Task 1 -
Another season down, and another Tijuana Luchadores Ultimini victory. One must wonder how they continue to do it, because dear god, the consistency this team has year in and year out is something marvelous and needs to be studied by every single person who ever wants to run a team in this league. But enough about overall success, let's talk about Tijuana's success this season.
This season, the Luchadores ended the season with 11 wins and 3 losses, tied with Portland for the best W/L ratio of the season. It's pretty damn impressive considering they were already 8-6 last season, so that means they only got better this season compared to last. What makes this even crazier though is the fact that none of their players leads in any key statistics. TIJ players tend to be a few players under when looking at positional stats, so that heavily implies one thing with the sort of success this team is having: everyone is getting a chance to play and everyone is OWNING. Rare to see a DSFL team that can effectively spread the ball and succeed while doing so, but TIJ always has that special formulary where it genuinely feels like they can do whatever they want and it'll just work. They also had a point differential of +214 on the season, meaning the majority of their wins were just straight up blowouts and not even close. That's terrifying for a developmental team, and even more so terrifying when the second best team in this category, Portland, had a point differential of +155 on the season, a significant gap between the two.
So with these comparisons to Portland, who was the best team in their division, it's no surprise that the Ultimini ended up being Tijuana vs Portland. The two best teams in the DSFL typically do end up playing each other, and these two teams were just so overly dominate throughout the season that it honestly would have been shocking to see it end any other way. I honestly expected the game between these two teams to be extremely close, especially since Portland's defense is one of the best units in all of the DSFL, but man oh man was I and a lot of others completely wrong on this expectation. For the first quarter, everything seemed to be playing out like was expected, ending 7-0 in favor of TIJ with a heavy defensive battle going on. Second quarter comes and go, and we've got a 10-6 game on our hands and again, all seems to be standard affair. But then we get to the end of the third and suddenly the score is 27-6 with the Luchadores never looking back as they beat the absolute hell out of Portland out of nowhere, capping off the quarter with a 36 yard touchdown run by Breezy Jr. The final quarter would come and go and with the dust settled, TIJ would win 37-20, winning by 17 and never once coming close to losing the lead in the second half. Whatever adjustments they came up with were things of magic, because Portland just did NOT have an answer for anything. There's always been rumblings of a curse in Portland when it comes to the Ultimini, and this felt like that on full display.
All in all, the Tijuana Luchadores are a dominate franchise and this season was no different. Any time you see them being the #1 seed entering the playoffs, it almost always feels like hoisting the trophy at the end of the big game is just the natural conclusion to the season. It's crazy to think a team can be this good, but they continue to find ways to do it, with this season just being another example of why Tijuana is the team to beat always. Congrats, TIJ! You earned this one big time.
(642 words)
Another season down, and another Tijuana Luchadores Ultimini victory. One must wonder how they continue to do it, because dear god, the consistency this team has year in and year out is something marvelous and needs to be studied by every single person who ever wants to run a team in this league. But enough about overall success, let's talk about Tijuana's success this season.
This season, the Luchadores ended the season with 11 wins and 3 losses, tied with Portland for the best W/L ratio of the season. It's pretty damn impressive considering they were already 8-6 last season, so that means they only got better this season compared to last. What makes this even crazier though is the fact that none of their players leads in any key statistics. TIJ players tend to be a few players under when looking at positional stats, so that heavily implies one thing with the sort of success this team is having: everyone is getting a chance to play and everyone is OWNING. Rare to see a DSFL team that can effectively spread the ball and succeed while doing so, but TIJ always has that special formulary where it genuinely feels like they can do whatever they want and it'll just work. They also had a point differential of +214 on the season, meaning the majority of their wins were just straight up blowouts and not even close. That's terrifying for a developmental team, and even more so terrifying when the second best team in this category, Portland, had a point differential of +155 on the season, a significant gap between the two.
So with these comparisons to Portland, who was the best team in their division, it's no surprise that the Ultimini ended up being Tijuana vs Portland. The two best teams in the DSFL typically do end up playing each other, and these two teams were just so overly dominate throughout the season that it honestly would have been shocking to see it end any other way. I honestly expected the game between these two teams to be extremely close, especially since Portland's defense is one of the best units in all of the DSFL, but man oh man was I and a lot of others completely wrong on this expectation. For the first quarter, everything seemed to be playing out like was expected, ending 7-0 in favor of TIJ with a heavy defensive battle going on. Second quarter comes and go, and we've got a 10-6 game on our hands and again, all seems to be standard affair. But then we get to the end of the third and suddenly the score is 27-6 with the Luchadores never looking back as they beat the absolute hell out of Portland out of nowhere, capping off the quarter with a 36 yard touchdown run by Breezy Jr. The final quarter would come and go and with the dust settled, TIJ would win 37-20, winning by 17 and never once coming close to losing the lead in the second half. Whatever adjustments they came up with were things of magic, because Portland just did NOT have an answer for anything. There's always been rumblings of a curse in Portland when it comes to the Ultimini, and this felt like that on full display.
All in all, the Tijuana Luchadores are a dominate franchise and this season was no different. Any time you see them being the #1 seed entering the playoffs, it almost always feels like hoisting the trophy at the end of the big game is just the natural conclusion to the season. It's crazy to think a team can be this good, but they continue to find ways to do it, with this season just being another example of why Tijuana is the team to beat always. Congrats, TIJ! You earned this one big time.
(642 words)