08-20-2023, 02:25 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-01-2023, 09:12 PM by Mojojojo. Edited 2 times in total.)
The Rockiest Road
Colorado’s Years in the Wilderness
Volume I | Volume II | Volume III | Volume IV | Volume V | Volume VI | Volume VII | Finale
Quote:Dear rest of the NSFL,
Fuckyall.
(Im kidding, I love a lot of guys on this site)
I’m fucking tired of the shit we get from the rest of the league.
I did not want to call out names in this post. I fact I probably wasn’t even going to make this post until today.
On May 30, 2018, only a few hours after the start of Season 8, Daybe created a discussion post calling out two users in particular for harassment of Colorado: tlk and Toasty. Daybe alleged that the former user deliberately trashed the Yeti at every opportunity and even attempted to convince keanex to demand a trade. More conspiratorially, he accused Toasty of talking recent Yeti draftee JaPetFlo (Toasty's brother) into retirement, or even of running him as a multi account, as a way of getting one over on the team.
Both of the accused, as well as the wider league community both in and outside the Yeti organization, piped in to discuss Daybe's words in detail. Tlk spoke in defense of his past articles, saying that he was no further out of line than he had been towards any other team and that the jabs were not meant to be genuinely negative. Other members of Colorado, particularly Maestro and dropbear, disputed that it was all in good fun. They particularly harped on an exchange in the league discord that they alleged was pushing a trade onto keanex.
Both tlk and keanex defended the conversation as innocuous; the two sides of the conversation essentially agreed to disagree. Toasty, for his part, leapt in to be incredulous at the conspiracy-mongering and get into a back-and-forth spat with Maestro, rehashing old grievances over the S7 Draft. Other users simply urged the disgruntled Yeti to roll with the punches and endure the light jabs of the league until they finally left the bottom of the barrel like other teams before them. Meanwhile, @ErMurazor chimed in with an important and pointed remark:
Quote:So, if people want somebody to blame for why the Yeti have been perpetually bad it starts at the top.
The GM of the Yeti has posted in this thread 11 times since it started.
He has also missed the following PT opportunities:
-Two game prediction
-The weekly PT
-The weekend PT
-Training
-THE FUCKING AC!
Colorado's next few seasons were critical to the planned rebuild and new championship contention goal of Season 10. But their on-the-field success was not the major worry. There was no chance of another winless season; in fact, the Yeti were about to start winning more games per season than they had won over the entire miserable previous four. Whether an Ultimus waited at the end of the road hinged on two central characters, prominent in both the article and in the team: Maestro and Daybe. Their successes and failures would define the next era of Yeti football.
Volume III: Trust the Process
Season 8
"Many are wondering if the Yeti are for real, and I may be biased, but I’m going to say yes, yes we are."
Colorado's crew had their task cut out for them. Although regression began rearing its head for older players like Saint and Dan Miller, the bulk of the roster was still young and growing, and breaking their losing streak was the first matter of business. Exactly when that elusive first win would come was up in the air.
Running Back: Grau may have viewed the transition away from receiver with bittersweet lenses, but there was no denying the resulting benefit. He stepped into a relatively open position group vacated by Bubba Nuck and seized the bulk of the touches. This stranglehold loosened somewhat after a mid-season trade for Damien Kroetch (@Damienj10), but Grau still finished the season with 799 yards and four scores, ranking seventh in the league in yardage and adding a few hundred more in the passing game.
Defensive Line: Colorado rolled with only one defensive end receiving significant touches on the year, the GM player Antonio Sandoval. Accompanying him on the line were three tackles: veteran Miller, mid-season trade acquisition Eli Kamaka (@PDXBaller), and the inactive Pierno. Kamaka and Kroetch both hailed from Philadelphia, albeit through separate successive trades.
Linebacker: The pecking order of Saint and Ishigawa was well established and only briefly disrupted by the stint of AC Hackett. Taking the third roster spot in the linebacking corps was the new first round rookie, Rickey Ramero, who bumped out a former first rounder one year his senior in Ryan LeFevre. Ramero held a distinct advantage over LeFevre called being active.
Secondary: After being sidelined entirely in Season 7, inactive mainstay Vash Erikson returned to a rotational role in the secondary in Season 8. The rest of the defensive backfield remained entirely static, concerning given the disparity between Andre Bly Jr. and his cornerback partner, Desta Danger.
Special Teams: As before, Bly Jr. commanded a totality of punt returns for the Yeti. His supremacy over kick returns was not so unchanging. For the first time in many seasons, he surrendered the lion's share of kickoff duties, both to team leader Howard Miller and to new arrival Damien Kroetch. Bly Jr. did get the last laugh; returning only seventeen kicks to their combined 73, he managed to snag the only touchdown between the three of them.
No one in the organization was expecting playoffs out of the gate; all they wanted at first was to break into the win column for the first time since late in Season 5. Unfortunately, the start of the season seemed to pick up right where the last season left off. Visiting the Liberty in Week 1's opener, the Yeti fell into a quick 28-0 hole before finally breaking onto the scoreboard midway through the third with a McCormick field goal. Applehort completed only nineteen passes on 51 attempts, accrued a 51.8 passer rating, and oversaw a static run game that totaled only 61 yards. Colorado lost, 38-16.
The situation was even more bleak when the Yeti played their first match at home against the dominant Second Line. The disparity between these two teams' rebuild attempts could not have been clearer. New Orleans picked off Applehort thrice, stopped the ground game from breaking 50 yards, and generally imposed their will on Colorado's defense even as individual players broke free for a few sacks and a pick. McCormick's kicks provided the only relief in the 36-9 blowout.
Thankfully for the Yeti, their defense toughened up significantly in Week 3. Hosting the Outlaws for the first of two back-to-back games, the Yeti got a 7-3 lead after a quarter and then held the game scoreless for another two. Grau was fed the ball severely, only managing 133 yards on 41 attempts but breaking into the endzone. Then, after Dean Jackson missed a 47-yard field goal, the Outlaws managed to bring it to 10-7. It came down to a field goal by McCormick in the dying seconds of the fourth to bring the game to overtime.
Each team traded possessions frequently. But whenever Colorado's offense was forced to punt, their defense came alive, getting four sacks on quarterback King Bronko in the overtime period that ended Arizona drives and gradually gave the home team favorable field position. One sack by Ramero came close to getting a safety; the Outlaws then had to punt from their own three, which gave the Yeti the ball at the 44-yard line. With 0:43 left in overtime, McCormick kicked a 28-yard field goal and won the game, 13-10. The 0-32 streak was over.
The curse was over. The weight was lifted. The monkey was off their back. Haruki Ishigawa could stop wearing fox ears and a tail. Winning was back on the menu. The jubilation was so all-encompassing, and the #yetinoises so triumphant, that no one really even minded when the Outlaws exacted immediate revenge the next week and beat the Yeti 33-21. Endless losses had calloused the franchise. Even if the win was a fluke, it meant that going winless a third straight year was already off the table.
But it wasn't entirely a fluke. It had taken 33 games for the Yeti to win their first game in over two seasons, but it took only two to win their second. Against an admittedly atrocious San Jose squad, Colorado got pulled into a defensive slugfest but found itself down 10-9 with only two minutes to play. Howard Miller set the offense up with a 41-yard return and soon afterwards a 19-yard catch, and McCormick drilled a 48-yarder with less than a minute left to seal the victory. A stellar effort by Rickey Ramero contributed massively, with 12 tackles, a tackle for loss, two pass deflections, and a safety that ended up preventing another overtime bout.
A much tougher opponent awaited in the Week 6 matchup against Orange County. The sophomore Ryan Applehort stepped up massively, outdueling the legendary Mike Boss and spreading the ball around for two touchdowns, no picks, and a 105.6 passer rating. In a very even matchup, Colorado was able to get the edge, and a late score by the Otters ultimately did nothing but tighten the final 20-17 result. Six games into the season, Colorado was sitting pretty at 3-3. In their past four seasons combined, they had gone 3-53.
Quote:Are you kidding me? Are you serious right now? The Otters were beaten by the Yeti? Go back a few weeks and tell the nation that the Yeti would beat the Otters for their third win of the season and no one would believe you… Many are wondering if the Yeti are for real, and I may be biased, but I’m going to say yes, yes we are.
Were they for real, or were they just lucky? For one, despite the .500 record, the team had a -53-point differential and was averaging less than a field goal's margin of victory in all three wins. And at the halfway mark of the season, one article found that the Yeti's strength of schedule had been easiest in the league to that point. None of these factors were disproven by the Week 7 loss at New Orleans, where the defense once again got the doors blown off in a 38-19 rout. Even another good outing on Applehort's part couldn't keep pace with a Second Line offense that moved up and down the field at will.
Colorado certainly didn't subscribe to this mentality. They saw the opening of their window and took some opportunities near the trade deadline to beef their roster further. First was an exchange with Philadelphia to snag recently stepped-down GM PDXBaller and his defensive tackle Eli Kamaka. The Yeti added Kamaka to the roster for the price of an S9 first round pick swap and a first and second in the S10 Draft. There was some concern about the language in the trade regarding stipulations should Kamaka opt out of his contract, but both PDX and Maestro assured commenters that there was no malicious or underhanded intent.
The next day, the same teams traded again. Colorado received Damien Kroetch and added him immediately to the backfield snap share, paying the price of a third rounder in the S9 Draft. There wasn't much to this trade besides replacing Sebastian Joyce as the backup option. His new rushing partner, Mark Grau, signed an extension around the same time that locked him in through Season 11 on a three-year, $3 million deal.
Grau had a decent 77 yards on the ground and 20 through the air in the Week 8 game hosting the Otters. But aside from a 41-yard touchdown connection from Applehort to Miller, the offenses of both teams largely ran through the kickers. Colorado had a 16-10 lead towards the end of the third; three field goals by Bradley Madlad dissolved this lead away bit by bit, and it was the Otters' turn to win the game by three points, 19-16.
In another back-and-forth affair, the Hawks and Yeti locked horns in Week 9. Steady offense from Applehort and a score apiece from Grau and Kroetch defined Colorado's output. After falling behind 10-3 in the second, the team rallied for a 17-10 lead and then gave up ten unanswered points of their own. Ultimately, in the dying minutes of the fourth quarter, Colorado marched 80 yards down the field and capped off the game-winning drive with a touchdown pass to O'Sullivan, stopping the team's two game skid.
Then the Yeti enjoyed something entirely novel: a comfortable victory. Facing the league-worst Sabercats on the road, the visitors came away with a 20-3 victory in spite of Applehort's trio of interceptions. This was accomplished both with a high-volume passing output, of which Miller and Aaron were the primary beneficiaries, and a ferocious defensive effort led by the three deflections and pick of Bly Jr. They dominated time of possession and moved the ball with ease; only untimely sacks and turnovers kept the Yeti from putting more points on the scoreboard.
At 5-5, Colorado found themselves right in the thick of the playoff hunt, which even their own management had not anticipated until the next season. A pair of lopsided games kept their record even. In Week 11, conference rival Yellowknife beat down the team 33-6 by suffocating their offense's efficiency and exploding through the air with 342 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The next week, after falling down 17-7 early in another conference matchup against the Liberty, Colorado stormed back and outscored the visitors 28-3 over the rest of the game. Applehort had by far his most explosive game as a professional, tossing five touchdowns against one pick with 352 yards and a 114.3 passer rating. Aaron, Miller, Wheat, O'Sullivan, and Grau all caught touchdown passes.
With two games to go, and Yellowknife having secured home field for the first round, Colorado (6-6), Philadelphia (6-6), and Baltimore (5-7) were all in the mix for the second playoff spot. Colorado controlled their own destiny – if they won out, they would be in the playoffs again for the first time since losing the S1 Ultimus. Should they only win one, they would also make it if Philadelphia lost their game against Yellowknife by virtue of conference record.
Unfortunately, things did not go their way. In a tough game on the road in Yellowknife, the Yeti fell short 28-12 and could only muster up field goals in an anemic offensive effort. Worse, both the Liberty and Hawks had won in Week 13. Colorado needed to beat Baltimore, and Yellowknife needed to beat Philadelphia, for the Yeti to enter the playoffs. The latter happened, the former did not. The Hawks smelled blood in the water and at one point put up 26 straight points on route to a 33-17 victory. The passing and running games couldn't pull through for a defense that swatted down ten passes. Baltimore ended up advancing, and Colorado watched from the sidelines in melancholic disappointment.
For most teams, 6-8 is far from an ideal record. For the Colorado Yeti, this was close to triumphant. They snapped their losing streak, came tantalizingly close to playing games in the postseason, and announced to the league at large that they were worthy of being taken seriously. Colorado would hug the bottom of the standings no longer.
Six players earned Pro Bowl nods: Dan Miller, Pierno, Saint, ishigawa, Bly Jr., and McCormick. In addition, McCormick took home Kicker of the Year. Although no other players on offense received accolades, there was plenty of improvement to speak of. Applehort's 13:14 touchdown to interception ratio was leagues better than the 4:21 mark of his rookie year, and Howard Miller nearly doubled his yardage as the team's first receiver to eclipse 1000 yards since Kendrick Hendrix in Season 2.
In the early offseason, Colorado took plenty of moves to keep its current core around. Both Millers signed a one-year extension, Applehort extended his contract through Season 11, and Brian Wheat inked a new three-year, $4.5 million deal. Meanwhile, Kamaka and Bly Jr. both opted into their Season 9 contracts, a quartet of key inactives were secured for another season, and the Yeti traded down three spots in the first round of the S9 Draft to add $10 million in cap space.
There was one negative turn before the draft arrived. Keanex, who had just enjoyed a promising ISFL debut at running back, announced that he was going inactive. The demands of real life meant he couldn't invest enough time in the league to remain effective, and so he signed off, never to return to activity.
On draft day, needing secondary help badly but only possessing one draft pick of value, Colorado made a trade with Yellowknife for their first rounder at pick 6. In return, they gave up $15 million in cap space for the upcoming season as well as a third in S10 and a second and third in S11. To put it kindly, this was an interesting trade to make. Yes, Colorado needed solid youth more now than in the future to capitalize on their current plan, but was the amount given up worth the reward?
Pick 6 – Oskar Ludvig, CB @RealWackolyte
Pick 7 – Alexander Thibault, S @Jepox
A tale of two users here. Jepox, Thibault's user, had already played for Colorado as the tight end turned running back Sebastian Joyce. Meanwhile, RealWackolyte already held an updater position but fell off the face of the Earth as soon as the draft happened. He logged in a week later to do a round of updates and signal that he was ready to negotiate his rookie contract. He was never heard from again.
Something far more disruptive to the franchise consumed the team's, and the league's, attention only a few days later. The day of the draft, team regression was due, and Colorado didn't submit theirs on time. Eventually dropbear, who was neither GM nor co-GM, had to do it, but the damage was done. This, along with the Yeti management's failure to submit awards ballots on time, forced HO to pull the trigger.
On July 10, 2018, Maestro was summarily fired as GM of the Yeti, the first time HO fired a GM in league history. In a 6-1 decision, the members of Head Office cited countless instances of Maestro's failures to perform managerial duties, including regression, depth charts, sim strategy, awards and HOF voting, and communication in both the locker room and the league-wide GM chat. After asking Maestro to step down, and after he refused to do so, they had no choice but to bring the hammer down by force.
This decision was seasons in the making and came as little shock to many of the league's users. They noted that Maestro was a good user but understood the need for pulling him out for the health of the team and the league. Maestro himself did not cause a stir in his response to the announcement and accepted the result quietly.
Quote:I disagree with the decision, but I won't make a big fuss. I don't know what the future holds for me, I will be a COL lifer as long as sapp and Square want me but I am not sure what else besides that. I have already thanked people in the Yeti discord, and I guess I would just make this statement. I dont really know what else to say besides that. #YetiNoises.
In his place, Supersquare took the reigns as the head GM. His co-GM for the time being was sapp once again, who agreed to fill the position as an interim until they found a more permanent replacement. There wasn't much left to do before Season 9 began. Kroetch and Ramero signed new contract extensions, the locker room accepted the results of the HO investigation, and the new GM duo focused their efforts on testing for the new season. They were hopeful, for the first time in many seasons, that this year would end with a trip to the playoffs.
Season 9
"Ok, why is Colorado still struggling? I do not get it."
Notice anything about the roster above? Look at the lack of turnover. Almost the entire roster remained static, a sign both of the youth across the board and of the lack of any acquisitions in the offseason's free agency period. The Yeti GMs were betting on their players to continue improving and vault them into contention.
Tight End: Alvin Chipmunk was taken by the Yeti in the second round of the S7 Draft, and it took him two seasons before he seized the starting role away from Steven O'Sullivan. As far as debuts go, it wasn't bad; Chipmunk caught 67 catches for 504 yards, which ranked in the top half of the league in both categories and fourth on the Yeti behind Miller, Aaron, and Wheat. His performance is less impressive from the viewpoint of a blocking enthusiast, with sixteen pancakes placing second to last among tight ends.
Linebacker: Another year, another season with Saint and Ishigawa atop the linebacker corps. There were no new surprises in the starting 11. When the defense chose to employ a different formation, the snaps generally favored the services of inactive Rob Anderson, one of the prizes received for trading away AC Hackett, instead of inactive cornerback draftee Oskar Ludvig. Anderson played only seven games and still racked up more tackles than Pierno or Desta Danger.
Secondary: The actually active draftee, Alexander Thibault, assumed the role of free safety, shifting long-time starter Michael Tillman over to strong safety. Tillman took up his new role with gusto and racked up seventeen pass deflections, leading all safeties in the league, as well as earning the distinguished rarity of a blocked punt.
Special Teams: The only change made to the returning duties was handing the majority of Kroetch's already limited snaps to Grau. Grau scored a touchdown on 14.3% of his returns, which sounds more impressive when you ignore that he only returned seven total kicks.
The season with so much promise began promisingly enough with a comfortable 23-16 home win against the Outlaws. Applehort threw two touchdowns and Grau rushed for another in a relatively quiet offensive affair, where the losing team actually led in time of possession and yardage. The difference makers were the defense, who took the ball away from Arizona thrice off of two interceptions and a forced fumble. One interception by the rookie Alexander Thibault in his first ever game was one yard short of a pick six.
This victory never got too stressful for the Yeti; their next week was much the same, for very different reasons. Colorado got flattened from the jump on the road in Baltimore to the tune of a 41-6 final score. Applehort tossed two picks, Miller was the only skill player to go over 40 yards, and the defense racked uo tackles but couldn’t stop the humming Hawks offense. If the Week 1 game showed a glimpse of seasons yet to come, Week 2 was a reminder that the ugly seasons past were not too far in the rearview.
Then it happened again. Colorado won comfortably at home, 20-7 against the Sabercats, and embarrassed themselves on the road, 45-3 in New Orleans. In all four games, the Colorado offense had been outgained substantially by their opponents; Applehort wasn’t setting the world on fire, and neither were his supporting crew. The difference between the wins and losses boiled down to defensive stops. In the San Jose game, the visitors threw two interceptions (one to Saint for a pick six), failed three fourth down conversion attempts, and missed two mid-range field goal tries. This sort of defensive rally could not be sustained if the offense couldn’t put points on the board.
Quote:There’s something to be said, the argument is, that with regression and their youth in their roster, Colorado should absolutely be sitting at 3-1 or 4-0. There’s definitely an aspect of just being flat out unlucky, but I legit do not get it, because the team is so much better on paper than the results show. The biggest worry that Colorado seems to have though is that as it stands right now, they have not been able to get the scores they need as right now they have scored the fewest points of any team.
The Yeti would not remain the league’s worst offense and wouldn’t score single digit points again the rest of the season. In fact, they received an immediate remedy for their troubles in another home game. Colorado blew out Philadelphia 45-3 with nearly 600 yards of total offense. Grau crossed triple digits on the ground and Kroetch came two yards short but compensated with four rushing touchdowns. Applehort threw 383 yards and two more touchdowns to his merry crew of receivers, including a nine-yard toss for a score to obscure receiving option Z. Catchem11.
Even the following losses were not nearly as one-sided. In Week 6, Colorado finally fell at home, 35-28, to the Wraiths. It was a quarterback duel, and Applehort arguably outplayed Mat Akselsen on the other team with 369 yards, three scores, one pick, and a 103.9 passer rating. But despite the Colorado offense’s proficiency, their defense could muster only a single sack and deflection across the entire unit, and the Yeti did not respond late after the Wraiths went up a touchdown.
Then a 38-31 loss in Orange County, albeit one where the final score disguised a comfortable home win. The Yeti simply had no answers on defense in yet another shootout. Most embarrassingly, tight end Carlito Crush scored a hat trick against the team that drafted him with a trio of receiving touchdowns. Applehort played a clean and voluminous game, although not terribly flashy. A late touchdown drive brought the tally within a single score, but it was too little, too late, and the Yeti went into the halfway point of the season with their first record below .500 at 3-4.
Meanwhile, the search for Colorado’s new co-GM had all but concluded. Sapp wanted ExemplaryChad, Ishigawa’s user, as his replacement, but he had other things going on and wasn’t interested in the responsibilities of the job. The other major contender was dropbear. The position was his to lose, and he officially took the reins on July 24, 2018. This was certainly a transitional period – many older users were waning in activity like sapp or prepared to retire like 7hawk77, Dan Miller’s user.
On the road in Week 8, Colorado got involved in yet another offensive shootout against the Outlaws. This time, off a blistering 430 yards and four touchdowns from Applehort as well as a game-winning touchdown drive in the late fourth quarter, the Yeti pulled out the win, 31-27. But a similar amount of yards from the young quarterback wasn’t nearly enough to beat the Hawks at home in a 31-13 defeat. One primary culprit, besides a Baltimore pick six, was the paltry efforts of the Yeti’s rushing duo, combining only for 53 yards.
Colorado simply loved oscillating around the .500 mark. They won again in Week 10 in a comeback, 24-17, and lost again in Week 11 in a blowout, 34-14. The difference between their efforts in San Jose and against New Orleans was the passing offense. When Applehort remained clean, he slung the ball around to his top receivers and gave a score apiece to Miller and Aaron after being down 17-9 to the Sabercats. When he threw interceptions and failed to sustain drives, Grau and Kroetch did nothing to pick up the slack and half of their points came from a kickoff return touchdown late in the game.
The team returned to mediocrity and a 6-6 record with a pedestrian looking 21-7 victory over the Liberty. The unassuming score belied the fact that for the second time this season, the Yeti managed to keep their opponent out of the end zone; on the flip side, they surrendered two safeties, one of the few (only?) times a team has surrendered multiple safeties in a single game. The other standout of this game was Andre Bly Jr., putting up a then-record eight pass deflections that is still tied for third place all-time. And the largest consequence is that they now stood on the precipice of going to the playoffs. If they could win against the 6-6 Yellowknife in Week 13, superior conference record would clinch their first berth since Season 1 regardless of the Week 14 results.
Unlike seasons prior, Colorado finally sealed the deal. A superb effort from Ryan Applehort lifted his team above the home Wraiths in an offensive shootout, 34-23. The running game was all but abandoned – Kroetch led the team with fourteen yards on eight carries – but Applehort threw three scores with a 133.5 rating and Alexander Thibault finally got the first pick six of his career. The league’s longest playoff drought was over. A 40-23 win against the Otters in the final week was just icing on the cake.
One might assume the mood in Colorado was jubilant, and in many ways it was. But a worrying sign of discontent came from the quarterback himself, Daybe. A media article released shortly after the regular season’s conclusion alluded to a number of concerns – the team’s failure to add any relevant free agents or properly utilize draft capital chief among them. Daybe laid much of the blame for this at the feet of the front office.
Quote:#1 is a easy choice to make, generally you have your guy set in stone, and you can feel good about it. But the Yeti whiffed on three consecutive first round picks in S7, failing to point out some of the red flags… Yeti GM Supersquare hasn't posted for ten days, hasn't updated in two weeks, and Dwayne Aaron doesn't appear to be a serviceable WR2 for a championship team as of right now unless he gets into shape. When he recommended a player to draft in the S10 draft, he was quickly shot down and received one response.
These shortcomings in free agency and the draft accumulated in the Yeti’s lack of active talent relative to other contending teams without a compensatory wealth of picks in upcoming drafts. Daybe clearly felt that making the playoffs was the ceiling for the team. They were not built to win an Ultimus within the next few years.
Comments from the wider league community almost exclusively backed him up. Users chimed in to remember Maestro’s ridiculous snubbing of Darren Smallwood when he had hit free agency. Kolbe alluded to Applehort's value in free agency given his unhappiness with Colorado, which could arrive as early as the next season should Daybe exercise his player option. Even the GMs of the team visited the thread to state their appreciation for the criticism and defend the Smallwood situation without the benefit of hindsight.
One somewhat spicy endnote came in response to a suggestion that senior team players should be involved in the team's decision-making process. Dropbear clarified:
Quote:We have a leadership group comprised of both GMs and typically 2 representatives from offense and defense, so typically 6 at a time.
And Daybe is a part of it, and has been during most if not all of the events he's listed.
With this issue lurking in the back of their minds, Colorado stared down the 11-3 Baltimore Hawks in the conference championship. It was their first playoff game since the first Ultimus; their return to the big stage was appropriately grand. The Yeti and Hawks entered a bonafide shootout. Colorado went up 14-0 and 21-14 early, with Baltimore responding in kind each time. After halftime, the score again rose to 28-28 before the Hawks seized a nine-point lead thanks to a safety and led 37-28.
Colorado wasn't out of the fight. Twice they got within a stone's throw of the endzone, once from a Thibault interception and once from a long drive, but they fell short and settled for short McCormick kicks each time. Then, with 3:41 in the game and down 37-34, they forced the home team to punt. Any score, even a field goal, would take the game to overtime or possibly a win. But Applehort, after tossing three scores earlier in the game, chose an inopportune moment to throw his first and final interception. As quickly as they arrived, the Yeti were out of the running.
Colorado had eight nominees for the Pro Bowl, squarely in line with the league average. Along with the attendance of Applehort, Howard Miller, Dan Miller, Pierno, Saint, Bly Jr., McCormick, and Grau at kick returner, two of the Yeti received further recognition: McCormick shared the Punter of the Year award and Dan Miller snagged Performance of the Year for his nine-sack effort.
This somewhat obfuscated the true nature of the personnel situation in Colorado, where turnover threatened to undo all of the recent progress made. Dan Miller absconded to the retirement home after the playoff loss, and bedrock linebacker Johnathon Saint announced his own impending retirement following Season 10. Their recent first-overall selection, the disappointing Rickey Ramero, posted his intent to go inactive due to life balance. He wasn't the only one – sapp was also planning on going inactive in the offseason, with Bly Jr.'s corpse remaining in limbo on the Yeti roster.
There are two courses of action teams can take when the core of their roster begins to run into Father Time: gear up for a shot at contending while the pieces remain or dig in for the rebuild. For a variety of reasons, from their relative lack of future draft pieces to the fear of falling back into Colorado's old losing culture, the second option simply wasn’t on the table. The time to win was now. To quote one GM himself in the third person:
Quote:With an ageing front seven and a championship window that appeared to be closing as quickly as it had opened, Michaels felt that it was time to make moves to bolster the roster as best he could.
Haruki Ishigawa was extended through Season 12 on a three-year, $12 million agreement. He was joined in the following days by a slew of new teammates. Veteran cornerback Terrell Brister (@tbone415) was added on a one-year rental before his own retirement and came at a price of two late-round picks to the Sabercats. In a bigger exchange, Colorado sent their first-round pick in the S11 Draft to Philadelphia to acquire Norman Bagwell (@bagwell), Willy Nyquist (@Sleepy), Fox North (@Silver Fox), Ryan Flock (@theFlock), and a third in the S10 Draft. Of these, Bagwell was the prize catch meant to bolster the defensive line for seasons to come. Dropbear, who signed his own monster extension shortly thereafter, elaborated on the team philosophy.
Quote:Our offence is young, and I think we'll build up another good roster again before the day comes that guys like myself or Applehort slow down, but this is definitely the last window for our veterans on the other side of the ball. I'm glad we're taking a shot, and I think this could really be our year...
Of course, there was one major player whose future with the team remained undecided. Applehort declined to sign an extension, expressing repeatedly his desire to test the waters and his own free agent market once his contract option came up next offseason. Colorado had the services of their star quarterback for at least one more season. Beyond that, the path to reconciliation looked ever murkier.
Colorado held two picks in the S10 Draft, a third and a fifth. Swagsloth pinned hopes on receiving a quality long-term starter with the third, the one received in the Philadelphia trade, to recoup the loss suffered by giving up the team's first rounder in the following draft. Did their selection live up to that goal?
Pick 19 – Devo Cansino, RB @DonnoMania
Pick 37 – Chris Bennett, QB @Doctor Topher
Season predictions pegged the team at the same position as before, competing with the Wraiths for the second playoff spot behind the Hawks. Other teams had more talent, but Colorado had clearly loaded up for another playoff run, and year-over-year improvement was expected to rank them among the top echelon of the league. Whether they could truly compete with teams like the Hawks with the Ultimus on the line was another matter.
Season 10
"We have the cornerstones in place to compete in seasons to come, and we're now looking at building the next generation Colorado Yeti team."
Meet the new team, same as the old team. There was a fair bit of positional shuffling, especially among the defensive ranks, but the names remained largely the same. The castoffs of Philadelphia and San Jose proved the sole exception to the rule.
Wide Receiver: Both of the stars in the Yeti receiving corps enjoyed campaigns in the four digits of yardage; Howard Miller, with 1430 of them, paced the entire league for the first time in team history. Familiar face Brian Wheat, who had caught two touchdowns in the playoff loss to Baltimore, faded into the sunset and to the bottom of the depth chart. His replacement was Fox North, and he performed admirably as WR3 with nearly 900 receiving yards.
Defensive Line: Colorado moved back to the 4-3 front favored in most of the recent seasons, opting to play an extra nickel defensive back instead of an extra linebacker. On the front side of the formation, new arrival Norman Bagwell took the snaps previously reserved for the Hall of Fame bound Dan Miller.
Linebacker: For the first time since the Yeti became a franchise, Johnathon Saint no longer held the top spot in the linebacker food chain. His longtime partner Haruki Ishigawa finally ascended in his place, leading the entire league with 130 tackles, and Saint enjoyed his final rodeo significantly outpaced by both Ishigawa and the inactive Ramero in stats.
Secondary: Recent first-round rookie Alexander Thibault was confined to the dustbin of inactivity and accordingly shunted down the depth chart. Michael Tillman resumed his long-held spot at free safety and was now flanked by former Liberty player Ryan Flock. At cornerback, the intimidating No Bly Zone was mirrored with far less effect by Terrell Brister.
Daybe abruptly leaving the war room right as Season 10 began pretty much severed any hopes of his return the next year. The tensions over team strategy and talent had come to a head; now, even as the Yeti forged ahead with Applehort for the season, the search for a new long-term quarterback had begun.
The first game of Applehort's last season seemed a promising start. He threw for nearly 300 yards, three touchdowns, and no picks in a comfortable 27-20 road victory in Arizona. The newbie North caught two of those touchdown tosses, and although the Yeti defense surrendered lots of yardage, they stifled Arizona's momentum from turning into points until the game transitioned into garbage time.
The shoe was on the other foot in Week 2. In their first rematch with the Baltimore Hawks since losing in the playoffs, the Yeti fell behind early and never quite made up the deficit. Applehort had another explosive effort through the air with four scores; the difference maker for the team proved to be a costly interception and lost fumble, which prevented Colorado from ever fully closing the score gap. A late touchdown drive made the final result a more respectable 30-28. Colorado took out their frustration against their next opponent, the Sabercats. Mark Grau rushed for three of his six season rushing touchdowns in this game, but the offense still flowed through the arm of Applehort and his three key receivers.
Then, in Week 4, the Yeti hosted another top team, the reigning Ultimus champion New Orleans Second Line. This time went much smoother than the match against the Hawks in the beginning, and the team raced out to a 31-14 lead midway through the third quarter thanks to some Applehort touchdowns and an Andre Bly Jr. pick six. Then the choke began. New Orleans scored seventeen unanswered points, took the game to overtime, received the kickoff, and put up a field goal. Before Season 27, any score in overtime automatically won the game without giving the second team a chance to respond.
Following this blowout win and comeback loss, Colorado continued flipping and flopping around mediocrity with a comeback win in Week 5, 25-22 over the Liberty, and a blowout loss the week after, 30-13 in Yellowknife. In both games, the Yeti allowed their opponents to pour on the points early and often. The difference is that Philadelphia's only touchdown came from an interception, with all other points coming via field goals, which gave the Yeti enough room to squirm back. This was hardly a statement victory, however. Philly was a putrid team, one who ended the year as the first team located outside of the Mountain Time Zone to go winless. Colorado had yet to beat an opponent likely to stand in their way come playoff time.
Quote:Colorado has definitely failed to live up to expectations as a possible contender. I could own being wrong, but not really feeling it. I made my picks based on talent, not knowing the two GMs would go MIA on game planning. Technically, Colorado has improved from last year, when they finished with a -14 point differential. However, their remaining schedule actually appears slightly harder, so they will probably slip a bit more.
What kolbe alluded to in this media excerpt was a shakeup in Colorado leadership. Sometime in the middle of September, only a few weeks into the season, Supersquare pretty much disappeared. His inactivity was not permanent, and he did eventually return to the war room. But after seasons of stress, taking over as head GM upon the sudden firing of Maestro and enduring both a difficult rebuild and the ridicule of much of the league community, the burdens of the job grew too heavy to bear.
In his absence, the remainder of Colorado's leadership took up the slack. Dropbear ascended to the head GM role and posted an announcement calling for applications for the co-GM position. The actual search boiled down to two candidates. ExemplaryChad was once again asked to fill the post; he once again declined. So dropbear's new co-GM ended up being one of the only other members of the Yeti brain trust, who was already doing the team strats and already one of the league's most central figures: infinitempg.
It was a difficult situation assumed by dropbear and infinite. The team was underperforming on the field and even worse off the field. In contrast to the thriving environment of the winless season era, Colorado's locker room was all but bereft of activity. Only those handful in the war room (pretty much dropbear and infinite, Supersquare, ExemplaryChad, and sapp) gave the team life. There was Daybe, of course, but his future with the team was already sealed. Leaders gave lip service publicly to plans for the future both with and without Daybe at the helm, but he eventually made clear that he wasn't planning on returning to the team.
The team's record in games finally stopped hugging the .500 line thanks to back-to-back victories at home, 21-13 against the Otters and 28-7 against the Outlaws. In the former, a subpar offensive unit scored all of its points thanks to seven field goals from McCormick (still a league record) and due to a defense that stacked up nine deflections and three interceptions, two apiece from Bly Jr. The offense paid them back in kind the next week, when Applehort tossed four scores to four different targets and went over 400 yards through the air.
Colorado got some mojo back against mediocre opponents. Could they sustain it in a rematch with the Hawks? The answer, at least this time, was no. Colorado scored early, but Baltimore seemed to score with impunity throughout the first half, only failing to find the endzone when the clock ran out of time. The Yeti defense stiffened later on, but their offense couldn't find a comeback within themselves. They fell 41-20, chastened and bruised but still sitting at a decent 5-4 and tied with the Wraiths in the division standings.
With an easy matchup with the Sabercats up next, Colorado found a perfect outlet for frustration and beat the visitors up 54-3. Andre Bly Jr. scored on a punt return and nearly added a pick six on top of another interception. Howard Miller had himself a hat trick, hauling in three of the four touchdowns passed around by Applehort. Even Damien Kroetch, allergic to the end zone on the league's worst rushing attack, hit paydirt.
That was Kroetch's only rushing score of the season. His only receiving score of the season came one week later in a rematch with New Orleans. This time it was the Second Line's turn to go up big, holding a 33-21 lead midway through the fourth. But a Howard Miller kickoff return touchdown cut the margin down, and soon Michael Tillman intercepted the ball and gave Colorado excellent field position at the New Orleans 35-yard line. They proceeded to rush twice, get sacked, and punt 38 yards for a touchback, as no football team would ever do in this situation besides those in this terrible football simulator. The Yeti fell short, 33-28.
Now with a 6-5 record, the team was still tied with Yellowknife but out of the playoffs for the time being because of the head-to-head. Three more games awaited, including taking on the Wraiths again at home. But first up were the winless Liberty, and their ignominy did not change in Week 12. Colorado easily bested them 34-10, holding former quarterback Logan Noble to only 128 yards and picking him off twice. The Wraiths also won their Week 12 matchup, setting up the possibility of Colorado's elimination if they lost the next game. If they could win, however, the Yeti would control their own destiny.
So for the second straight season, the Week 13 game between Colorado and Yellowknife decided the playoffs. Yeti legend Boss Tweed played his retirement game in silver and black as a linebacker. It was a balanced, back-and-forth affair, with each team seizing the tempo at various points of the game. But the home team pulled ahead in the third quarter and never allowed Yellowknife to control the lead again. As he had all season, Applehort trusted in the hands of Miller and Aaron to move the ball downfield. Miller added a kickoff return score on top of two through the air, which proved to eventually be the deciding margin of victory, 34-27. Colorado was back once again in the dance.
Technically, they still could have lost a spot to Yellowknife if they lost in Week 14 and the Wraiths won by enough points to win the Points For tiebreaker. This became a moot point when Colorado handled Orange County with ease, 26-3. Colorado's triumphant return to the postseason for only the third time in team history was soured somewhat because of Applehort, who shortly beforehand officially opted out of his contract. Come the offseason, the Yeti quarterback would be a free agent.
Now the Yeti faced the same obstacle as befell them the year prior. Once again, they traveled to Baltimore in the conference championship game. Once again, the game was an offensive bonanza, with the teams trading blows evenly through the first three quarters. And once again, as had happened both times in Season 10 and in that playoff game, the Yeti fell short. Applehort threw a costly pick six in the early fourth, and after responding with a quick touchdown drive, Colorado needed the ball back quickly down six. But on four consecutive third downs, the defense simply couldn't force Baltimore to punt, and Turkleton's last field goal put the game out of reach. 37-28 was the final tally.
Now the bill was coming due. It had been a pretty successful year for Colorado, especially considering the recent past. They led the NSFC with nine Pro Bowlers in Applehort, Miller (both as receiver and returner), Aaron, Sandoval, Pierno, Ishigawa, Bly Jr., and McCormick. The latter two also took home more prestigious hardware; Bly Jr. shared the Defensive Back of the Year award with Marc Spector, while McCormick earned a second straight win as Punter of the Year. Yet the odds of the Yeti going further with this core of players seemed incredibly dim.
Quote:I don’t expect Applehort to remain with the team after this year. He’s been pretty vocal about his unhappiness, and the team’s outlook has not gotten brighter since then, with many of their future franchise pieces going inactive…. So that leaves a kicker and a wide receiver in [Colorado]. It’s possible one of them switches to QB, but I am expecting they trade for Wozy or Metaxas and go into another rebuild…
Way too early S11 prediction:: 3.5 wins. Colorado is in for a rough haul, but with only one remaining semi-active 1st round pick since S7 (Thibault), what else can they really do?
Kolbe was hardly the only person to predict Applehort's departure, but his prediction proved salient. After a few days of free agency, Daybe inked a three-year, $12 million deal to be the new quarterback of the division rival Baltimore Hawks. He expressed gratitude to the Yeti franchise for his time spent there. At the same time, he stated that Colorado's leadership and plans for the future lacked stability, and that he had been frustrated at his sim usage. They simply did not have the personnel or draft capital to compete on Applehort's timeline.
As had been the case for so many seasons before, Colorado's GMs did not see it that way. Contrary to both kolbe's and Daybe's opinions, they believed that the best course of action was to press forward with the team as it stood. The Yeti had been preparing accordingly since the middle of Season 10 to have McCormick position switch from kicker to quarterback.
There was consideration at some point to bring in free agent Vladimir Fyodorovich to play quarterback. These talks stalled amicably, largely because infinite had already paid for the position switch and adding Fyodorovich would only bring dead weight to the budget. And so, one day after Applehort signed with Baltimore, McCormick concluded a series of in-character media articles by announcing extensive surgeries that required him to switch to the quarterback position. The kicker mafia had lost one of its core members.
Meanwhile, dropbear and infinite got right to work with the roster. They re-signed a number of inactives (essentially the entire team) to one-year gigs, including Kroetch, Chipmunk, North, Pierno, Bagwell, Kamaka, Bly Jr., Danger, Ludvig, and Tillman. McCormick got a new extension through Season 14, as did Alexander Thibault, basically the only semi-active recent draftee left on the roster. Another recent draftee, Devo Cansino, was called up from the DSFL and signed for three years and $8.5 million. The only free agent signing of note before the draft was Peg Leg, who had been replaced by and now replaced McCormick as team kicker, Grover Cleveland style.
Unfortunately, the Yeti also saw a fair share of retirements. Two former Yeti GMs, Maestro and Supersquare, announced the career ends of Antonio Sandoval and Dwayne Aaron respectively. Along with Eli Kamaka, these stalwarts of Colorado's roster would play their final games in Season 11. All three had been consistent presences for many years and had produced well while playing, threatening to leave major holes in the roster come the next season.
Where would those holes be patched? Not through the draft. Colorado owned a grand total of zero draft picks in the S11 Draft. Zilch. None. Instead, they signed a quartet of inactives on single-season contracts consisting of linebackers Rob Anderson (@Robigo_) and the returning Ryan Lefevre as well as defensive ends Ugandan Knuckles (@bennyboy_456) and Vernon Collins (@LDarke). Long-term solutions these were not.
In fact, the Yeti actually lost players in the post-draft offseason in a pair of trades. They fetched an S12 second rounder from both Philadelphia and Orange County. In the former trade, the Liberty got the retiring Kamaka as well as star cornerback Andre Bly Jr. In the latter, inactives Rickey Ramero and Norman Bagwell swapped their red jerseys for orange.
The second trade also came with a free twist of the knife included for the poor Yeti. Almost as soon as he was traded for the price of an inactive, Ramero returned to activity by sheer coincidence and signed an extension with the Otters. Some people cried collusion, but both the Otters and the Yeti GMs confirmed that Colorado had approached Orange County with the trade offer, not the other way around. Kolbe, who truly had his finger in every pie of controversy around that time, found blame not with either team but with Ramero himself for bailing on Colorado and then immediately rediscovering a love of sim football when he joined a contender.
@iamslm22 had only this to say, which just about sums it up:
Quote:Yea what can the Yeti guys even say. This franchise just has the absolute worst luck. What're the odds that the day they trade him he comes back. Feel bad for them
Perhaps the most fitting coda to this era of Colorado football came earlier in the offseason, shortly after the departure of Applehort. On October 8, dropbear released an inflammatory in-character media article bashing the predicted results of the Wide Receiver of the Year award. Despite leading the league in yards, Miller was not expected to win the award, which he saw as prejudice against the franchise and their success. He also lambasted ring chasers around the league like Carlito Crush, Tegan Atwell, and even Applehort for abandoning Colorado instead of sticking it out.
Dropbear expressly included a disclaimer that the media was entirely in-character. Users nonetheless flocked to the comments to argue over a number of related topics, including the concept of loyalty in regard to free agency. The topic of discussion shifted to a more Yeti-relevant focus when Maestro chimed in to compare Applehort to Kevin Durant. Users like slm and kolbe leapt to defend Daybe's motivations, bringing up a number of miscues and poor decisions that had sunk the team around him.
This provoked @7hawk77, especially coming from the league owner slm, and he voiced his grievance effusively.
Quote:Yeah the yeti are terrible and all of them should quit and any player that ever played on their team should quit and any mention of any player having fun on their team should result in a permaban.
Or maybe the yeti didn't want players on their team that didn't want to be there,
or maybe Applehort thought it would be fun to try free agency and that's how he wanted to spend his time in the sim league,
or maybe we don't know the full story of what is going on in the Yeti locker room.
Without knowing what's happening, it would be nice to not see people in positions of power projecting such polarizing views. It's a bad look for the league, and it's totally unnecessary.
More arguments sprung from this well. Some concerned perceived bias and attacks from slm, which he denied, while other users went on the offensive against 7hawk77's own history in Head Office. In particular, comparisons were drawn with the infamous mass retirement of the Las Vegas Legion, which had been sparked by league-wide harassment and insults. Majesiu piped in to comment that Applehort wasn't receiving entirely unwarranted backlash, even considering he had every right to go into free agency.
Quote:It's always easier to leave for greener pastures than stay, focus and build something up from past failures if you want to achieve personal success and collect accolades. Don't expect sympathy that way from any other team than the one you decided to join, just think how weird that would be?
Another old Colorado GM, Supersquare, joined the fray to defend many of the team's draft busts as being unlucky rather than unwise, top prospects who just so happened to go inactive because of real-life events. Then he went after slm having joined Head Office and got sucked into a back-and-forth brawl with @DeathOnReddit, which grew so childishly hostile and borderline violent that the entire thread was closed.
What would the post-Applehort era of Colorado football look like? Power rankings articles were intensely pessimistic. It looked to all outsiders that the Yeti were stocking up for another rebuild attempt in the draft, especially considering the fire sale on defense. McCormick and Miller couldn't possibly carry the team towards serious contention. Yet for better or worse, like so many times before, it seemed the only people who didn't subscribe to this viewpoint were the Colorado Yeti themselves. There was no time to rebuild. They were going for gold.
Continued in Volume IV
Section Contributors:
@infinitempg
@sapp2013
Sources and Further Reading
Transgender lesbian, S15 veteran, and media extraordinaire. Fascists and bigots are welcome to fuck off.
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For Your Reading Consideration:
Before the Butchers | The Jungle
The Giving Tree | Volume II | Volume III
A Winter of Discontent | Volume II
The Rockiest Road | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | Finale
Two Essays on Unfree Agency: On Agents | On Contracts
Eclipse of the Honey Moon | Volume II
Gemini Media Awards:
S39 | S40 | S41 | S42 | S43 | S44 | S45 | S46
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For Your Reading Consideration:
Before the Butchers | The Jungle
The Giving Tree | Volume II | Volume III
A Winter of Discontent | Volume II
The Rockiest Road | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | Finale
Two Essays on Unfree Agency: On Agents | On Contracts
Eclipse of the Honey Moon | Volume II
Gemini Media Awards:
S39 | S40 | S41 | S42 | S43 | S44 | S45 | S46
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