04-07-2023, 04:08 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-09-2023, 10:03 PM by xenosthelegend. Edited 2 times in total.)
A couple years back, I wrote this media piece. It was a discussion of the worst of the worst, the teams who had managed to be so absolutely awful as to be unable to win a single game over the entire season. It included a team which had technically not gone winless yet, but seemed almost destined to join them, considering they were playing worse than at least 2 and maybe 3 of the teams that had actually gone winless.
That team was the S27 Hawks, who eventually joined the ranks of the S6 and S7 Yeti, the S10 Liberty (now Cape Town Crash), and the S16 Austin "ISFL's expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers" Copperheads. Since that season, there have been a couple close calls; the year immediately afterwards, the Hawks challenged the all time record for straight losses before winning 2 of their final 3 to pull out a 2-14 record; the S34 Yeti also went 2-14, though they weren't really sweating it out considering their first win was week 2, their only wins came from sweeping the Hawks; Berlin in S36 also went 2-14 without sweating a winless record, though I can't imagine the 8 game losing streak to end the season felt that much better; and the S37 Copperheads would top it just a year later by losing their last 9 to go 2-14.
Still, before the S27 Hawks, the last team to go winless was an expansion Copperheads team 11 years prior. So, 11 years later, a former expansion team would pick up the torch of the winless: The Honolulu Hahalua.
After winning back to back Ultimus trophies in the years prior, the time was coming to pay the piper. The team legends Dexter Zaylren and Eleven Kendrick-Watts were gone, and the team traded a bunch of players for future assets. A wise move, but one that would somewhat seal their fate. Still, you wouldn't truly expect a team coming off of 2 Ultimus wins in the prior 3 years and who still went to the conference championship the year after that to go winless, right?
Well, they did. But what I was personally interested in was how much better or worse they were compared to their contemporary winless teams. Were they as unlucky as the Copperheads? Were they as bad as the Hawks or Yeti? Were they just somewhere in between like the Liberty? Was there anything truly exceptional about their ineptitude other than the final scores?
Season 38 Honolulu Hahalua
The Hahalua were the worst team in the league in both points for, 19.9 points per game, and points against, 34.6 points per game. The closest to them in each category was the Hawks offense at 21.2 PPG, and the Otters defense at 28.2 points per game. The most points the Hahalua scored in a single game was 27 on two separate occasions: at the Copperheads, and vs the Second Line. The least they scored was 10 vs the Philadelphia Liberty. The least points they gave up was 23 at the Sabercats, while the most they gave up was 58 at the Second Line.
By yards, the Hahalua were actually only the 2nd worst offense in the league, gaining a respectable 352.3 yards per game. The worst was the Hawks at 335.1 yards per game. The most yards the Hahalua gained in a single game was 445 vs the Copperheads, while the least they gained was 299 at the Copperheads; they did get within 10 yards of that total on 4 different occasions, though. The Hahalua were the worst defense in the league yardwise, giving up 444.4 yards per game. The second worst defense, the Otters, gave up 392.5 per game, over 50 yards less. That's actually the 2nd biggest gap between winless teams and their closest "competition", with only the S27 Hawks being worse. Their best defensive performance in this category was 322 at the Sabercats. Their worst defensive performance by yards was 602, vs the Liberty.
Going into each type of yard gained specifically, the Hahalua's offense was actually 10th of 14 in terms of rushing yards at 89.8. The worst, the Copperheads, only gained 67.9 yards per game on the ground. The most the Hahalua's ground offense got in a game was 135 vs the Yeti, while the least they got in a game was 36 at the Copperheads. Their passing offense was actually above average by team, the 7th best of 14 at 262.5 yards per game. The worst in that stat, the Otters, got only 215.1 per game. The Hahalua's best passing performance was 350 yards vs the Copperheads, and their worst passing performance was 175 yards vs the Otters.
On defense, Honolulu had the worst performance vs the run of any team, giving up 164.9 yards per game. The second worst, the Sailfish, gave up 114.7 yards per game against the run. Honolulu's best run D day was giving up only 78 yards at Yellowknife, and their worst was giving up 305 vs the Liberty. Against the pass, Hahalua was "only" 11th worst, giving up 279.5 yards per game. The worst team in that stat wasn't that much worse, though, the Hawks giving up 283.9 yards per game means that there were 4 bad pass defenses within 5 yards per game of each other. Honolulu's best pass D showed up in their matchup at the Second Line, giving up 161 yards. Their worst performance was at the Copperheads, when they gave up 432 yards.
So those are the stats, but how do they shake up and how do they match up with the previous winless teams?
Let's start with each side of the ball individually.
Worst Offense Among Winless Teams:
S7 Yeti: 9.8 ppg
S10 Liberty: 11.6 ppg
S27 Hawks: 13.6 ppg
S6 Yeti: 14.1 ppg
S16 Copperheads: 14.3 ppg
S38 Hahalua: 19.9 ppg
Worst Defense Among Winless Teams:
S27 Hawks: 38.6 ppg
S7 Yeti: 38.6 ppg
S6 Yeti: 35.8 ppg
S38 Hahalua: 34.6 ppg
S10 Liberty: 33.9 ppg
S16 Copperheads: 32.6 ppg
Pairing these together, I have a few things to point out. First off, back when I made the first Winless Teams article, the Hawks had not finished their season, they had 4 games left, and they proceeded to have an even worse defense and offense than their already bottom of the barrell garbage. Back then, I rated the Hawks as the 3rd worst team ever, and now that they claim the title of worst defense among winless teams (and I think the 2nd worst defense of all time?) and moved above/below the S6 Yeti in how bad their offense was, I now think they are worse than said S6 Yeti. The list now goes S7 Yeti, Hawks, S6 Yeti, Liberty, Copperheads.
So where do the Hahalua fit in? Well, their defense was actually far worse than I originally thought it was going to be. They end up slotting in between the Liberty and the Yeti. However, I think they might be a little bit better than the Copperheads despite their D giving up 2 whole points per game more; the S38 Hahalua have by far the best offense of any team who went winless, with a larger gap between them and the 2nd place Copperheads than between the Copperheads and the last place S7 Yeti. Still, let's go to the other two stats I covered in the end of the last article and see how they fared there...
Average Point Differential:
S7 Yeti: -26.0
S27 Hawks: -25.0
S6 Yeti: -24.5
S10 Liberty: -22.3
S16 Copperheads: -18.3
S38 Hahalua: -14.7
Average Point Differential Compared to 2nd Worst Team:
S7 Yeti: -21.6
S27 Hawks: -18.1
S6 Yeti: -15.7
S38 Hahalua: -10.4
S10 Liberty: -8.8
S16 Copperheads: -1.7
The worst team by point differential in S38 other than the Hahalua was the Colorado Yeti at a mere -4.3 average point margin. This stat is somewhat record dependent or at least other team quality dependent; the S6 Yeti, S10 Liberty, and especially the S16 Copperheads are extremely blunted in this stat due to one other godawful team who had a really bad point differential: The S6 Second Line help a bit, and the S10 Sabercats and S16 Yeti help massively in this department. And yet, that is what I created this stat for: How much worse were you than the other teams in the league? Were you able to almost singlehandedly push a team into a less terrible point differential by losing to the S7 Sabercats by a larger margin in one game than their other 4 wins combined, as the Yeti did? Did you not play them at all like the Hawks with the S27 Copperheads and thus not give them the chance at a win or a better point differential? The Hahalua, by comparison, played the 2nd lowest point differential team once, and lost by 2 at home.
So with this in mind, I don't know where exactly to place the Hahalua, at least between 5th and 6th. There's not really a question that they are better than both Yeti winless teams and the Hawks. It's almost completely unjustifiable to put them as a worse team than the Liberty, either; slightly losing to them in average point differential compared to 2nd and on D does not make up for the large gaps everywhere else. No, what I'm debating on is whether they are better or worse than the Copperheads. On first glance, with how good their offense was by comparison (there's probably a couple dozen teams with wins that have worse offense), to the point that they have the best point differential by a good margin despite their middle of the pack among winless teams defense. But there's a couple issues; they were so much worse than any other team that year, especially compared to the Copperheads who were only barely worse than that year's Yeti. That's not the most damaging stat in the world or anything, but combined with two other bits of information, it makes me judge the Hahalua in a harsher light than I do the Copperheads.
First off, as mentioned in both this media post and the one referenced above, the S16 Copperheads are special among winless teams; they're the only one with what I'd describe as an excuse to go winless. They were an expansion team who specifically put their team on the shoulders of a rookie QB and did not have a good team around him, either. Great recipe for making Easton Cole an almost unimpeachable legend and member of the Copperheads' Mount Rushmore, not so great a recipe for a good team in S16 specifically. Compare that to a Hahalua team that did blow it up and go full rebuild, but had made the playoffs for 4 straight seasons, making the Ultimus in 3 of them and winning 2, and there's nowhere near as good as an excuse for the S38 Hahalua to go winless.
Second is how the games went. The Hahalua have a record that is only matched by the S6 Yeti, and then go above and beyond that stat. Those S6 Yeti were the only team before the Hahalua to never have a lead in the 4th quarter. Even the worst team ever S7 Yeti led a game for 8 seconds of the 4th. Every other team had multiple games that they led in the 4th. The S27 Hawks, my choice for the 2nd worst team in history had a game where they were up by multiple possessions in the 4th. But the S6 Yeti at least were tied in the 4th a couple times. The Hahalua never even managed that. Almost every single one of the games that it looks like the Hahalua got oh so close to winning (the 5 point loss against the Silverbacks, the 3 point loss vs the Wraiths, the 2 point loss vs the Yeti) came on the back of a desperation drive where they scored a TD to make the score look more respectable and then never saw the ball again. With that record, never even being TIED with the opposing team in the 4th, I'm concluding that the S38 Hahalua were a worse team than the S16 Copperheads. I'm actually kind of shocked, when I saw that the Hahalua were winless while scoring almost 20 points per game, I was sure that they were going to be the new best winless team, but that stat? Never winning or tied in the 4th? That's too much of a burden to bear compared to the Copperheads.
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That team was the S27 Hawks, who eventually joined the ranks of the S6 and S7 Yeti, the S10 Liberty (now Cape Town Crash), and the S16 Austin "ISFL's expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers" Copperheads. Since that season, there have been a couple close calls; the year immediately afterwards, the Hawks challenged the all time record for straight losses before winning 2 of their final 3 to pull out a 2-14 record; the S34 Yeti also went 2-14, though they weren't really sweating it out considering their first win was week 2, their only wins came from sweeping the Hawks; Berlin in S36 also went 2-14 without sweating a winless record, though I can't imagine the 8 game losing streak to end the season felt that much better; and the S37 Copperheads would top it just a year later by losing their last 9 to go 2-14.
Still, before the S27 Hawks, the last team to go winless was an expansion Copperheads team 11 years prior. So, 11 years later, a former expansion team would pick up the torch of the winless: The Honolulu Hahalua.
After winning back to back Ultimus trophies in the years prior, the time was coming to pay the piper. The team legends Dexter Zaylren and Eleven Kendrick-Watts were gone, and the team traded a bunch of players for future assets. A wise move, but one that would somewhat seal their fate. Still, you wouldn't truly expect a team coming off of 2 Ultimus wins in the prior 3 years and who still went to the conference championship the year after that to go winless, right?
Well, they did. But what I was personally interested in was how much better or worse they were compared to their contemporary winless teams. Were they as unlucky as the Copperheads? Were they as bad as the Hawks or Yeti? Were they just somewhere in between like the Liberty? Was there anything truly exceptional about their ineptitude other than the final scores?
Season 38 Honolulu Hahalua
The Hahalua were the worst team in the league in both points for, 19.9 points per game, and points against, 34.6 points per game. The closest to them in each category was the Hawks offense at 21.2 PPG, and the Otters defense at 28.2 points per game. The most points the Hahalua scored in a single game was 27 on two separate occasions: at the Copperheads, and vs the Second Line. The least they scored was 10 vs the Philadelphia Liberty. The least points they gave up was 23 at the Sabercats, while the most they gave up was 58 at the Second Line.
By yards, the Hahalua were actually only the 2nd worst offense in the league, gaining a respectable 352.3 yards per game. The worst was the Hawks at 335.1 yards per game. The most yards the Hahalua gained in a single game was 445 vs the Copperheads, while the least they gained was 299 at the Copperheads; they did get within 10 yards of that total on 4 different occasions, though. The Hahalua were the worst defense in the league yardwise, giving up 444.4 yards per game. The second worst defense, the Otters, gave up 392.5 per game, over 50 yards less. That's actually the 2nd biggest gap between winless teams and their closest "competition", with only the S27 Hawks being worse. Their best defensive performance in this category was 322 at the Sabercats. Their worst defensive performance by yards was 602, vs the Liberty.
Going into each type of yard gained specifically, the Hahalua's offense was actually 10th of 14 in terms of rushing yards at 89.8. The worst, the Copperheads, only gained 67.9 yards per game on the ground. The most the Hahalua's ground offense got in a game was 135 vs the Yeti, while the least they got in a game was 36 at the Copperheads. Their passing offense was actually above average by team, the 7th best of 14 at 262.5 yards per game. The worst in that stat, the Otters, got only 215.1 per game. The Hahalua's best passing performance was 350 yards vs the Copperheads, and their worst passing performance was 175 yards vs the Otters.
On defense, Honolulu had the worst performance vs the run of any team, giving up 164.9 yards per game. The second worst, the Sailfish, gave up 114.7 yards per game against the run. Honolulu's best run D day was giving up only 78 yards at Yellowknife, and their worst was giving up 305 vs the Liberty. Against the pass, Hahalua was "only" 11th worst, giving up 279.5 yards per game. The worst team in that stat wasn't that much worse, though, the Hawks giving up 283.9 yards per game means that there were 4 bad pass defenses within 5 yards per game of each other. Honolulu's best pass D showed up in their matchup at the Second Line, giving up 161 yards. Their worst performance was at the Copperheads, when they gave up 432 yards.
So those are the stats, but how do they shake up and how do they match up with the previous winless teams?
Let's start with each side of the ball individually.
Worst Offense Among Winless Teams:
S7 Yeti: 9.8 ppg
S10 Liberty: 11.6 ppg
S27 Hawks: 13.6 ppg
S6 Yeti: 14.1 ppg
S16 Copperheads: 14.3 ppg
S38 Hahalua: 19.9 ppg
Worst Defense Among Winless Teams:
S27 Hawks: 38.6 ppg
S7 Yeti: 38.6 ppg
S6 Yeti: 35.8 ppg
S38 Hahalua: 34.6 ppg
S10 Liberty: 33.9 ppg
S16 Copperheads: 32.6 ppg
Pairing these together, I have a few things to point out. First off, back when I made the first Winless Teams article, the Hawks had not finished their season, they had 4 games left, and they proceeded to have an even worse defense and offense than their already bottom of the barrell garbage. Back then, I rated the Hawks as the 3rd worst team ever, and now that they claim the title of worst defense among winless teams (and I think the 2nd worst defense of all time?) and moved above/below the S6 Yeti in how bad their offense was, I now think they are worse than said S6 Yeti. The list now goes S7 Yeti, Hawks, S6 Yeti, Liberty, Copperheads.
So where do the Hahalua fit in? Well, their defense was actually far worse than I originally thought it was going to be. They end up slotting in between the Liberty and the Yeti. However, I think they might be a little bit better than the Copperheads despite their D giving up 2 whole points per game more; the S38 Hahalua have by far the best offense of any team who went winless, with a larger gap between them and the 2nd place Copperheads than between the Copperheads and the last place S7 Yeti. Still, let's go to the other two stats I covered in the end of the last article and see how they fared there...
Average Point Differential:
S7 Yeti: -26.0
S27 Hawks: -25.0
S6 Yeti: -24.5
S10 Liberty: -22.3
S16 Copperheads: -18.3
S38 Hahalua: -14.7
Average Point Differential Compared to 2nd Worst Team:
S7 Yeti: -21.6
S27 Hawks: -18.1
S6 Yeti: -15.7
S38 Hahalua: -10.4
S10 Liberty: -8.8
S16 Copperheads: -1.7
The worst team by point differential in S38 other than the Hahalua was the Colorado Yeti at a mere -4.3 average point margin. This stat is somewhat record dependent or at least other team quality dependent; the S6 Yeti, S10 Liberty, and especially the S16 Copperheads are extremely blunted in this stat due to one other godawful team who had a really bad point differential: The S6 Second Line help a bit, and the S10 Sabercats and S16 Yeti help massively in this department. And yet, that is what I created this stat for: How much worse were you than the other teams in the league? Were you able to almost singlehandedly push a team into a less terrible point differential by losing to the S7 Sabercats by a larger margin in one game than their other 4 wins combined, as the Yeti did? Did you not play them at all like the Hawks with the S27 Copperheads and thus not give them the chance at a win or a better point differential? The Hahalua, by comparison, played the 2nd lowest point differential team once, and lost by 2 at home.
So with this in mind, I don't know where exactly to place the Hahalua, at least between 5th and 6th. There's not really a question that they are better than both Yeti winless teams and the Hawks. It's almost completely unjustifiable to put them as a worse team than the Liberty, either; slightly losing to them in average point differential compared to 2nd and on D does not make up for the large gaps everywhere else. No, what I'm debating on is whether they are better or worse than the Copperheads. On first glance, with how good their offense was by comparison (there's probably a couple dozen teams with wins that have worse offense), to the point that they have the best point differential by a good margin despite their middle of the pack among winless teams defense. But there's a couple issues; they were so much worse than any other team that year, especially compared to the Copperheads who were only barely worse than that year's Yeti. That's not the most damaging stat in the world or anything, but combined with two other bits of information, it makes me judge the Hahalua in a harsher light than I do the Copperheads.
First off, as mentioned in both this media post and the one referenced above, the S16 Copperheads are special among winless teams; they're the only one with what I'd describe as an excuse to go winless. They were an expansion team who specifically put their team on the shoulders of a rookie QB and did not have a good team around him, either. Great recipe for making Easton Cole an almost unimpeachable legend and member of the Copperheads' Mount Rushmore, not so great a recipe for a good team in S16 specifically. Compare that to a Hahalua team that did blow it up and go full rebuild, but had made the playoffs for 4 straight seasons, making the Ultimus in 3 of them and winning 2, and there's nowhere near as good as an excuse for the S38 Hahalua to go winless.
Second is how the games went. The Hahalua have a record that is only matched by the S6 Yeti, and then go above and beyond that stat. Those S6 Yeti were the only team before the Hahalua to never have a lead in the 4th quarter. Even the worst team ever S7 Yeti led a game for 8 seconds of the 4th. Every other team had multiple games that they led in the 4th. The S27 Hawks, my choice for the 2nd worst team in history had a game where they were up by multiple possessions in the 4th. But the S6 Yeti at least were tied in the 4th a couple times. The Hahalua never even managed that. Almost every single one of the games that it looks like the Hahalua got oh so close to winning (the 5 point loss against the Silverbacks, the 3 point loss vs the Wraiths, the 2 point loss vs the Yeti) came on the back of a desperation drive where they scored a TD to make the score look more respectable and then never saw the ball again. With that record, never even being TIED with the opposing team in the 4th, I'm concluding that the S38 Hahalua were a worse team than the S16 Copperheads. I'm actually kind of shocked, when I saw that the Hahalua were winless while scoring almost 20 points per game, I was sure that they were going to be the new best winless team, but that stat? Never winning or tied in the 4th? That's too much of a burden to bear compared to the Copperheads.
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