Prompt 1:
The playoff race ended up with a few surprises this season. Both of the two conference champions from last season missed the playoffs badly. The DSFL changes wildly fast, but no one expected a team like Kansas City to fall off so heavily. For my Pythons, we sorta came out of nowhere...
We ended last season 6-7-1, missing the playoffs by one game. In addition to this, we lost some HEAVY contributors on both sides of the ball to ISFL callups. On the offense, we lost one of our only active offensive contributors in WR Tay Swizzle. Leaving TE Mark Goodhead as our only active receiving threat to start the season. We also lost All-Pro offensive lineman Michael Carimi, as well as having our only RB options go inactive halfway through the season. On the defensive side of the ball, we lost SS Jay Spears, and DRotY candidate LB Pasta The Turtle, cutting Portland's blossoming Spicy Pasta LB duo short.
With these challenges, we set out to patch a LOT of holes in the draft. Our primary focus was revitalizing our offense. In the first round (3rd overall), we took RB The Stig. Stig has been an absolute game-changer for us. Not only is he a fantastic RB, and one of the strongest candidates for Offensive Rookie of the Year, he is constantly working on our offensive play-calling and making key adjustments week in and week out to optimize our season. In the 2nd round, we also took GM pick WR DeAndre King. Who has fit in perfectly as our team's leading receiver alongside TE Mark Goodhead.
In addition to the draft, our waiver wire pickups have been absolute KEY contributors to both sides of the ball. WR "Captain" Billy Stinkwater has been a clutch WR2, starting off his career in very promising fashion. Rookie CB Simon The Frog has been a key addition to the secondary, getting us some key turnovers to close out games. LB Spot Robodog also has been a great fill-in at the empty LB slot early in his career, already scoring a touchdown on a pick six as well. Though they're just starting their careers, these rookie waiver contributions have been invaluable to us and give us the depth we needed to get to the Ultimini.
Behind these contributions, alongside the veteran presence of our returning players, we've managed to pull out an 11-3 record, a whopping 4.5 game improvement over last season for us.
Our playoff game against Minnesota was an absolute barn burner. Minnesota always plays us insanely hard no matter how big the disparities may be in our records. Minnesota came our swinging, scoring a field goal early on in their first drive. Portland immediately responded with a touchdown, and it looked like we may have been able to run away with this one early. But Minnesota scored their own touchdown shortly after. After a quick three and out from Portland, Minnesota marched right down the field and scored ANOTHER touchdown. Putting them up 2 scores at 17-3 in the second quarter. This is where I really started to sweat. I was thinking we were going to get upset on our home field in the first round.
Portland hunkered down and brought the score back to 17 before the half ended, and kept us at a level playing field going into the 2nd half. The 2nd half was another absolute slugfest, with both teams scoring back and forth, taking the lead and falling behind over and over again. With just over 11 minutes left in the 4th quarter up 26-24, Minnesota had a chance to go up 2 scores in the 4th, and have a massive upset on their way to an Ultimini appearence.
But on that drive, the Portland defense came up with a MASSIVE interception, with a 43 yard interception return from one of our GM bots to put us right in the redzone and take the lead. Portland scored right away.
From there, Portland got 2 more turnovers, and ran away with the game from there. Ending the game 38-26. Despite this, I have to give Minnesota credit, they played us insanely hard and the score does not entirely reflect that.
But for now, Spicy Ron is Ultimini bound, and tomorrow he and the Portland Pythons will try to take on the heavily-favorited Norfolk Seawolves.
The playoff race ended up with a few surprises this season. Both of the two conference champions from last season missed the playoffs badly. The DSFL changes wildly fast, but no one expected a team like Kansas City to fall off so heavily. For my Pythons, we sorta came out of nowhere...
We ended last season 6-7-1, missing the playoffs by one game. In addition to this, we lost some HEAVY contributors on both sides of the ball to ISFL callups. On the offense, we lost one of our only active offensive contributors in WR Tay Swizzle. Leaving TE Mark Goodhead as our only active receiving threat to start the season. We also lost All-Pro offensive lineman Michael Carimi, as well as having our only RB options go inactive halfway through the season. On the defensive side of the ball, we lost SS Jay Spears, and DRotY candidate LB Pasta The Turtle, cutting Portland's blossoming Spicy Pasta LB duo short.
With these challenges, we set out to patch a LOT of holes in the draft. Our primary focus was revitalizing our offense. In the first round (3rd overall), we took RB The Stig. Stig has been an absolute game-changer for us. Not only is he a fantastic RB, and one of the strongest candidates for Offensive Rookie of the Year, he is constantly working on our offensive play-calling and making key adjustments week in and week out to optimize our season. In the 2nd round, we also took GM pick WR DeAndre King. Who has fit in perfectly as our team's leading receiver alongside TE Mark Goodhead.
In addition to the draft, our waiver wire pickups have been absolute KEY contributors to both sides of the ball. WR "Captain" Billy Stinkwater has been a clutch WR2, starting off his career in very promising fashion. Rookie CB Simon The Frog has been a key addition to the secondary, getting us some key turnovers to close out games. LB Spot Robodog also has been a great fill-in at the empty LB slot early in his career, already scoring a touchdown on a pick six as well. Though they're just starting their careers, these rookie waiver contributions have been invaluable to us and give us the depth we needed to get to the Ultimini.
Behind these contributions, alongside the veteran presence of our returning players, we've managed to pull out an 11-3 record, a whopping 4.5 game improvement over last season for us.
Our playoff game against Minnesota was an absolute barn burner. Minnesota always plays us insanely hard no matter how big the disparities may be in our records. Minnesota came our swinging, scoring a field goal early on in their first drive. Portland immediately responded with a touchdown, and it looked like we may have been able to run away with this one early. But Minnesota scored their own touchdown shortly after. After a quick three and out from Portland, Minnesota marched right down the field and scored ANOTHER touchdown. Putting them up 2 scores at 17-3 in the second quarter. This is where I really started to sweat. I was thinking we were going to get upset on our home field in the first round.
Portland hunkered down and brought the score back to 17 before the half ended, and kept us at a level playing field going into the 2nd half. The 2nd half was another absolute slugfest, with both teams scoring back and forth, taking the lead and falling behind over and over again. With just over 11 minutes left in the 4th quarter up 26-24, Minnesota had a chance to go up 2 scores in the 4th, and have a massive upset on their way to an Ultimini appearence.
But on that drive, the Portland defense came up with a MASSIVE interception, with a 43 yard interception return from one of our GM bots to put us right in the redzone and take the lead. Portland scored right away.
From there, Portland got 2 more turnovers, and ran away with the game from there. Ending the game 38-26. Despite this, I have to give Minnesota credit, they played us insanely hard and the score does not entirely reflect that.
But for now, Spicy Ron is Ultimini bound, and tomorrow he and the Portland Pythons will try to take on the heavily-favorited Norfolk Seawolves.
![[Image: 2pWNFhS.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/2pWNFhS.jpg)
