so this one wasn’t really too much of a shock. Thomaslacher had been a disruptive force all season and that really didn’t change in this game, as he gave Cortez a torrid evening. Thankfully, we had Burfict put in a performance of a similar calibre, ensuring that things weren’t all one sided. The sum of their parts just turned out to be greater than ours on this occasion.
Outside of those two games, it really did feel like we were an unstoppable force at times, especially early on in the season when the offense was really playing lights out football. To my knowledge, we set a few records along the way and our offense was the best in ISFL history — in no small part thanks to the performance of our quarterback, Cortez. It certainly also didn’t hurt having 2 top 5 receivers and two running backs that are both capable of dismantling a team single handedly on their day.
While there were plenty of big names and familiar faces making plays to get us to where we needed to be, there were also some solid performances from new blood. Marcus Jones assumed my role from the previous season, filling in at whatever spot was required of him in the box. Given the somewhat limited snaps he played, his stats were solid and it’s good to know that we’re going to have a strong linebacker core moving forward, as Koniecpolski comes towards the end of his career. Young Bernie Sanders also had a pretty good rookie season at Guard and will only improve as the seasons pass, in one of the most thankless positions in the game.
After reaching the playoffs, the usual mix of conversations, nerves and memes were flying around. After getting burned so many times, it’s inevitable that people would be a little concerned in regards to the fate that the sim would decide for us. Knowing that we were to face either the Austin Copperheads or the New York Silverbacks really didn’t help the situation too much either. The Copperheads have, as previously mentioned, always been a bogey team for the Outlaws and the Silverbacks had unceremoniously dumped us out of the playoffs the previous season on their way to the Ultimus themselves. From a historical point of view, the omens really weren’t looking too great.
Thankfully, we put in one of the best performances of the season, as we completely shutout the Silverbacks. Nakamura and Memes split the workload as they had all season and both delivered excellent numbers — particularly Nakamura, who was a threat both through the air and on the ground, as he put up 178 yards of total offense. I also had perhaps the best game of my career, racking up 4 tackles, 1 TFL and 2 sacks — one of which was a strip sack and recovery. It’s still not quite as good as Lucid Dream’s strip sack, recovery and TD that I got to witness in London but it’s a step in the right direction. All in all, it was a great performance all around. A defense pitching a shutout and the offense putting up 442 yards is always going to leave you in good stead.
That lead us to the Ultimus, where we would face the Sarasota Sailfish, a team that had been champions as recently as S28. While there was plenty of reason to be optimistic — especially given our regular season win over them, with a fairly healthy scoreline of (I believe?) 41-17. I don’t want to be as cliche as to say “sim gonna sim” or any of that nonsense, as we knew this was always going to be a close game. Sarasota have a stacked roster and have consistently done well recently. We certainly didn’t play anywhere near as well as we had all season and really just struggled to get going — with our first touchdown finally being scored in the 4th quarter. Realistically, by that point, the game was already over. The Arizona curse continues.
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