The first three weeks of the EFL season were rough for the Honolulu Hahalua, struggling with a retooled offense to a tune of 1-2. With old faces in new places all over the field, it was tough getting to know who should be where and it showed. After a solid few more practices, the O found its groove and has looked very strong since then. Not quite unstoppable, but lethal by land and by air. And its wonderful; to see as a new runningback. Stetson David has been a large recipient in these improvements and is enjoying a stellar sophomore ISFL campaign. Its also his first as a RB, and he and the Hahalua hope for continued success. Going forward, the hope that the rock solid defense continues to be the best in the ISFL and the wins continue to roll. The GM duo look like geniuses as well for sticking to a plan and seeing it thru
One of the biggest things my team, the Chicago Butchers, and really every single team across the league, is to punt and kick field goals less. There are countless instances every single week where a team is trailing by more than a touchdown early in the 4th quarter and has a 4th and short opportunity on their side of the field or are near the end zone and every single time it results in a punt or a field goal. I know I'm a staunch advocate of Banning Kickers, however, this is simple math. When you're down more than one score at any point in the 4th quarter, your odds of winning are well below 50%, probably below 25%, so when you give up on 4th and short during this period, you're burning valuable win percentage points. Obviously, this is out of the hands of the GMs as the sim coaches' "logic" is atrocious, but it would result in more wins if we were able to change it.
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The Fire Salamanders have been inconsistent offensively as has been the case throughout the last few seasons. One of the positives is we've been in every game so far, with the exception being the game against the Crash. I think getting a win against the Silverbacks or Baltimore would definitely show us a real threat to make another run this postseason but I think either our rushing is going to need to take it's first step or we're going to have to go from being a solid passing team to an elite one. On defense, we shut down opposing offenses but we have an exploitable weakness in our rushing defense that Sack Sparrow will hopefully start to address as I get his agility up some. I think this team is a dark horse contender with a bit of bad luck, but we're going to have to fight for our life to even make the playoffs, but beating the Wraiths was a good start so hopefully we keep that up!
After 7 games, we're 3-4, not too bad, playing for almost .500 with the fact that everyone put us to finish second to last in our conference. With that said, we have a bunch of very important games incoming. Out biggest downfall this far, is the fact that we are a 4th quarter team, we always do better than our opposition on 4th quarter, but we always get stomp on in the first half. We really need to play the whole game like we play the last quarter, and we could surprise some team, and hell maybe even have a place in wildcard. Inconsistency, always have been a big problem in OCO, but specially this season, we rarely have everything working out good. One game our offense cant get a first down, and our defense is a solid brick wall, and the next game its the opposite, swiss cheese defense, and an all-star offense. In conclusion, if we can find a way toward good consistency, we could find our way toward a playoff spot.
There are honestly a lot of things that the Otters might need to look into to turn things around. The first seven weeks of the season weren't too bad. Going 3-4, which wasn't completely unexpected. But the most recent three weeks have been pretty atrocious in terms of the point difference. Losing each game by at least two touchdowns.
Unfortunately it's hard to pin down exactly where the problem lies. But one thing for certain is that the defense needs to step things up. We have one of the best secondaries in the league, plus the best linebacker. But we still seem to be struggling on all areas of defense. We're misreading routes, getting stuck on the line, and keep taking unnecessary penalties. So what we might just need is leadership and mentorship from the coaching staff to keep us in line. To make sure we stay disciplined and focused on the game. We need a reset of some sort to get back in the grove, and start respecting our opponents more.
Sitting at 5-5 with 6 games to play, Berlin are still in contention for a spot in the playoffs. In the NSFC, it appears that Cape Town and Baltimore have separated themselves from the pack and look likely to solidify themselves as the 1st and 2nd seed in the Conference. Also sitting at 5-5 are Yellowknife and Sarasota, two teams which Berlin have been able to beat thus far. At this stage it looks like a battle between Berlin, Yellowknife and Sarasota for the 3rd and final playoff spot in the NSFC. Aside from the loss to Cape Town in Week 9, the vast majority of Berlin's games have been tightly contested. With a bit more luck, Berlin could've been sitting above .500 with the defense being a large part of keeping the Fire Salamanders competitive. It would be fair to say that Berlin's offense hasn't yet hit its stride. There's been flashes of promise but thus far it's been a bit inconsistent showing on the offensive side of the ball. The offense will need to improve but given time hopefully things will get rolling as we enter the backend of the regular season.