Bottom Half:
The NSFC conference was more competitve with the last team recording a ''decent'' 5-9 record, so I'll talk about the two worst teams from ASFC conference. First of all, Las Vegas Legion. They decided to not wasting any time for the rebuild and drafted more ready guys in an expansion draft. Also, they made couple of trade for big players. Some of them are already busts, some of then are not, but at end of the day this tactic by a Raven fan placed his team at the bottom with a 3-11 record. They were somewhat ''decent'' at the defence (considering their record), but LVL's O-Line leaves a lot to be desired. Their future is looking sort of bleak - not much draft picks to have a rebuild, so it seems this is not the last time when we're gonna mention them in the Ultimus Week PT.
As for the Cats - they started the season with a good 3-1 record and then everything fell apart. Some L's straight + Hackett trade which made Bailey Cook asking out of his team because he wanted to play with A.C. (IRL friend) and the Cats managed to take only 1 win vs the Legion. 4-11 record, like last season, but at least they have two S3 first round picks, so they still have a nice future here.
Playoff Review:
Arizona vs Orange County
Once again, these teams squared up to each other in the ASFC finals. Last time, Zona took the win in a hard game and this one wasn't easier as well. The Outlaws' O-Line was more active, but Verns-Spector-Harris trio did everything to give them a run of their money. The problem for the Otters was Zona's defence also was doing a good job, hence OCO offense was getting points only from FG. Charles Artur Chess' TD was very improtant one for the Outlaws - having 11 point lead in a hard game always helps. Westfield cut the lead to 4 in the third quarter, but Arizona managed to hold their opponent's offense in the last quarter. 17-13, Zona once again makes the finals.
Baltimore vs Yellowknife
Yellowknife was looking for the first finals in their history so was Baltimore. Both teams went 8-6 in the regular season and everybody were expecting a bloody fight. And both teams didn't dissapoint, despite of the Hawks' 10-0 run in the first two quarters. Yellowknife tried their best to catch Baltimore from 0-10 to 7-10: from 7-16 to 14-16. They still had time after Cook's TD, but the Hawks didn't allow any points anymore. I need to say that Hawks' kicker Turkleton was the hero of this match: his 3 FG's helped his team a lot (9 out of 16 points).
Championship Game Recap:
Arizona vs Baltimore
Last time, Arziona crushed their NSFC opponents (Colorado) for the Ultimus Cup and they were about to do it once again. I can describe this game as the battle of the kickers and punters. Talking about them being underappreciated...after this match everybody should look at them more closely. Cristian Ronaldo managed to outscore his colleague 5-2 (15-6 in points) which gave Zona a good lead. Also, the Outlaws' defence once again showed their dominance by allowing only 6 points in the whole match, just like they did in last finals vs the Yeti. The only difference is our now-two-time-champs scored a little bit more. The final score is 33-6, utter dominance by the best team in the league. Not only Ronaldo was doing job for the Zona's offense - aforementioned C.A.C. and Mackworthy added their TD's to Zona's point count. We also have sort of an anti-hero - Scrub Kyubee from the Hawks completed only 14 passes of 31 attempts and allowed 4 points from a safety. As you can see - Baltimore had no chances (Zona had a 28-0 lead before Turkleton's FG, nuff said) and it remains to be seen if they can repeat this season's success without Gibson as this match showed to everybody that they can't do much against the ASFC powerhouse...perhaps nobody can't do shit vs the Outlaws, they are just too strong.
Playoff Series MVP:
I'm always trying to write PT's about safeties, but this time I'll change a position. Like I said, a lots of NSFL members are overlooking the kickers, but after this playoff series this thing could change, espcially after what Cristiano Ronaldo did. The Arizona Outlaws' punter was drafted in the 6th round (48th pick) and his team's management can be proud of this pick. He wasn't a first hero against the Otters' team in ASFC finals, but 5 points out of 17 total is a solid performance. Also, his 3 punts out of ten landed to inside 20. His one hour of fame, however came in the finals against the Hawks' team. He had a battle with his kicker opponent Turkleton where he overcame 5-2. 5 successful FG's in one match - I don't think this is a common thing to see. In total, he scored 17 points out of Zona's 33 - that's more than half of the team's total points. No wonders why this player was named the PoTG - it was his day. 4/4 from 30-39 yard distance is showing how accurate he is. In addition to this, his another punt (5 total) landed into the 20. Who would ever thought that the punter/kicker is going to be draft's huge steal lol.
Defensive Comparison:
The Arizona vs Orange County matchuo was more defensive and that's why I'll talk about the two def players. These players are - Dominic Verns from the Otters' team, who I named the most improved player and Jayce Tuck from the Outlaws' team, another interesting player. They both had a different style of a play - Verns posted 104 tackles (9 of them for losses), 12 sacks, 3 picks and 6 broken passes. Very solid for a safety, I'd say. Meanwhile, Tuck wasn't much of tackling guy (69, 19 of them for a loss), but he's a defensive end, not a safety. But then he has 23 sacks - he outduels every DE by a wide margin, also he has 3 forced fumbles + 2 recovered. And he forced one safety too. So it was interesting to see them in action as both teams were fine with a defence.
In the conference finals, Verns posted 8 tackles and 2 sacks. He did everything he could to stop the opponents and I can say he did very well for a safety. As for Jayce - 4 tackles (2 for loss) and one sack, pure DE stats. So he also did a fine job to not allowing Otters' offence to make a play. At end of the day, it's hard to say who won this battle, but certainly Jayce Tuck is the best DE in the league and Dominic Verns one of the best (if not best) safeties in the league.
The NSFC conference was more competitve with the last team recording a ''decent'' 5-9 record, so I'll talk about the two worst teams from ASFC conference. First of all, Las Vegas Legion. They decided to not wasting any time for the rebuild and drafted more ready guys in an expansion draft. Also, they made couple of trade for big players. Some of them are already busts, some of then are not, but at end of the day this tactic by a Raven fan placed his team at the bottom with a 3-11 record. They were somewhat ''decent'' at the defence (considering their record), but LVL's O-Line leaves a lot to be desired. Their future is looking sort of bleak - not much draft picks to have a rebuild, so it seems this is not the last time when we're gonna mention them in the Ultimus Week PT.
As for the Cats - they started the season with a good 3-1 record and then everything fell apart. Some L's straight + Hackett trade which made Bailey Cook asking out of his team because he wanted to play with A.C. (IRL friend) and the Cats managed to take only 1 win vs the Legion. 4-11 record, like last season, but at least they have two S3 first round picks, so they still have a nice future here.
Playoff Review:
Arizona vs Orange County
Once again, these teams squared up to each other in the ASFC finals. Last time, Zona took the win in a hard game and this one wasn't easier as well. The Outlaws' O-Line was more active, but Verns-Spector-Harris trio did everything to give them a run of their money. The problem for the Otters was Zona's defence also was doing a good job, hence OCO offense was getting points only from FG. Charles Artur Chess' TD was very improtant one for the Outlaws - having 11 point lead in a hard game always helps. Westfield cut the lead to 4 in the third quarter, but Arizona managed to hold their opponent's offense in the last quarter. 17-13, Zona once again makes the finals.
Baltimore vs Yellowknife
Yellowknife was looking for the first finals in their history so was Baltimore. Both teams went 8-6 in the regular season and everybody were expecting a bloody fight. And both teams didn't dissapoint, despite of the Hawks' 10-0 run in the first two quarters. Yellowknife tried their best to catch Baltimore from 0-10 to 7-10: from 7-16 to 14-16. They still had time after Cook's TD, but the Hawks didn't allow any points anymore. I need to say that Hawks' kicker Turkleton was the hero of this match: his 3 FG's helped his team a lot (9 out of 16 points).
Championship Game Recap:
Arizona vs Baltimore
Last time, Arziona crushed their NSFC opponents (Colorado) for the Ultimus Cup and they were about to do it once again. I can describe this game as the battle of the kickers and punters. Talking about them being underappreciated...after this match everybody should look at them more closely. Cristian Ronaldo managed to outscore his colleague 5-2 (15-6 in points) which gave Zona a good lead. Also, the Outlaws' defence once again showed their dominance by allowing only 6 points in the whole match, just like they did in last finals vs the Yeti. The only difference is our now-two-time-champs scored a little bit more. The final score is 33-6, utter dominance by the best team in the league. Not only Ronaldo was doing job for the Zona's offense - aforementioned C.A.C. and Mackworthy added their TD's to Zona's point count. We also have sort of an anti-hero - Scrub Kyubee from the Hawks completed only 14 passes of 31 attempts and allowed 4 points from a safety. As you can see - Baltimore had no chances (Zona had a 28-0 lead before Turkleton's FG, nuff said) and it remains to be seen if they can repeat this season's success without Gibson as this match showed to everybody that they can't do much against the ASFC powerhouse...perhaps nobody can't do shit vs the Outlaws, they are just too strong.
Playoff Series MVP:
I'm always trying to write PT's about safeties, but this time I'll change a position. Like I said, a lots of NSFL members are overlooking the kickers, but after this playoff series this thing could change, espcially after what Cristiano Ronaldo did. The Arizona Outlaws' punter was drafted in the 6th round (48th pick) and his team's management can be proud of this pick. He wasn't a first hero against the Otters' team in ASFC finals, but 5 points out of 17 total is a solid performance. Also, his 3 punts out of ten landed to inside 20. His one hour of fame, however came in the finals against the Hawks' team. He had a battle with his kicker opponent Turkleton where he overcame 5-2. 5 successful FG's in one match - I don't think this is a common thing to see. In total, he scored 17 points out of Zona's 33 - that's more than half of the team's total points. No wonders why this player was named the PoTG - it was his day. 4/4 from 30-39 yard distance is showing how accurate he is. In addition to this, his another punt (5 total) landed into the 20. Who would ever thought that the punter/kicker is going to be draft's huge steal lol.
Defensive Comparison:
The Arizona vs Orange County matchuo was more defensive and that's why I'll talk about the two def players. These players are - Dominic Verns from the Otters' team, who I named the most improved player and Jayce Tuck from the Outlaws' team, another interesting player. They both had a different style of a play - Verns posted 104 tackles (9 of them for losses), 12 sacks, 3 picks and 6 broken passes. Very solid for a safety, I'd say. Meanwhile, Tuck wasn't much of tackling guy (69, 19 of them for a loss), but he's a defensive end, not a safety. But then he has 23 sacks - he outduels every DE by a wide margin, also he has 3 forced fumbles + 2 recovered. And he forced one safety too. So it was interesting to see them in action as both teams were fine with a defence.
In the conference finals, Verns posted 8 tackles and 2 sacks. He did everything he could to stop the opponents and I can say he did very well for a safety. As for Jayce - 4 tackles (2 for loss) and one sack, pure DE stats. So he also did a fine job to not allowing Otters' offence to make a play. At end of the day, it's hard to say who won this battle, but certainly Jayce Tuck is the best DE in the league and Dominic Verns one of the best (if not best) safeties in the league.
