(08-01-2017, 07:14 AM)HalfEatenOnionBagel Wrote:With one week of the new season under our belts, the competition is already heating up. The first game of the season ended up being an overtime thriller resulting in a dramatic comeback win by the underdog Legion in the first real game in franchise history. What a great gift for their new fans but also what great football for all NSFL fans to enjoy so early in the season! We also had a battle between the two biggest rivals in the league, the Outlaws and Otters, a game usually reserved for midseason primetime, in week 1! It ended up being a real slugfest with the Outlaws coming out on top thanks to a fantastic defensive display yet again. The Outlaws don’t seem to have lost a step from their Championship season.

However, while the play and competition seems as fierce as ever, some of the best players from last season seemed to disappear in Week 1. Let’s first take a look at Outlaws defensive end Jayce Tuck, who was voted as the best defensive end in the league last season, and for good reason; he was an absolute beast.  But in the first game against the Otters, Tuck came away with just 1 tackle and……that’s it just one tackle. Not a sack, and not even a tackle for a loss. Now, you may say well of course Tuck would have trouble making plays going against the best offensive line in the league, but that brings me to the next players that I want to look at, Angus Winchester and Greg Clegane, the Otter’s Gruesome Twosome on the Offensive line. Usually these guys just manhandle opposing defenses, but this week although Clegane kept a clean sheet in terms of sacks, he only managed one pancake after averaging more than 4 per game last season. On the other end of the line, reigning MVP Angus Winchester gave up two sacks in the game.

Now, while every player has a bad game once in a while, let me put into perspective how big a deal that is. Two sacks is twice as many sacks as Winchester has given up in his entire career. And he did it in one game, the FIRST game of the season! Is this an indication that Winchester is on the decline already? Have defenses just been able to improve and plan how to beat this top offensive line? Or are we just overreacting to one game? But, coming back to Tuck if he wasn’t the one to get sacks against this offensive line than who was? Looking at the stat sheet, we see that a rookie, Luke Luechly, was the one to rack up three sacks in this game! So Tuck, one of the deadliest defensive ends in the league couldn’t make anything happen against this offensive line, but a rookie linebacker just went on a rampage. Again, maybe Tuck’s impact in the game isn’t something you can measure from his stats as he likely helped to open up opportunities for other players like Luechly to make plays. But, you would still expect a player of his caliber to be able to make a few more tackles or get a sack, especially when the rest of the defense was firing on all cylinders including reigning defensive player of the year Isaiah Rashad.

Moving on from just looking at the OC-Arizona game though, we also saw some of the top tight ends in the league struggle to make an impact in week 1. Last year’s top tight end Gabriel Tenzini, now part of the expansion team the Las Vegas Legion, had a somewhat quiet week. He did manage 4 receptions, but his overall role in a huge first win for the Legion was basically nonexistent. Tenzini is typically thought of as a very versatile tight end, also being a capable blocker, but if we look at his blocking stats from the game, he only managed one pancake. Tenzini was always thought of as a hard worked despite not being the most talented player on the field, but it really looks like he hasn’t improved much in the offseason and likely won’t be considered a top tight end in the league by the end of this year if he doesn’t put the work in to improve. Another top tight end, the self proclaimed “GOAT TE” Ricky Maddox of the Yellowknife Wraiths also put up a dud here in week 1. Easily the most talented tight end in the league and certainly a star in the preseason this year, when the spotlight was on him this week, he only managed 8 yards receiving and one pancake in the blocking game. With Orosz having possibly the best game by a quarterback in league history, there was no reason why his stud tight end shouldn’t have had a bigger impact, but he was nowhere to be found! @Player1 has done a terrific review of tight end performance in week 1 and we see that overall, tight ends struggled in this first week, so maybe not much can be made of these two poor performances. But, again we see that a rookie, Baltimore tight end Carmel Gibson, had a fantastic game this first week!

While some of these superstars have struggled, I do want to say that a lot of the top players from last year came in and went to work as usual. Award winners Chris Orosz, Josh Garden and Bubba Nuck of the Wraiths had great games in this first week as well as previously mentioned defensive player of the year Isaiah Rashad with six tackles and one PD. The top kickers were also on point, including Turkleton who saved the Hawks at the last second of regulation with an amazing 57 yard field goal despite an eventual loss in overtime. But, even top kicker from season 1, Archibald Booter, missed his only field goal attempt over 30 yards in his otherwise perfect performance.

So, are we seeing a decline in the top players in the league already in just their second season? Surely this can’t be the case as most players aren’t even hitting their prime until they have a few seasons under their belt. But, maybe that is a factor of playing in such a young league as this. It will be interesting to see if this disturbing trend continues for some of these highly regarded players or if this first week was necessary to just knock some of the rust off. What is interesting to see is how these rookies and many others really stepped up this week to have some big performances and this was also well documented in a very recent article by @Kristy95. Perhaps these rookies will fall back down to earth as teams get more film and can better prepare to play against them. Or maybe we’re seeing a revolution with rookie players bringing new skillsets and techniques to league. If that’s the case we’ll see if veteran players are able to adapt, or if you just can’t teach some of the old dogs in the league new tricks.


((1185 words, ready for grading))

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(08-01-2017, 10:17 AM)ErMurazor Wrote:Tuck will teach you some tricks in week 2 

(08-01-2017, 12:58 PM)HalfEatenOnionBagel Wrote:Looking forward to it. You don't get better without being challenged

(08-01-2017, 04:03 PM)Raven Wrote:I missed a 39 yarder thou could have prevented that OT  :shrug: