(S26) - PT 2 - You Sit on a Throne of Lies

[Tylus]

My player, Tychondrius Hood, started out this season with high hopes. Starting as the primary wide receiver for the San Jose Sabercats has been his dream and ambition since being drafted by the team a few seasons ago. With the development of the team’s quarterback, Monty Jack, coming along smoothly, and with Jack becoming a league known name, it was Hood's hope that the sabercat offense would be one of the best this season. And so the season would begin, with a game at the Honolulu Hahalua’s home field. Hood would catch 6 balls for 98 yards and a touchdown in a strong opening win for San Jose, that Hood would hope would make a statement to the league that he was here to stay. The next game would be a tough matchup against the perennially talented Orange County Otters, where Hood would explode for over 120 yards, despite losing the game 21-34. Hood’s next four games would be severely disappointing to the young wideout, not receiving for over 50 yards in all four games. Week 7 would be a big matchup to potentially save the season at home against the Second Line, and Hood would return to his potential form with 97 yards and a touchdown on 5 catched. Overall this season has gone up and down so far for young Hood, who hopes to keep his play to a high level going forward. I wouldn’t call this season a failure yet, and there are signs that Hood could end the season as one of the top, or one of the worst receivers in the ISFL. Only time will tell.

[ajtigger]

Zach Crossley is an absolute bust for the San Jose Sabercats. Through his first seven games in the ISFL, Crossley only has 16 receptions for 129 yards. If you do the quick math that means he is averaging only 8.1 yards a catch this season. The next lowest WR who is not a bot? That would be Vequain on the Austin Copper heads who is averaging just over 11 yards a catch. This means Crossley is almost 40% lower than the next closest wide receiver. If you look at the rest of the league, a majority of the players have greater than 16 yards per reception, or a 100% increase over Crossley's output. Quite simply, the former DSFL pro bowler has shown he is not cut out for the ISFL. Even his team seem to realize that Crossley is not a long term solution given they took Tugg Speedman so early in the previous draft. Speedman looks like an absolute stud at the DSFL level and should be joining the Sabercats at the beginning of next season. Crossley will need to continue to develop to have any hope in sticking in this league. He needs to learn how to come up with yards after the catch, whether that be by increasing his strength or agility to get by tacklers. If there is not improvement in these areas from Crossley, I do not see him earning an extension past his rookie contract.

[GoonerBear]

For the San Jose SaberCats, this is a similar pattern to the one they had in the past two regular seasons before they went on to win the Ultimus. This is no different from then - average regular-season performances, just make the postseason, and then get it together in 2-3 games needed to win the championship. They have about an average schedule remaining, as well - 5 games against teams currently above .500 and 4 games against teams under .500. 7-9 will almost certainly not be enough to make the postseason, however. Not with 3 ASFC teams of 7 making the postseason and 3-4 sitting 2 games out of a spot. We'll find a way against at least two of those above .500, if not more, especially if we drop one or two against a team we "should" beat.

As for the RB position, Jamar Lackson has the bulk of the yards, but Rando Cardrissian has more rushing TDs. Combined with having more receiving yards, Cardrissian is the number one back for the Cats and this is only the start to pulling his way into the MVP conversation - first supplanting the potential MVP candidate from within the San Jose organization, then supplanting the rest of the league's frontrunners! The spiciest take of all - in three seasons' time, Rando Cardrissian will be League MVP!

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[speculadora]

Overreact to the first week of the season you say? That should be no problem for me. I will overreact to the fact that the Otters are not currently undefeated, after losing a road game to New Orleans and choking away a home game against the New York Silverbacks. There is quite frankly only one explanation for why we are not undefeated and it is that we are the most unlucky team in the league. No other team has even come close to experiencing the absolute pit of despair that we currently find ourselves in as losers of two games in one season. You'll all say "Oh no, of course we can relate! If anything, you are the team that doesn't know despair". Frankly it would be pathetic to be that desperate to make up your own pain just to relate to us. You don't get it. You never will. Whether or not we were favored in the New Orleans game is completely irrelevant by the way, so don't even bring that up. And then to assume that we just randomly lose to New York within like a game of losing to New Orleans? Are you kidding me? Yeah right. Nothing explains that level of unluckiness. Nothing. No team that has ever existed in this league can understand, so don't even try.

SHL: Paq

[dogwoodmaple]

You want spicy hot takes? The Orange County Otters aren't even a top four team in the league. Not only were the soundly defeated by my New York Silverbacks, but there are five other teams with the same or better record as them. What we have right now is a clear bias towards name-brand recognition, which is the only thing holding the Otters up right now. Sure, they have Norfolk Seawolves legend Suleiman Ramza at the helm, but it's been a disappointing season for many of the other furry pups out west. They were lucky to skate by Colorado this past week, thanks in large part to some Yeti mistakes that handed Orange County the game. So to answer your question, no. Orange County hasn't locked up the Ultimus and it wouldn't surprise me to see them lose in the first round of the playoffs. They're running on fumes and have been overtaken by more than a few other franchises this season. Is this the end of the Otters' run? I don't know if I'd go that far. But now's the time to sell whatever Orange County stock you've got. It's going to be slim pickings for them moving forward. When a team cannot run the ball effectively, they simply won't win the title. Just look at the numbers they've been putting up and their overall inconsistency - it speaks for itself. At this point, the Silverbacks have a better chance of winning the Ultimus than Orange County does.

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[Legally_Blind_Gamer]

Affiliate PBE link PT 22-3

[LB3737]

The start of the new DSFL season has been somewhat mediocre for young Demon Jaxson, who was looking to go all out in what could potentially be his last season playing for the Pythons before he moves on to the big leagues. Jaxson had his best game of the season so far in the very first week, in a victory over the London Royals. He recorded 4 tackles but got past the offensive line twice for 2 sacks on the London quarterback. However the rest of Portlands games have been rather quiet for Jaxson, where he has registered just 5 tackles betwern the 3 games. He will be looking to explode in stats over the back half of the season.

For his Portland team however, things could not be going better. They are on Cloud 9 right now, 4-0 and undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best team in the league, 2 games ahead in their division with a number 1 offense and number 1 defense in the league, with a point differential of 57 points, an average 14.25 over their first 4 games. This team looks to be a true contender, and surely must be Ultimini bound and Jaxson hopes to be a good part of that.

[wonderful_art]

The Yellowknife Wraiths are not just a contender for the Ultimus this season, but a favourite to win it all. Despite few analysts predicting such a season for the Canadian ISFL team, the Wraiths have largely shocked an otherwise neutral league into recognizing their legit. After a win against Sarasota, a team many favoured to potentially win the conference, and multiple away wins in a row, Yellowknife is looking down the stretch of the season with more games up north than at their southern competitors stadiums. So it comes as little surprise that Yellowknife has suddenly been a bit more featured in the press, albeit many analysts indicating their ‘luck’ so far has given them a chance for home field advantage in the playoffs. Luck or no luck, the Wraiths have shown they are a team to beat and, with a continued stretch of high effort play and favourable strength of schedule coming up, Yellowknife could be looking at an all important first round bye and a trip right to the conference finals. Regardless, Yellowknife has earned the right to be called a favourite for the Ultimus this season - a step above those other contenders and amongst perennial favourites and darlings of the sim prediction crowd.

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[37thchamber]

Despite having just three receptions for 61 yards so far this season, and no touchdowns in twenty professional games... Raphael Delacour is on track to potentially line up as WR2 for the Chicago Butchers next season. Hear me out. His development is rapid, arguably the quickest among the other receivers in his draft class -- perhaps only really rivalled Arthur Naught; who is certainly making a larger contribution in Yellowknife, albeit in a receiving corps with significantly less depth than Chicago's -- and despite the difficulties faced in his career so far, there has been no sign of the Baltimore-born receiver wilting under the pressure.

Looking at the rest of the receiving corps in Chicago, O'Leary and Rodriguez are quite clearly in decline, having been in the league for a combined fifteen seasons at this point. Should their decline follow the same kind of trajectory as most players in the ISFL, it's not unreasonable to assume that the Butchers may try to shift one or both of them to a team needing experience in the position in exchange for draft capital. Or they may even decline sufficiently that Delacour might only really be competing with Oberwald -- three years his senior, yet not significantly ahead of him, it must be said -- for snaps opposite Luca Scabbia.

[SDCore]

So NationalSim FootballLeague has been having an unreal start to the season. In his first few games he is leading the Colorado Yeti in tackles and all rookies in tackles. This is really impressive, being in his 3rd season of existence. As long as National FootballLeague can keep it up, he might end up with some hardware at the end of the season. Going into the season, I felt like it could be a down season and a bit of a disappointment, which granted is because his last season in the Developmental Football League was really bad. So by going off of that metric, it remains to be seen that his first year in the International Football Sim League, was not going to be very good. This has not been the case as he is all over the field. He is getting in on every down and making a difference for his Colorado Yeti. One of his biggest plays came this week, when he intercepted a pass and returned it for 83 yards, which is now a Colorado Yeti record. Unfortunately, he ran out of gas as he approached the end-zone and did not score, but he still went a good distance. If he could have more plays like this and keep it up, maybe a Defensive Rookie of the Year is in the cards.