PBE CW
The playoffs have finally arrived. Choose one playoff team that is not your own from either league and recount how they got here in 400 words or more. What challenges and hurdles did they face in the regular season? Did they cruise into home field advantage, have to fight off contenders for the wild card, or sneak in on obtuse indexing rules? Are they led by MVP players on offense, or is a stifling defense the engine to their success? Don’t be afraid to go deep.
The Wraiths are probably the most interesting playoff team of the season and for a long time before and after. I mean realistically the viability of a league where a 6-10 team is coasting into the playoffs is a whole article in its own right. In the case of the Wraiths, they went on an amazing 6 game losing streak after starting the season 5-4 including wins against playoff teams (Chicago, Arizona, and New Orleans) plus a very close loss against mighty Sarasota. During this losing streak they only once scored above 20 points despite having an overall average above 20, which was probably the most significant factor - not that the defense was particularly effective either, but at least more so. Stopping the skid with a win over paltry Baltimore seemed to right the ship a bit as well, considering they then managed to take the dominant Yeti to overtime in the playoffs and proving that they did actually belong there despite the terrible regular season showing. I'm not seeing any trades or other big changes that should've caused the skid or the eventual turnaround, but clearly they built up some bad karma somewhere. So they definitely and obviously snuck into the playoffs based on results, but how did the team look on paper? Well, they looked better than 6-10 to be honest. With 3 players over 1000 TPE, they weren't leading the charge by any means, but they had more at that level than fellow playoff contenders like Chicago, San Jose, and Orange County that managed much better regular season records. They also seemed to have a strong amount of depth, with 14 players aka over 66% of actual starters above 600 TPE. Some of the problems seemed to come from relying on a rookie QB and a young and not quite prepared receiving group that should improve with time. Still, they should have been able to rely on their running game with the experienced and skilled Hanyadi leading the way as well as their four-man core on defense made up of Alexander, Quaid, Leonard, and Virtanen to pick up some more wins during the season, and particularly during the close games they ended up losing. The team would be less interesting to talk about if a couple of those close losses had gone the other way, and they certainly have the talent to have deserved to make the playoffs and to have competed like they did once they made it. I for one am interested to see where the team goes moving forward and if the luck aspects turn around for them.
The playoffs have finally arrived. Choose one playoff team that is not your own from either league and recount how they got here in 400 words or more. What challenges and hurdles did they face in the regular season? Did they cruise into home field advantage, have to fight off contenders for the wild card, or sneak in on obtuse indexing rules? Are they led by MVP players on offense, or is a stifling defense the engine to their success? Don’t be afraid to go deep.
The Wraiths are probably the most interesting playoff team of the season and for a long time before and after. I mean realistically the viability of a league where a 6-10 team is coasting into the playoffs is a whole article in its own right. In the case of the Wraiths, they went on an amazing 6 game losing streak after starting the season 5-4 including wins against playoff teams (Chicago, Arizona, and New Orleans) plus a very close loss against mighty Sarasota. During this losing streak they only once scored above 20 points despite having an overall average above 20, which was probably the most significant factor - not that the defense was particularly effective either, but at least more so. Stopping the skid with a win over paltry Baltimore seemed to right the ship a bit as well, considering they then managed to take the dominant Yeti to overtime in the playoffs and proving that they did actually belong there despite the terrible regular season showing. I'm not seeing any trades or other big changes that should've caused the skid or the eventual turnaround, but clearly they built up some bad karma somewhere. So they definitely and obviously snuck into the playoffs based on results, but how did the team look on paper? Well, they looked better than 6-10 to be honest. With 3 players over 1000 TPE, they weren't leading the charge by any means, but they had more at that level than fellow playoff contenders like Chicago, San Jose, and Orange County that managed much better regular season records. They also seemed to have a strong amount of depth, with 14 players aka over 66% of actual starters above 600 TPE. Some of the problems seemed to come from relying on a rookie QB and a young and not quite prepared receiving group that should improve with time. Still, they should have been able to rely on their running game with the experienced and skilled Hanyadi leading the way as well as their four-man core on defense made up of Alexander, Quaid, Leonard, and Virtanen to pick up some more wins during the season, and particularly during the close games they ended up losing. The team would be less interesting to talk about if a couple of those close losses had gone the other way, and they certainly have the talent to have deserved to make the playoffs and to have competed like they did once they made it. I for one am interested to see where the team goes moving forward and if the luck aspects turn around for them.
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