Task 5
I will be describing a significant moment in ISFL history. We are talking about the ASFC playoff race in season twenty six. With two weeks to go in the season, the Austin Copperheads and the Orange County Otters led the way in the ASFC with 9-5 records. The New Orleans Second Line and the New York Silverbacks both sat a game back at 8-6. Finally, the San Jose Sabercats and the Arizona Outlaws were tied for 5th with a 7-7 record. With two games to go in the season, six of the seven teams in the conference (Honolulu sat at 2-12) were within two games with the possibility of making the playoffs. Austin lost to Arizona and San Jose in the final two weeks, helping those two teams close the gap. Orange County also lost their final two games to division rivals, getting blown out by New Orleans in week 15 and losing to New York in week 16. New York lost their week 15 out of conference game against Chicago. Arizona won a pair of conference games to close out the season, beating New Orleans Austin. The result was total chaos. Five teams finished the season at 9-7 in the ASFC, and it could have been six if San Jose had not suffered a stunning overtime loss to the woeful Hahalua in week 15.
The week 16 game between New York and Orange County ended up having huge ramifications. The winner of that game would take the 1 seed. This game had so much drama. OCO led four different times, but New York kept coming back to tie the game at 7, 14, 17, and 24. Orange County scored the go ahead touchdown with under three minutes to play in regulation. New York got the ball back and their quarterback, Sam Howitzer was excellent on their final drive. He has a 20 yard pass to Harkey Fank and a 43 yard bomb to Sean Snyder to put the Silverbacks in striking range. With 5 seconds to play, Howitzer delivered to Jackson Kingston for the game tying touchdown to force overtime. After an incomplete pass and two rushes for five yards for Otters QB Sulemain Ramza, OCO punted back to NY. New York had not led all game, but put together an efficient eight play drive capped by a Buster Bawlls rushing touchdown. Bawlls was an incredibly unlikely hero. He had only four carries on the entire season, but two came in overtime of the final game. One was a 2 yard on a 3rd and 2 to keep the drive going, and the second was a four yard touchdown run to win the game, and was his longest run of the season.
There was a lot of confusion at the conclusion of the week 16 stream. Everyone seemed to think that a five way conference tie would be broken with conference record, which would result in New York, New Orleans, and Austin making the playoffs, as shown here https://index.sim-football.com/ISFLS26/Index.html. However, the real sim method for breaking these ties puts head to head record first. So, the head to head record was determined for all games played between these five teams. New York had an impressive 6-2 record in those games, NOLA was at 5-3, Austin at 4-4, OCO at 3-5, and Arizona at 2-6. However, there was another twist. After determining New York would be the number one seed, their games were removed from consideration and head to head was enacted again, this time with NOLA at 4-2, OCO and Austin at 3-3, and Arizona at 2-4. NOLA had the two seed. This process was repeated yet again, and OCO emerged victorious with a 3-1 record vs Arizona and Austin, compared to 2-2 for Austin and 1-3 for Zona. So, OCO, despite having a 3-5 record in the initial tie break, ended up with the three seed since they got swept by NOLA and NYS while having a 3-1 record vs Austin and Zona. Here is the announcement that had to be made to clear up confusion: https://forums.sim-football.com/showthre...#pid408096
There was one more bizarre piece of the puzzle, though. Even though NY had the number 1 seed, when NOLA beat OCO in the first round of the playoffs, the Second Line ended up hosting the ASFC championship. The assumption made was that NOLA had better point differential in their split matchups, but I do not recall if anyone ever found out why NOLA had home field advantage despite being the lower seed. NOLA capitalized on that home field advantage to win the conference championship, and went on to get blown out by the Yellowknife Wraiths in the Ultimus.
I will be describing a significant moment in ISFL history. We are talking about the ASFC playoff race in season twenty six. With two weeks to go in the season, the Austin Copperheads and the Orange County Otters led the way in the ASFC with 9-5 records. The New Orleans Second Line and the New York Silverbacks both sat a game back at 8-6. Finally, the San Jose Sabercats and the Arizona Outlaws were tied for 5th with a 7-7 record. With two games to go in the season, six of the seven teams in the conference (Honolulu sat at 2-12) were within two games with the possibility of making the playoffs. Austin lost to Arizona and San Jose in the final two weeks, helping those two teams close the gap. Orange County also lost their final two games to division rivals, getting blown out by New Orleans in week 15 and losing to New York in week 16. New York lost their week 15 out of conference game against Chicago. Arizona won a pair of conference games to close out the season, beating New Orleans Austin. The result was total chaos. Five teams finished the season at 9-7 in the ASFC, and it could have been six if San Jose had not suffered a stunning overtime loss to the woeful Hahalua in week 15.
The week 16 game between New York and Orange County ended up having huge ramifications. The winner of that game would take the 1 seed. This game had so much drama. OCO led four different times, but New York kept coming back to tie the game at 7, 14, 17, and 24. Orange County scored the go ahead touchdown with under three minutes to play in regulation. New York got the ball back and their quarterback, Sam Howitzer was excellent on their final drive. He has a 20 yard pass to Harkey Fank and a 43 yard bomb to Sean Snyder to put the Silverbacks in striking range. With 5 seconds to play, Howitzer delivered to Jackson Kingston for the game tying touchdown to force overtime. After an incomplete pass and two rushes for five yards for Otters QB Sulemain Ramza, OCO punted back to NY. New York had not led all game, but put together an efficient eight play drive capped by a Buster Bawlls rushing touchdown. Bawlls was an incredibly unlikely hero. He had only four carries on the entire season, but two came in overtime of the final game. One was a 2 yard on a 3rd and 2 to keep the drive going, and the second was a four yard touchdown run to win the game, and was his longest run of the season.
There was a lot of confusion at the conclusion of the week 16 stream. Everyone seemed to think that a five way conference tie would be broken with conference record, which would result in New York, New Orleans, and Austin making the playoffs, as shown here https://index.sim-football.com/ISFLS26/Index.html. However, the real sim method for breaking these ties puts head to head record first. So, the head to head record was determined for all games played between these five teams. New York had an impressive 6-2 record in those games, NOLA was at 5-3, Austin at 4-4, OCO at 3-5, and Arizona at 2-6. However, there was another twist. After determining New York would be the number one seed, their games were removed from consideration and head to head was enacted again, this time with NOLA at 4-2, OCO and Austin at 3-3, and Arizona at 2-4. NOLA had the two seed. This process was repeated yet again, and OCO emerged victorious with a 3-1 record vs Arizona and Austin, compared to 2-2 for Austin and 1-3 for Zona. So, OCO, despite having a 3-5 record in the initial tie break, ended up with the three seed since they got swept by NOLA and NYS while having a 3-1 record vs Austin and Zona. Here is the announcement that had to be made to clear up confusion: https://forums.sim-football.com/showthre...#pid408096
There was one more bizarre piece of the puzzle, though. Even though NY had the number 1 seed, when NOLA beat OCO in the first round of the playoffs, the Second Line ended up hosting the ASFC championship. The assumption made was that NOLA had better point differential in their split matchups, but I do not recall if anyone ever found out why NOLA had home field advantage despite being the lower seed. NOLA capitalized on that home field advantage to win the conference championship, and went on to get blown out by the Yellowknife Wraiths in the Ultimus.