S17 ULTIMUS WEEK!!!

[Shadowz]

1. PBE PT

6. I think it should be without question that the San Antonio Marshals of the DSFL are the favorite to win the Ultimini this year. While they got a little messed up by some bad sim luck throughout the season, their twin set of running backs, Hanyadi and everybody's favorite pupperino Ruff Ruff are an extremely fearsome pair, shredding through defensive lines and getting gigantic gains. Focusing on Ruff Ruff for a minute, it is well known throughout the league that he is the cutest football player to ever grace the field, professional, minor leagues, or otherwise. It has proved to be an incredible asset for his play throughout the season, as at the last minute, defenders who try to tackle him often just settle to try to give him pats on the head. This leads to fantastic developments on the field, as he is able to sprint past opposing defenders. In all honesty though, the San Antonio Marshals have an exceptional core of players, especially the rookies that have been cultivated to an incredibly high degree. They've been super active, and it would be an extreme travesty and disservice to the league if they didn't take every other competing team to down when they match up on the football field with them this week.

7. So apparently even though I made such a clear response as to why the San Antonio Marshals were the only football team in the DSFL capable of taking home the Ultimini, we failed to do it when it mattered most against the Tijuana Luchadores. While I can call sim bullshit left and right as everybody who loses does every single season, I have real reason to believe that the San Antonio Marshals will be an even more legitimate threat next season in the S18 Playoffs. It is highly unlikely that the most dominant running back pair possibly in the history of the league get called up to their NSFL teams next season, so they will continue to dominate while at their TPE caps in the DSFL. After all, Ruff Ruff won RBoTY as a rookie in the DSFL, not that that's saying much. The Marshals core have maintained a very active existence on the site, and will undoubtedly have the highest TPE totals for next year. The better our players, the better our odds to win. We also are coming into the season with what a lot of other teams lack--the fire to make it all the way. We knew how good we were this season, so it stung when we didn't make it. Looking forward to showing who the real champs are next season.

10. the one team in the DSFL that I would say is incredibly overrated would be none other than the Tijuana Luchadores. I don't even get it, they're supposed to be very manly and showboating wrestlers, but turns out, all of the luchadore stuff is incredibly fake. They don't even hit each other for real, they just kind of act it out the whole time. That's also the style in which the players of the Tijuana Luchadores play. It's almost like a soccer game, them complaining to the refs nonstop about all the penalties that the other teams are getting away with. It's actually kind of sad because the refs listen to them. Ruff Ruff also takes personal beef with one of the wide receivers on the luchadores, Bender Rodriguez. He's almost robotic in his receptions, and Ruff Ruff doesn't like that, because he only cares about real humans. Not once has Rodriguez even attempted to pat Ruff Ruff on the head or call him a good boy. For a while it was okay, they were on competing teams, but it just crossed a line where it got to the point of being rude. Now Ruff Ruff has a personal vendetta in the Luchadores games, and is gonna work extra hard to destroy them in the regular season next year.

[Toasty]

Sit down with a Star: Sat down with @Raven

1. How do you feel about your players performance in the playoffs this season?

Our first game against the Chicago Butchers was a complete joke on my part. I am very happy my running backs were able to pick up where I was slacking and got us a good victory in the end. The conference final against the Wraiths was a game I can look back at and be very happy with. I clicked with my wide receivers and we were able to make important scores to keep us i nthe game.

2. What do you think will be your guys strong suit vs. OCO?

Strong offense paired with a defensive line that can hold themselves down. Also we just have a ton of heart and passion for the game which will go a long way for us.

3. OCO is a team that has been here many times are you guys worried about them?

If we play our game I do not think we have to fear to much. Yellowknife was argueably one of the best built teams in the league this season and if we can take them out I have high hopes we can take out the Otters, especially on our own home turf.

4. Everyone has plans for after the game, what are the plans if you lose, what are the plans if you win?

If we win we will be partying into the late hours of the night and if we lose, it's going to be a sad drive back home.

5. And finally how many holes does a straw have?

1 long hole.

Sit down with a fan: Raven's

[ddrector]

1. Playoff Review
The Hawks beat the Wraiths on the road in the Ultimus Semifinals in what many would say is a shocking result. Going into this season a large amount of fans had the Wraiths as the favorite to win it all this year. They shockingly lost at home in the semifinals to the Hawks and now have to go home and hope for a better outcome next year. The Wraiths ended up with more yards than the Hawks, but couldn’t come back from a 24 to 10 halftime deficit. Wraith kicker Bobby missed a short field goal that would have tied the score. After the Wraiths opened up the scoring with field goal from Bobby the Hawks scored on a 49 yard pass from Havran to Sunnycursed. Only 4 minutes later still in the first Espeeyeeseetee scored on a 14 yard pass. The Hawks then took a 21 to 3 lead early in the 2nd quarter on another passing touchdown. The Wraiths came storming back in the 3rd quarter behind two Morgan Marshall rushing touchdowns, but it wasn’t enough as they couldn’t score in the 4th to take the lead. The Hawks now go on to play the Otters in the Ultimus finals.

2. Underdog (I wrote this before the Ultimus finals)
The Otters are the underdogs in the Ultimus championship against the Hawks. The Otters played the Hawks in Baltimore in week 12 and lost 24-20. The Otters can win this game for one simple reason. They just showed by beating the Outlaws on the road in the semifinals. The Otters have a good enough offense to beat the Hawks. They opened up the semifinals with 17 straight points in the first quarter, which helped them win the game against the Outlaws. A strong running game is one of the things that really helps the Otters. They have three players that all got a rushing touch down in the semifinals. Their offense is also very consistent. They were able to score in every quarter of their semifinals game. They also have a balanced passing game that can spread the ball to many different receivers. The other thing the Otters have going for them is their pass defense is incredible. Holding Andrew Reese under 50% passing on the day was one thing that really helped the Otters win their game against the Outlaws and will definitely help them with their game against the Hawks. With multiple players that had 2 pass defenses they have talent all over their secondary.

3. All about the QBs
Let’s look at the quarterback matchup in the ultimus championship between Franklin Armstrong of the Otters and Corvo Havran of the Hawks. The Otters ended up winning the game 28 to 17 in no small part because of Armstrong. In fact, he threw for 3 touchdowns and ran for 1 as well. He had an efficient game only throwing the ball 27 times for 287 yards and the aforementioned 3 touch downs. He also ran it 11 times for 48 yards and a score. Havran threw the ball 52 times, probably in part due to the Hawks playing from behind the entire game. Unlike Armstrong, Havran doesn’t run the ball. He had 376 yards and 2 touch downs on the day though, and while his rating wasn’t nearly as good as Armstrong’s, it wasn’t bad. The Otters secondary definitely played a big part in limiting Havran’s success throwing the ball. With 6 total pass deflections they were making it hard on Havran all game long. He had to settle for a lot of short passes, which kept his yards per pass down to a mere 7.2 yards. Havran completed less than 50% of his passes on the day, which was a big reason the Otters were able to win. Meanwhile Armstrong had a much more efficient day with 63% of his passes completed, and that is one of the major reasons the Otters pulled off the victory.

5. Stupid Tiebreaker!
Tiebreakers are always a contentious topic in any sport. It is hard to make it fair if two teams are seemingly equal. Especially in football with so few games played. Obviously, the tiebreaker needs to be a long list of things from the most obvious down to the mundane just in case the two teams are really that even. Head to head matchup in the season should be the obvious first tiebreaker. If the teams split their season matchup then we have to move onto the next tiebreaker. In the NSFL every team plays the same amount of games. A home and away against every team in your conference, and one game against the other conference. The second tiebreaker should be record against conference opponents. If it is still tied then do record against non-conference opponent. If it is still tied, maybe the next tiebreaker should be record on the road? A better record on the road means a better team in my opinion. If we are still tied after that then go to scoring differential? And then honestly after that I don’t know what else to do then just flip a coin, because if it gets all the way to that point and the two teams are still equal then they are equal.

[RaiderNation]

PBE Affliate Task

[BWIII]

1) Playoff Predictions, Reviews:
Hawks Destroy Butchers!
Simply put this game was never close. The Hawks jumped out to a 26 point lead before the Butchers even put any points on the board, which was a field goal. They'd immediately follow that up with another field goal to get 6 points and cut the lead to 20, but they'd fail to add to their toal and end up losing by 36 points despite Corvo Havran throwing 2 picks.

Otters win nail biter!
In their annual playoff matchup, the Orange County Otters faced off against the San Jose Sabercats at home. Rookie quarterback Franklin Armstrong looked exactly like a rookie, barely throwing for over 200 yards and having a ton of passes sail on him. Apollo Reed, however, took control on the ground and ran all over San Jose's defense. Christ was particularly ineffective as he didn't do much running and he really didn't control the game passing either. All in all the game wasn't quite as close as the score indicated, but still a good game.

Wraiths Bounced Two Years in a Row!
After destroying the Butchers, the Hawks found themselves on the road in Yellowknife, a fairly hard place to win a game. Cooter Bigsby was dazzling as he threw all over the Hawks' terrible secondary especially Walt Green. Corvo Havran was staying toe for toe with Bigsby though and where he didn't match Cooter's yards, Havran found the endzone three times to his one. In the end though it'd come down to the kicking game and with a chance to tie the game in the fourth quarter, rookie kicker Kicky Bobby missed a chip shot.

No Repeat for Arizona!
With a bye week, Arizona was feeling pretty confident headed into their matchup with Orange County, so much so that Leighton Lee said he'd retire if they lost (he didn't as of yet which isn't surprising coming from him). As the game opened though, the Otters punched the Outlaws square in the face as early on Dan Schneider would return a punt 74 yards for a touchdown. That'd set the pace and Orange County would roll, tacking on 10 more points in the first quarter. From there both teams would exchange blows, but Arizona simply could never make enough stops to get the upper hand.

Ottes Add Another One!
For the second year in row the NSFL has found two underdog teams in the Ultimus, although it's hard to consider the Hawks & Otters underdogs. Nevertheless this was a game that had everything you could ask for in an Ultimus, close games, players making plays, basically it checked all the boxes. Otters won.

6) Our Time
I mean how could it not be our time to win the Ultimus this year? Oh you want to try and argue that it's because we're not actually in the playoffs? Well yeah because obviously all the other teams are scared to play us and have bribed the corrupt entity that is the Head Office of the NSFL in order to bar us from entering these tournament games and making us be like Rudolph sitting on the sidelines just watching as all the other teams be playing when deep down inside we know we got that shiny red nose thing that old man Dwyer thinks is a disease or something so that's part of his reasoning from not letting us play in these playoffs. I mean it surely can't have to do with our record and the fact that we only won like 5 games all year long as that's just another fascist label put on us by the Head Office and the simmer's office and all the offices that make up that trump-esque like tower they sit in and look down up on. Truth be known they just are scared of actually putting up a banner created by infinitempg that has our players and our colors on it because they don't want to face their true feelings about how much they'd like that.

7) Next year
We have been eliminated from playoff contention this year and had to sit on the sidelines and watch the playoffs because obviously Iam Esselman sucks as a GM as does Tom Ford MC Hammer, truly bad at their jobs. Well first reason we'll be in the playoffs this next season or the season after that is because we're shedding Marquise Brown. Kind of a bad contract with no mutual or team options so we could get out of it, Chicago decided they'd use him and we'd get Torenson. Sounds good to me. Esselman has probably the worst scouting department in the entire NSFL based on guys I've seen him personally draft and That alone has me pretty worried, but then I look at the fact it's a /r/nfl draft and has like 6000 draftees and figure he could spit in any general direction while it being pitch black and a 35 mile per hour cross breeze, just a saying we like to say in some part of the world, and still be able to find a handful of useful players so really even if he sucks at his job I'm sure we'll be able to come out on the other end and still be competitive enough to make the playoffs.

8) Draft Focus
Obviously our biggest need is cornerback because did you see this dude Emondov Emoji this last season? He pretty much sucks. Shit, that's me. Yeah I sucked this past season. Heck, our rookie, Julian 'Big Dick' McMorris outperformed me like two fold. Honestly best thing for us would probably draft another awesome rookie to take my spot so I could stop sucking and change positions to somewhere I'd suck less....not sure what that'd be, maybe water boy. Aside from that though probably defensive line. We traded away our best defensive line player in Luke Smyles during the year and aside from that we have terrible players there. We did have an agreement with Curtis Saul, but dude is a flake and a terrible person in general as well and backed out of our deal because no spine syndrome, truly sorry for his ailment. Obviously we'll be looking to possibly grab a future quarterback, haven't really looked at the guys in the draft to know if there's even anyone at any of these positions, but just spitballing here. Another area of concern that we might want to address is offensive line as well. We need some beefy boys that know how to handle opposing defenses, I'll say that we've been lacking true beef for a while

[woelkers]

3. For this task, I want to examine the match-up of Jordan McCann III, the grizzled veteran for the Tijuana Luchadores, and Jay Cue, the rookie sensation for the Portland Pythons. Although McCann came into the season with more experience, the run first approach of the Luchadore offense meant his numbers during the regular season paled in comparison to those of Cue, whose Pythons were unafraid to throw the ball regularly. Cue out-threw McCann by nearly two hundred and fifty yards, had a better completion percentage by six percentage points, threw for eight more touchdowns (at the cost of throwing seven more interceptions), and had a better passer rating by nearly seven points. At a glance, it appears Cue ruled the day in the Ultimini as well, throwing for two hundred and one yards and two touchdowns compared to McCann's one hundred forty-seven yards and one touchdown. However, Cue's accuracy was off the mark, and a costly interception dropped his passer rating a full thirteen and a half points below McCann's, enough to seemingly cost Portland the Ultimini. As we'll see later, Cue's interception was not the only mishap for Portland, but it certainly came at the worst possible time for a time that lost by a single point, and it is tragic for young Cue, who played brilliantly this season, to lose to the veteran in such a fashion.

7. So, obviously, Colorado was eliminated from championship contention by the simple fact that they failed to even make the playoffs. However, this season was a huge step forward from last season: the team won four more games, and built upon an already solid foundation of Wolfie McDummy, Terry Taffy, James Bishop, Josh Palmer, Mo Berry, Logan Lejeune, and Quentin Sinclair with the additions of Lazlo Forty-Two and Bubba Thumper, something the fans in Colorado are calling the "Bubba42 Effect". The team also has a plethora of draft picks, including two in the third and three in the fifth, with which to build upon that group even further, either by going all out in terms of quantity, or by trading up to grab players of a higher caliber. Plus, it appears many other teams in the NSFC may be taking a step back next season, with new GMs in place in Baltimore, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Assuming all three of those teams take a step back while adjusting to new management, and that Yellowknife struggles to keep things in order given the Ryan Leaf Jr. saga and the recent retirement announcements of both their running backs, this may be the season we can finally say that Colorado is back.

11. Let's talk about the trade of the one and only Sunnycursed. At the beginning of the season, Sunnycursed signed with the throw-happy Orange County Otters, where he was the primary receiver for rookie quarterback Franklin Armstrong, ahead of rookie wide receiver Hugh Mongo. However, when Orange County struggled through the first ten weeks of the season, team management decided to make a deal with the Baltimore Hawks, shipping Sunnycursed to play with Corvo Havran instead. This helped push Baltimore, a team clearly in win now mode, firmly into the playoffs, and surprisingly, the ship seemed to right itself in Orange County as well. Sunnycursed put up one hundred and seventy-five yards in his first two playoff appearances for Baltimore, helping them drop the Chicago Butchers and subsequently upset the heavily favored Yellowknife Wraiths, and given his one hundred and eight receiving yards in the Ultimus, you would assume his new team may have come out on top; alas, it was his former team, the Orange County Otters, who ruled the day, as Johnny Blaze matched his former teammate blow for blow, and Hugh Mongo picked up the slack. This trade nearly paid off for Baltimore, but alas, it was not meant to be.

19. As we are all well aware, the Ultimini this season was decided by a single point. That's right, just one point. That is, as we are well aware, a single extra point attempt. The Portland Pythons, I imagine, are grieving heavily considering how close they came to victory, only to see it booted away from them. Now, you could say that a Jay Cue interception in the closing minutes of the game did not help their cause, but let's place the blame where it is due: placekicker Daniel Espinosa. Espinosa missed two kicks in the game, both of which were critical in the loss. The first, a thirty-five yard field goal towards the end of the second quarter, seemed trivial at the time; however, if Espinosa had made that kick, this game becomes a two point Python victory, not a 1 point Python defeat. The second, perhaps even more critical, miscue came on a extra point attempt just four minutes into the third quarter. Another missed kick by Espinosa, one which, had he been successful, could've sent the game to overtime twenty-six minutes later; but it was not Espinosa's day, and the win slipped from the grasp of the Pythons into the arms of the Luchadores, all because of some lousy kicks.

[PigSnout]

PT Pass

[.Laser]

7) Next year
    Written: If your team has been eliminated, why will the next year, or the year after that, be the year that your team is going to win the Ultimus or Ultimini.
Graphics: Create a statistical summary of what improvements your team has made from the previous year or why your team was better than their record.

9)  Enemies
Written: Not everyone loves each other, write 200 words on an opposing player or player in this year's playoffs about how they will struggle, why do you want them to lose? (Don't be too mean).
Graphic: Create a graphic of a player showing maybe they are overrated with statistical back up, or a statistical prediction of what they will do in the game.

10) Rivalries
    Written: Write about another team and why they are overrated and why you want them to lose.
    Graphic: Show a statistical representation of why said team is overrated.

11) Trades
    Written: Talk about a player who was traded this past offseason or before the trade deadline and how they will affect the Ultimus, or how they helped their new team in making the playoffs, or cost their old team.
    Graphic: Create a graphic for said player showing how they helped their new team and compare to their old team.

7. Next Year
This year, the Kansas City Coyotes made the playoffs with a 6-8 record and should have had a couple more wins if Jay Longshaw could have protected the ball better while passing. However, next year will be the Coyotes' year. In Kansas City's division, the 3-11 Norfolk Seawolves are losing their best weapons in DL Bjørn Ironside and HB Marcella Tøriki, both of whom will be top 15 picks in the NSFL draft. Without them, the team will fall apart completely and might not win a game. With Norfolk out of the way, that leaves the S17 Ultimini Champions Tijuana Luchadores, who should also be losing the vast majority of their starters to the NSFL draft, and they are the major competition in the division. Tijuana will lose LB Thudd Kassel and WR Bender Rodriguez to the NSFL, and may have several others called up midseason, including secondary players Wayne Howyanow, Caleb Beck, Howard Ryan, and DaQuarrion M'Wehwordson. This leaves the defending champions with a sorely hurting defense, especially towards the end of the season when games truly start to matter. Kansas City, on the other hand, will be losing defensive starters Net Gaines, Maurice Virtianen, and Korrin Abernathy to the NSFL, and will likely lose RB Orion Drake as well. However with the core of the offense returning, this is the year that Kansas City takes over the Ultimini.

9. Enemies
The GOAT. The god of the DSFL and the patron saint of the Tijuana Luchadores. Gimmy Jaroppolo, ladies and gentlemen, is portrayed to the general public as the best and most decorated player in the entirety of the DSFL and its history. He is the motivation behind every Tijuana Ultimini, he is the first player ever inducted to the team ring of Honor while still active and before finishing his first season, he is the one all the player now down and pray to before every game to give them luck and he was the only player to be universally known across all of S18 the moment they joined discord. But does Gimmy actually have any skill? Oh God no. Gimmy is not an all-star QB, he is not a great QB, he is not a good QB, he is not a starting QB. Gimmy is the living embodiment of a trash can on wheels that has been left outside in the elements too long and is riddled with cracks and holes so badly that it threatens to fall apart at the slightest gusr of wind. He has not won many games as a starting QB, and the only games he has won were as a r ees ukt of his defenses. The reality is, Gimy sucks lmao. And nobody can chance this reality ot my mind on the matter.

10. Rivalries
Everyone in both the NSFL and DSFL have those teams they just can't stand for whatever reason. For me personally, that team is the Tijuana Luchadores of the DSFL. They not only have possibly the worst failure of a QB in all of NSFL history in Gimmy Jarropollo, they had the audacity to try and cover up their dismal selection of the QB by attempting to elevate him to God-like status amongst at least the S18 class if not others before us. Gimmy's talent (or lack thereof )in and of itself is a completely separate matter, though, this is about the Luchadores in general. Another reason I don't like Tijuana is because of the advantage they had in draft picks in the S17 draft because of the choices some of the other GM's *coughcoughSabacoughcough* allowed them to stockpile an additional I believe 7 picks, some of which turned into very valuable and active contributors to the team. This made them even more difficult to best on the field than they already were, being one of the biggest powerhouse teams in the DSFL for seasons upon seasons now I don't know that they always were, as I've only been in the league a couple months, but from what I can tell it's been constant foe them. Give other teams a chance, Tijuana!

11. Trades
I want to highlight two trades here. Firstly, the massive and very questionable trade made by Portland to Tijuana in exchange for the 6th overall pick in the DSFL draft, which I don't even want to try to recall the terms of. But that trade singlehandedly awarded Tijuana an insane number of extra picks that all turned into active players, contributing to Tijuana all season long and helping them reach and win their second Ultimini in as many seasons. TomHanks and Scorp made a great deal here, and I'm still not sure what saba was thinking, as he imediately turned around and traded that pick away to Norfolk for a first in the S18 draft. That trade in and of itself was actually a decnt trade that could work out very well for him, as it turned into the 1st overall, but the massive value he gave up to acquire that pick to begin with puts a damper on this part of it. The second trade I want to hit is the Sunnycursed trade. After all his free agent shananigans before the beginning of S17, he was sent from the Orange County Otters to the Baltimore Hawks and immediately improved their roster, possibly turning them into Ultimus favorites. That's not how it played out of course, as Sunnycursed would have been better off staying with his previous team had he wanted an Ultimus, but it made the Hawks a huge force to be reckoned with immediately.

[MrStennett]

1. PBE PT Affiliation

2. Playoff Review

Man, that Ultimus was quite a game, wasn't it. Well, I suppose if you were rooting for, or a member of, the Baltimore Hawks, you may remember the game less fondly than I do. The short version of a review for the game would be that Otters quarterback Franklin Armstrong had his coming out party on the biggest stage in the NSFL. He completed 17 of 27 passes for 287 yards with three touchdowns and zero interceptions, good for a 135.9 passer rating. He also ran eleven times for 44 yards and a touchdown. Four total touchdowns with no turnovers against a pretty good Baltimore defense? That's a line that any quarterback in the league would kill to have in a championship game. I suppose the longer version of the review would be that the Hawks struggled to contain the Otters passing attack all game long. You do have to give credit where credit is due for how the Hawks managed the Otters run game, however. Star running back Apollo Reed and his stand-in Corey Trevor managed only 74 yards on 21 carries. At the end of the day, it came down to which team could get into the end zone more. Every time Baltimore managed to put points up on the scoreboard, the Otters would inevitably have an answer. (223 words)

3. Kickers are people too!

I'm here to talk a little about Orange County Otters kicker, Alex Dasistwirklichseinnachname. He may not have been called upon in a huge spot or made an incredibly deep kick, but he was very important to his team on their run to winning the Ultimus. Mostly, Alex's importance can be described with one word: reliability. In the Otters three playoff games, he made all three of his attempted field goals and ten of eleven extra points. He was especially important int the ASFC Wild Card Game against the San Jose Sabercats. He nailed both of the field goals he attempted and also made both extra points. The points that he contributed were a necessity for the Otters, as they struggled offensively after half time and they only outdistanced the Sabercats by seven points when everything was said and done. Alex's eight points were the difference between a stunning victory and a crushing defeat, allowing the Otters to gain momentum and head into Arizona with a full head of steam. While other teams have had issues with their kicking game, (I'm looking at you Yellowknife. RIP Kicky Bobby.) the Otters have been able to rely on Alex game in and game out. Kicking isn't often viewed as the most important part of a gameplan, but it can truly be the difference between a W and an L. (226 words)

4. Enemies

So, how about that bum Sunnycursed, huh? I can still remember him rambling along in the club house like, "I'm the premier wide receiver in the NSFL!" and "I should be getting better stats!" I mean, talk about a real Antonio Brown complex, right? He was really pushing for a trade because he thought the team sucked and he was a star. Well, he gets to be a falling star now, because he was traded just to watch the Otters steamroll the Sabercats and the Outlaws on their way to play his new team, the Baltimore Hawks, in the Ultimus. Even at this point, there is still hope that his new team can beat out his old team and his choice will appear vindicated. That hope only lasted as long as it took Franklin Armstrong to throw three touchdowns, one or two of which may have been tossed to him in another dimension. Instead, he got to pick up his new yellow helmet and trudge back to the locker room through a storm of orange and white confetti. In the future, his choice may come out looking like a no-brainer, as he goes on to crush receiving records, but right now, it looks dumb and so does he. Also, he's ugly. (212 words)

[Lowlycrib]

3. All about the QBs

My matchup here is slightly bias to my affiliation with the Saber Cats but Joilet Christ vs Franklin Armstrong from the Otters was slated to be a great one and they didn't disappoint. The Saber Cats were one of the streakiest teams this season by going on long winning streaks and then some droughts. The Otters were the typically Otters and Quarterback play was a major part of this. Joilet Christ was in MVP form in his final season and Armstrong was able to play effectively and efficiently. The stats in these games weren't overly impressive but i attribute that to the steller defenses that held Joilet to 229 yards and 0 tds and Armstrong to 210 yards with two tds. Overall it was a great matchup but was disappointing to see such a great player's career end this early in the playoffs but he put up a valiant effort with his aging supporting cast but Franklin Armstrong was able to rally the troops this game and was then able to carry them onto the Ultimas. Joilet Christ was known for his ability on the ground where he was able to rush for a touchdown and another 28 yards within this game while Armstrong had zero touchdowns and zero yards.

(210)

19. Kickers are people too

The Hawks had a fairly decent playoff run with their kicker ForThe Brand playing a major role in his games. Although he started the playoffs shaky against the Butchers in a blowout he still went 4/6 which is better than some of our kickers in the league can say. His role as a kicker wasn't particularly necessary in the first game but his punts were primo with 8 punts for 423 yards and 3 punts landing inside the 20. His second game was stellar against the Wraiths in a tight 27-24 win. His kicks were on point this game going 3/3 on extra points and 2/2 on field goals. These kicks weren't easy with one being between 30-39 and one between 40-49, which was ultimately the winner. Once again his punts were great with 7 for 319 yards and 2 inside the 20. Although the Hawks came up short in the Ultimus ForThe Brand was perfect once again in this game going for 2/2 on extra points and nailing a 36 yarder. Punts were down slightly with 6 for 256 yards and only one with the 20. It was exciting seeing one of the best kickers/punters excelling in the playoffs and coming in clutch for the team when they really needed.

(216 words)

7. Next year

It was obvious that the Saber Cats were snubbed this year as Joliet Christ lead them on a magical ride with his MVP worthy stats and the storylines that would've been straight out a movie had they won. This next season will be much different because of the positive changes and the draft process that will occur. This next season will see the Saber cats with a new QB at the helm who is a dual threat much like Joilet was in his prime. Although this team has been aging in the recent season they have drafted studs such as Brackenridge who looks to be the backbone of the defense for at least the next two seasons as he continues to progress on the field. This upcoming draft class also looks to be a great one and one of the larger ones in the recent history with the Saber Cats holding a few early picks which they hope to hit on. Free agency is where the Saber Cats can go to town, they need some firepower on both sides of the ball and i believe that they have the cap to do that and to possibly sway some lower tier guys into joining the squad overall. It is clear that this team has Ultimus aspirations because of their closing window and i believe that they have the ability to maneuver into at least one of them over the course of the next two seasons.

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9. Enemies

The obvious choice here would be Brayden Ennis but the two have grown closer throughout their time within the NSFL. Tyron Brackenridge's true number one enemy now is Takeda Okura, who is the safety for the Arizona Copperheads. Although Okura's stats aren't very good he still tries at least, which Tyron has some respect for but the two young safeties entered the league in the same draft class and have been compared ever since. Takeda was often valued for his blazing speed, which was about all he had but through training and work in the offseason Brackenridge is at his top speed and zips around the field like a wasp on a mission. The commitment for Okura has been lackluster at best, which many say led to his fall in the draft and Brackenridge often finds himself asking "why this guy here if he aint even goin work?". These two young safeties are practically polar opposites on and off the field, which often leads to the resentment and misunderstanding between the two. Lastly, Brackenridge has some advice for his peer on the defensive side of the ball. That if you want to make it in this league Takeda Okura you need to be more like Tyron Brackenridge because as everyone here knows Brack don't Crack.

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