Playoff Predictions:
Bet on the home team. It’s always a good bet in a sim league where home field is a huge advantage, and there aren’t any injuries to lower an otherwise better team’s chances. Whether or not the home team is the better team will be addressed later. However, both Monday games feature close opponents but VERY different styles. The Hawks will run a very balanced offense and defense, forcing their opponents to take big risks to gain an advantage. Those risks rarely work out. I feel that the Baltimore offense will struggle against Philly’s defense, especially when trying to pass. Expect the fumble-prone Farlane to be leaned on heavily. With Rove still struggling at QB, those turnovers are the only chance Philly has of winning. In Arizona, expect a close battle with Franklin Harris, Jr being the one OC pins their hopes on beating. It’s a risky venture, but easily OC’s best chance of getting past the #1 defense.
In the Ultimus, expect to see Baltimore return to Arizona. In the season, Baltimore has the best record of ANY team against the soon-to-be three time champs, but don’t expect another Baltimore upset. If anything, I would expect something MUCH more along the lines of the previous Ultimus matchup.
Matchup Nightmares:
In the first round of the AFSC Conference Finals, the Philadelphia Liberty will face off against the Baltimore Hawks in Baltimore. Naturally, it’s too soon to say where each team will play folks, the Liberty have generally lined Season Two Tyler Oles up on the left side. The Baltimore Hawks generally do the same with recently acquired veteran Stormblessed. I genuinely believe that this match up will almost be the sole determiner of the game. Both players are quite capable, and both players have significant strengths and weaknesses that make each of them a nightmare for the other.
Stormblessed is a big play wide receiver. His speed makes him the second-fastest wide receiver in the league (behind only Westfield). Once the ball is in his hands, he will pull away from whoever is defending him until he runs out of gas. Fortunately, that doesn’t take too long, but by then the damage is normally done. The best way to mitigate that damage is to keep the ball out of his extremely unreliable hands. There isn’t a single receiver in the top 15 with hands like his. There is a cornerback, though…Tyler Oles. Oles is slow, but decently agile, with good strength and wonderful hands (for a cornerback). When targeting him, he’ll generally give up a catch (for big yards) or get an interception. Against such a fast receiver like Stormblessed, it seems every target will be a touchdown or interception.
Offensive Matchup
The Ultimus was not an exciting game. Let’s not bullshit anyone here for TPE. There was one matchup that turned out to be more exciting than anticipated, and that was the back and forth competition between two starting running backs, one a former league leader in rushing yards, the other the consensus #1 fantasy back. The competition was an intense one…which would be the least significant player on the field. This was not a competition either side took lightly. It started looking quite different, with Farlane picking up a first down on the Hawk’s initial possession, and Mackworthy scoring the first TD of the game. Then something magical happened. Absolutely nothing. That touchdown was scored with 9:23 remaining in the first quarter. It took until 31 seconds left in the first before EITHER RB managed a single yard through air or ground. It took until 6:21 remaining in the THIRD before either RB managed a first down. In the end, the two RBs combined for an impressive 85 yards, with both tying for 2.4 yards per useless carry. The longest carry of the game was 8 yards. Farlane had more yards, leading 61 to 24, but also had 2.5 times the carries and his longest run was only 7 yards. You decide: which one mattered less?
Trade Benefit
While this may not be the first time Stormblessed was traded in a blockbuster deal, the Baltimore Hawks certainly got more bang for their buck. In Season Two, Stormblessed had 0 catches for 0 yards in the playoffs. Sure, that may not be very fair, because, you know…Legion, but this is a fucking point task, not a paid statistical analysis. Let’s not raise the bar too high, all right? However, it is fair to say that the Legion did not get the production they expected. In Season Two, Stormblessed totaled only 759 yards, LESS than he had in Season One despite the league seeing a huge increase in passing. On top of that, he went on to become inactive. Partway through Season Three he was traded to the Baltimore Hawks, where he IMMEDIATELY became a bigger threat. His yards climbed back to 982, but it was in the playoffs that he really shined. Over two games, Stormblessed totaled 221 receiving yards, 109 of them against the league’s best defense. He accounted for 38.4% of Kyubee’s yards, and also racked up 182 yards on just FOUR kick returns, an average of 45.5 per return. The Hawks may not have won, but if they had, it would have been due to a trade that MASSIVELY helped them.
Champ Summary
Another season…another Outlaws championship. I’d LIKE to pretend I’m bored by it, but I’m really not. In truth, I love seeing them do it. Every year they raise the bar, then somehow manage to clear it. The Ultimus is probably the best example of that. In one hour, a casual fan can watch how Arizona treated the whole league. If you believe that the Ultimus is a match between the two best teams in the league…I’m sorry. In truth, there is another game for that called the ASFC championship. The NSFC has managed to not send the best team all 3 seasons…a somewhat impressively depressing streak. That means that as the more talented team, one of my greatest joys is watching an unworthy team get destroyed…and the Outlaws delivered. Despite the Hawks being the only team to beat Arizona in the season, last night showed they are not on the same page. The final score of 49-12 says a LOT of it, but even that fails to show that it was 49-6 until a pure garbage time TD (set up by an amazing kick return) doubled the Hawks score. Even then, that leaves out Scrub’s 0 TD, 5 INT performance compared to 4 TD and 0 INT for Bronko, or the Arizona D’s 12 sacks, killing every drive. This is what dominance looks like.
Bet on the home team. It’s always a good bet in a sim league where home field is a huge advantage, and there aren’t any injuries to lower an otherwise better team’s chances. Whether or not the home team is the better team will be addressed later. However, both Monday games feature close opponents but VERY different styles. The Hawks will run a very balanced offense and defense, forcing their opponents to take big risks to gain an advantage. Those risks rarely work out. I feel that the Baltimore offense will struggle against Philly’s defense, especially when trying to pass. Expect the fumble-prone Farlane to be leaned on heavily. With Rove still struggling at QB, those turnovers are the only chance Philly has of winning. In Arizona, expect a close battle with Franklin Harris, Jr being the one OC pins their hopes on beating. It’s a risky venture, but easily OC’s best chance of getting past the #1 defense.
In the Ultimus, expect to see Baltimore return to Arizona. In the season, Baltimore has the best record of ANY team against the soon-to-be three time champs, but don’t expect another Baltimore upset. If anything, I would expect something MUCH more along the lines of the previous Ultimus matchup.
Matchup Nightmares:
In the first round of the AFSC Conference Finals, the Philadelphia Liberty will face off against the Baltimore Hawks in Baltimore. Naturally, it’s too soon to say where each team will play folks, the Liberty have generally lined Season Two Tyler Oles up on the left side. The Baltimore Hawks generally do the same with recently acquired veteran Stormblessed. I genuinely believe that this match up will almost be the sole determiner of the game. Both players are quite capable, and both players have significant strengths and weaknesses that make each of them a nightmare for the other.
Stormblessed is a big play wide receiver. His speed makes him the second-fastest wide receiver in the league (behind only Westfield). Once the ball is in his hands, he will pull away from whoever is defending him until he runs out of gas. Fortunately, that doesn’t take too long, but by then the damage is normally done. The best way to mitigate that damage is to keep the ball out of his extremely unreliable hands. There isn’t a single receiver in the top 15 with hands like his. There is a cornerback, though…Tyler Oles. Oles is slow, but decently agile, with good strength and wonderful hands (for a cornerback). When targeting him, he’ll generally give up a catch (for big yards) or get an interception. Against such a fast receiver like Stormblessed, it seems every target will be a touchdown or interception.
Offensive Matchup
The Ultimus was not an exciting game. Let’s not bullshit anyone here for TPE. There was one matchup that turned out to be more exciting than anticipated, and that was the back and forth competition between two starting running backs, one a former league leader in rushing yards, the other the consensus #1 fantasy back. The competition was an intense one…which would be the least significant player on the field. This was not a competition either side took lightly. It started looking quite different, with Farlane picking up a first down on the Hawk’s initial possession, and Mackworthy scoring the first TD of the game. Then something magical happened. Absolutely nothing. That touchdown was scored with 9:23 remaining in the first quarter. It took until 31 seconds left in the first before EITHER RB managed a single yard through air or ground. It took until 6:21 remaining in the THIRD before either RB managed a first down. In the end, the two RBs combined for an impressive 85 yards, with both tying for 2.4 yards per useless carry. The longest carry of the game was 8 yards. Farlane had more yards, leading 61 to 24, but also had 2.5 times the carries and his longest run was only 7 yards. You decide: which one mattered less?
Trade Benefit
While this may not be the first time Stormblessed was traded in a blockbuster deal, the Baltimore Hawks certainly got more bang for their buck. In Season Two, Stormblessed had 0 catches for 0 yards in the playoffs. Sure, that may not be very fair, because, you know…Legion, but this is a fucking point task, not a paid statistical analysis. Let’s not raise the bar too high, all right? However, it is fair to say that the Legion did not get the production they expected. In Season Two, Stormblessed totaled only 759 yards, LESS than he had in Season One despite the league seeing a huge increase in passing. On top of that, he went on to become inactive. Partway through Season Three he was traded to the Baltimore Hawks, where he IMMEDIATELY became a bigger threat. His yards climbed back to 982, but it was in the playoffs that he really shined. Over two games, Stormblessed totaled 221 receiving yards, 109 of them against the league’s best defense. He accounted for 38.4% of Kyubee’s yards, and also racked up 182 yards on just FOUR kick returns, an average of 45.5 per return. The Hawks may not have won, but if they had, it would have been due to a trade that MASSIVELY helped them.
Champ Summary
Another season…another Outlaws championship. I’d LIKE to pretend I’m bored by it, but I’m really not. In truth, I love seeing them do it. Every year they raise the bar, then somehow manage to clear it. The Ultimus is probably the best example of that. In one hour, a casual fan can watch how Arizona treated the whole league. If you believe that the Ultimus is a match between the two best teams in the league…I’m sorry. In truth, there is another game for that called the ASFC championship. The NSFC has managed to not send the best team all 3 seasons…a somewhat impressively depressing streak. That means that as the more talented team, one of my greatest joys is watching an unworthy team get destroyed…and the Outlaws delivered. Despite the Hawks being the only team to beat Arizona in the season, last night showed they are not on the same page. The final score of 49-12 says a LOT of it, but even that fails to show that it was 49-6 until a pure garbage time TD (set up by an amazing kick return) doubled the Hawks score. Even then, that leaves out Scrub’s 0 TD, 5 INT performance compared to 4 TD and 0 INT for Bronko, or the Arizona D’s 12 sacks, killing every drive. This is what dominance looks like.
![[Image: BVsashy.png]](https://i.imgur.com/BVsashy.png)
