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+---- Thread: *Sarasota Sailfish Season Review (/showthread.php?tid=30627)
*Sarasota Sailfish Season Review - Tayjay - 03-12-2021
Code:
Ready to be graded
2628 words or something. I'm poor and need moneyCongratulations to the Sarasota Sailfish on winning their first ever Ultimus Cup. An expansion team in S22, this was their first appearance in the Ultimus game and were able to defeat the New Orleans Second Line by a score of 34 to 10. It was the second straight trip to the Ultimus for New Orleans, both ending in defeat. The Sailfish had made the playoffs the previous 4 seasons and 5 of the 6 seasons since they have become an ISFL franchise. They were finally able to breakthrough and claim their first Ultimus.
Straight out of the gate this season they were competitive in a tough NSFC. Four games into the season they were sitting at 2-2 with victories over tough Colorado and middle of the road Philadelphia. Their two losses were to the other teams near the top in Yellowknife and Chicago. The top of the NSFC conference would prove to be very competitive for the entire season. The offense was very capable of scoring points, evidenced by their 29 points scored per game. However, their defense was giving up just as many points at 28 points per game. Maybe the offseason lingered a little too much but once they got the cobwebs off they turned it on and went 10 and 2 the rest of the way. Sarasota won their next 3 games by an average of 2 touchdowns which included a 26 points drubbing of lowly Baltimore. A close loss at Arizona, top team in the ASFC at the time, was the first time they had scored less than 24 points in a single game. Through 8 weeks they were near the top of the conference with a 5 and 3 record. This is where Sarasota really distanced themselves from the rest of the pack. They rattled off 6 wins in a row, 3 by 20 or more points! Over this win streak they were scoring nearly 33 points a game and only gave up 19 on average. This win streak cemented their offense as one of the best in the league, and defensively pushed them near the top of the leaderboards in regards to points given up and rushing yards surrendered. They eventually split their remaining two games but beat Chicago both times this season and claimed the #1 seed in the NSFC. The top 4 teams were all separated by 2 games total.
At the end of the season Sarasota was 12 and 4 and had the number 1 offense in the league. Backed by a potent running game and suffocating defense they were able to control the run game on both sides of the ball. That doesn’t mean the passing game was weak by any means. Mike Boss Jr. threw for over 4,000 yards and had 32 touchdowns. His yardage was near the bottom but his passer rating of 99.9 was the third highest in the league. Boss Jr. was able to not turn the ball over which is obviously very important if you are going to be a running team. The most surprising stat is that he tied for 3rd in passing touchdowns despite the attempts of other quarterbacks. He had 3 less touchdowns than Colby Jack in second and was 5 behind the leader. He has more touchdowns than quarterbacks who threw the ball 200 more times than he did! Boss Jr. was probably the most efficient quarterback, or second most efficient looking at O’Donnell’s season. The running game was led by Raphtalia Chan who had over 1500 yards and 17 touchdowns on the season. The touchdown led the league and he narrowly finished in second in the yardage category. He also caught 4 touchdowns and was one of Sarasota’s primary punt and kick returners. Chan was definitely their offensive leader and helped set the tone over the course of the season. For comparison, he had 600 and 900 yards over the last two years respectively. He should be one of the leaders for a most improved player award. He almost doubled his yardage and doubled his touchdowns from last year to this year. Receiving wise this team was capable of spreading the ball around so that defenses couldn’t key on any one player. Michael Witheblock was their leading receiver with 109 catches for 1411 yards and 11 touchdowns. He was in the top 10 in every category. They also had great seasons from their number two wide receiver, Tre’Darius J’Vathon, and tight end James Angler. J’Vathon had 80 catches for 1122 yards and 8 touchdowns. Sarasota was one of only a couple teams that had two wide receivers near the top of the receiving categories, and if you add in Angler that gives them three. Despite Sarasota not having the numbers of a potent passing attack they had a 3 headed monster of targets between these three players. Angler will most likely win tight end of the year with his stat line. He had a 3rd best 88 catches for a league leading 1171 yards and 8 touchdowns. The touchdowns also led the tight end group. He was primarily used as a receiver but also added 29 pancakes to his stat line for the year. Finally, we get to the hogs up front. While not necessarily a strength of this team I wouldn’t call it a weakness either. Probably due more to their run first gameplan they had the fewest pancakes in the league, and to be honest it wasn’t really close. But, if you don’t give up sacks then you are doing something right. They had the 2nd fewest sacks given up, which again can be attributed to being a run first team, but you still have to prevent the other team from getting to your quarterback and Sarasota was able to do that.
Defensively, I would say this is a solid unit. Not the best and definitely nowhere near the bottom. Probably solidly above average, defensive unit that that could force turnovers at the right time. They absolutely owned the trenches up front when it came to stuffing the run. They only gave up 57 yards on average. That is quite insane. Passing was more preventative as they were playing with a lead most games so it only makes sense that teams would abandon the run and try to score points through the air. They controlled the time of possession for most games which gave their defense a lot of rest evidenced by showing up lower on the tackle leaderboards as a team. They did finish in 2nd in tackles for loss. Turnover wise they were in the upper middle part for causing turnovers, and sacks. They also had 3 safeties and 3 defensive touchdowns on the year as well. Like I said this was an opportunistic defense that forced you to pass and would cause pressure that way. Their defense was led by 3 main players: Defensive End Son Goku, Linebacker Derred de Ville, and cornerback Harrison Andrews. There were others but these guys were the ones making the big plays. Goku was 2nd on the team in sacks with 11 and led the team in tackles for loss with 9. He was a force on the defensive line in setting the edge. He alone had 2 safeties and also caused 3 fumbles. He was a monster. De Ville was an all-around Pro Bowler for the Sailfish. He was near the top in multiple categories and led the team in most of those as well. Derred had 118 tackles, 5 were for loss, 16 sacks on the year with 14 pass break ups. This guy was all over the field day in and day out. He also caused 4 fumbles, recovering 1 and had 1 interception. Lastly, we have Harrison Andrews. Andrews and Peter Pattison led the secondary in pass breakups and were able to prevent the big plays for the most part. They had 102 and 95 tackles, respectively, and combined for 50 pass breakups. They also combined for 9 interceptions with 5 and 4, respectively. Both were near the top in the league. Patterson actually led the league in defensive touchdowns with 2.
Now that we have examined both sides of the ball, let’s take a deeper look into how this team was built and any transactions that might have taken this team over the top. It looks like they made a trade for Ernest Lover before the season which really bolstered their run defense. Lover will be a force for the foreseeable future and is an up and coming defensive end. What a pair Goku and Lover make. They moved a player, a first round pick, and a 4th round pick which they definitely think was worth it considering they just won an Ultimus. Solid move by management here. There were a couple of smaller trades over the seasons but it looks like another good move by the Sailfish front office was acquiring wide receiver Tre’Darius J’Vathon and Sigismund Sternenstaub. It looks like Sigismund made the move to FB and we already talked about the impact J’Vathon had in the passing game. He was one of the best 2nd receivers for any team in the league. Those were probably the biggest recent trades as far as straight up players.
There were draft picks trades so I will just look at how their drafts have been as of recently. I’ll skip this most recent draft, Season 27, since those players were not up in Sarasota for the Ultimus run. In Season 26 they had two huge picks, well one pick they actually made but they made a move for another pick in this draft that we already touched on. Ernest Lover was the 3rd pick in the draft by Baltimore but now plays for Sarasota. Using their own first round pick they drafted Demon Jaxson. At the time mock drafts didn’t have Jaxson anywhere near the first round but they look dumb now. Jaxson has earned incredibly well and with Lover and Goku this defensive line is stacked and one of the main reasons why they dominated the line of scrimmage. They still have a decent amount of their players in the DSFL but their S26 draft looks to be pretty solid with the Lover trade. In S25 they took Peter Patterson who led their team in pass deflections and was a key part of the defense as well. Clay Stallworth was their 2nd round pick and one of their better lineman. He had 68 pancakes and 4 sacks allowed on the season. They had other players taken in the draft that would prove to be valuable pieces. Cleg Manclaw play as a backup or secondary tight end and safety Teddy Utterstruzen was a solid safety for them this year. Utterstruzen was taken in the 5th round. They did very well in the S24 draft as well. The other key defensive back for their Ultimus winning team was Harrison Andrews. He was the 4th pick in the draft and has lived up to expectations. Their quarterback Mike Boss Jr. was also taken in this draft. Other notable pick includes Thad Pennington Jr. who was a 4th rounder and a solid part of their offensive line. In the next draft they took Son Goku with their first pick in this draft. We can see a trend of solid defensive picks and offensive lineman. The last draft I’ll touch on is S22 since the majority of their starters are in this draft. They didn’t have a first round pick in this draft but that didn’t stop them from doing fantastic in this draft. They drafted Octavio Clemente in the 2nd round. This might be their only miss of this draft, unless this player I’m totally missing this player being on their roster but I don’t see him. In the 3rd round they picked Haha Mango-Panda and Michael Witheblock. Witheblock, as we know, was their leading wide receiver and one of their best playermakers. Panda was one of their best linebackers behind de Ville. Adding onto those two picks they went linebacker again with Fawn Dillmiballs and then the steal of the draft with James Angler in the 5th. Angler will probably win tight end of the year this year and is incredible value that late in the dfraft. Dillmiballs was a solid DT and one of the reasons why they were so stout upfront. These are probably the biggest pieces they have picked up in the draft. There are others but these are the ones that stick out the most.
So now that we have touched on how they got here let’s look at the playoffs. It seemed pretty easy for Sarasota. They steamrolled their way through the regular season and won both of their playoff games by 20 plus points. In the NSFC conference championship they met up with Colorado, whom they split both games with during the regular season. It seems that the week off did them a lot of good as they jumped out to a 28-0 lead in the first quarter. Pretty shocking. Colorado fought back to make it 31-17 at halftime and even coming to within a touchdown going into the fourth, but Sarasota locked things down and scored 13 unanswered points to win 47-27. Boss Jr. threw for 325 yards and had 4 touchdowns as neither team could get anything going on the ground. The two teams combined for 54 rushing yards. J’Vathon had a HUGE game going for 132 yards and 2 touchdowns on 8 catches. The defense even kicked in a defensive touchdown when Jami Nkiah picked off Caliban and returned in 34 yards. The Sarasota defense had 4 interceptions, Andrews having 2 of the other 3. On to the Ultimus for the NSFC champion.
In the Ultimus it was really more of the same. The Sailfish jumped on New Orleans early and often. They were up 14-0 at the first and 24-3 at half time. Going into the 4th quarter it was all Sarasota, 34-3. New Orleans scored a meaningless touchdown late but at that point the game was over and Sarasota claimed the Ultimus with a convincing 34-10 victory. Sarasota was able to shut down any run game New Orleans tried to establish. They gave up 20 yards on the ground and despite 319 passing yards by Slothlisberger they could only muster 1 touchdown. He was sacked 4 times and the player of the game was none other than their first round pick in S26, Demon Jackson. Obviously they did their homework here and he has rewarded them. In the biggest game of his career he had 3 tackles, 1 sack which was a strip sack he picked up and ran in for a touchdown. Talk about a making a statement in your rookie season. Boss Jr. and Chan had an ok game but the defense was the real MVP shutting down anything the Second Line tried to establish. There you have it. A run down on how Sarasota stomped their way to an Ultimus win and the incredible drafting and good moves they made along the way. I’m sure I missed a couple but running through transactions/signing is messy.
P.S. I wish transactions were more “visible” in this league. Maybe it’s on me but I feel like all trades and things of that nature are pretty quiet. I didn’t even know that Ernest Lover, probably the best player from my draft class was traded back in January lol. So if I had one request it’s to make off season signings and trades more visible. Put it on the front page or push it as an announcement in its own channel. I don’t know, but there are some huge trades and I feel like they have big implications on the season.
RE: Sarasota Sailfish Season Review - tMuse - 03-12-2021
awesome read!
RE: Sarasota Sailfish Season Review - slate - 03-12-2021
Fantastic writeup! This was a really special season to be a part of and I'm really happy to see someone summarize it with so well.
I really like your suggestion to make signings and trades more visible. Free agency and whenever trades happen are really exciting to talk about as a member of an ISFL war room, but if I weren't in the war room with others keeping tabs on things I would also hear very little about those sorts of things.
One other thing I noticed: Octavio Clemente has rebranded as Cuco Clemente, he's our starting safety and definitely not a bust from the S22 draft haha. Also abh will be mad if I don't correct that he had 2 DTDs. Patterson had 0.
RE: Sarasota Sailfish Season Review - Frostbite - 03-12-2021
This is an absolutely fantastic article!
Sidenote: Octavio Clemente changed his name to Cuco Clemente, who had one of the best safety seasons this season, and is a nom for SOTY
RE: Sarasota Sailfish Season Review - Tayjay - 03-12-2021
(03-12-2021, 01:38 PM)slate Wrote: Fantastic writeup! This was a really special season to be a part of and I'm really happy to see someone summarize it with so well.
I really like your suggestion to make signings and trades more visible. Free agency and whenever trades happen are really exciting to talk about as a member of an ISFL war room, but if I weren't in the war room with others keeping tabs on things I would also hear very little about those sorts of things.
One other thing I noticed: Octavio Clemente has rebranded as Cuco Clemente, he's our starting safety and definitely not a bust from the S22 draft haha. Also abh will be mad if I don't correct that he had 2 DTDs. Patterson had 0.
It’s funny you bring that up because I thought that that Clemente was once Octavio but I couldn't find a name change and his wiki ends in the DSFL. So I wasn’t 100% sure. But makes that draft look even better.
RE: Sarasota Sailfish Season Review - bjkman - 03-13-2021
#KickersArePeopleToo