(S34) PT 5 - Botchamania

[Big Newff]

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[jdourtled]

When your team only wins two games during the season, it's both easy and hard to find "game losing moments." It's especially hard when every loss on the season has been by two or more scores, so instead of talking about a game that could be perceived as "winnable," I'll just be talking about the worst loss on the season, because nothing screams "dropping the ball," like losing by 29. Let me set the scene, entering week nine, the Norfolk Seawolves are on a terrible run, they've won one game through eight weeks, so basically they're just looking to play spoiler. Tijuana on the other hand have had an up and down season, they started the season with both a three game winning streak and a three game losing streak, and are currently on a two game winning streak, so Norfolk has it's work cut out for it, but Norfolk is coming off back to back ultiminis, so this has potential to be a banger of a game, and how does Norfolk respond? They're offense turned the ball over six times, giving Tijuana ample field position to run up the score as much as the please, with the only bright spots on the team being the star receiving duo of Erwin Kemp and Lucius Salem on offense, Kellen Frost on defense picking up three sacks, and Dorfus Jimbo pinning the opposing offense inside the twenty four times in five punts.

[JaytheGreat]

So one of the biggest botches of my career happened actually happened this season. During one of the games against New York Spears git a little too heated and got called for a personal foul l. The call was for taunting as Spears laid out a WR who dared to cross the middle, the hit was pretty big but it wasn't the hit that got called but the celebration after. Spears just looked down at the WR and just kinda stared at him. The ref had enough and Spears got the flag, the penalty wasn't so bad it was the fact that it was 4th down late in the 4th quarter, giving New York a few 1st down. Of course the Silverbacks would go on to score a TD that game, taking the lead and eventually winning the game. While he didn't get much grief from his teammates, his coaches did lay into him after the game and made Spears swear to keep his cool next time.

[mithrandir]

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[Tayjay]

Well considering the pace I was on for the entire year and then seeing my last 3 games it has to be a mistake on my part to think I was even in the running for the defensive end of the year. I did not hold up on my end to lead this defense and get us to the playoffs. During my peak years we have only made the playoffs one time I believe and I was unable to lead them as the de facto leader of this defense. Do I blame my self, of course I do, but that doesn't mean my management is not to blame at the same time. I find it hard to believe that it is entirely sim luck that I had two tackles and two sacks over my last 3 games. You are telling me that other teams shut me down for three consecutive week to keep us out of the playoffs. Hard to believe. Maybe LT should be looking elsewhere.

[MamaB]

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[Nathan]

I wrote about this in a media post made a couple days ago, but I'll write it again here.

Last week Baltimore had a chance to play spoiler vs Berlin as while they had nothing to play for, the Fire Salamanders could've gotten the NSFC 1 seed with a win and Chicago loss.  Baltimore with six minutes left got

1. Touchdown to put it within five
   
2. The two point conversion to make it a field goal deficit
   
3. The defensive stop to give them time to drive down the field
   

Baltimore even had it at their own 32.  They only needed like 25-35 yards in two minutes which is a completely reasonable and possible thing to do in a football game.  What happens.  Jarropolo Jr. gets sacked, three times.  He got sacked on both first and second down making it 3rd and 30.  He threw a 12 yard pass as well on third down.  On 4th and 18 the offensive line collapses again to get Jarropolo Jr. sacked and a turnover on downs.  This was a giant failure magnified by how Balitmore's o-line was playing reasonably well for their standards before hand (only two sacks allowed on a season where Jarropolo Jr. had been 60 times in 15 games on the season.)

[MobiausGrander]

We all know that people are not perfect and that extends to professional athletes as well. In fact, our mistakes are probably magnified and enlarged for the whole world to see. In my case, I had a couple of plays that have hurt the team; none more nearly impactful and scary as the unnecessary roughness penalty that I drew in the closing moments of our road game against the London Royals. In that game, we were down 3 and managed to score a touchdown with less than 2 minutes and were in good spirits to close this out. However, on the 3rd play of the drive, while my teammate Desoto managed to get a third down sack, I callously hit one of the linemen to invoke that penalty and helped the Royals cross midfield. I was mortified and felt guilty for my mistake; luckily, my teammates were able to help redeem myself as we managed to stall the drive in field goal range and run out the clock, sealing a clutch victory for us.

[Fronk]

Many mistakes were made during the 34th season of the International Simulation Football League. Many mistakes were made by all teams in both the ISFL and the DSFL. The most horrendous mistake that I have seen actually occurred for the Minnesota Grey Ducks. The Minnesota Grey Ducks looks like they are finally getting back to their winning ways. Hopefully their dominating ways. They rank up there with one of the better records in the DSFL. However there were a few times where the team was plagued with taunting penalties and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. These penalties have cost them close games and they were rightfully given. One penalty was given when an opposing player was taken and thrown up onto the crossbar of the goal post in celebration after a game tying touchdown. That penalty was given before the point after touchdown and the Grey Ducks missed the PAT and went on to lose in overtime. Someone really needs to get control over that mascot, Quackers.

[Frostbite]

Carter Knight has made many mistakes throughout this season, however being known as Checkdown Carter makes Knight appear to be a more conservative player, and that is what allows for Sarasota to win games, however, sometimes Carter goes a little bit outside of the comfort zone and that can cause... interesting things to happen. One such example of this was during the week 14 game against the Berlin Fire Salamanders. This is a game where if we win, than we are almost guaranteed to get the 2 seed in the playoffs with a much easier wildcard game than what we currently have to face. Sadly, the sim gods are very cruel, and wanted something else to happen. Carter Knight, who at this point is fairly well known for his weird 250 yard, 75%+ completion percentage, 3 TD games, decided to go haywire. This game, Knight went air raid, throwing for nearly 400 yards. Sadly, he also threw 3 picks. This was a game that resulted in a tie, and in all honesty is a game that Sarasota should have won. If Carter Knight could be a little bit more accurate, the road to the Ultimus could be much much easier.