1. Robbed
Despite being a member of the Wraiths I can’t help but feel for the Baltimore Hawks here, as they once again had a clear line to the playoffs ripped away by the vagaries of the sim, a loaded slate of games towards the end of the season, and a fateful loss at home to my own Yellowknife Wraiths. While I’m loathe to say that Baltimore was “Robbed” (We beat them fair and square on their own field to take it from them and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise), I do think the Hawks make the best case of anyone in the NSFL for the title. They had an extremely efficient offense in S7, with QB Avon Blocksdale, RB Owen Taylor, and WR Alexandre LeClair forming an offensive trinity that was good for second in the NSFC in total yards and points for. The undoing of Baltimore was once again on the defensive side of the ball, as that unit gave up the third most yards in the league and let other teams stay in it and pounce on the Hawks if their offense ever stuttered. The run was a particular problem for the Hawks, as they gave up the most rushing yards of anyone not named the Yeti. This was on particular display in two pivotal games vs Yellowknife that were blowouts in large part on the back of strong running games by YKW’s QB and RB.
2. Unsung Hero
This man is the reason that the Otters even had HFA in the playoffs to start with, and he’s also the man that won them yet another Ultimus title against the Liberty. No, I’m not talking about Mike Boss, Bradley Westfield, Angus Winchester or any of the Otters’ other superstars. I’m talking about their less than 300 TPE kicker, Bradley Madlad. Now, I’m a RB by trade so it’s usually not in my wheelhouse to give a bunch of love to a special teams guy, especially one that doesn’t look the part by TPE necessarily. But if you take one look at the Otter’s playoff games this season and you see just how clutch he’s been. Madlad was perfect on all extra points and FGs during the Otter’s third Ultimus run, and his huge 55 yarder in the championship ended up being the difference between the Liberty having to chuck one up to Josh Garden to overcome a six point lead and just being able to kick the easy field goal and go to overtime. Whether you view Bradley as an indirect arbiter of the infamous Garden Curse or not, he’s clearly been one of the unsung heroes of this playoffs and the whole damn season for OCO.
3. That Magic Moment
In the DSFL playoff's 1st round the Kansas City Coyotes found themselves up against PDXBaller and his perennial juggernauts from out west, the Portland Pythons. The game had been tight so far and the Coyotes had a touchdown lead. The situation was still precarious, however, as the Portland offense seemed to come to life and it had been a few series since Kansas City made any headway on offense. You could feel, even with our goofy little sim that this was going to be the drive that either made or broke the Coyotes. Give Portland the ball back and there was an imminent threat of having to potentially watch a year’s worth of work slip away to the high powered Portland offense. So of the Coyotes went, making their way down the field, getting deep into Portland territory. And then, the sack. Mark Strike gets leveled for a 9 yard loss and its 3rd and 19 on the 40, out of field goal range and in desperate need of points. Strike gets into the huddle, calls for a deep post for Miller and tells him “Go get it man!” The play works to perfection, Miller explodes out of the slot and the Portland defense is nowhere to be seen. Strike lofts a beautiful Ball to Miller who runs under the pass and gets a huge block from fellow WR Hunter Mason on a 40 yard TD that would end up the difference in a game that was tight wire-to-wire.
4. Going to Disneyland
I’m not going to lie, writing this hurts me and I wish I didn’t have to put the words to paper. But Willy Nyquist was the Ultimini MVP. Nyquist blazed for a hundred and fifty yards on just fifteen carries, but that general efficiency isn’t even the reason Nyquist is on a trip to Disney right now. It’s the 80 yard deathblow he hit Kansas City with when he took a HB Dive on 1st and 10 from the SA 20 and went untouched into the endzone. He had some help along the way of course, which is why he’s brought all his offensive linemen and tight end Alex Chimpunk with him on this adventure, but Nyquist won that game for San Antonio and there’s no doubt to that. In a year and playoffs that was dominated by explosive running plays Nyquist made the most explosive on of them all. Given his achievement it is no surprise that the trip has mostly revolved around very fast roller coasters for Nyquist. When asked by a reporter about his preferences he said the following: “Oh I like em fast, if they aren’t fast enough I drift right off to sleep and have to get Alvin [Chimpunk] to wake me up once we’re done”.
Despite being a member of the Wraiths I can’t help but feel for the Baltimore Hawks here, as they once again had a clear line to the playoffs ripped away by the vagaries of the sim, a loaded slate of games towards the end of the season, and a fateful loss at home to my own Yellowknife Wraiths. While I’m loathe to say that Baltimore was “Robbed” (We beat them fair and square on their own field to take it from them and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise), I do think the Hawks make the best case of anyone in the NSFL for the title. They had an extremely efficient offense in S7, with QB Avon Blocksdale, RB Owen Taylor, and WR Alexandre LeClair forming an offensive trinity that was good for second in the NSFC in total yards and points for. The undoing of Baltimore was once again on the defensive side of the ball, as that unit gave up the third most yards in the league and let other teams stay in it and pounce on the Hawks if their offense ever stuttered. The run was a particular problem for the Hawks, as they gave up the most rushing yards of anyone not named the Yeti. This was on particular display in two pivotal games vs Yellowknife that were blowouts in large part on the back of strong running games by YKW’s QB and RB.
2. Unsung Hero
This man is the reason that the Otters even had HFA in the playoffs to start with, and he’s also the man that won them yet another Ultimus title against the Liberty. No, I’m not talking about Mike Boss, Bradley Westfield, Angus Winchester or any of the Otters’ other superstars. I’m talking about their less than 300 TPE kicker, Bradley Madlad. Now, I’m a RB by trade so it’s usually not in my wheelhouse to give a bunch of love to a special teams guy, especially one that doesn’t look the part by TPE necessarily. But if you take one look at the Otter’s playoff games this season and you see just how clutch he’s been. Madlad was perfect on all extra points and FGs during the Otter’s third Ultimus run, and his huge 55 yarder in the championship ended up being the difference between the Liberty having to chuck one up to Josh Garden to overcome a six point lead and just being able to kick the easy field goal and go to overtime. Whether you view Bradley as an indirect arbiter of the infamous Garden Curse or not, he’s clearly been one of the unsung heroes of this playoffs and the whole damn season for OCO.
3. That Magic Moment
In the DSFL playoff's 1st round the Kansas City Coyotes found themselves up against PDXBaller and his perennial juggernauts from out west, the Portland Pythons. The game had been tight so far and the Coyotes had a touchdown lead. The situation was still precarious, however, as the Portland offense seemed to come to life and it had been a few series since Kansas City made any headway on offense. You could feel, even with our goofy little sim that this was going to be the drive that either made or broke the Coyotes. Give Portland the ball back and there was an imminent threat of having to potentially watch a year’s worth of work slip away to the high powered Portland offense. So of the Coyotes went, making their way down the field, getting deep into Portland territory. And then, the sack. Mark Strike gets leveled for a 9 yard loss and its 3rd and 19 on the 40, out of field goal range and in desperate need of points. Strike gets into the huddle, calls for a deep post for Miller and tells him “Go get it man!” The play works to perfection, Miller explodes out of the slot and the Portland defense is nowhere to be seen. Strike lofts a beautiful Ball to Miller who runs under the pass and gets a huge block from fellow WR Hunter Mason on a 40 yard TD that would end up the difference in a game that was tight wire-to-wire.
4. Going to Disneyland
I’m not going to lie, writing this hurts me and I wish I didn’t have to put the words to paper. But Willy Nyquist was the Ultimini MVP. Nyquist blazed for a hundred and fifty yards on just fifteen carries, but that general efficiency isn’t even the reason Nyquist is on a trip to Disney right now. It’s the 80 yard deathblow he hit Kansas City with when he took a HB Dive on 1st and 10 from the SA 20 and went untouched into the endzone. He had some help along the way of course, which is why he’s brought all his offensive linemen and tight end Alex Chimpunk with him on this adventure, but Nyquist won that game for San Antonio and there’s no doubt to that. In a year and playoffs that was dominated by explosive running plays Nyquist made the most explosive on of them all. Given his achievement it is no surprise that the trip has mostly revolved around very fast roller coasters for Nyquist. When asked by a reporter about his preferences he said the following: “Oh I like em fast, if they aren’t fast enough I drift right off to sleep and have to get Alvin [Chimpunk] to wake me up once we’re done”.
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