(S25) - PT 5 - Playoffs? You Kidding Me?

[LewisMelville]

Well where do I begin talking about the International Simulation Football Leagues Minnesota Grey Ducks and their season so far (and beyond). This football team is reminiscent of the great nineteen eighty five Chicago Bears. They undoubtedly have the most fearsome defence in the whole league and would cause any team a headache were they to be drawn against them in the playoffs.

First though the Grey Ducks need overcome long time division rivals the Kansas City Coyotes. The path two the playoffs is simple for the Grey Ducks beat the coyotes and they are in, failure to do so would result in them watching the Ultimini from home.

The Grey Ducks  were tipped by many before a ball was thrown to go the distance so failure to make the playoffs would be seen as a travesty. To make matters worse the team are heading for a rebuild with a lot of their key defensive players making the jump to the big league this coming offseason.

Overall I expect the Grey Ducks to still bring the ultimini home. The key to them doing this is preventing turnovers on the offensive side of the ball. They do not lose games when quarterback Ryan Negs does not turn the ball over. The defence is guaranteed to make plays and will almost certainly produce two turnovers of their own this coming Tuesday.

[ComebackZak]

PBE affiliate

[TheRocheLimit]

So, here's the deal. The New York Silverbacks aren't making the playoffs this season. Shocking, I know. But do you want to know something? The New York Silverbacks ARE making the playoffs next season. You can book it right now.

The season started rough for my Silverbacks. Close loss after close loss. Over and over again. But the team kept fighting. As the season wore on the wins started coming. The team, led by it's captains Sam Howitzer and Bubba Thumper, refused to give up. Howitzer ended up top 5 in QB rating, and wide receiver Jackson Kingston tied for the league lead with 15 receiving touchdowns. And let's not gloss over the fact that running back Ashley Owens broke the single season all purpose yards record. On defense the Silverbacks also had some fantastic standout performances. Rookies Hank Winchester and Dukburg QuakStak finished first and fifth, respectively, in tackles. And yours truly, Jack Banks, finished the season second in sacks.

So, as you can see, the pieces are there. Both the offensive and defensive side of the ball there are playmakers galore. Players win championships and this team has those players. Oh, and just one more stat for fun. The Silverbacks went 1-8 in one possession games. If the team gets anywhere near .500 in those games then my squad is a lock for the playoffs next season.

[moonlight]

Well, as a user I’ve had a long string of playoff appearances and winning seasons. It all started with the Portland Pythons from S14 to S16. In those three seasons we won a lot of games and had three straight Ultimini appearances. And then I went to the Otters and went to three straight Ultimus appearances. The rest of my career had a playoff appearance every year for the rest of my career. Sadly I only had one more Ultimus appearance that ended up as a crushing loss. Now flash forward to my next create, Big Slammu from Jackson Highschool. He was drafted to the Dallas Birddogs of the DSFL. It’s probably been the finest locker room I’ve been apart of and I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of great people outside the Otters and Pythons circle. Despite the Dallas locker room being such a great experience, our performance on the field has been the worst I’ve ever been around. We’re one of the worst teams in the DSFL and have lost a lot of games. This of course means that Dallas has no chance at the playoffs at all. We’re just hoping to win one damn game. But hopefully my ISFL career on whichever team drafts me shall have more wins.

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[slate]

The Kansas City Coyotes are in a very similar position in Season 25 as they were at the end of last season. After a hot streak in the middle of the season, they have slid out of great playoff positioning into a tough spot where they need to win an away divisional game to have a shot at making it. Last season that game was against the London Royals, but this season we find ourselves traveling to play the Minnesota Grey Ducks in what amounts roughly to a win-and-in game.

In the leadup to this crucial game for the Coyotes, it makes sense to look back at the previous time these two played in the regular season. Luckily for the Coyotes, that week 7 matchup was decidedly in their favor, as they won a 24-7 game that never looked particularly in doubt. The Coyotes defense stifled the Grey Ducks passing attack, led by Thomas Rose who recorded 2 interceptions off of rookie QB Ryan Negs. The Ducks, who were in the process of adapting to the departure of RB Jameson Vermillion due to a midseason call-up, leaned on this passing attack and ran the ball only 16 times. While they were effective running the ball, their inefficiency and propensity to turn the ball over in the passing game was the main culprit for their loss.

Looking ahead to this decisive week 14 game, it will be interesting to see how both teams adjust from their previous game. Will the Ducks bank on Negs's continued development and hope that the passing game works better for them this time? Or will their recent addition of a second RB in waiver create Xander Creed help revitalize their rushing game and shift their plan of attack drastically? How will the Coyotes defense anticipate the Ducks' plans and change their defensive focus, if at all? The answers to these questions will play a huge role in whether the Coyotes are able to achieve a more successful end to the regular season than last season.

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[PersonMann]

PBE

[timeconsumer]

While our team didnt make the playoffs the Silverbacks ended up finishing the season very strong. We started the season 0-10 and then finished the last six games 4-2. That's a pretty solid showing if you ask me. Earlier in the season it was widely accepted that the Silverbacks might be one of the worst expansion franchises we had seen. The Fire Salamanders were doing way better for an expansion team and it wasn't looking great for New York. Now that we have gotten that bad juju out of the way the team is really excited for next season after a really strong finish. In addition to that we had some players do really well this season individually including Ashley Owens who had a ton of rushing yards and return yards and is looking at one of the best all-purpose yard seasons of all time, then you have me Hank Winchester who finished #1 in the league in tackles and will be T-2 for all time seasons in tackles. I broke the rookie tackle record and things are looking pretty darn good from here. I even have an outside shot at getting DRoY if the voters like tackles over the sexy stats like sacks or interceptions. So while we didn't make the playoffs this season expect our offense to take huge strides next season and you'll see the Silverbacks doing way better.

[GuitarMaster116]

In Tijuana, it has been a rough season to say the least. We came in expecting to be much better than we ended up being since we didn’t have many call ups. Our defense yet again this season did dominate and do pretty well all things considering, keeping most of our games close and not allowing many big score games. But really the real flaw to our team this year has been two things, our passing game is god awful, and for some reason this season we could not win any home games. 

First, the passing game. We had all 3 of our WRs called up last season and it really hurt the offense greatly. Mike Boss just struggled to lead the offense with an entirely new and growing receiving core, and it led to us stalling on many drives or only coming away with a field goal on most drives. Secondly, we got extremely unlucky at home. Everyone knows that the home team almost always has the technical advantage of winning because of HFA, but this season, HFA did not apply in Tijuana. We lost nearly every home game we played. Luckily, in turn, we actually beat a lot of teams on the road. Making us a kind of Road Warrior team.

Now we have secured our spot in the playoffs this season, but we are going to be by far the worst team record wise out of the 4 and we are going to potentially be facing 2 10+ win teams. On the upside though is we seem to do really well on the road this season. So who knows, maybe not getting HFA will work out for Tijuana in the end, and they can make their way to the championship and hopefully win it.

[lespoils]

SHL Affiliate : https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....pid2934024

[SwankyPants31]

Going into the postseason, the Yeti are primed to be the favorite for winning the Ultimus. They ended up as the regular season champions and have looked good on both sides of the ball. The running game has especially looked good with Richard Gilbert and Darrel Williams both putting up top 10 numbers, and Wolfie continuing to be effective and efficient with the ball despite being deep into regression. The biggest challenge facing the Yeti, is frankly the fact that the Sarasota Sailfish have come on extremely hot during the latter part of the season. Though they began the season looking like they may underperform based on people’s expectations, they quickly turned it around and really could have been legitimate contenders for the number one spot had they gotten off to a better start. On the DSFL side of things, the Tijuana Luchadores are in a much more precarious position. Going into the final week of the regular season the Myrtle Beach Buccaneers have already clinched home field advantage and have looked like a powerhouse team. On the flip side, despite having a measly 2-5 record at home, the Luchadores have tied for the best in the league with a 4-2 record on the road. However it goes, it’s going to be an interesting matchup between the undefeated home team Myrtle Beach and the road warrior Tijuana Luchadores.