Colorado Yeti

DELIRIVM · (This post was last modified: 07-09-2017, 02:33 AM by DELIRIVM.)

[div align=\\\"center\\\"]Colorado Yeti
A Season with the Haters
(1,317 Words / Ready to Grade)

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Sometimes not being the sexy pick can work in your favor. People won’t be ready for you when you unleash the full fury of the gods upon them. From the moment the draft ended the Colorado Yeti weren’t considered anything more than a mediocre threat to get to the Ultimus Cup. A team built around good personalities and friendly members made us blend into the background and become an afterthought. Every hype thread mentioned the Otters, Wraiths or Outlaws. Every other team had “better players” and were a shoe-in for destroying their conference. But the group in Colorado took this disrespect in stride and turned it into fuel.

Drafting for the Yeti was an important task. While some franchises went after the highest TPE players and the most vocal. The Yeti scoured for the draft class for members who would fit into a locker room culture. The way to build a championship caliber squad is actually building a team. What good would it be to have some of the best players in the league if they were selfish cunts who only wanted to their own numbers go up. We all know at the end of the day it’s if you hoist the championship trophy. Building a team for that purpose was what Colorado set out to do in the S1 draft. Picking team-first players was what was stressed by the Colorado GMs. Many of which would be considered reaches in their respective rounds. Starting with their first round pick, Philippe Carter, the Yeti were immediately questioned. But the Colorado GMs stuck to their guns. Continuing to draft character over immediate TPE results.

As the season progressed these players began growing together and playing some of the most clutch football in the league. The Yeti began a “surprising” 6-1, much to the chagrin of players and pundits around the NSFL. Showing that they could play clutch football as they overcome some of the self-proclaimed “elite” teams in the Yellowknife Wraiths and Otters - including a 30-16 slaughtering of the water weasels. Week eight brought challenges as the Yeti had some sputtering occur. Hitting a wall after running out to a dominating 6-1 record, the team from the Rocky Mountains struggled to put points up on the board despite their defense playing very well down the stretch. Bounces just weren’t going the offenses direction but despite losing 5 of their last 7 games the Yeti were in each and every game they played during this span. Despite a very “tale of two halves” kind of season. One thing remained consistent with the Colorado Yeti. Everyone shared the load and everyone pitched in to do their part. The Yeti backfield never would lead the league in rushing yards or yards per attempt due to running with a three headed monster instead of a feature-back or tandem. Boss Tweed, Luke Tiernan and Kieran O’Connell got their touches each game and often times came up with big time plays that helped the Yeti become a clutch rushing team. But I will speak about the position groups at later time in another article and address what a big part each player on the team had to the success of the Yeti and getting them to the point where they will be playing for the Ultimus Cup!

Week 14 rolled around and this was the biggest game of the season for not only the Yeti but for the Yellowknife Wraiths. The Wraiths had come storming back in the second half of the season to sit on a 8-5 record and first place in the NSFC - passing the stumbling Yeti. The Wraiths players and media were on a high and the buzz around the league was that the Yeti were going to get steamrolled in this final game of the season, clinching the division for the Wraiths and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The big numbers put up by the Wraiths Receivers Josh Garden and Alex LeClair, the fairly good season by quarterback Chris Orosz and the MVP leading candidate rusher Bubba Nuck all seemed to be the chess pieces the pundits would attack with when talking about how the Wraiths “outclassed” the Yeti. Not only were the offensive weapons often quoted but the Yellowknife defense had much sexier numbers as a whole than the Yeti. Pretty much everyone outside of the Colorado locker room expected the Wraiths to roll over the Yeti. As the game played out in front of the world, Prime Time, the Yeti showed they weren’t a stat sexy team but they were just that - a team. As the Wraiths struggled over and over again to get anything going the Yeti would counter with a big defensive play here, a clutch run there. Mental toughness was obviously a big part of the Colorado team and was the difference between a win and a loss. Leaving Colorado with their tails tucked between their legs and reeling. The Yellowknife Wraiths needed to prepare for the Yeti again the next week in the first ever NSFC playoff game.

Playoff week came on like a hurricane. Despite having handled the Wraiths three out of four times during the regular season. Once again the media and the haters piled on. “The Yeti stand no chance. Last week was a fluke!”, they all would reiterate. How a division winner was so heavily discounted is beyond me. But it must be the lack of sexy numbers. Nobody on the Yeti lead the league in any stat. Their offensive line was not as “good” as the Wraiths. The Yeti linebackers are “overrated”. The defensive backs are “vulnerable”. We heard these things consistently from the media and the players alike. We were expected to get dunked on. Despite our fantastic track record of slowing down these so-called elite offensive stars that the Wraiths were sporting. We had a bullseye up on the board in the Yeti locker room. And right at the center of that bullseyes was Chris Orosz. With him went the Wraiths chances of winning the game. We knew we’d have to get to him early and start him panicking. Frustrating Orosz and winning the time of possession game would, and has always, been a winning strategy for the Colorado Yeti against Yellowknife. On the second drive of the game for the Wraiths we did just what we had planned. Linebacker Jonathon Saint planted Orosz squarely into the ground on a 1st and 10 play and two plays later Defensive Tackle Vinny Cox followed up with a punishing sack that started Orosz panicking for the remainder of the game. The Yeti defense held the Wraiths to a total of 208 yards for the game and effectively shut down MVP candidate Bubba Nuck; while the Colorado offense dominated time of possession by a 13 minute margin. The Yeti didn’t win big and they didn’t show off a dominating aerial game. But we showed the world that we know how to control the clock and frustrate the opposing offense. Winning a close game by the score of 13-6.

Now we stand on the precipice of a matchup with another dominant team in the NSFL in the Arizona Outlaws. And yet again the Yeti are given no chance. We have shown our resiliency through every aspect of the season. Overcoming late struggles to take the conference title, overcoming our lack of “talent” to take the first ever NSFC playoff victory. But we are yet again considered an underdog against the high flying Outlaws. The Yeti players are once again being called inferior. Our lack of stats a concerning aspect for the media. But those of us in the Colorado locker room know that we have what it takes to win the championship. We have a team.

So with one final note to all the haters. The pundits. The stats freaks. Jog the fuck on. We’re not done Yeti.

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