The Colorado Yeti missed the playoffs for the first time in a long time this season, and thus their window has officially closed. In this dot football league, that window can open right back up again quickly, and you could easily get right back into the playoffs and compete for more Ultimus trophies. That being said, that doesn't change a few facts. People talked about a couple of your teams as if they were all time greats. And yet you had one lone Ultimus in your window.
You should be REALLY happy that the most unlikely Ultimus in history went your way, you know? You managed to beat OCO and complete a miracle comeback. Be proud of that lone Ultimus, it is one of the greatest in the history of the ISFL.
On the other hand, what a waste. That was season 22. It's season 26 now, 4 seasons later, and you lost the chance to make a dynasty.
Season 23. The Yeti end up with the same record as the Wraiths, lose out on tiebreaker for Home Field Advantage. But you get to the NSFC Conference Championship, and seem to have the upper hand throughout the entire first half. You hold the Wraiths to 13 points. But you don't score anything in the entire second half and go dormant. To add insult to injury, with Orange County upset by the Copperheads in the ASFC Conference Championship, a .500 Austin squad awaited the Wraiths as they stomped and destroyed their opposition. Still, there's always next season, and this season came with some awesome rewards in the form of the Wraiths completely self destructing in celebration over their drought breaking Ultimus title. At this point, the Yeti appeared to have no rival in their conference.
Season 24. A rival appeared, in the Sailfish. They stormed out and upset the powerhouse Yeti and went undefeated for the longest time. To respond? The Yeti would roll off 9 straight wins to end the season, going 14-2 and securing the best record in the playoffs. Your playoff game against the Sailfish was a bit of a nailbiter, but you stop them on 4th down twice in your own territory in the 4th quarter to win the game. And your reward is to face a laughingstock of a playoff team.
The Sabercats due to weird tiebreaker rules got the number 1 seed out of 4 9-7 teams in the ASFC, when nobody thought they were the best, and some thought they might be the worst. They snuck in and promptly used that home field advantage to completely skewer the team that everyone thought WAS the best ASFC team, which was of course Orange County. The Yeti take this stroke of luck and promptly...go into the half down 17-3 to a team everyone thought would be a pushover. Not even a 9 point turnaround at the start of the 4th would be enough, and you'd lose 17-12 to the goddamn Sabercats, a team which had snuck into the playoffs and the first seed, and hadn't made an Ultimus in almost 10 seasons.
Still, there's always next year. And that next year will probably be the last, as longtime QB Wolfie McDummy was retiring at the end of the year. Season 25. Your offense isn't anything all too spectacular, but your defense is astounding. This time, you win 8 games in a row between weeks 3 and 10 en route to 13-3, the top record in the league, again. After the Butchers upset the 2nd seeded Sailfish, you proceed to completely demolish them 34-7, with their 7 coming with the game long since out of reach. You're back in the Ultimus, for the 3rd time in 4 years. And who should face you, but, of course, the Sabercats.
This time their seeding matched their perceived strength as a team, with them as a 9-7 3rd seed. They arguably shouldn't have made it out of the first round, where against a superior Arizona Squad away, they came back from a 3-21 deficit to win in OT off of a pick 6. Because of COURSE Cue's only playoff game of his career would end off of a pick 6. Against Orange County, again the team considered the best in the ASFC, they definitely shouldn't have won, but after going down 13-0 in the first quarter, the Otters were unable to overcome the deficit they were in. They got a chance when they were handed decent field position after an interception down 16-14, but they promptly turned it right back and were never in it again.
So the Yeti get an easy matchup-the same easy matchup-for the second year in a row. And it starts out as a snoozefest. Through the first quarter, neither team got over midfield. The last play was the closest chance for any team to get overmidfield...where Monty Jack of the Sabercats threw an INT on the 50 yard line, it was promptly returned for -1 yard, and followed up with a 1 yard run and 2 incompletions by the Yeti offense. Then the Sabercats woke up. They methodically drove down the field for a touchdown, then again into the red zone. Back to back sacks stemmed the tide to just a field goal, and the Yeti responded in kind. In the 3rd quarter, they started out by trading touchdowns, and then the wheels fell off of McDummy. Receiving the ball down 17-10 with 5 minutes left in the 3rd, the Yeti went 8 yard run, 6 yard run, incompletion, interception returned for an instant red zone possession. The Sabercats drove down to the 2 but were unable to punch it in. Field goal, down 20-10. After restarting on the 16, the Yeti went Incomplete Pass, 4 yard pass, INT. While this one was "merely" returned to the 25, the Sabercats quickly scored a touchdown off of this, and then after 3 more incomplete passes in a row from McDummy, San Jose took advantage of a third straight possession with a short field and had driven the score from 17-10 to a rout. The game was over, despite a touchdown drive from the Yeti.
The Yeti had wasted 2 straight Ultimus titles in a row, which probably stung hard considering I saw some Ultimus Week prompts talking about how the Season 24 Yeti were an all time team that got unlucky. But...there's always next year...right?
Not this time. At 7-4 with five games left in the season, the Yeti lost 4 straight games including 2 against the Butchers and Sailfish, who were directly competing with them, and were eliminated during week 15. The Yeti are not a team with a particularly bright future. It's not awful by any means, but their cornerbacks are retiring or taking their first hit of regression, they still do not have a defensive tackle above 650 TPE, and their season 25 draft class was literally hit or miss with them getting the great Ruschmann and NSFL, but also missing on their 4th rounder and trading their 2nd round TE for pennies on the dollar despite him earning well. Suffice to say if one or two of the player options or free agents on the Yeti leave, they're in a world of hurt. Still, they can be proud of the Ultimus they have. But they will always curse the fact that they don't have more.
(1233 words)
You should be REALLY happy that the most unlikely Ultimus in history went your way, you know? You managed to beat OCO and complete a miracle comeback. Be proud of that lone Ultimus, it is one of the greatest in the history of the ISFL.
On the other hand, what a waste. That was season 22. It's season 26 now, 4 seasons later, and you lost the chance to make a dynasty.
Season 23. The Yeti end up with the same record as the Wraiths, lose out on tiebreaker for Home Field Advantage. But you get to the NSFC Conference Championship, and seem to have the upper hand throughout the entire first half. You hold the Wraiths to 13 points. But you don't score anything in the entire second half and go dormant. To add insult to injury, with Orange County upset by the Copperheads in the ASFC Conference Championship, a .500 Austin squad awaited the Wraiths as they stomped and destroyed their opposition. Still, there's always next season, and this season came with some awesome rewards in the form of the Wraiths completely self destructing in celebration over their drought breaking Ultimus title. At this point, the Yeti appeared to have no rival in their conference.
Season 24. A rival appeared, in the Sailfish. They stormed out and upset the powerhouse Yeti and went undefeated for the longest time. To respond? The Yeti would roll off 9 straight wins to end the season, going 14-2 and securing the best record in the playoffs. Your playoff game against the Sailfish was a bit of a nailbiter, but you stop them on 4th down twice in your own territory in the 4th quarter to win the game. And your reward is to face a laughingstock of a playoff team.
The Sabercats due to weird tiebreaker rules got the number 1 seed out of 4 9-7 teams in the ASFC, when nobody thought they were the best, and some thought they might be the worst. They snuck in and promptly used that home field advantage to completely skewer the team that everyone thought WAS the best ASFC team, which was of course Orange County. The Yeti take this stroke of luck and promptly...go into the half down 17-3 to a team everyone thought would be a pushover. Not even a 9 point turnaround at the start of the 4th would be enough, and you'd lose 17-12 to the goddamn Sabercats, a team which had snuck into the playoffs and the first seed, and hadn't made an Ultimus in almost 10 seasons.
Still, there's always next year. And that next year will probably be the last, as longtime QB Wolfie McDummy was retiring at the end of the year. Season 25. Your offense isn't anything all too spectacular, but your defense is astounding. This time, you win 8 games in a row between weeks 3 and 10 en route to 13-3, the top record in the league, again. After the Butchers upset the 2nd seeded Sailfish, you proceed to completely demolish them 34-7, with their 7 coming with the game long since out of reach. You're back in the Ultimus, for the 3rd time in 4 years. And who should face you, but, of course, the Sabercats.
This time their seeding matched their perceived strength as a team, with them as a 9-7 3rd seed. They arguably shouldn't have made it out of the first round, where against a superior Arizona Squad away, they came back from a 3-21 deficit to win in OT off of a pick 6. Because of COURSE Cue's only playoff game of his career would end off of a pick 6. Against Orange County, again the team considered the best in the ASFC, they definitely shouldn't have won, but after going down 13-0 in the first quarter, the Otters were unable to overcome the deficit they were in. They got a chance when they were handed decent field position after an interception down 16-14, but they promptly turned it right back and were never in it again.
So the Yeti get an easy matchup-the same easy matchup-for the second year in a row. And it starts out as a snoozefest. Through the first quarter, neither team got over midfield. The last play was the closest chance for any team to get overmidfield...where Monty Jack of the Sabercats threw an INT on the 50 yard line, it was promptly returned for -1 yard, and followed up with a 1 yard run and 2 incompletions by the Yeti offense. Then the Sabercats woke up. They methodically drove down the field for a touchdown, then again into the red zone. Back to back sacks stemmed the tide to just a field goal, and the Yeti responded in kind. In the 3rd quarter, they started out by trading touchdowns, and then the wheels fell off of McDummy. Receiving the ball down 17-10 with 5 minutes left in the 3rd, the Yeti went 8 yard run, 6 yard run, incompletion, interception returned for an instant red zone possession. The Sabercats drove down to the 2 but were unable to punch it in. Field goal, down 20-10. After restarting on the 16, the Yeti went Incomplete Pass, 4 yard pass, INT. While this one was "merely" returned to the 25, the Sabercats quickly scored a touchdown off of this, and then after 3 more incomplete passes in a row from McDummy, San Jose took advantage of a third straight possession with a short field and had driven the score from 17-10 to a rout. The game was over, despite a touchdown drive from the Yeti.
The Yeti had wasted 2 straight Ultimus titles in a row, which probably stung hard considering I saw some Ultimus Week prompts talking about how the Season 24 Yeti were an all time team that got unlucky. But...there's always next year...right?
Not this time. At 7-4 with five games left in the season, the Yeti lost 4 straight games including 2 against the Butchers and Sailfish, who were directly competing with them, and were eliminated during week 15. The Yeti are not a team with a particularly bright future. It's not awful by any means, but their cornerbacks are retiring or taking their first hit of regression, they still do not have a defensive tackle above 650 TPE, and their season 25 draft class was literally hit or miss with them getting the great Ruschmann and NSFL, but also missing on their 4th rounder and trading their 2nd round TE for pennies on the dollar despite him earning well. Suffice to say if one or two of the player options or free agents on the Yeti leave, they're in a world of hurt. Still, they can be proud of the Ultimus they have. But they will always curse the fact that they don't have more.
(1233 words)