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+---- Thread: *Diaries of an NSFL Quarterback, Part 1 (/showthread.php?tid=16083)
*Diaries of an NSFL Quarterback, Part 1 - nickyvmlp - 10-15-2019
Start of Offseason
Well, Season 17 is over, Joliet’s gone, and he’s hand-picked me to be the heir-apparent. He’s been training me in private for the last year and a half, knowing this moment was coming, but nothing can prepare you for that moment when it’s made official. Now, the whole world can react to a legend riding off into the sunset still in his prime, and the guy he’s being replaced by is a middle-of-the-road tight end. I want to say I’m ready for the challenge. I want to puff my chest out and proudly saying that I’m going to pick up right where Joliet left off, full of bravado and confidence, but the truth is I’m nervous. The Sabercats have been playoff contenders for years and were even in the Ultimus just two seasons ago. I was on the team the last time that happened. Now, everyone is predicting a dropoff. Everyone thinks the Sabercats are a tank waiting to happen, and I’m just here to build up some draft capital. I guess we’ll find out how the offseason goes, but for the moment, I’m worried about the future. Both mine and the teams.
Post Free Agency
I feel like we did a lot of good things during this offseason, let’s get that out right away. Marcella T?riki is going to be a star immediately. If she’s not our Day 1 starter at RB, I’ll eat my helmet. And if I were a betting man, she’d be my pick for Offensive Rookie of the Year. And we got some safeties who’ll definitely help us out in Joseph Wozniak and Oswald Grimnir. But, we still have so many holes to fill. We only have three offensive players with decent hands, and two of them are in regression. Maybe we can have Chris Orosz play in the slot like Ricky Adams did last year for the Butchers, but that’s still a risk. We never found anyone to replace Footballer Sackerman after he retired. I guess one of the rookie safeties can fill Chad Pennington’s role, but still yikes. Luckily, we splurged on the offensive linemen this season, so I’ll have plenty of time to make throws, and Marcella and Co. will get some running lanes, but if I was nervous before, now I’m starting to panic. The Sabercats might not be that great. And when a team isn’t that great, eyes start to get drawn to the quarterback.
Preseason Week 1
HOLY CARP, WE BEAT YELLOWKNIFE! I don’t care that it’s a preseason game, I don’t care that this won’t affect our final record, and I don’t care that we were missing a few players on both sides, this is vindicating. I finally feel like I can handle the moment. For those who missed, I threw for 300 yards and a touchdown and ran for 61 yards and another score. If you saw those numbers, you’d think Joliet had never left. I got off to a pretty slow start, tried to be a cool guy on the first drive and go for a 4th and 1, and I just overthrew Olsen. Then on the next drive, I took a really dumb sack for 11 yards that derailed that series. Then just one failed drive after another, and just like that, we were in a 14-0 hole with no sign of escape. But then it just started to click. 17 yards to Ty Justice and a 21-yard scramble got us a field goal. Then in the third, we just stormed down the field, ten yards at a time and I threw my first touchdown in the pros. The crowd was getting into it and we just knew we could come back and take this game. Then on the next drive, I took another sack on the first play, but this time we came back from it. Xavier was a beast on that drive and bailed me out so many times, and Orosz punched it in to give us a lead. Oh and let’s not forget that defense. Anthony Rowland and William Tell were locking down Nate Swift and Roger Batoff, and Trey Staley was just making plays everywhere. And then on that last drive, we knew we had the game locked up, and we just torched those poor souls. On 3rd and 5 from our own 25, Xavier and I hooked up for this beauty of a pass, 51 yards, and that basically sealed it. I ran it in a couple of plays later, and it was done at that point. Sabercats win 24-14, I’m named Offensive Player of the Game, I didn’t commit any turnovers (thanks Cam for grabbing that one fumble I had), it was basically the best possible debut for me that I could imagine. Maybe I’ll be more ready for this season that I thought I’d be.
Preseason Weeks 2-4
Well, I wanted to wait until we won another one of these things before I wrote again, but it just didn’t happen. We got absolutely walloped by Austin 51-16. I got safetied TWICE in that game, and turned the ball over three times, while our defense made Easton Cole look like a god. Then I did absolutely nothing of note against Arizona (213 yards and nothing else) and we got blown out again 31-13. And then we go to play the Second Line, and the wheels come off. Three INTs, including a way-too-easy pick-six for Deon Taylor. We at least kept it kinda close because Chris Orosz is the man and got three touchdowns, but it just wasn’t enough. So to close out the preseason, I had three total touchdowns and six turnovers, a decent amount of yards and a 1-3 record. But it’s all ok. This is basically just televised practice. Nobody remembers anything about the preseason after Week 1, and now I’ve got a clean slate. Let’s just take some deep breaths and I’ll walk into Week 1 like I’ve been there before.
Week 1
Can we go back to the preseason? I liked that so much better. I didn’t have high expectations, we were playing the champions from last year in their house, so I wasn’t expecting the world, but what actually happened just crushed whatever low expectations I had. 9/22, just 97 passing yards, literally nothing on the ground, no touchdowns, four interceptions, and two pick-sixes. How did Joliet make this look so easy? I looked like someone playing out of position. It was a nightmare of an opener. And this was in a game where our defense rocked. Kolby Deringer got a pick-six of his own and forced a fumble. Oswald Grimnir played terrifically. We could’ve had a shot there, but I just made some terrible reads and paid dearly for it. When I had the idea to chronicle my first season as Sabercats QB, I knew it wasn’t going to be all sunshine and lollipops, and I know better times will come eventually. But man, this is off to a rough start. I just have to think back to what Andrew Reese did a couple years back. He was a friggin’ defensive tackle, so he didn’t even play on the Arizona offense before he made the move, and he was terrible in his first season as a QB. But things got better, his passing skills improved, he got more experienced, and sure enough, in his second season, he was a Pro Bowler and an Ultimus champion. I just have to keep my nose to the grindstone and learn from these early mistakes. Can only go up from here, right?
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