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4. Going into the season, my predictions had the Philadelphia Liberty making the playoffs as the 2 seed or even winning the NSFC over the Sarasota Sailfish or the Chicago Butchers. Given that they didn't have any bot players on the team at all, I thought this would be a given. However, through some poor play from Quarterback Ryan Negs, the Liberty finished with a record of 6-10, which was just barely above the Yellowknife Wraiths, who finished at the bottom of the conference with a 5-11 record. Yellowknife was the opposite of Philadelphia in that they had great play from rookie Quarterback Dustin Parmelee, who led the league in passing yards.
Back to Philadelphia though, they had some close wins, such as a 21-20 win over the Baltimore Hawks in Week 4, but then they also had some tough losses such as a 40-10 loss to the San Jose SaberCats in Week 11. No matter what, Philly just fell apart after Week 10. At that point they were 5-5 and were still in the hunt, but then they lost 4 straight before barely beating the Colorado Yeti in Week 14. Weeks 10 through 13, the offense just couldn't get anything going and the defense was picked apart by the opposing teams. It's tough luck, but it comes down to Negs. He melted down against Berlin, throwing 4 interceptions to 1 touchdown and finished with a Quarterback Rating below 50. In that 4 game stretch, Negs through at least 1 interception at a crucial time and the opposing team capitalized on those mistakes. While normally an 84.9 Quarterback Rating on the season isn't terrible, it was the third lowest in the league. And with rookie Quarterbacks finishing with higher ratings, it's a shame that a guy in his prime can't compete with them. The loss of stud receiver Jake Fencik is going to be really felt by the Liberty next season.
One team that nobody saw coming was my Orange County Otters. In Season 32, we had the first overall pick and went called up two of our draft picks in the first round to be true rookies. Everyone knows and loves them - the McTurtle brothers! These two were key pieces on defense for us this season, with defensive end Leonardo getting 12 sacks on the season and defensive tackle Raphael getting some clutch tackles on goal line stands. We had 3 more rookies join the Otters this seaon - Quarterback Tron Carter, Offensive Guard Dallas Fort-Worth, and Cornerback Doc Holliday. Doc was our nickel CB this season, seeing part time play. He finished with 25 tackles, a sack, and 9 defended passes. Not a bad rookie season for playing limited snaps. I believe he'll be full time next season, and we can't wait for his contributions to increase. Tron Carter had a great rookie season for a Quarterback, finishing with over 4400 yards, 29 touchdowns, and 8 interceptions - good for a QBR of 94.5. Fort-Worth finished with 49 pancakes which isn't bad for a rookie Guard.
The big reason that OCO was successful this season was because we decided to pass the ball more now that we had a quarterback who wasn't heavily into regression. Coming off a record setting 456 carry season in Season 32, everyone expected OCO to come out the gates running with Goat Tank Jr, including ourselves. We tried different strategies revolving around running the ball, none of them really succeeding. Thanks to some choice advice, we tried passing the ball some more and found it to be more successful than running the ball down everyone's throats. We didn't believe that the change in strategy would lead us to the Ultimus, but it did. We didn't win it all, but damn did we make Baltimore work for their ring. In the end, the biggest beneficiary of this strategy changed was Goat Tank Jr. Despite seeing 127 fewer carries, he finished with only 25 less yards compared to Season 32, and had 6 more rushing touchdowns. He also saw more work in the pass game, finishing with 50 catches for 465 yards and 4 touchdowns. Goat Tank Jr led the league in rushing yards again, and finishes with the 4th in single season rushing yards this season after breaking 3rd last season.
@qWest - Nakamura's 1,588 yards ain't got nothin' on Goat Tank Jr's first two seasons as a running back (1,645 and 1,620 yards).