By now you've probably heard about last week's major news story about how the Philadelphia Liberty managed to pull an upset over the reigning world champs, the Baltimore Hawks. If you haven't, you're probably living under a rock. Either way it was a win that made noise all around the world and in true Philadelphia fans fashion they made a shit ton of noise about it and somewhat deservingly so. It definitely wasn't a result that many had anticipated happening, sure some might have thought at some point the Hawks would lose a game, but not many would have pegged the Liberty as the team to hand them their first. Let's break down exactly how the Liberty were able to pull one over on the Hawks.
Ball Security
Almost all of the factors I'm going to discuss played a huge importance on the outcome of the game and the reason it was the way it was and without any of these the Liberty probably wouldn't have won, but nevertheless I think this is one of the more important ones. In this game in order for Philadelphia to win, they needed to make sure that they weren't giving away possessions. Adriana Falconi, starting her first season in the NSFL, came into the day with 7 touchdown passes to 8 interceptions so some were definitely concerned that facing a defensive secondary of Avon Blocksdale, Gregory Fletcher, Trey Willie, and two highly touted rookies, was going to give her and the young Liberty receiving corps fits. Despite the stiff competition though, Falconi was able to complete 65.7% of her passes spreading the ball around to Carter Bush, Jordan von Matt, Conall O'Sullivan, and finding Marquise Brown as in dump offs when she got into trouble. Felix Hasselhoff would also pull in a couple passes along the way and it was her ability to rely on her receivers whenever she released a pass that was able to stay calm in the pocket.
Create Turnovers
As much of a factor as preventing or limiting the amount of times their offense turned over the ball was key in their success, the other thing I'd put up there as equally or maybe a little more important would be for their defense to create turnovers and take away possessions from the potent Hawks offense. Now despite being probably the youngest defense in the NSFL, the Philadelphia Liberty are actually the best defense at creating turnovers at just over 2 turnovers a game. With the home crowd behind them on this given day, the ball hawking secondary ended up picking off Ryan Applehort twice, once by rookie Ryan Cobalt and the other by second year player Lucari Felix. It wasn't only picks though that would be ways of getting the ball back for Philadelphia though as two-way player Carter Bush would punch the ball loose from Owen Taylor's hands and rookie linebacker AJ Robertson was right there to pounce on the ball!
Score Points
So while the first two points were important in order to secure a victory, this one is obviously important as you need to score points in order to win. The main thing though is that the Liberty knew that they couldn't rely on field goals if they wanted to beat the Hawks, they needed to actually reach the end zone. This would be somewhat a tall task as the Liberty as a team were barely scoring over 20 points per game and the Hawks came in as the best defense in terms of points against allowing only exactly 20 points a game. The offense for the Liberty, while not overly exciting as they only had a few passing plays around 30 yards, but it was a machine that was constantly churning slowing making its way to its destination and it would not be stopped. Despite averaging only 10.2 yards per reception and their lead ball carrier averaging less than 4 yards per carry, they were able to find pay dirt 3 times, twice by Brown and once through the air to von Matt. The rookie kicker, Kulture Fulture, also chipped in adding 3 field goals for another 9 points.
Grinding Out the Clock
Once you're winning the turnover battle and you've successfully reached the end zone a few times, you then want to start to grind out the clock in the later stages of the game in order to limit possessions of the other team and make them more predictable. Of course this is easier said than done as in order to do this you need to have your offense actually get first downs and not be stopped for multiple three and outs. This is where the machine I mentioned prior comes back into play. Despite a dink and dunk style passing game and a lead carrier who was averaging a bit less than ideal yardage, 10 yards a reception is more than enough for a first down every time no matter how you slice it. With Brown averaging 3.8 yards that takes even less pressure off Falconi to need to make 10+ yard throws as well. Then we add in the supporting cast. As Brown started to get tired and things also breaking down, Conall O'Sullivan, Achilles Hondo, and even Falconi, each stepped in running the ball and as a complete unit rushed for 189 yards at a clip of 4.5 yards per carry, which makes the run game look a bit better than at first glance.
Bend Don't Break
Finally you need to make stops as a defense and doing such a thing against the Hawks is way easier said than done. If you get to this point in the game and you've done everything I listed before this step and you somehow find your team up with the Hawks needing multiple touchdowns in order to win then the only thing left to do is stop them from scoring said touchdowns. This becomes a little easier at this step though as most likely Owen Taylor has stopped getting the ball too much and you've effectively eliminated one of their biggest weapons. Of course Taylor can do some damage catching the ball, but if you've got a speedy swarming defense it becomes no problem. Now, Trey Willie, well good luck stopping him. Sometimes though as this section indicates you don't need to cause a punt or a turnover to be successful, instead you can kill them with a death by a thousand cuts approach and limit big plays, cause them to throw it short and keep them in bounds to let the clock to continue to run and if you can do all of that while also eventually causing a punt, all the better.
In the end beating the Baltimore Hawks is a lot harder than it appears, even when it looks hard from the get go and to actually slay the beast you need an entire list of things to go right. On this given day we were able to get all of those things to align perfectly and we came out victorious, but it was hard fought and well earned. I think the outcome will propel for teams forward and do positive things for each. Well fought Hawks, you're one tough team!
Ball Security
Almost all of the factors I'm going to discuss played a huge importance on the outcome of the game and the reason it was the way it was and without any of these the Liberty probably wouldn't have won, but nevertheless I think this is one of the more important ones. In this game in order for Philadelphia to win, they needed to make sure that they weren't giving away possessions. Adriana Falconi, starting her first season in the NSFL, came into the day with 7 touchdown passes to 8 interceptions so some were definitely concerned that facing a defensive secondary of Avon Blocksdale, Gregory Fletcher, Trey Willie, and two highly touted rookies, was going to give her and the young Liberty receiving corps fits. Despite the stiff competition though, Falconi was able to complete 65.7% of her passes spreading the ball around to Carter Bush, Jordan von Matt, Conall O'Sullivan, and finding Marquise Brown as in dump offs when she got into trouble. Felix Hasselhoff would also pull in a couple passes along the way and it was her ability to rely on her receivers whenever she released a pass that was able to stay calm in the pocket.
Create Turnovers
As much of a factor as preventing or limiting the amount of times their offense turned over the ball was key in their success, the other thing I'd put up there as equally or maybe a little more important would be for their defense to create turnovers and take away possessions from the potent Hawks offense. Now despite being probably the youngest defense in the NSFL, the Philadelphia Liberty are actually the best defense at creating turnovers at just over 2 turnovers a game. With the home crowd behind them on this given day, the ball hawking secondary ended up picking off Ryan Applehort twice, once by rookie Ryan Cobalt and the other by second year player Lucari Felix. It wasn't only picks though that would be ways of getting the ball back for Philadelphia though as two-way player Carter Bush would punch the ball loose from Owen Taylor's hands and rookie linebacker AJ Robertson was right there to pounce on the ball!
Score Points
So while the first two points were important in order to secure a victory, this one is obviously important as you need to score points in order to win. The main thing though is that the Liberty knew that they couldn't rely on field goals if they wanted to beat the Hawks, they needed to actually reach the end zone. This would be somewhat a tall task as the Liberty as a team were barely scoring over 20 points per game and the Hawks came in as the best defense in terms of points against allowing only exactly 20 points a game. The offense for the Liberty, while not overly exciting as they only had a few passing plays around 30 yards, but it was a machine that was constantly churning slowing making its way to its destination and it would not be stopped. Despite averaging only 10.2 yards per reception and their lead ball carrier averaging less than 4 yards per carry, they were able to find pay dirt 3 times, twice by Brown and once through the air to von Matt. The rookie kicker, Kulture Fulture, also chipped in adding 3 field goals for another 9 points.
Grinding Out the Clock
Once you're winning the turnover battle and you've successfully reached the end zone a few times, you then want to start to grind out the clock in the later stages of the game in order to limit possessions of the other team and make them more predictable. Of course this is easier said than done as in order to do this you need to have your offense actually get first downs and not be stopped for multiple three and outs. This is where the machine I mentioned prior comes back into play. Despite a dink and dunk style passing game and a lead carrier who was averaging a bit less than ideal yardage, 10 yards a reception is more than enough for a first down every time no matter how you slice it. With Brown averaging 3.8 yards that takes even less pressure off Falconi to need to make 10+ yard throws as well. Then we add in the supporting cast. As Brown started to get tired and things also breaking down, Conall O'Sullivan, Achilles Hondo, and even Falconi, each stepped in running the ball and as a complete unit rushed for 189 yards at a clip of 4.5 yards per carry, which makes the run game look a bit better than at first glance.
Bend Don't Break
Finally you need to make stops as a defense and doing such a thing against the Hawks is way easier said than done. If you get to this point in the game and you've done everything I listed before this step and you somehow find your team up with the Hawks needing multiple touchdowns in order to win then the only thing left to do is stop them from scoring said touchdowns. This becomes a little easier at this step though as most likely Owen Taylor has stopped getting the ball too much and you've effectively eliminated one of their biggest weapons. Of course Taylor can do some damage catching the ball, but if you've got a speedy swarming defense it becomes no problem. Now, Trey Willie, well good luck stopping him. Sometimes though as this section indicates you don't need to cause a punt or a turnover to be successful, instead you can kill them with a death by a thousand cuts approach and limit big plays, cause them to throw it short and keep them in bounds to let the clock to continue to run and if you can do all of that while also eventually causing a punt, all the better.
In the end beating the Baltimore Hawks is a lot harder than it appears, even when it looks hard from the get go and to actually slay the beast you need an entire list of things to go right. On this given day we were able to get all of those things to align perfectly and we came out victorious, but it was hard fought and well earned. I think the outcome will propel for teams forward and do positive things for each. Well fought Hawks, you're one tough team!
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