Offensive Comparison: Compare one offensive player from each team in a series. Can be completed at any point
In the NSFC Championship game, the key figures on offense were the wily Fox North -- Philadelphia's number one receiver -- and Baltimore's outstanding rookie, Trey Willie. Heading into the game, the two wideouts had comparable statistics on the season, with North leading Philly's receiving corps with 1,217 yards and 8 touchdowns, while Willie had established himself as a favourite for Offensive Rookie of the Year with 1,163 yards (an average of 18.2 yards per catch; bettered only by Weston and Westfield this season). Both players have impressive top-end speed, and the necessary skills to gain separation from the defensive back, but only one of these two really shone in the NSFC Championship Game.
Trey Willie's career performance -- a 117 yard, 4 TD game -- absolutely eclipsed North's comparatively subdued showing. In North's defense, he may have been hindered by the performances of his QB and Philadelphia's offensive line. After all, a player's deep field speed is irrelevant if the quarterback doesn't have time to make the pass... and the Hawks certainly made sure Clifford Rove would have a tough time of it finding Fox North, sacking the Liberty signal-caller ten times on the night. This is not to say that North was no threat -- he averaged 21 yards per catch, despite seemingly being covered by arguably the league's best cornerback -- but there can be no arguing who was the better receiver on the night.
(232 words)
Defensive Comparison: Compare one defensive player from each team in a series. Can be completed at any point
When the Baltimore Hawks missed out on a chance to sign AC Hackett, much fun was made of their failure, as the addition of the linebacker to the Liberty's roster saw a marked improvment in their defense. Adding him to an already impressive Hawks linebacking corps might have seen an even greater improvement. However, it's worth considering why the Hawks' offer was not particularly high. Well, first of all, they have Stephen Harrison. Harrison is the Hawks' leading linebacker, this much is certain. While Erasmo Broadway's performances last season were excellent, Harrison has remained a constant, and is one of the team's defensive leaders. Only two players racked up more tackles than the Hawks linebacker this season, while he also managed to get into the opposition backfield on occasion (7 sacks, 5 TFL) as well as making an impact in coverage (5 PD). His opposite number, so to speak, was similarly effective in coverage (1 INT, 3 PD) and significantly more impactful when it came to disrupting the backfield (13 sacks, 6 TFL).
Their showdown in the conference championship game, while not direct, promised to be intriguing to say the least. But there can be no questioning the victor in that particular showdown. Hackett's valiant efforts (6 tackles) in a game where his team were largely overmatched, simply doesn't compare to Harrison's defensive player of the game performance (10 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery). Of course, this doesn't mean that Hackett is the inferior player, as the Liberty struggled defensively overall on the night, but it's worth noting that last year's rookie sensation, and Baltimore's leading rusher, Darlane Farlane, was held to just 70 yards on the night. Also of note is that two thirds of Hackett's tackles were on Farlane.
(295 words)
Bottom Half: Write about why two of the four teams were not able to make the playoffs. Can be completed at any point
Before the season started, if you had suggested that the Yellowknife Wraiths would fail to make the playoffs, you'd have been ridiculed. In fact, a large proportion of people probably would have tipped them to win the NSFC. So why did they fall short? In truth, it's probably a number of factors. Their fearsome offense is not without faults, for example, Josh Garden led the league in dropped passes this season. The suspension of Mat Akselsen could be argued to have had an impact beyond the games he missed, through locker room disruption and so forth. Similarly, there have been some concerns over the health of Francois Lamoreux, which it is not unreasonable to suggest may have destabilised the Canada-based outfit. The simplest explanation, though, is sheer bad luck. Almost half of their losses were one possession games, while their expected wins under the pythagorean expectation model was around two games higher than their actual number of wins... which would actually have seen them place above the eventual conference champion Hawks by virtue of holding the tiebreaker.
In the ASFC the big surprise was the Legion. Not that they failed to reach the playoffs, but that they won twice throughout the season. At the risk of sounding harsh, it looked at one point as though the Legion would go winless on the season. The reasons for this are numerous, but primarily, it boils down to (ironically) the Las Vegas team having made a gamble and lost. The Legion strategy of trading draft capital for existing talent was likely an attempt to "win now", but it started badly. In response, many of those talented players they had signed seemed to lose confidence in the system and mentally checked out. This season was little better. While they do have some exciting talents committed to the team, set to propel them upward in the years to come, they also lost some of their remaining talent this season. The trade of Stormblessed to the Hawks seemed logical from a Las Vegas POV; he barely featured for them... yet in Baltimore, he has re-emerged as one of the league's big receiving threats. The trade of Ramrio to the Liberty took away one of the Legion's best defensive players, and dramatically weakened their defensive line. These things will be equalised in time, but this season was essentially a write-off for the Legion. Winning two games is probably a better return than anyone expected.
(407 words)
Playoff Series MVP: Choose an MVP for one of the playoff series and write about why you chose them. Must be completed after the playoff series you write about
The NSFC Conference Championship game MVP has to be, without any doubt, Trey Willie. Responsible for twenty-four of the Hawks' points, four touchdowns, including a one-hundred and three yard kickoff return. Who else could possibly be worthy in that game? What makes it all the more outstanding is that Willie was up against one of the league's best secondaries (Oles and Jefferson are both generally considered elite cornerbacks, and there is a case to be made that both are in the league's top five at the position) in his rookie year.
You can make all the points you want about how he benefits from a good quarterback (Kyubee threw 24 of 37 on the night, for a QB rating of 109.4, despite throwing two interceptions) or that the impressive offensive line gives him more time to finish his routes, or to complete his deep runs (as a unit, the Hawks offensive line allowed just two sacks on the night). You can even make the argument that the Hawks have multiple threats which allows Willie to exploit mismatches or to escape attention at times (the Hawks offense also features last year's rush leader Darlane Farlane, and on the night, Stormblessed also had over 100 yards receiving; not to mention the threat of Matthew Vincent and Cooper Christmas sharing snaps in the tight end position) ... but the bottom line is that Trey Willie picked up four touchdowns against a top three defense in the league, in a conference championship game. As a rookie. Naming him MVP shouldn't require justification.
(257 words)
That Magic Moment: Pick one moment from a playoff game and describe what made it so amazing to watch. (Must be completed after the game you write about unless you saw the sim in advance)
The Ultimus game between Baltimore and Arizona started brightly, with both teams trading sacks and forcing the other to punt before King Bronko managed to complete a pass to Charles Arthur Chess on third down, setting up an eight yard run from Reg Mackworthy. The Hawks fought back, though, despite two sacks, to get points on the board on their next drive through the boot of Turk Turkleton. What happened next probably set the tone for the rest of the game, however.
After forcing the Outlaws to punt after three failed plays, Delacour barely managed to pick up any return yards, leaving the Hawks pinned inside their own twenty. Kyubee's first attempt was short to Trey Willie, before Godfrey King sacked the Baltimore quarterback for seven yards, effectively erasing their progress on the drive so far. Facing third and eight, Kyubee looked for the blistering pace of Stormblessed as a way out of trouble. Sadly, Franklin Harris Jr had been watching his eyes, and jumped the route, picking off the pass at the twenty-three yard line. As he crossed the plane of the endzone to put the Outlaws up by eleven, with the first quarter not yet over... the complexion of the game changed. In that moment, fans everywhere sensed it, on some level -- even those in Baltimore -- that we were about to see a third back-to-back championship for Arizona. With the Hawks trailing the game, they'd be forced to pass more, and against the Outlaws fearsome pass rush, the writing was already on the wall.
(256 words)
In the NSFC Championship game, the key figures on offense were the wily Fox North -- Philadelphia's number one receiver -- and Baltimore's outstanding rookie, Trey Willie. Heading into the game, the two wideouts had comparable statistics on the season, with North leading Philly's receiving corps with 1,217 yards and 8 touchdowns, while Willie had established himself as a favourite for Offensive Rookie of the Year with 1,163 yards (an average of 18.2 yards per catch; bettered only by Weston and Westfield this season). Both players have impressive top-end speed, and the necessary skills to gain separation from the defensive back, but only one of these two really shone in the NSFC Championship Game.
Trey Willie's career performance -- a 117 yard, 4 TD game -- absolutely eclipsed North's comparatively subdued showing. In North's defense, he may have been hindered by the performances of his QB and Philadelphia's offensive line. After all, a player's deep field speed is irrelevant if the quarterback doesn't have time to make the pass... and the Hawks certainly made sure Clifford Rove would have a tough time of it finding Fox North, sacking the Liberty signal-caller ten times on the night. This is not to say that North was no threat -- he averaged 21 yards per catch, despite seemingly being covered by arguably the league's best cornerback -- but there can be no arguing who was the better receiver on the night.
(232 words)
Defensive Comparison: Compare one defensive player from each team in a series. Can be completed at any point
When the Baltimore Hawks missed out on a chance to sign AC Hackett, much fun was made of their failure, as the addition of the linebacker to the Liberty's roster saw a marked improvment in their defense. Adding him to an already impressive Hawks linebacking corps might have seen an even greater improvement. However, it's worth considering why the Hawks' offer was not particularly high. Well, first of all, they have Stephen Harrison. Harrison is the Hawks' leading linebacker, this much is certain. While Erasmo Broadway's performances last season were excellent, Harrison has remained a constant, and is one of the team's defensive leaders. Only two players racked up more tackles than the Hawks linebacker this season, while he also managed to get into the opposition backfield on occasion (7 sacks, 5 TFL) as well as making an impact in coverage (5 PD). His opposite number, so to speak, was similarly effective in coverage (1 INT, 3 PD) and significantly more impactful when it came to disrupting the backfield (13 sacks, 6 TFL).
Their showdown in the conference championship game, while not direct, promised to be intriguing to say the least. But there can be no questioning the victor in that particular showdown. Hackett's valiant efforts (6 tackles) in a game where his team were largely overmatched, simply doesn't compare to Harrison's defensive player of the game performance (10 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery). Of course, this doesn't mean that Hackett is the inferior player, as the Liberty struggled defensively overall on the night, but it's worth noting that last year's rookie sensation, and Baltimore's leading rusher, Darlane Farlane, was held to just 70 yards on the night. Also of note is that two thirds of Hackett's tackles were on Farlane.
(295 words)
Bottom Half: Write about why two of the four teams were not able to make the playoffs. Can be completed at any point
Before the season started, if you had suggested that the Yellowknife Wraiths would fail to make the playoffs, you'd have been ridiculed. In fact, a large proportion of people probably would have tipped them to win the NSFC. So why did they fall short? In truth, it's probably a number of factors. Their fearsome offense is not without faults, for example, Josh Garden led the league in dropped passes this season. The suspension of Mat Akselsen could be argued to have had an impact beyond the games he missed, through locker room disruption and so forth. Similarly, there have been some concerns over the health of Francois Lamoreux, which it is not unreasonable to suggest may have destabilised the Canada-based outfit. The simplest explanation, though, is sheer bad luck. Almost half of their losses were one possession games, while their expected wins under the pythagorean expectation model was around two games higher than their actual number of wins... which would actually have seen them place above the eventual conference champion Hawks by virtue of holding the tiebreaker.
In the ASFC the big surprise was the Legion. Not that they failed to reach the playoffs, but that they won twice throughout the season. At the risk of sounding harsh, it looked at one point as though the Legion would go winless on the season. The reasons for this are numerous, but primarily, it boils down to (ironically) the Las Vegas team having made a gamble and lost. The Legion strategy of trading draft capital for existing talent was likely an attempt to "win now", but it started badly. In response, many of those talented players they had signed seemed to lose confidence in the system and mentally checked out. This season was little better. While they do have some exciting talents committed to the team, set to propel them upward in the years to come, they also lost some of their remaining talent this season. The trade of Stormblessed to the Hawks seemed logical from a Las Vegas POV; he barely featured for them... yet in Baltimore, he has re-emerged as one of the league's big receiving threats. The trade of Ramrio to the Liberty took away one of the Legion's best defensive players, and dramatically weakened their defensive line. These things will be equalised in time, but this season was essentially a write-off for the Legion. Winning two games is probably a better return than anyone expected.
(407 words)
Playoff Series MVP: Choose an MVP for one of the playoff series and write about why you chose them. Must be completed after the playoff series you write about
The NSFC Conference Championship game MVP has to be, without any doubt, Trey Willie. Responsible for twenty-four of the Hawks' points, four touchdowns, including a one-hundred and three yard kickoff return. Who else could possibly be worthy in that game? What makes it all the more outstanding is that Willie was up against one of the league's best secondaries (Oles and Jefferson are both generally considered elite cornerbacks, and there is a case to be made that both are in the league's top five at the position) in his rookie year.
You can make all the points you want about how he benefits from a good quarterback (Kyubee threw 24 of 37 on the night, for a QB rating of 109.4, despite throwing two interceptions) or that the impressive offensive line gives him more time to finish his routes, or to complete his deep runs (as a unit, the Hawks offensive line allowed just two sacks on the night). You can even make the argument that the Hawks have multiple threats which allows Willie to exploit mismatches or to escape attention at times (the Hawks offense also features last year's rush leader Darlane Farlane, and on the night, Stormblessed also had over 100 yards receiving; not to mention the threat of Matthew Vincent and Cooper Christmas sharing snaps in the tight end position) ... but the bottom line is that Trey Willie picked up four touchdowns against a top three defense in the league, in a conference championship game. As a rookie. Naming him MVP shouldn't require justification.
(257 words)
That Magic Moment: Pick one moment from a playoff game and describe what made it so amazing to watch. (Must be completed after the game you write about unless you saw the sim in advance)
The Ultimus game between Baltimore and Arizona started brightly, with both teams trading sacks and forcing the other to punt before King Bronko managed to complete a pass to Charles Arthur Chess on third down, setting up an eight yard run from Reg Mackworthy. The Hawks fought back, though, despite two sacks, to get points on the board on their next drive through the boot of Turk Turkleton. What happened next probably set the tone for the rest of the game, however.
After forcing the Outlaws to punt after three failed plays, Delacour barely managed to pick up any return yards, leaving the Hawks pinned inside their own twenty. Kyubee's first attempt was short to Trey Willie, before Godfrey King sacked the Baltimore quarterback for seven yards, effectively erasing their progress on the drive so far. Facing third and eight, Kyubee looked for the blistering pace of Stormblessed as a way out of trouble. Sadly, Franklin Harris Jr had been watching his eyes, and jumped the route, picking off the pass at the twenty-three yard line. As he crossed the plane of the endzone to put the Outlaws up by eleven, with the first quarter not yet over... the complexion of the game changed. In that moment, fans everywhere sensed it, on some level -- even those in Baltimore -- that we were about to see a third back-to-back championship for Arizona. With the Hawks trailing the game, they'd be forced to pass more, and against the Outlaws fearsome pass rush, the writing was already on the wall.
(256 words)
I impersonate a programmer for a living
Father of the League Wiki • Friendly Neighbourhood Angry Black Guy™ • NOT British
Originator of the Sim League Cinematic Universe (SLCU)
Super capitalists are parasites. Fite me.
Alternatively, if you agree, you can support a grassroots movement dedicated to educating and organising the working class by buying a digital newspaper subscription. Your support would be greatly appreciated.
