09-29-2023, 08:28 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-29-2023, 08:29 PM by J0EB. Edited 1 time in total.)
7 - 647 Words - 10 TPE
Eliot Bukowski was a rookie kicker this season for the Orange County Otters who exceeded expectations placed on him. Drafted with the final pick of the second round in the Season 42 ISFL Draft, many initial reactions were calling this decision a reach. However, with an extra year under his belt in the DSFL, Eliot proved this year that he has what it takes to kick professionally in the league. Eliot went 40/41 for extra points, and 24/27 for field goals, 97.6% and 88.9% respectively. Eliot’s accuracy in field goals is tied for fourth among kickers, which is quite impressive considering he was the only rookie kicker this season. Simultaneously, his only 3 misses were from 50+ yards out. Eliot nailed anything closer than that with perfect accuracy. While Makmur, Baker, and Doug all had better accuracy than Eliot overall, they all missed field goals within 40-49 yards. Dos Santos, who had the same accuracy as Bukoski, missed two field goals within 30-49 yards. It’s also worth noting, that among the three kickers with higher FG accuracy, only Baker kicked more field goals than Bukoski.
I think overall, Bukoski had a tremendous first year in the ISFL, and I’ll go so far as to say that he should have made the pro-bowl over Jayme Jayne Jay-Jaymison. To recount J’s stats, he was 45/45 in XP’s, and 29 for 37 in FG’s, for a 78.4% accuracy. JJJJ was a sporadic kicker, missing once between 20-29, twice between 30-39, four times between 40-49, and to top it off he missed his only attempted kick over 50 yards. His longest kick was just 49 yards! Meanwhile Bukoski nailed a 56 yarder! While yes I understand that the AZ offense was just so good that JJJJ didn’t get much of a chance to kick long FG’s, but still he was unreliable in crunchtime. Most of J’s misses came in close games. For example, when AZ beat OCO 54-14, J had a perfect game, 6/6 XP, 4/4 FG’s. When AZ beat OCO 24-17, J went 1/3 for FG’s, missing two between 30-49 yards. This was a close game for AZ where they only won by one score. Those missed field goals are a big deal in that game. The last example I’ll give and then I’m going back to talk about Bukowski, in AZ’s 17-20 loss against the Sarasota Sailfish, J missed a kick between 40-49 yards. Had this kick been made, the game would have gone to OT and AZ could have had a shot at winning. This is your S43 ISFL pro bowl kicker.
Lastly, I’d like to take a look at one of Bukoski’s key performances during the year. In an important division matchup against the Copperheads, OCO won 29-27. Bukoski did not have a perfect game here. He went 2/2 with XP’s, and 5/6 with FG’s, with his only miss coming from 50+. In such a close game, this miss is very important. However, if you take a look at the order of events here, in the fourth quarter, with 5 minutes left in the game, OCO was up by only 6 points (26-20). While running out the clock, the OCO offense stalls and they have to call upon their kicker to put them up by 2 scores, and make this game way harder for Austin to come back from. It’s a classic scenario that’s very common in the NFL too. Eliot Bukowski takes the field and drives a 52 yard field goal right down the middle. This kick put the Otters up by 9 points, and when Austin drove down the field to score a touchdown with a minute left in the game, it didn’t matter. OCO won 29-27, but would have lost this game without the leg of the deserved pro bowl kicker, Eliot Bukowski.
Eliot Bukowski was a rookie kicker this season for the Orange County Otters who exceeded expectations placed on him. Drafted with the final pick of the second round in the Season 42 ISFL Draft, many initial reactions were calling this decision a reach. However, with an extra year under his belt in the DSFL, Eliot proved this year that he has what it takes to kick professionally in the league. Eliot went 40/41 for extra points, and 24/27 for field goals, 97.6% and 88.9% respectively. Eliot’s accuracy in field goals is tied for fourth among kickers, which is quite impressive considering he was the only rookie kicker this season. Simultaneously, his only 3 misses were from 50+ yards out. Eliot nailed anything closer than that with perfect accuracy. While Makmur, Baker, and Doug all had better accuracy than Eliot overall, they all missed field goals within 40-49 yards. Dos Santos, who had the same accuracy as Bukoski, missed two field goals within 30-49 yards. It’s also worth noting, that among the three kickers with higher FG accuracy, only Baker kicked more field goals than Bukoski.
I think overall, Bukoski had a tremendous first year in the ISFL, and I’ll go so far as to say that he should have made the pro-bowl over Jayme Jayne Jay-Jaymison. To recount J’s stats, he was 45/45 in XP’s, and 29 for 37 in FG’s, for a 78.4% accuracy. JJJJ was a sporadic kicker, missing once between 20-29, twice between 30-39, four times between 40-49, and to top it off he missed his only attempted kick over 50 yards. His longest kick was just 49 yards! Meanwhile Bukoski nailed a 56 yarder! While yes I understand that the AZ offense was just so good that JJJJ didn’t get much of a chance to kick long FG’s, but still he was unreliable in crunchtime. Most of J’s misses came in close games. For example, when AZ beat OCO 54-14, J had a perfect game, 6/6 XP, 4/4 FG’s. When AZ beat OCO 24-17, J went 1/3 for FG’s, missing two between 30-49 yards. This was a close game for AZ where they only won by one score. Those missed field goals are a big deal in that game. The last example I’ll give and then I’m going back to talk about Bukowski, in AZ’s 17-20 loss against the Sarasota Sailfish, J missed a kick between 40-49 yards. Had this kick been made, the game would have gone to OT and AZ could have had a shot at winning. This is your S43 ISFL pro bowl kicker.
Lastly, I’d like to take a look at one of Bukoski’s key performances during the year. In an important division matchup against the Copperheads, OCO won 29-27. Bukoski did not have a perfect game here. He went 2/2 with XP’s, and 5/6 with FG’s, with his only miss coming from 50+. In such a close game, this miss is very important. However, if you take a look at the order of events here, in the fourth quarter, with 5 minutes left in the game, OCO was up by only 6 points (26-20). While running out the clock, the OCO offense stalls and they have to call upon their kicker to put them up by 2 scores, and make this game way harder for Austin to come back from. It’s a classic scenario that’s very common in the NFL too. Eliot Bukowski takes the field and drives a 52 yard field goal right down the middle. This kick put the Otters up by 9 points, and when Austin drove down the field to score a touchdown with a minute left in the game, it didn’t matter. OCO won 29-27, but would have lost this game without the leg of the deserved pro bowl kicker, Eliot Bukowski.