05-06-2006, 12:05 AM | #251 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Elsewhere in the CFL during week 1...
It's week 1, and that means it is time for some key divisional matchups. Here are some of the more interesting games from this week:
Honolulu (1-0) got off to a great start by dumping Arizona (0-1) 31-19. Kranz had a solid first game as a Bloodthirsty Beagle, but Honolulu may have been the beneficiaries of good timing. Outlaws QB Freddie Matthias missed the game due to an injury, and he is a difference maker... Oregon's (1-0) QB Myron "Angie" Dickenson went berzerk in a 48-17 romp over Anchorage (0-1). "Angie" was 14 for 23 passing, for 436 yards and four TDs. That's not a typo - he averaged 18.9 yards per attempt. Wow. Perennial league doormat Chicago (0-1) gave Detroit (1-0) a serious scare in taking a 31-20 lead into the 4th quarter at Detroit. QB Johnnie Titone pulled the Vampires' collective butts out of the fire by scoring 14 4th quarter points, including the game-winning field goal with 1:06 left. League powerhouses Durham (0-1) and Charleston (1-0) hooked up in this tightly contested playoff preview. Durham took a nice 24-6 lead into the 4th quarter, but the allegedly nonexistent 4th-quarter comeback subroutine kicked in for the Monitors and allowed them to rally for exactly 18 points (2 TDs with 2-pt conversions and a safety) to send the game into OT. Of course, Charleston won with a TD. El Paso (0-1) gave defending champions Denver (1-0) a run for their money, but came up on the short end of a 20-17 score. Denver had to rely on a punt return for a TD and 2 FGs to keep them in the game. But it was worth the wait for an offensive TD - a Garibaldi pass to Peace with :52 to go for the win. Fargo (0-1) got a 380 yard passing day from Brett Hedges, but it wasn't enough to counter Tulsa's (1-0) 270 rushing yards. 220 of those yards came from Butch Fult...er, I mean rookie Marvin Raffo, who also scored two TDs. Not a bad debut. Tulsa 24, Fargo 23. Boston (1-0) pulled off a stunner vs. Hartford (0-1), winning 29-26. Hartford had a 26-14 lead in the 4th quarter, when Dwayne Bridges remembered he was too good of a quarterback to take this shit. He finished 26 for 35 for 371 yds, 4 TDs and 1 INT. Last edited by Fonzie : 05-06-2006 at 08:00 PM. |
05-06-2006, 01:30 PM | #252 | |
College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Louisiana
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Quote:
Marvin Raffo is the man! |
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05-08-2006, 08:24 AM | #254 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Chicagoland
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Yes, excellent write-up!
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05-08-2006, 10:22 AM | #255 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Thanks for the kind words gents.
As I noted when I cross-posted this at the CFL website, I'm hoping to make this a more regular feature in my dynasty. I tried doing so last season, but some real-life time pressures got in the way. I shouldn't have such RL time constraints for the next few months, but you never know. |
05-09-2006, 02:43 PM | #256 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Week 2: at New York
Our next opponent is the very capable New York Knights squad. They've been suffering from "Toro Syndrome" in that they've finished 2nd in their division in four of the last five seasons (their lone division title was in 2006 - on a tiebreaker with Hartford). They're always in the mix at the end of the season, largely due to veteran QB Kim Pace. Kim had a career year in 2009, posting a QB Rating of 101.8 on 30 TDs and just 4 INTs. Stopping the Knights means stopping Kim Pace, so we'll have our work cut out for us there. But stopping Pace got a bit harder as of last year when RB Brooks Creel was added to the roster. He ran for over 1200 yards and caught 580 yards worth of passes. It is hard to know who to key on, but we'll try to stop 'em both.
We've played New York only once before, a 24-19 win in 2006 at home. Considering the roster turnover since then, we've basically never played this team. Let's see how we do: Code:
That was one un-pretty game. The teams combined to average less than 3 yards per play, and "featured" 17 combined punts. A sad day for offensive football, indeed. I don't know if the weather was a factor (83 degrees, rain), but nobody seemed to be able to do anything with the ball. Drew Holliday had one of his worst games as a pro, Hogan was efficient but otherwise invisible, Pace was terrible (and now has 5 INTs in two games - one more than he had all of last year), and both Creel (now OUT for 5 weeks) and Keith were similarly ineffective. Blech. But the defenses deserve some of the credit here - we picked off three passes, pressured Pace five times, sacked him five times, and recovered one of Keith's two fumbles on the day. New York likewise held Holliday in check and recovered a Bradley punt return fumble (which would've given us our best starting field position of the day, dammit). The play of the day may well have been this 4th quarter punt: Code:
Forced to throw long passes with limited time, Pace chucked up his 3rd INT of the day two plays later. End of game. We did suffer one more injury in this game, unfortunately to a key contributor: Demetrius Higginbotham, He Who Possesses The Most Awesome Name, strained his patellar tendon and will miss about 5 weeks. That sucks. Our next game: vs. Sacramento. |
05-09-2006, 03:38 PM | #257 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Chicagoland
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Thanks for knocking Creel out.
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05-09-2006, 04:11 PM | #258 | |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Quote:
No problemo. Video replays suggest that nickelback Jeremy "Cheap Shot" Rosenberry, the man responsible for ending Lenny Olsen's season, was involved on the play. League officials have declined to comment on what, if any, disciplinary action will be taken. |
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05-09-2006, 04:12 PM | #259 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Oh, I almost forgot: the 499 total yards we rolled up against Las Vegas established a new team record. Our previous record was 478 yards, also against Las Vegas, back in 2007.
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05-09-2006, 10:37 PM | #260 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Week 2 Roundup
There were several interesting games this week, and many of them were of the down-to-the-wire variety. In fact, half of this week's 16 games were decided by a TD or less. On to the action:
Anchorage (1-1) pulled off an OT win at Memphis (0-1-1) despite themselves. Yes, the CFL is now into the second week of the regular season, but it would seem that Anchorage's management is unaware of that fact. They continue to trot out their 2nd and 3rd string players, while allowing their stars to rot on the bench (most notably QB Lane Manuel). Despite this apparent advantage, and the fact that they had homefield, Memphis managed to find a way to lose. The two primary goats: Stephen Metz, who fumbled twice including at the Anchorage 3 yard line in overtime, and kicker Carson Blume, who missed two field goal attempts, including a 50 yarder that would have won it in OT. Truly one of the more astonishing losses in CFL history. Final score, Anchorage 19, Memphis 16. Hartford (1-1) laid the wood to a Matthias-less Arizona (0-2)squad by the score of 40-3. This was the James Oberg show, as he went 28 for 32 for 353 yds and 2 TDs. Arizona's "offense" on the other hand only managed 162 total yards and was 1 for 10 on 3rd downs. Ugly. In other RoF action, Honolulu (2-0) kept pace with Tucson for 1st place via a 24-14 win over Atlantic City. The big stories in this one were Honolulu's running game, which piled up 229 yards, and a Kranz-to-O'Neal TD pass of 97 yards (2nd longest in league history, behind Landon Hurst's 98 yarder in 2004). The two-headed monster of Jeromy Donahue (12-73) and Toothpick Lang (12-79) combined with the usual excellence from Landon Hurst (19/28, 211 yds, 2 TDs), allowed Charleston (2-0) to come back against a plucky Long Beach (1-1) squad. Final score, 24-20. To beat reigning league champ Denver (1-1), Detroit (2-0) would need a near-perfect effort, and they got just that. Johnnie Titone played a nearly flawless game and the Vampire's defense got key interceptions off of Garibaldi when they needed 'em in a 38-24 win. San Antonio (2-0) pulled off an OT win at Boise, but that wasn't even the real story of this game. The real story was the early exit of Boise QB Branden Lin, who suffered a wrist sprain and may miss up to a month. Boise was a preseason favorite to claim at least a wildcard spot and possibly their division title, so an 0-2 start coupled with a loss of Lin puts their postseason hopes in serious jeopardy. Oh, and San Antonio played well and stuff. That's it for the subjectively-determined "interesting" key games of the week. There were, of course, other close games this week, but these were the ones that most grabbed my attention. |
05-09-2006, 11:00 PM | #261 |
Pro Rookie
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Location: Illinois
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Another note on the TUC-NYK game: by my count our defense held New York to just 35 total yards in the 2nd half. And we gained 158 of our total yards in the 2nd half.
Clutch. |
05-10-2006, 05:35 PM | #262 |
College Starter
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Thunderdome
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I said it over on the CFL and I have to say it here:
Carson Blume is my new hero, even though he sucks donkey balls. Memphis Sucks! |
05-11-2006, 09:36 PM | #263 |
Pro Rookie
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Location: Illinois
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An unexpected surprise
Much to my delight and surprise, Detroit released a very talented kicker and we were able to scoop him up. Hugo Eckard is a career 76.8% field goal kicker, which compares favorably with current kicker Rubin Castorena's 75.3%, but is far superior on kickoffs. Our scouts rate Eckard as 70/79 on distance and 59/67 on hang time, while Castorena only rates at 44/55 on distance and 13/13 on hang time. We've been giving up pretty bad field position on kickoffs for the past few seasons, so I'm delighted to see a quality kicker like Eckard become available. If I'd known he was available I would've considered trading a low round pick for him. To have him fall into our laps is a superb turn of luck.
For now, Castorena will handle field goals and Eckard will handle kickoffs. I've put Castorena on the market, but if there are no buyers we'll hang on to him until the offseason. |
05-12-2006, 03:19 AM | #264 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Sunny South of France
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Eckard was my kicker mentor and it pained me to release him, but unfortunately, I had no roster space for him...
__________________
Detroit Vampires (CFL) : Ve 're coming for your blood! Camargue Flamingos (WOOF): pretty in Pink |
05-12-2006, 11:07 AM | #265 | |
Pro Rookie
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Quote:
Thanks, fff! |
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05-12-2006, 11:36 PM | #266 |
Pro Rookie
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Location: Illinois
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Week 3: vs. Sacramento
We're 2-0 and are now facing a tough conference rival in Sacramento (1-1). We last faced them in week 8 of 2009 and won 14-6, upping our career record vs. them to 3-2. In that game we handcuffed their great QB Seymore Barre, resulting in a 16/35, 142 yd, 2 INT game for him. We got just enough offense to win that one, which helped to take some of the sting out of our 2008 playoff loss against them.
This time things are a bit different though, as Sacramento has supplanted Alexis Rounds with Butch Fulton. Butch, the source of some controversy this offseason, is a monster and our defense will have to be in tip top shape to handle both the Dragons' air and ground assault. We do have homefield in this one, so that'll help. Bah, enough talking. On to the game! Code:
A 30-17 score doesn't exactly scream "blowout," but that's what this game was: a blowout. By every measure we outperformed Sacramento in this one, and it was only as close as 13 points because of some questionable 4th quarter playcalling: Code:
Almost to the 2-minute warning, and we run the ball. Okay. 2nd and 5, with the clock stopped due to a SAC timeout, and what do we do? We pass it? Incomplete. OK, not so bright. Let's get the clock running again, shall we? No? We're throwing again?! Oh, and it is intercepted and returned 85 yards for a TD. I'm pretty sure that wasn't in the gameplan. Fortunately, that TD cost us nothing but a dent in Hogan's stats. His game was otherwise very efficient, and he now boasts a gaudy 75.2% completion percentage and a 103.0 QB Rating through 3 games. Holliday had another great game and now sits at 369 yards, good for 2nd in the league. The two of them helped us to control the ball for over 39 minutes. Oh, and the 251 rushing yards we collected is a new team record. And let's not overlook these stats: 1) we outgained Sacramento by nearly 300 yards; 2) we gained 20 more first downs; 3) we ran 34 more offensive plays. Our offense was clicking, it appears. As for our defense - what can I say? We held a good offensive team to under 200 total yards, and held Seymore Barre to just 45 yards on 5 of 14 passing (and held their team overall to just 58 total passing yards - a new franchise record). Butch Fulton had a decent game with 19 carries for 114 yards, but much of his damage came on a single 44 yard scamper - he was otherwise held reasonably in check. New kickoff specialist Hugo Eckard appeared to do well, limiting Sacramento to an average starting position of their own 23. Most importantly, he didn't deliver any 55-yard kickoffs that gave the opponent a short field like Castorena was prone to do. Oh, and no new injuries. A great all around game. Next up: at Oregon. Last edited by Fonzie : 05-12-2006 at 11:48 PM. |
05-15-2006, 11:52 AM | #267 |
Pro Rookie
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Location: Illinois
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Week 3 Roundup
A whopping nine games were decided by seven points or less this week. Five of those games featured scoring within the last two minutes, and three games were decided in overtime. An exciting week in the CFL!
A few select games worth some additional attention: Anchorage (1-2) continued their rudderless decline in a losing effort to Santa Cruz (1-2) by a margin of 23-21. Considering that they're still not playing most of their starters, it is astonishing that Anchorage made this one close at all. They'd likely be 2-1 right now with Lane Manuel under center. But credit must be given to SC's QB Ian Levine, who took advantage of the situation (unlike Memphis last week) and pulled out a win. 'Twas a back-and-forth affair between Atlantic City (2-1) and Baltimore (1-2), featuring three lead changes in the 4th quarter. Two of those lead swaps happened during the last 87 seconds of the game, with the finishing score being a 32-yard John Snell FG with :19 left on the clock to provide the winning margin, 27-26 for Atlantic City. This outcome was a bit of a surprise, given that Baltimore dominated in most statistical categories, including Total Yards, Time of Possession, 3rd-down conversion, and the all-important turnover battle. Still, some key special teams plays helped Atlantic City get field position at crucial times, and Baltimore committed thrice the number of penalties as Atlantic City. Denver (2-1) again needed to rely heavily on special teams play, most notably an 89-yd punt return by Curtis Plotkin, to stay alive in their battle with the Lin-less Boise Stampede (0-3). Denver actually got plenty of offense, with 443 total yards, but repeatedly shot themselves in the foot with 14 penalties for 128 yards. They were fortunate to be able to take the game into OT, where they eventually won on a 39-yd Gary Hutchins FG. Boise showed a bit more spunk than most expected after the loss of their leader, and Corey Durant filled in admirably under center. Boise, it should be noted, has now begun the season with three consecutive OT losses. That's probably a record, but I'm too lazy to look it up. Durham (1-2), a preseason favorite to win their division, finally got rid of the goose egg in their "Win" column with a tight, OT win over conference rival Detroit (2-1) by the score of 20-17. Detroit got their first lead of the game with 2:09 left in the 4th quarter via a Titone-to-Sauceda 13 yd TD strike, putting them up 17-14. Durham would not be denied, however, and quickly moved down the field to score on a Victor Hoke 45-yd FG. Hoke would strike again in OT, this time from a much more comfortable 22-yd kick, to secure the win. Fargo (2-1) knocked Seattle (2-1) from the ranks of the unbeaten by a 27-20 score at Seattle. Fargo QB Brett Hedges was a bit sharper today than all-world Seattle QB Charles Dever, racking up 342 passing yards and 2 TDs. Dever was in the process of leading Seattle on a 4th-quarter drive to tie the game when his 8 yd pass to FB Paris Kimmel turned into their only turnover of the day when Kimmel lost the ball, effectively ending the game. That was Kimmel's first fumble in over two seasons, but that's what you get when your name is "Paris." The resurgent Honolulu Bloodthirsty Beatles (3-0) won yet again, this time knocking off the El Paso Rockets by a score of 35-26 at El Paso. Randolph Kranz has been absolutely on fire this season, and this game was no different as he tossed 5 TD passes to account for all of Honolulu's scoring. He was extraordinarily efficient in this game, as evidenced by his 19 for 24 passing, Honolulu's 10 of 12 performance on 3rd-down conversions, and this drive chart: Code:
So, from the 2nd quarter on Honolulu's possessions either resulted in the end of the half or a TD. Damn. Not bad for a team many picked to languish near the bottom of the RoF. Most thought Arizona (1-2) had the win locked up over Long Beach (1-2) when they capped off their seven minute, 80-yd drive in the 4th quarter with a TD and left Long Beach with a 7-pt deficit and only :29 seconds on the clock. Buyt the allegedly nonexistent 4th-quarter comeback routine kicked in for Long Beach: Code:
The game thus went into OT and nearly resulted in a tie, but Freddie Matthias pulled this one out with a 25 yd TD strike to Rusty Connors with 1:58 left to play. Arizona 30, Long Beach 24. WFC powerhouses New York (1-2) and Charleston (2-1) met in what turned out to be a rain-drenched, low-scoring affair at Charleston. The Knights pulled this one out 13-10 by virtue of a Tobias Paschal 42-yd FG with just :28 left in the 4th quarter. Kim Pace continues to have a bewilderingly tough year, with 0 TD passes vs. 6 INTs, but today he did enough to get the upset win. Hartford (2-1) appears to be in mid-season form after dropping a shit-kicking on Shreveport (1-1-1) to the tune of a 42-7 romp. Most of Hartford's damage came from James Oberg, who threw for 353 yds and 5 TDs. Shreveport was down just 14-7 and driving when QB Douglas Hartman suffered a hyperextended knee and had to leave the game. And that is when the wheels flew off for Shreveport. Expect Hartman to miss the next two weeks or so. Tampa Bay's (3-0) big offseason acquisition, QB Josh Urrutria, is paying big dividends so far as they've won their first three games, including this one vs. Albany (1-2). The 26-17 final score doesn't really do justice to the Torpedoes' dominance in this one, who may have matured as a team a bit faster than most expected. |
05-16-2006, 11:30 AM | #268 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Week 4: at Oregon
Today we face the Oregon Ice (1-2), owned and operated by Grid Iron. We've only faced Oregon twice in our history, and not since 2007. We won both of those games, but that means little as our teams have both changed radically since our last contest. The Ice are led by QB Myron "Angie" Dickenson, a 2nd-year player whom you might remember from his extraordinary week 1 performance against Anchorage: 14 for 23, 436 yds, 4 TDs. Oregon loves to throw the deep ball, and it shows in Dickenson's 11+ yard per attempt average. His receivers are former Rocket and Flat Chris Chavez and two former Toros: Carl "Look Ma, No Hands!" Markey and Davis Hills. Hills and Chavez are in their first year with the Ice, but Carl joined them after the 2008 season and responded with 56 catches for a career-best 1304 yds and 12 TDs. If he'd performed like that for us we might not have let him leave via free agency. Anyway, Oregon's deep passing game gives me the willies - it will probably be the toughest test yet for our secondary.
Oregon has a very talented O-line who will be blocking for Toby Radke, a well-traveled running back for whom Oregon inexplicably traded a mint in the offseason. Radke has played for Hartford, Seattle, Cleveland, Fargo, and Chicago in his 8-year career, but has never gained more than 728 yards in a season (he started 16 games that year) and sports a career rushing average of 3.8 ypc. Despite this rather modest resume, GI obtained him from Chicago for the #9 overall pick in this year's draft (with which CHI selected super-safety Cornelius Drake), their 2nd rounder in 2012, and starting-quality WR Cornelius Webster. This trade sparked a bit of an uproar over at the CFL, with some players complaining about GI driving up the asking price for running backs, but GI remained confident that he didn't overpay for Radke and that his investment would pay off. So how has poor Toby fared? To date, he has run the ball 39 times for 195 yds and 1 TD. He has only one reception for 3 yds. A decent rushing average (5.0 ypc) for sure, but that's not much productivity for such an investment. The season's young though, so maybe he'll prove GI right yet. Anyway, enough of my babbling. Let's get to the action: Code:
Oh my. I didn't see that type of game coming, not at all. I was really worried that "Angie" would torch us with the deep ball all day long, but our secondary played tough and limited him to just 7 of 15 passing for 43 yds and 1 INT. Former Toro Daniel Downs came in to mop up for Angie and did a decent job against our backups, but the way our secondary, and our entire defense overall, played today is insane. In fact, we set a new team record for fewest yards allowed in a game with 124. I hope we can save some of this for later in the season. Oh, and you might be wondering how Toby Radke did. Seven carries for nine yards. One catch for six yards. One fumble. Our 6th career shutout was heavily helped by Hogan's otherworldly performance: 29 of 33. That brings his season completion rate up to a ridiculous 78.5%, and his 3 passing TDs are his most since week 1 of 2009. He did all of this without one of his top receivers, Demetrius Higginbotham, who is still out injured. Our running game was also solid, but Holliday had a fairly quiet day. The only imperfection in today's game is that we lost nickelback/reserve safety Waylon Ellsworth for a few weeks with a strained elbow. He hasn't done much for us so far, so his absence shouldn't be a big loss. I couldn't be happier with the outcome of today's game, especially considering that Oregon is no pushover. Our next opponent, the Seattle Thunderbirds, may prove to be our toughest test yet of this new season, as they feature two of the top offensive players in the league: QB Charles Dever and RB Burt Liszkiewicz. Last edited by Fonzie : 05-16-2006 at 12:49 PM. |
05-16-2006, 01:00 PM | #269 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Former Toros vs. the Toros
I mentioned above that Davis Hills and Carl Markey have both played for the Toros in the past. I neglected to mention that the Ice's backup TE, Ramon Sheehy, was our longtime starter at that position, and that their backup QB, Daniel Downs, was also an ex-Toro. This quartet likely represents the largest concentration of former Toro talent on an CFL team's offense., and so I thought it might be fun to check 'em out. They all saw game action, and here's how they did:
Hills: 3 catches/4 targets, 32 yds, 1 drop Markey: 1 catch/3 targets, 10 yds Sheehy: 1 catch/1 target, 6 yds Downs: 7/9 passing, 56 yds Not too bad, all things considered. Downs had an easier time of it than Dickenson, as he was facing our prevent package in the 4th quarter. Hills was OK, and Sheehy only saw spot action. The one guy who struggled a bit was Carl Markey, which especially pleased me. His inconsistency and dropsy-ways drove me nuts when he was on our team. Last edited by Fonzie : 05-16-2006 at 01:10 PM. |
05-17-2006, 12:32 PM | #270 |
Pro Rookie
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Location: Illinois
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Week 4 Roundup
If the theme of the CFL's Week 3 was "nail-biting excitement!", then Week 4's theme must be "proper nail grooming boredom." Week 3 featured seven games decided by three points or less, while Week 4 featured six games decided by twenty-five points or more. Before we get tothe blowouts, let's review the closer games:
Arizona (2-2) pulled of the upset at Seattle (2-2) by a 21-17 score. One might have expected an upset by the Outlaws to be spearheaded by Freddie Matthias, but that was not the case today. Unheralded RB Randall Coleman was the hero with a 26-113-3TD game. Seattle's two-headed monster of Dever and Liszkiewicz was uncharacteristically off today, and much of the credit for that must go to the Outlaws' defense. They picked off two Dever passes, held him to nearly 50% passing, and kept Liczkiewicz to 3.7 ypc. Good effort. Good teams are able to find ways to win even when they're outperformed by their opponents, and Tampa Bay (4-0) did exactly that in beating Memphis (0-3-1) 20-12. The Express outgained the Torpedoes 373-272, but the Torpedoes took advantage of good field position and a crucial fumble on the game's opening kickoff by Stephen "I Suck" Metz. Memphis should turn things around eventually, as their offense is quite good, but they've got to be frustrated with how their season has begun. Oh, what could have been for Boston (3-1)! They came up a TD short in a 31-24 loss to Detroit (3-1) at home, but they have only themselves to blame in this one. Specifically, they can blame their head coach, who attempted to convert 4th downs in their own territory twice in the first quarter. Detroit, astonishingly, was unable to get points out of either failure, but the loss of field position undoubtedly hurt Boston over the course of the game. Titone did throw for 3 TDs in this one, including a 76 yarder to Roderick Parker in the second quarter. Ten unanswered fourth quarter points are what provided the winning margin in Durham's (2-2) 27-17 win over San Antonio (3-1). Based on the stats, this game should've been a blowout, with the Bulldogs outgaining the Stingers 419-177, but the 'dogs kept finding ways to keep this one interesting. Edward Kimber had a solid day with 364 passing yards and 3 TDs, but his one interception was returned for a TD and helped keep the Stingers in the game. Penalties also short-circuited Durham's scoring drives, but in the end they pulled it out. Now on to the blowouts: With starting QB Douglas Hartman out for Shreveport (2-1-1), many thought this might be a good week for Baltimore (1-3) to pull off the upset. Unfortunately for them, Roman Grigg came on and had a career day for the Pride, going 24 of 36 for 288 yds and 2 TDs. Poor Phillip Barbieri has to be wondering when the Mack trucks are going to stop hitting him - this Bomber squad has enough talent on offense to put up some points, but they have collectively fallen flat this year. If the Bombers don't turn things around, one has to wonder if Barbieri will consider hanging it up next offseason. Hartford (3-1) opponents often swear they can hear "Darth Vader's Theme" when the Attack take the field, and I'm sure Chicago (0-4) was no different today. In fact, after suffering a 35-10 defeat at the hands of Hartford, Chicago probably felt like Luke Skywalker's severed hand, falling and falling and falling into the inky depths of Bespin's Cloud City (did I take this analogy far enough? No? Well then how about...). James Oberg's 296 yard, 4 TD performance was almost as sexy as Leia Organa in her Jabba The Hutt slave costume...yowza! Lane Manuel finally worked his way out of the Anchorage (1-3) doghouse, but he was clearly rusty in tossing four picks to Honolulu's (4-0) secondary in a 42-12 beat-down. Randolph Kranz tossed another 5 TDs today, and is tied for the league lead in TD passes at 14 with Oberg. Honolulu's early run has silenced their critics...for now. In a battle of teams without their leaders, Boise (1-3) topped Las Vegas (0-4) by a score of 35-6. Boise's Corey Durant filled in admirably for Branden Lin and chucked three TD passes. Vegas' Luke Alston, on the other hand, finished a miserable 8 for 21 with three INTs. The win gets Boise's season back on track, and with Lin likely to return soon the Ring of Ice had better be on guard. It was the Marcus Garibaldi show in Denver (3-1), as he threw for 3 TDs and ran in another in a 31-0 shutout of reeling Sacramento (1-3). Seymore Barre, on the other hand, can't seem to get it together this season. He has an ugly 2TD-5INT ratio and sports a Rating of 53.9. With this season apparently continuing his slump from last year (67.8 Rating), some league insiders are wondering if age is catching up to Barre. Oh, and Butch Fulton continues to underwhelm with a 14-41, one fumble day. Other scores from Week 4: Huntington Beach (3-1) 17, El Paso (1-3) 14 Fargo (3-1) 20, Long Beach (1-3) 9 Charleston (3-1) 24, New Orleans (1-3) 13 Albany (2-2) 17, New York (1-3) 9 Last edited by Fonzie : 05-17-2006 at 12:32 PM. |
05-17-2006, 12:52 PM | #271 |
College Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
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I think Honolulu and Tucson should now go into rebuilding mode!
nice writeup |
05-18-2006, 12:28 AM | #272 | |
Pro Rookie
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Location: Illinois
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Quote:
Thanks condors. And you're only one Milan Hogan injury away from getting your wish! |
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05-19-2006, 02:13 PM | #273 |
Pro Rookie
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Location: Illinois
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Week 5: at Seattle
Today we face an extraordinarily talented Seattle Thunderbirds team who, despite their talent, have managed to struggle throughout their history. Last year they finished 6-10, which is astounding considering that they have two of the top players in the league in QB Charles Dever (96/96) and RB Burt Liszkiewicz (79/80). Dever does it all - he's maxed out just about everywhere, and is a viciously dangerous scrambler. Seattle also has excellent talent at TE, WR, and all along their defensive front. In fact, I find it astounding that anybody ever beats this team, yet they have a career record of 44-73. I can only scratch my head and wonder why they've struggled so. We're 3-2 against them overall, and our last matchup was a 31-21 loss in 2009.
We need a win here if we hope to keep pace with the blistering hot Honolulu Blue Pacific. Code:
Well, damn. We came mighty close in this one, holding the lead until 1:29 was left in the game, but in the end Dever performed his magic and snuck out the win. Dever was the difference in this one - we held both Seattle's running game (18 carries, 70 yards) and their passing game (20/37, 199 yds) in check. But Dever used his feet to devastating effect, scrambling 5 times for 60 yards to keep several drives alive. Hats off to Seattle. We helped them out a bit with some sloppy play and questionable playcalling. Hogan's two INTs were very uncharacteristic, as he hasn't done that in exactly one year. Our O-line had trouble containing Seattle's impressive defensive front, allowing four sacks. We also fumbled the ball three times, but fortunately we managed to recover each of those. But what disturbed me most about this game was how little Drew Holliday was involved - just 14 carries, vs. his backup's 9 carries? That's messed up, and is one of the things that led me to fire my old coach. I've tried like hell to structure the depth charts in such a way as to maximize Holliday's carries, but every once in a while the coach seems to forget that Holliday exists. Truly bizarre, and that's especially bad because we stand a much better chance of winning if we can feed him the ball 25 or so times per game. Also strange was Hogan's reliance on the really, really deep ball. His two INTs were on 40-50 yard bombs, and that's neither his M.O. nor consistent with our gameplan. Alas. Despite these miscues, we still had a chance to win this game. Special teams both helped and killed us today. We were staked to an early lead by Hodges' 99 yard kickoff return to start the game. But then our stupid kicker missed two FGs. They were long attempts (48 and 54 yards), but that's why we keep his stupid ass around. He's got a strong leg and decent accuracy, so we expect him to hit at least 50% of those long shots. He failed on both tries today, and likely cost us the game. Prick. Next up: vs. Anchorage. Last edited by Fonzie : 05-19-2006 at 02:15 PM. |
05-22-2006, 11:37 AM | #274 |
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Week 5 Roundup
Chicago (0-5) threatened to upset the balance of the cosmos when they took a 10-3 lead over Boston (4-1) in the 2nd quarter, but then the universe righted itself and Boston scored 20 unanswered points to win 23-10. Boston won with a balanced attack, but the 10 penalties have to be a concern for the coaching staff.
Roman Grigg's second start in place of Douglas Hartman came against much tougher competition in Charleston (4-1), who were ultimately too much for Grigg and Shreveport (2-2-1). Final score: Charleston 17, Shreveport 9. Shreveport led 3-0 for most of the 1st half, but Landon Hurst nailed a 6-yard TD pass with 1:00 left to take a lead that Charleston never relinquished. Charleston was fortunate that Shreveport's offense is in disarray, as that helped them to overcome three Toothpick Lang fumbles. A preseason favorite to at least make the playoffs, Durham (2-2-1) was frustrated by an inferior opponent in Baltimore (1-3-1) and had to settle for a 17-all tie. Edward Kimber eliminated his turnover-proneness, but the passing game stalled for Durham and their pass D allowed Baltimore's Phillip Barbieri enough space to throw for 294 yards and a TD. El Paso (2-3) made a statement with their 35-20 win over Tulsa (3-1). Dustin Hayes was an efficient 30 of 37 for 297 yardsa and 4 TDs, and Jeff Reid had his first career 100 yard rushing day. Tulsa, meanwhile, converted one of just three 3rd-down attempts (is that a record low for attempts?), and lost three turnovers to short-circuit their offense. San Antonio (4-1) took a nifty 24-7 lead into the last of the 4th quarter, then had to hold on for dear life as Memphis' (0-4-1) Blaine Hoffman engineered two TD drives in the last 5 minutes. Memphis ultimately came up three points short in a 24-21 Stingers win. Carson Blume missed his only FG attempt for Memphis. Randolph Kranz continued to set the WFC on fire with his 18 of 28, 260 yd, 4 TD performance, which led Honolulu (5-0) over Oregon (1-4). The final score was 38-13. Kranz now has 18 TDs vs. just 2 INTs. Despite the lopsided score, there was one bright spot for Oregon: their running game. They rushed 41 times for 187 yards on a Honolulu defense that can be soft against the run. Tampa Bay (5-0) was able to remain one of two undefeated teams in the CFL, but just barely. They needed a 50-yd Felton Cooper FG with :06 left to pull out a 22-21 victory over the surprising New Orleans Raging Horde (1-4). Tampa's offense racked up plenty of yards (451), but they nearly killed themselves with a whopping 13 penalties for 104 yards. The coaches will have to clean up their play if they're to keep winning. Elsewhere: Atlantic City (3-1) 19, Cleveland (0-4) 14 Fargo (4-1) 22, Huntington Beach (3-2) 10 Arizona (3-2) 20, Las Vegas (0-5) 13 Sacramento (2-3) 13, Long Beach (1-4) 6 Detroit (4-1) 17, New York (1-4) 6 Denver (4-1) 20, Santa Cruz (1-3) 10 Last edited by Fonzie : 05-22-2006 at 01:14 PM. |
05-22-2006, 09:33 PM | #275 |
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05-23-2006, 01:41 PM | #276 |
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Week 6: vs. Anchorage
Anchorage (1-4) is a tough team to figure out. They have some real talent on offense, especially in QB Lane Manuel, who was apparently in the owner's doghouse early this year and didn't play (read: their owner was AWOL, didn't tell anybody, and left his preseason lineup in place). Manuel got his first start of the season against Honolulu two weeks ago and got clobbered. In part, that might have been because Manuel was the only regular starter in the lineup (most of the others were still inactive or on the bench, for whatever reason). That problem appears to have been corrected, as all of their starters were seen practicing this week (read: the lineups were reset at the midweek transaction). Wouldn't you know they got their act together just in time for our matchup?
So much the better. We'll see if we can do against their starters what everyone else has done against their backups. Code:
Our defense came to play today and gave poor Lane Manuel another stomping. The poor guy was just 9 of 39 passing for 148 yds, 1 TD, 2 INTs, 2 sacks, 11 hurries and 10 passes defensed. And when he wasn't getting crushed, his receivers were playing hot potato with his passes, dropping the ball 7 times. Not his day. Our offense played decently, but we made too many mistakes that resulted in penalties (numerous O-holding and false start calls) and we were lucky to avoid losing just one of our three fumbles. Holliday has averaged just 5.3 fumbles per year for the last three seasons, but this year he's already up to 4. Nevertheless, Holliday's solid effort put him atop the league leaders in rushing with 622 yards. Hogan had another excellent outing, aside from his one interception. And FB Corwin Jeffries came out of nowhere to catch 8 passes for 99 yards, including a 35 yarder that he caught 30 yards downfield! I don't recall inserting any wrinkles into the game plan that required Jeffries to run a deep pattern, but whatever, it worked! Our O-line troubles seemed to be restricted to the penalties, as we only allowed one sack and had a sufficient number of KRBs. The penalty problem was likely a result of resting LT Chris Frank, who has a strained tricep muscle. We started 4th-year pro Stan Lyle in his place, and he performed adequately (1 of 3 on KRBs, 0 sacks). He may get the nod again next week - we'll have to see how adventurous I'm feeling. I can't say enough good things about our defense. They've been playing out of their minds all season long. The only downer about this game is that starting SS Mitchel Enoch, who had one of today's two interceptions, strained an abdominal muscle and is doubtful for next week's matchup with Honolulu. That's a bummer, but at least we'll have backup Waylon Ellsworth returning from his own injury to pick up the slack. Next week: a battle for 1st place in the RoF at 6-0 Honolulu! Last edited by Fonzie : 05-23-2006 at 03:04 PM. |
05-30-2006, 01:05 PM | #277 |
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Week 7: at Honolulu
I've been away on a "family trip" (don't you dare call it a vacation - not with a 3 year-old in tow), and so I've got a few games to get caught up on here. This first one is a huge game and will likely go a long ways towards determining the ultimate RoF champion. Honolulu is 6-0 and riding Randolph Kranz's amazing start to the season. He has single-handedly lifted them up from likely 4th-place finish to division title favorites. If we're to win here, we'll have to contain him.
I quickly scanned the film from Honolulu's previous games, and it has become obvious that they like to throw on 1st downs. That will be the key to stopping them, methinks. Doing so will be quite a challenge for us, as we'll be playing without starting safety Mitchel Enoch, arguably our best player in the secondary. He's out with an abdominal strain. Wuss. On to the action! Code:
No comment. |
05-30-2006, 01:30 PM | #278 |
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Week 8: vs. Boise
Last week's drubbing at the hands of division-rival Honolulu was not only dispiriting, but it cost us the services of WR Demetrius Higginbotham (again), who hyperextended his knee late in the game (why was he even on the field during blowout time? grumble...grumble...). We need to rally, quickly, to keep this season from spiraling out of control. We started off magnificently, building a 4-0 record, but now find ourselves at 5-2 and two games behind Honolulu. A win at home against one of the league's best QBs would be just the medicine we need.
That, however, is going to be tough to pull off. We'll still be without S Mitchel Enoch, and now we're also without our nickel corner "Cheap Shot" Rosenberry, who appears to be suffering from a bad case of karma. Our secondary has been bolstered by some free agent acquisitions, but neither player has the talent or experience to truly make up for the loss of Enoch and Rosenberry. On the plus side, we'll be getting starting LT Chris Franck back. A key to this game will be getting Drew Holliday considerably more than 7 carries (I still can't believe he only got 7 carries last game, while his backup got 9. His PT is set to 9, ferchrissakes!). He'll probably need at least 20 for us to have a chance in this one. On to the action! Code:
Well, damn. That wasn't quite what we were looking for. A close loss to one of the top QBs in the league is certainly nothing to be ashamed of, but I'm very worried about our suddenly inept defense. Playing without two key contributors in the secondary is a big part of the problem, I'm sure, but it would be nice to see us at least slow somebody down a bit. Giving up 354 yards passing is simply unacceptable. But perhaps I shouldn't be quite so hard on my defense. We just went through a stretch of playing against a "Who's Who" of quarterbacks in the CFL. We played against Charles Dever (96/96), Lane Manuel (81/83), Randolph Kranz (75/78) and Branden Lin (89/89). I guess I shouldn't be surprised that were only able to snatch one win out of those four games. That we were able to win one game, keep two games within two points, and only lose one blowout is probably a testament to our defense, rather than an indictment. Sadly, it isn't going to get any easier for those poor guys: over the second half of the season we play Dwayne Bridges (83/83), James Oberg (86/86), Colin Sawyer (74/74), Marcus Garibaldi (69/69), Freddie Matthias (twice - 88/90) and Randolph Kranz (again). Our defense is certainly going to have its work cut out for it. Back to the present game: I'm at a loss as to why our coach continues to underutilize Drew Holliday. 16 carries for 69 yards is not going to get it done. We were running effectively against Boise, and weren't down by such huge deficits that we'd need to completely abandon the running game, yet we did anyway. Frustrating. The three bright spots in this game were "Colonel" Hogan's effectiveness through the air (25/37, 324 yds, 3 TDs), Sydney Armitage's 1st 100-yd game as a Toro (7-121-2 TDs), and the fact that we suffered no new significant injuries. Yippee. Next up: at Las Vegas. |
05-30-2006, 02:55 PM | #279 |
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Mid-season Evaluation
We've reached the halfway point of the 2010 CFL season, and so a little self-reflection is in order. The data:
Code:
I'm relatively pleased with our team's overall statistical performance on both sides of the ball. Our offense has slowed down a bit over the last few games, but we're still in the top 10 in rushing ypc and rank 11th with 7.61 ypa (a number I'm more than happy with, given Hogan's limitations as a passer). Those are the two of the most important numbers in evaluating a team, in my view, and as such I'm pretty happy with what I've seen so far. One comment: a 7.61 ypa ranking just 11th in the league is pretty amazing. There are currently nine teams averaging 8.0 ypa or more this season. That's damned crazy. The biggest concern I have on offense is how careless we've become with the ball. Eleven turnovers isn't awful, but Hogan's 7 INTs represent the most he's thrown in the last 2 seasons. He last threw more than 7 in 2007, when he offered up 13. In fact, he's on pace for 14 INTs, which would be the most he's thrown in any year since his inaugural year's performance (21 in 2003). He's gotta keep that ball under control if we're to have a chance. On the flip side, we've only forced nine turnovers, which isn't going to get it done. We've done pretty well in the "average" categories of ypc and ypa, but we need to force more turnovers, period. Our defense is too good to settle for just one turnover per game. Now for the individual performances: Code:
The "Colonel's" 71.3% completion is tops in the league, and his 7.68 ypa is a career-high. However, his tendency to surrender the ball this year is worrisome, as he's really not the kind of QB who can be relied on to rally a team from a substantial deficit. Still, I can't really complain about his performance. He is, after all, rated in the bottom-third of starting QBs in the league, and to coax a 98.0 QB Rating (good for 6th in the league) out of a QB with such limited talent is satisfying. Code:
Drew Holliday is on track to have an average season (~330 carries and 1500+ yards). His TDs are down a bit this year, but hopefully that will get fixed over the 2nd half. I'd still prefer that he get more carries, but it seems that no matter what I do to my depth charts the coach wants to get backup Daryl Bradley 7-10 carries. Bradley's certainly a capable back, but I'd rather those carries be going to Holliday. Drew is currently ranked 4th in the league in rushing yards. Code:
TE Anthony Torres is having a breakout year, and is tied for 4th in the league in receptions. FB Corwin Jeffries is also on pace to shatter his personal best season of 49 catches for 373 yards. I'd be dissatisfied with our reliance on short-yardage passing to these targets, but they've both managed decent yards/catch averages. Sydney Armitage is on pace to have his best-ever season, and Daryl Bradley has done a decent job of filling in for the injured Higginbotham. Overall, a solid effort by our receiving corps. If we can get Higginbotham back to full health I think we'll improve our passing attack over the 2nd half of the season. Code:
Our starters have completed 39.1% of their KRB opportunities, a fairly solid number. But we've allowed Hogan to be sacked 17 times, which is a pace that would best his career record of 33 in 2003. Pitman, arguably our best lineman, has already allowed 5 sacks, which is more than he's allowed in any full season dating back to his first full year as a starter, in 2006 (when he allowed 10). He's got to tighten up his pass protection to keep old man Hogan upright. I'm sure part of the pass-protection problems we're having stems from the fact that we have three relatively young players in our interior, including first-year starter Casey Reeves (whose performance I've been thrilled with). I think they'll all come around and should be together for a good long while, but in the meantime those sack percentages need to come down across the board. Code:
Winters is having a decent year, but I'd like to see an improvement in his average considering he has a strong leg (79 in kicking strength). He should also be doing better at nailing the coffin-corner kicks, as he's rated as 100 in directional punting. Still, 14 out of 35 ain't too bad. Castorena has missed a few from 40+, but has also nailed a few from 50+. As always, he's a mixed bag. Code:
There haven't been any huge standout performers on the defensive side of the ball this year. Enoch was off to a great start, but has missed the last two games. Stoltzfus continues to get good pressure on the QB, but can't seem to get sacks. Biggs is again among the league leaders in passes defensed. For as well as our D has played this year, they're capable of being even better. It'll be tough to get a better performance out of them, though, considering the quality of QBs we'll be playing over the final 8 games of the season. Playing a 1st-place schedule is certainly taking its toll on us. In sum, there's plenty of room for improvement with this team, but I'm not sure how much improvement we're likely to see with such a tough schedule ahead of us. Getting Enoch and Higginbotham back will help immensely, but we'll also need to keep everyone else healthy (which is not likely to happen). At this point I'd be happy if we could finish 10-6 with a wild card berth. But with a very difficult schedule over the second half even that type of finish looks to be a bit out of our reach right now. We've got to improve, especially on defense, to have a chance at the playoffs. Last edited by Fonzie : 05-30-2006 at 03:02 PM. |
05-30-2006, 03:06 PM | #280 |
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Injury news
In what can only be deemed a gift from the CFL gods, Honolulu QB Randolph Kranz was injured in their game with Arizona today and will be out for three weeks.
Some are wondering if the gods were displeased with the way SkyDog was disrespecting Ronnie Tu. I say they weren't - for if they were they would've taken Kranz out for the rest of the season. Also, our next opponent, the Las Vegas Rounders, continued their amazing trend of losing starters for the season. This week they lost starting FS Don Grider for 10 weeks. That makes no less than six starters either on or headed for the IR (including, of course, QB Lenny Olsen). They have a total of 14 players on the injury report, the poor slobs. |
05-30-2006, 11:46 PM | #281 |
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Week 8 Roundup
Because I was out of town, I'm skipping the week 7 roundup (which is now ancient history). On to week 8 in the CFL:
Even though Atlantic City (5-2) dominated Albany (4-3) in terms of ToP (36:16-23:44), total yards (353-265) and won the turnover battle (1-0), they still needed QB Colin Sawyer to engineer a 96-yard TD drive in the last 2 minutes of the game to eek out a 22-21 win at home. Albany's RB Archie Chasser single-handedly kept this game close, with a gritty 24-122-2 TD performance. Alan Spearman's 4-yd TD plunge in OT capped a 72-yard drive and secured a 23-17 win for Hartford (5-2) over division rival Boston (5-2). Hartford overcame three James Oberg INTs and 10 4th-quarter Boston points. The Yankee Division now features three 5-2 teams. This week's edition of the Charleston (6-2) - Durham (3-4-1) rivalry was one for the record books, and will undoubtedly be the stuff of nightmares for their respective defensive coordinators. Durham pulled out a 47-36 win that saw the teams combine for over 900 total yards. Most of the damage came through the air, as both Hurst and Kimber went over 300 yards. Kimber, in particular, was on fire today, posting a nifty 15/26, 343, 4TD-1INT day. Long Beach (2-5) built up an improbable 23-0 lead late in the 3rd quarter against Denver (5-2), and then withstood a furious Marcus Garibaldi comeback to win 23-17. Don Terrell's 34-162-1TD day fueled the Long Beach effort. Honolulu (8-0) managed to pull off a 20-13 win over division rival Arizona (3-4) despite losing star QB Randolph Kranz late in the 2nd quarter. The score was tied at 10 when Kranz went down, and amazingly Arizona was unable to stop backup QB Carlos Burton, who threw for a TD and engineered another FG drive. Arizona's Freddie Matthias continues to perplex league experts, who think he has the talent to be one of the best QBs in the league. His 15/36, 126 yd, 1TD - 2INT performance today kept everyone scratching their heads, wondering when (or if?) he will finally realize his potential. Butch Fulton and Seymore Barre appear to be finally hitting their strides for Sacramento (5-3), who beat division rival Huntington Beach (4-4) 31-21. Fulton's 35-134-1 TD day continues a streak of four straight games of solid efforts from him, including 487 rushing yards, 305 passing yards, and three total TDs. And Barre's sprained knee couldn't stop him from a 22/25, 236 yd, 3TD-1INT performance, easily his best game of the year. San Antonio's (4-4) struggles continued today against Tampa Bay (6-2), with the latter beating the former 24-7. The Stingers appear to have trouble getting Ernest Lorenzo assimilated into the offense, as his 2 INTs and 8 sacks today would suggest. The score might've been respectable had Stinger's kicker Alvarado not missed all three FG attempts (from 36, 49 and 54). Tampa's defense deserves credit for taking advantage of San Antonio's weaknesses and making things relatively easy for their offense. Seattle (4-3) barely survived a spirited effort from downtrodden Las Vegas (0-8), and needed two Darrell Styblo FGs in the last 96 seconds to secure a 16-13 win against the league's only winless team. Despite having offensive weapons Charles Dever and Burt Liszkiewicz at their disposal, Seattle couldn't score an offensive TD. Their only TD on the day was a 45-yd interception return by S Ernest Cobb. Elsewhere this week: Chicago (1-7) 31, New York (1-6) 30 Detroit (6-2) 31, Cleveland 13 Shreveport (4-2-1) 27, New Orleans (2-5) 7 Anchorage (3-4) 24, Oregon (2-6) 17 Tulsa (5-2) 30, Santa Cruz (1-5-1) 6 Last edited by Fonzie : 05-31-2006 at 09:27 AM. |
06-02-2006, 01:59 PM | #282 |
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Week 9: at Las Vegas
The first half of our season had its share of disappointments, but we look to get back on track versus a team that leads the league in disappointments. Las Vegas had dreams of a postseason berth before the season began, but the loss of their starting QB destroyed their season. They've piled up a variety of other injuries to key players and are but a shell of the team they'd be if healthy. Accordingly, they're the only winless team in the league (0-8). They've turned the reins over to rookie QB Roderick "Rosie" Palmer, who has looked decent in his first two starts.
Given our recent struggles, I'm looking for a strong showing against Vegas to restore my confidence in this team. We need a win to keep pace with Honolulu, and hopefully we can make up some ground on them as they'll be playing Boise without their star QB Randolph Kranz. Further, we need to beat this struggling Vegas squad by double-digits for me to feel like we have a solid team with a reasonable shot at the postseason. On to the action! Code:
We weren't as dominant as the score might suggest, but I'll take a 27-7 win any day. Our offense did a good job of chewing up the clock, our defense tortured poor Roderick "Rosie" Palmer (13/35, 177 yds, 1 INT, 5 sacks) and made three 4th-down stops, and special teams did a good job of maintaining field position. I was disturbed to see that we didn't return any punts, but we were signaling for fair catches all the time because their punter only averaged 34.5 yds. Overall a solid, but not spectacular game. The only new injury of note was to our best offensive lineman, RT Matthew Pitman. He suffered a sprained back and is Out for 5 weeks. That sucks, but at least we've got the bye week to help get him healthy. By the time we play our next game he should be the only starter we have unavailable. We'll need every warm body we can get, too, as when we return to action we'll play a divisional game against Arizona and then three straight games against playoff teams (Hartford, Boston, and defending champion Denver). Next up: Bye week. |
06-05-2006, 11:00 AM | #283 |
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Week 9 Roundup
Seattle (5-3) retained sole possession of 1st place in the Ring of Ice division with a solid 24-10 win over Anchorage (3-5). Seattle's defense forced three turnovers and the Dever/Liszkiewicz tandem put forth their usual good efforts to secure the win. Poor Lane Manuel continues to look lost out there...
El Paso (4-3-1) reached up from the depths of 4th place (they are, by the way, clearly the best 4th place team in the league) and knocked defending champs Denver (5-3) from their 1st place tie with Tulsa by the score of 17-10. Dustin Hayes' 258 passing yards and 1 TD sparked the Rockets' offense, and the Rockets pass defense kept Marcus Garibaldi frustrated all day (18/37, 148 yds, 1 INT). The Rockets were also 10/17 on 3rd-down conversions. A nice win for them. It appears that Santa Cruz (1-6-1) ate their Wheaties this morning and very nearly knocked off a superb Fargo (5-3) team. The Privateers led 10-6 entering the 4th quarter, and the heavily-favored Boxcars needed 17 4th quarter points to lock up a 23-17 win. The key play in this game was a 4th-quarter 75-yd catch-and-run TD pass from Hedges to Eklund (74 YAC!). Santa Cruz outgained Fargo 408-259, and Quentin Larrabee showed that he might just belong in this league with a 22/33, 273 yd, 2 TD performance. However, his 3 INTs contributed to a whopping 5 turnovers on the day for Santa Cruz, and spelled their doom. Credit goes to Fargo for pulling out a win when they weren't playing their best. James Oberg threw for 3 more TDs in a 34-12 Hartford (6-2) romp over Albany (4-4). Alan Spearman chipped in 122 rushing yards. Albany picked up quite a few passing yards in garbage time to make this one look statistically closer than it was (396 yds for Hartford to 356 for Albany). The Norm Fisk Development Project continues though, and he looks to be ready for a breakout next year. Boise (5-3) rolled to an easy 33-17 win over a Kranz-less Honolulu (8-1) squad. Without their star QB, Honolulu struggled to get just 223 yds of offense and was 10 of 29 passing with 3 INTs. Boise, on the other hand, gained 453 total yards, including 308 yds passing and 3 TDs from Branden Lin. Look for Kranz to miss at least one more game. The down-and-out New York Knights (2-6) pulled off the upset of the week at Atlantic City (5-3) by the score of 19-7. New York won with a solid ground game (128 yards) and a stingy defense (201 yds allowed, 3 INTs, 1 INT returned for a TD). Colin Sawyer threw all 3 of his INTs in 4th quarter, and two were from deep in their own territory. Bad day for the Phantoms. Durham's (3-5-1) struggles continued in a 31-16 loss at home against Shreveport (5-2-1). Edward Kimber was forced to sit this one out with a pulled groin, and his backup Kenneth Lester was not up to the task today. On their first drive of the day he fumbled the ball at their own 24, and then he threw two 2nd-quarter INTs from deep in Durham territory to give Shreverport excellent field position (avg. start: OWN 47). Shreveport took advantage of Lester's generosity and rolled up a 24-6 halftime lead. Tampa Bay (7-2) started off their game with Baltimore (3-4-1) in style, with Josh Urrutria connecting with Trent Muir on a 79-yd TD on the first play from scrimmage. But Baltimore answered immediately and ultimately forced the game into OT. Baltimore won the coin toss, but Jonathan Sill fumbled away the ball on the first play of OT, at their 30. Tampa immediately scored on a 19-yd Artie Randle scamper. Final score: Tampa Bay 26, Baltimore 20. The first half of the Tulsa (6-2) - Long Beach (2-6) game went according to script, with Tulsa holding a 14-3 halftime lead. Long Beach scored a FG and a TD + 2pt conversion in the second half while holding Tulsa scoreless to force OT. Tulsa nearly wrapped it up with :10 left in the 4th quarter, but K Schanding had a 27-yd FG attempt blocked. His teammates picked him up, though, by capping off a 71 yd drive with a 1-yd George Welton TD plunge for the win in OT. Elsewhere in the CFL this week: Oregon (3-6) 24, Arizona (3-5) 13 Boston (6-2) 28, Cleveland (1-7) 3 Charleston (7-2) 7, Memphis (1-6-1) 6 New Orleans (3-5) 27, San Antonio (4-5) 22 Last edited by Fonzie : 06-05-2006 at 11:02 AM. |
06-09-2006, 12:54 AM | #284 |
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Ugh.
I've been sick as a dog these last several days, so I haven't written anything up of late. Couple that with the fact that tomorrow I'm heading out of town until next Tuesday, and it appears that there won't be a Week 10 roundup. Sorry. The most important thing to know is that Honolulu and Las Vegas battled to a 3-3 tie last week. Fans of punting wept at the beautiful display. |
06-14-2006, 11:56 AM | #285 |
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Week 11 vs. Arizona
I'm back from yet another "family trip" and have two weeks worth of exciting CFL action to catch up on here. So let's get right to it, shall we?
Arizona is struggling again this season and sits at 4-5, which puts them in 3rd place in the RoF. They are, however, still a very dangerous team, as demonstrated by their offensive explosion last week vs. Anchorage. They pulled out a 45-38 win, led by Freddie Matthias' career-high 479 passing yards and 5 TDs. Obviously, we'll need to prevent a repeat of that performance to beat the Outlaws. We'll be without a key starter on the O-line, Matthew Pitman, who suffered a strained back against Vegas. We'll also be without "Cheap Shot" Rosenberry. But on the plus side we're getting Demetrius Higginbotham back, which should in theory help out our passing game a bit. On to the action! Code:
That was a very workmanlike performance, but I'll take it. Both offenses were off their games today, but we managed to get just enough out of ours to secure the win. "Colonel" Hogan was efficient in guiding the offense, but 3 for 13 on 3rd down conversions is not acceptable. And while our running game overall did well, I'm worried about Daryl Bradley getting 10 carries to Drew Holliday's 18. I'd much rather Drew get closer to 23 and Daryl 5. Long-time readers will note that this has periodically been a problem for me in managing this team, and I'm yet again stumped as to a solution. Holliday's PT is set to 9 and he has decent endurance (81/87), so I'm left scratching my head. It was nice to get a defensive TD (our first of the season), our pass defense did a great job on Matthias (19/37, 192 yds), and our run D held them to just 2.7 ypc. An overall solid effort from the defense, though I would still like to see more than one turnover per game. And for once we managed to get through a game relatively unscathed. No new injuries of significance. Happy happy. So now we sit at 7-3, 1.5 games behind the 8-1-1 Honolulu Bloodthirsty Beagles, and facing a horrendous stretch of games: vs. Hartford (8-2), at Denver (7-3) and at Boston (7-3). We'll need to win at least two of those three to hang with Honolulu. If we come out of that sequence at 8-5 we're probably looking at a Wild Card berth (at best), and if we lose all three to fall to 7-6, we're probably done. |
06-14-2006, 12:44 PM | #286 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
|
Week 12 vs. Hartford
Hartford is one scary team. They sit atop their division at 8-2, with their two losses fairly close (by a total of 9 points). They are led by one of the league's best QBs in James Oberg, and feature one of the league's best running backs in Alan Spearman. They have a solid recieving corps, a good O-line, a great D-line, and a solid secondary. In short, this team has no holes.
I take that back - they do have one hole on their O-line. All-world center Leonel Lewis (77/77) has been out with a sprained ankle, and is replaced by second-year undrafted FA Jumbo Juedes (27/39). Getting pressure up the middle will thus be key to disrupting their offense, and Harold Stoltzfus is just the man for that job. I expect Harold to have a huge day, and we've geared our gameplan to maximize that likelihood. Coming into this game our only injury of note is to RT Matthew Pitman, who remains sidelined with a strained something-or-other. He was replaced by Stan Lyle last week, who held up well (2/5 on KRB, 0 sacks). We'll need him to play well again. We are also getting "Cheap Shot" Rosenberry back to help out with our nickel packages, which we plan to utilize heavily to slow down Oberg and company. On to the action! Code:
That wasn't very good. The first Hartford drive of this game pretty much determined how this one would play out: on the 3rd play from scrimmage they knocked out Harold Stoltzfus. On the 4th play from scrimmage they knocked out Cheap Shot Rosenberry. In the blink of an eye our entire defensive gameplan was shredded, and I knew that we were gonna get blown out the moment I saw Stoltzfus go down. While we were able to stop them on that drive, that would be the last time we'd do so until well into the 3rd quarter. I was actually somewhat pleased with our performance against Oberg, as his 22/37 for 251 yds and 2 TDs day was arguably his worst performance in over a month. If only we'd had our nickel back and best pass rusher available, we might have further disrupted their passing game. I also have to wonder if Alan Spearman would've been able to bust his 69-yd TD run with Stoltzfus in there (who is also our best run defender). Take away that scamper and Hartford's rushing day was just 26 carries for 84 yards. Alas, we cannot take away that scamper. Hartford deserves credit for taking advantage of the holes in our defense, and for stifling Hogan's passing game. He was truly dreadful today, repeatedly throwing into double coverage or checking down to the fullback when we needed big yardage. Frustrating. But at least backup Kent Goodwin got some PT today, and looked reasonable. As for our running game, I'm about to track down Jim Gindin and strangle him. Why, oh why, must it be so difficult to get a starting running back the bulk of the carries? Holliday, whose PT is set to 9, got 13 carries while backup Daryl Bradley got 12. One might be tempted to think that Bradley's carries primarily came during garbage time, but they did not. Four of his carries were in the 1st quarter, and his first carry of the second quarter looked like this: Code:
Thanks, Daryl. But on a happier note Drew Holliday went over the 1000 yard mark today for the fifth consecutive year. Congratulations, Drew! But back to the negatives: adding injury to insult, we lost our second-best O-lineman today in LG Ross Poplawski (70/70), who will miss six weeks with a strained adductor muscle. He may well be done for the regular season. And to recap the injuries from today, Stoltzfus is out for 4 weeks, and Rosenberry for 2. Pitman is still questionable. From an injury perspective, things aren't looking so good for the good guys. Too many key contributors hurt. In fact, I'm starting to think that this team just isn't as good as I was thinking it would be. We finished 12-4 last year and I thought that we improved our talent level in the offseason, but we've already notched as many losses this year as last. Some of this shabby performance can be chaulked up to random rolls of the dice, I'm sure, but I think it is telling that in our matchups against two of our toughest foes (Hartford and Honolulu) we got blown out in both. It appears that we'll have to adjust our expectations and set our sights on getting a Wild Card berth. Next up: at Denver. Last edited by Fonzie : 06-14-2006 at 01:04 PM. |
06-15-2006, 08:51 AM | #287 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Chicagoland
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Hartford is so rough. I'm absolutely elated that I split with them this season.
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06-15-2006, 04:59 PM | #288 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Week 12 Roundup
Tulsa (6-5) was able to hang with Detroit (9-2) right up until the very end. With Detroit leading 21-16 and 2:00 left on the clock, Tulsa had to punt. Unfortunately for them, Earle Cabral's punt was blocked and recovered in the end zone to provide Detroit with their final TD. Final Score: Detroit 28, Tulsa 16. Johnnie Titone did his part to keep Tulsa in the game, completing just over half of his passes and throwing 3 INTs, but Tulsa was not able to capitalize on Titone's off-game. Detroit held them to just 254 total yards.
The allegedly non-existent 4th quarter comeback routine allowed Honolulu (9-1-1) to turn a 17-10 deficit against Boston (7-4) into a 20-17 win. A Kranz-to-Mendes 43 yd TD bomb with 87 seconds left provided the final margin of victory. Dwayne Bridges appeared to have Boston on the way to at least a tying field goal after a 33-yd completion to the Honolulu 29, but an illegal use of the hands penalty nullified that great play. Bridges then had to suffer through the indignity of three straight dropped passes by his receivers. Poor slob. Charleston (9-2) had to work for it, but they were able to squeeze out a 14-10 win over up-and-coming Santa Cruz (2-8-1). The Privateers actually held a 10-7 4th quarter lead, but Landon Hurst engineered a beautiful 92 yd TD drive for the final score with 2:02 left in the game. Look out for Santa Cruz though - they've got some great young talent and will be a force to be reckoned with, perhaps as soon as next year. The erstwhile leader of the Ring of Ice, Seattle (5-6) has now lost three in a row and sits a two full games behind Boise City. Their vanquisher this time was Shreveport (8-2-1) who used a 59-yd fumble recovery for a TD (courtesy of Burt Liszkiewicz) to take the lead in the 4th quarter. And so arrives Seattle's annual, inexplicable collapse. How a team with such talent can continue to elude playoff contention is one of the universe's great mysteries. Tampa Bay (8-3) won every battle in their fight with Sacramento (8-3), except for the one that matters: the final score. The Torpedoes outgained the Dragons (439-347), won ToP (32:44-27:05), won the turnover battle (3-1), gained more first downs (26-20), and won field position (Own 32 - Own 25). Yet, they succumbed when Seymore Barre engineered a 55-yd TD drive with 1:02 left on the clock. Trent Muir dropped two key passes on the Torpedoes' final desperation drive. Final score: Sacramento 27, Tampa Bay 24. Fargo (8-3) kept pace with division-leading Denver by blowing out the hapless Cleveland Flats (1-10) by the score of 30-0. This was the Fargo franchise's first-ever shutout. They're about as healthy as an owner could hope and are positioned perfectly, and so look for them to give Denver a serious challenge down the stretch. Elsewhere in Week 12: San Antonio (5-6) 27, Anchorage (4-7) 20 Arizona (5-6) 24, Atlantic City (5-6) 20 Denver (8-3) 26, Chicago (2-9) 13 Durham (4-6-1) 27, Huntington Beach (4-6-1) 24 Albany (6-5) 16, El Paso (4-6-1) 13 Long Beach (3-7-1) 16, Baltimore (4-6-1) 10 Boise City (7-4) 38, Memphis (2-8-1) 17 New York (4-7) 35, Las Vegas (0-10-1) 20 New Orleans (4-7) 24, Oregon (4-7) 6 |
06-16-2006, 12:56 PM | #289 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Week 13 at Denver
So, coming into week 13 we sit at 7-4, good enough for 2nd place in the RoF. If the season ended today we'd be the #6 seed in the playoffs. For a team that had visions of a 2nd consecutive division championship, that's pretty pathetic. If we're to salvage this season we need to start a good run now, and make a statement against the defending champs. That'll be tough to pull off for two reasons: 1) we're on the road for this one; 2) we're a beat beaten up and they're relatively healthy. We'll be without our best player in Stoltzfus and two O-line starters (Poplawski and Pitman) today, and the latter absences concern me greatly. We've got some depth on the O-line, but I'm worried that the loss of cohesion could short-circuit our offense. Still, we need a win here. Hogan and Holliday will need to step up to overcome the O-line's problems.
On to the action! Code:
Puh. Theh. Tic. We amazingly held the lead for most of the 1st half, but that lead evaporated with yet another Daryl Bradley fumble (this time on a punt return) that was returned for a TD. From there, we began a free fall the likes of which hasn't been seen since Art Garfunkel began his solo career. We've gone from 5-1 to 7-5, just like that. As I feared (and I did honestly fear this before writing up the intro above), our O-line was our undoing today. We surrendered four sacks (along with several pressures), all of which were the fault of our replacements on the left side of the line. Our run blocking was decent, but because we were constantly in 3rd and long situations, with a deficit, we couldn't run as much as I'd like. And Hogan was again pathetic - this marks three straight weeks in which he failed to deliver. The terrible passing game isn't all his fault, however. Our supposed #1 receiver, Sydney Armitage, has virtually disappeared. Over the last three weeks he has caught just 4 of 14 passes for 50 yds, including a nifty 0 for 6 today. He was double covered a lot today, but I still expect a double covered receiver to grab at least two of those passes. In fact, all of our receivers have been terrible of late - Higginbotham has only caught three passes for 27 yards in the last two games, and our #3 receiver, Hodges, has caught just 3 of 8 passes for 41 yards. And so Hogan continues to throw to our TE and backs, which won't get it done when we're behind. I don't know what happened to our passing game over the last month or so, and I'm at a loss as to how to fix it. I can only hope that getting our O-line healthy will help. Speaking of which, T Matthew Pitman is now "probable" and may well be returned to the lineup. That would at least get us up to four regular starters on the line. In other injury news, the CFL gods must truly hate my poor Toros, as they refused to help Harold Stoltzfus or Cheap Shot Rosenberry heal at all this last week. Stoltzfus is still out for 4 weeks and Rosenberry for 2. In addition, the CFL gods have taken away starting safety Mitchel Enoch for 4 weeks. Mitch got hurt on Denver's final FG attempt, with :52 left in the game. Why, oh why, must starters play on special teams? So, our defense will now be without two key starters and our nickel back for at least two more games, and likely more. We're not a very good team right now. A strong showing to end the year would be nice, but at this point we'll have to go 3-1 to feel confident about making the playoffs. With Boston and Honolulu on the schedule, I'm not optimistic about that. 9-7 is far more likely, or even 8-8. *sigh* Next up: at Boston. |
06-16-2006, 01:43 PM | #290 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Chicagoland
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Art Garfunkel. Heh.
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06-19-2006, 11:12 AM | #291 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Week 13 Roundup
A whopping eleven games were decided by six points or less this week. That means I'll have a tough time choosing which games to highlight for this week's roundup, so don't get mad at me if your game wasn't featured.
Archie Chasser legs are almost certainly worn down to bloody little nubs after carrying the ball 37 times and catching five passes in Albany's (7-5) 23-17 OT win over Memphis (2-9-1). He gained 135 yards on those carries, the last five of which went for the decisive TD. Albany dominated this one statistically, but ill-timed turnovers short-circuited their scoring opportunities. Arizona (5-7) gave Fargo (9-3) all they could handle and actually led 34-31 until Fargo's Rickey Griffith nailed a 40-yd FG with :24 left to force OT. Griffith then came through again with a 50 yarder to win the game. Freddie Matthias had another nice game with 316 passing yards and 2 TDs, but Brett Hedges stole the show in this one: 381 yards and 4 TDs. Fargo remains preposterously healthy, with only one active "probable" player on the injury report, so look for them to be a force come postseason. Boise (8-4) may get sent to detention after school for beating up Sacramento (8-4) and stealing their lunch money in a 30-3 rout. The Dragons' defense simply failed to show up against Brandon Lin, who threw 3 TD passes, and overall yielded 432 yards to Boise. Sacramento's offense, on the other hand, couldn't get anything going all game long. Boise's win came with a price though: starting safety Jeff Hulse broke his clavicle and will miss nearly two months. Boston's (8-4) Isaiah Melo racked up 1.5 sacks and 4 hurries against Josh Urrutria and Tampa Bay (8-4), leading the defensive effort in a 13-10 win. Dwayne Bridges connected with Irv Schwartz on a 52-yd bomb for a TD to start the 1st quarter scoring, but Boston's offense then went silent until nailing two field goals in the last four minutes of the game. Boston's punter Al Golding did as much to keep them in the game as anyone, averaging 46.5 yards on six punts, dropping three of them inside the 20. In what some would call the game of the week, Shreveport (9-2-1) bested Detroit (9-3) by the score of 26-24. The winning points came on a Brenden "Jim J" Bullock 18 yd FG with :43 left. Shreveport's balanced attack (231 passing yds, 165 rushing) and opportunistic defense (3 sacks, 2 INTs) held Detroit at bay. Johnnie Titone's interceptions were key in this one, as one came deep in Shreveport territory and another gave Shreveport great field position. Detroit's nine penalties didn't help their cause. Both teams lost some key starters in this one, but the injury overshadowing them all was Douglas Hartman's pulled groin, which has him listed as "doubtful" for next week. Durham (5-7-1) has had some of the worst luck in the league this year (Las Vegas, of course, leads the league in that department), having now suffered five of their seven losses by a TD or less. Hartford (10-2) was this week's beneficiary with a 19-16 OT win. Speaking of luck, Hartford got a 4th quarter 82-yd kickoff return for a TD from Arlen Gallegos for their only TD of the day, and that was what they'd need to force OT. Both teams continued their offensive ineptitude in the extra period, with neither team scoring until Hartford's 33 yd FG with :47 left. The league's best record continues to belong to Honolulu (10-1-1), who put a 27-3 thrashing on Santa Cruz (2-9-1). Honolulu's defense made QB Quentin Larrabee look every bit the rookie, forcing him into an embarrassing 8/23, 82 yd, 1 INT performance. Randolph Kranz was somewhat less spectacular today, going 16/31 for 204 yds and 2 TDs, but the Beagles didn't need him to be spectacular. The 16-year veteran also showed that his legs still work, scrambling 3 times for 28 yds and a TD. Elsewhere in the CFL in week 13: Baltimore (5-6-1) 17, Chicago (2-10) 14 Charleston (10-2) 24, Cleveland (1-11) 21 Anchorage (5-7) 30, El Paso (4-7-1) 28 Huntington Beach (5-6-1) 27, Las Vegas (0-11-1) 23 Atlantic City (6-6) 31, New Orleans (4-8) 27 Seattle (6-6) 20, Long Beach (3-8-1) 6 Tulsa (7-5) 17, Oregon (4-8) 16 |
06-20-2006, 02:59 PM | #292 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Week 14: at Boston
We continue our unwelcome tour of games vs. the best quarterbacks in the league today with a match against Boston's Dwayne Bridges (83/83). Dwayne is the CFL's single-season record holder in several categories, including passing yards (5215), TD passes (47) and pass completions (442). These records were all set in his early years playing for a Fargo team that hardly ever ran the ball, but since coming to Boston two years ago he's been used in a somewhat more "normal" fashion. This change has been to his benefit, overall, as his QB Ratings have actually improved now that he's not throwing every single down. In fact, he's having the best Rating season of his career, hovering right around 100 on 21 TDs vs. 5 INTs.
Boston is a relatively healthy team - they've had a few injuries to their O-line, but they have some depth there and shouldn't be too worried. Otherwise, at 8-4 they're in good shape to continue their pursuit of Hartford (10-2) in the Yankee division. We're getting RT Matthew Pitman back today - he's still "probable" with a strained back, but we're going to gamble and hope he gets through this one alright. That will get us back up to starting four of our regular five players on the O-line. It is my hope that doing so will revitalize our offense, which has sputtered badly over the last two games (20 total points - 6 of which came via the defense). Defensively we'll still be without the services of Harold Stoltzfus, Mitchel Enoch, and "Cheap Shot" Rosenberry. Against a QB like Bridges, those will be some tough absences to overcome. On to the action! Code:
Well I'll be damned. Rubin Castorena came through in the clutch (a rare thing these days) with a 51-yarder as time expired to give us a crucial road win! That was one lucky win, and it appeared that the weather had a great deal to do with our victory. The rain appeared to influence Boston's offensive playcalling, as they ran the ball 47 times and only passed 16. That decision limited Dwayne Bridges' influence on the game, which is always a benefit to Boston's opponents. Further, we were able to hold them to 3.0 ypc and forced four fumbles (two recovered), again likely due to the rain. The rain similarly squashed our offense, but I continue to be disturbed by the poor performances turned in by Milan "Colonel" Hogan. Just 8 of 20 for 126 yds, 1 TD and 1 INT? That's his fourth straight subpar performances, and fifth in his last seven games. Is age starting to catch up with him? Or is he simply reflecting the quality of the blockers over the last two months? Our O-line has been ravaged by injury, which has to be taking a toll. Oh, and by the way, we lost both of our starting tackles today. Pitman succumbed to his back strain and will be out for 3 more weeks, and LT Chris Frank will be out for 6 weeks with a separated shoulder. Just what we needed. Add them to LG Poplawski who is out for another 4 weeks and we've got a genuine catastrophe on the offensive line. Our two remaining regular starters are still relatively young players, and our two backup tackles are very raw. Blech. On the plus side no defensive players got hurt. So there's that. So, we're now 8-5 and still in position to secure one of the two wildcard bids. We have to keep winning though, as Tulsa is also 8-5 and Seattle is right behind us at 7-6. The last three games of the year will be crucial - can we get this ship righted? Next up: at Arizona. |
06-21-2006, 12:54 PM | #293 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Chicagoland
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Damn you.
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06-21-2006, 07:59 PM | #294 | |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Quote:
Sorry 'bout that. You really should've won that game, but Gindin works in mysterious ways. And by the way, did you really have to knock out our two tackles? I, you know, needed them for the rest of the season and stuff. |
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06-27-2006, 11:28 PM | #295 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Week 15: at Arizona
We're now 8-5 and need a win in this matchup with RoF foe Arizona (5-8) in order to keep pace in the Wild Card race. Arizona is relatively healthy, although they've suffered some knocks to their O-line and their all-world TE is "Doubtful" for the game. But QB Freddie Matthias is having a career year, and stopping him will be the key to winning this one.
Well, stopping him and somehow getting our own offense back on track will both be key to winning. Scoring points probably won't be easy, as we're still only fielding two of our regular starting offensive linemen. And defensively we'll still be shorthanded with Stoltzfus and Enoch still out of the lineup. Hmmm...things just aren't looking very good for us these days. We're 11-3-1 historically vs. Arizona - maybe a game against them is just what the doctor ordered? Code:
Christ, what a mess. I'm not even going to comment on this game beyond adding one note: we lost #1 WR Sydney Armitage for the regular season due to a strained something-or-other. Just what we needed. |
06-28-2006, 12:04 AM | #296 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Week 16: vs. Atlantic City
The Atlantic City Phantoms are an EFC team with some up-and-coming stars in development. They aren't quite there yet, as their 7-7 record suggests, but they're getting close. We've only faced them once before, a 21-11 win in 2006. So, we're basically playing against a team we know nothing about. We do know that they're pretty healthy, and their young QB Colin Sawyer looks to be The Real Deal. Beating them will prove to be a tough test.
But this is a test we must pass, as we're neck-and-neck in the Wild Card race. As of right now we occupy a WC spot, but that could change in a hurry. Fargo is chasing Denver in their division, and at 10-4 have at least a WC locked up already. That leaves us (8-6), Tulsa (8-6), and Seattle (8-6) all battling for the last spot. We must win here to keep our playoff hopes alive. And so we'll take another gamble on playing injured players. Stoltzfus (Questionable), Enoch (Questionable) and Rosenberry (Probable) are all suiting up for us today. Hopefully their return will rejuvinate a defense that was absolutely torched last week. We still don't have any of our injured O-line starters back, and we'll be without Sydney Armitage today. In his place we'll be giving former 1st round pick Brent Garcia his first career start. In replacement duty last week he caught 10 passes for 113 yards, and we're hoping he'll continue to be productive in Sydney's absence. Enough talk. Now for action: Code:
Now that's what I'm talkin' about. The score doesn't really do justice to this game, as we were just plain dominant. We outgained them by nearly 200 yards, held them under 200 total yards, won the turnover battle (3-1) and won the ToP battle handily. The only thing that didn't click well today was our running game, which is no surprise considering the continued upheaval on the line. I'll take it. Brent Garcia acquitted himself well today with a 6-61-1 game. He'll probably get the nod again next week. But Milan "Colonel" Hogan was the real story here, as he played a nearly flawless game. Perhaps my rantings about his poor play of late motivated him? Another bit of good news: we didn't lose our gambles with the injured players we ran out there today. Stoltzfus, Enoch, and Rosenberry came out of this game just fine. Our only new injury was a shoulder problem backup RB Daryl Bradley developed, but that shouldn't hinder his availability. Good stuff. Unfortunately, developments elsewhere have hindered our Wild Card chances. Tulsa lost and Seattle won, which puts us in a tie with Seattle at 9-6. We have identical conference records, but Seattle beat us earlier this season and thus holds the tiebreaker. So, our destiny is out of our hands now. All we can do is win our finale vs. Honolulu and hope Seattle loses next week. |
06-30-2006, 01:08 PM | #297 | |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Week 17: vs. Honolulu
Our week 17 matchup with Honolulu (11-3-1) presents us with all kinds of motivation to win. First, we need a win to stay alive for the final Wild Card spot (we also need Settle to lose to Anchorage). Second, Honolulu thrashed us something fierce back in week 7 by the score of 28-0. We'd like to redeem ourselves by returning the favor. Third, this game is still meaningful to Honolulu, as a win here would keep them alive in the race for the #1 playoff seeding. If nothing else, it would be fun to play spoiler there. Fourth, SkyDog has promised to consider changing the "Bloodthirsty Beagles" name if Randolph Kranz does not set the league single-season record for QB Rating. Going into the game he is poised to do so, but two other QBs are right behind him and are also poised to set the record. Beating the snot out of Kranz would at least give the CFL the chance to rid itself of the worst team nickname in league history. And finally, this is a game against our longtime rival Honolulu, which is really all the motivation we need. The head-to-head tally currently stands 10-6 in their favor, but we've made great strides in the last several seasons (if I recall correctly we once had a 9-2 deficit against them).
We're optimistic about this game because some injured players are finally starting to come back. Our entire starting defense is now playable, and we'll only be missing one of our offensive linemen. Both of those are huge changes compared to our last few months of league play, in which we always seemed to be missing at least two (and often more) key contributors for each game. Today we will be without #1 WR Sydney Armitage, which will be a liability against a secondary as strong as Honolulu's, but Brent Garcia has been playing well in his stead and we're hopeful he'll continue to pick up the slack. On to the game! Code:
WOW. That was exactly the kind of performance we needed. What a difference an offensive line makes! We only gave up two sacks and nailed 18 KRBs for Drew Holliday, who ran wild over Honolulu's suspect Run D. Hogan had plenty of time to throw against a superb Honolulu secondary, and was very unexpectedly able to pick them apart. And Brent Garcia had another solid game for us filling in for Armitage - in fact, his three game total filling in for Armitage (20 of 25 passes caught, 222 yds, 2 TDs) was better than any three consecutive game outputs by Armitage this year. Hmmm... Our defense was terrific against Honolulu's dangerous passing game. Words really can't do their effort justice, but look at this drive chart: Code:
Just look at that beautiful third quarter. Kranz looked absolutely lost out there in what was easily his worst game of the year. He was 14 for 39 passing for 255 yds, 1 TD and 3 INTs, and that was enough to dislodge him from the top of the QB Rating standings. As I noted above, SkyDog indicated that he'd consider changing his team name to something less terrible than "Bloodthirsty Beagles" if that happened. And here is what he subsequently had to say on the subject of changing his team name: Quote:
Alas. Last edited by Fonzie : 06-30-2006 at 08:46 PM. |
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06-30-2006, 01:21 PM | #298 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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No Playoffs For You!
Unfortunately, our dominant win over Honolulu wasn't enough to sneak us into the playoffs. Seattle managed to squeeze out a win in OT at Anchorage, 26-23. Anchorage held the lead at 23-20 with 2:00 left in the 4th quarter when the nonexistent 4th quarter comeback engine apparently kicked in:
Code:
Anchorage still had a chance to win this in regulation, but their drive stalled at the Seattle 45 (and, amazingly, they punted on 4th down at the 45 with :06 left in the 4th quarter instead of trying for a Hail Mary). Seattle won the toss in OT and marched right down the field for a 30 yd FG, aided significantly by an Anchorage Unnecessary Roughness call. Bummer, but that's what you get when you hand your destiny over to someone else. So, our 10-6 record is only good enough to grant us the distinction of being the best team to not make the playoffs. Maybe next year! Last edited by Fonzie : 06-30-2006 at 01:22 PM. |
06-30-2006, 10:48 PM | #299 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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2010 Final Regular Season Standings
The regular season is over. Let's see how everybody did:
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It pains me to type this, but Honolulu has won yet another division title. This marks their fifth division championship, although it is the first under the new management of SkyDog (congratulations, SD!). Most of the preseason favorites lived up to their billings, with Honolulu, Tampa Bay, and perhaps Fargo being the biggest surprises in the league. Seattle, Fargo and Boston are making their first playoff appearances (a hearty congratulations to Aylmar, P.Luxx, and flere, respectively!). Las Vegas was also a bit of a surprise, but their undoing had less to do with management and everything to do with an unparalleled rash of vicious, season-ending injuries. They did manage to avoid the first winless season in CFL history with week 17 win over Arizona, and in so doing cost themselves the #1 overall pick in next year's draft. Not that owner TurfToe is likely to care, as he traded that pick away to Detroit last year in exchange for the right to pick QB of the future (and present) Roderick "Rosie" Palmer during the 2010 draft. A few regular season records were broken this year: not one, not two, but three QBs beat the previous league single season record for QB Rating, which was set by Seattle QB Charles Dever in 2006 (103.2). Boise's Branden Lin set the new record at 109.7, with Hartford's James Oberg following at 108.5 and Honolulu's Randolph Kranz at 105.6. Boston's Dwayne Bridges gets an honorable mention for his 102. Oh, and at #5 in the league was none other than Milan "Colonel" Hogan, at 94.9. That is nothing short of amazing, considering how aggravated I was with many of his performances this year. The single-season YPC record was also broken this year, with Honolulu's unheralded and generally untalented Patrick Benton averaging a brisk 5.8 ypc on 125 carries. I would like to see Tucson get an assist on this record, as we helped him considerably by somehow allowing him to run for 96 yards on 7 carries back in week 7. Seattle's Darrell Stybo nailed a league-record 40 field goals this year, the last two of which doomed our playoff hopes. Thanks, Darrell. Baltimore's RG Kevin Levine set the record for most KRBs with 59. No single-game, team single-game, or team single-season records were set this year. Last edited by Fonzie : 07-01-2006 at 07:53 PM. |
06-30-2006, 11:29 PM | #300 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Tucson 2010 Season Summary
Time for a bit of reflection:
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First, the offense. We were extremely inconsistent with the ball, and our ability to score varied almost perfectly with the number of offensive linemen we had on the shelf. Unfortunately, we were often without two or three regular starters, and it showed in our mid-season slump. The O-line shuffling led to our team-record 37 sacks allowed, and had a clear affect on Drew Holliday's overall numbers. He set career-lows in attempts and TDs, largely due to the fact that we were often ineffective on offense and playing catch-up. And Hogan was just so-so at being able to play catch-up. His overall numbers were very good, but he had some absolutely dreadful games mixed in there. I'm hoping we can squeeze one more productive year out of him and then turn the reins over to Kent Goodwin. Still, Drew had a fine season all things considered. He managed to pick up one more rushing yard than he gained last year, but did so on 39 fewer carries. His 1383 rushing yards put him at 6th in the league, and his career total of 7189 puts him 11th all-time (despite being in the league for just 5 years!). He's finishing his last year on his current contract, and we'll be extending him shortly. Daryl Bradley continues to be a great (if overused, for my tastes) Secret Weapon. How can you not love having a backup RB who can average 4.4 ypc, catch a ton of passes out of the backfield, and return punts? And while we're talking about the running back corps, FB Corwin Jeffries deserves a special thumbs-up forhis performance this year. He served as our 3rd-down, short-yardage back and posted a career-high 4.2 ypc on 39 rushes. He also caught a career-high 55 passes for 411 yds and 4 TDs, and nailed 12 KRBs in 30 attempts allowing just one sack. He's also a special teams monster, picking up 13 ST tackles and forcing a fumble. Great year for him. Our leading receiver was blossoming TE Anthony Torres. He set our team single-season TD receptions record with 7 this year, and was just one reception away from tying our team record. Our wideouts were a bit banged up this year, and none of them were huge contributors in the passing game. Our O-line, as mentioned, was a bit of a mess this year. Only C Casey Reeves and RG Kelvin Connell started all 16 games. LT Chris Frank missed five games, RT Matthew Pitman missed five, and LG Ross Poplawski missed four. And even when they played, those injured guys weren't always healthy. Depth on the O-line is going to have to be an offseason priority (as it has been for the last couple of years). Our defense, overall, was excellent. We led the league in yards allowed with 289.2 per game, and our "yards per" stats were very good. What we didn't do well was force turnovers, and there were some games in which our defense absolutely disappeared. Still, it is hard to be too upset with these guys. They held up their end of the bargain, for the most part. It was the offense that let us down. DE Howie Grier led the team with 6 sacks and had another outstanding season for us. He's primarily a run stuffer, so when he gets a decent number of sacks/hurries I'm thrilled. Our platoon at the other DE position was also very effective, with Albert Horn and Ted Bernard combining for 34 tackles, 16 assists, 8.5 sacks, 7 blocked passes, and 18 hurries. DT Kenneth Neubauer finally earned that contract I gave him two years ago, racking up 76 total tackles with 5 sacks and a team-high 18 hurries. DT Harold Stoltzfus was also solid, especially considered that he played hurt for part of the season. Our linebacking crew was outstanding again, and our starters were healthy all season long. They were surprisingly effective defending the pass. Our three starters combined for 5 INTs and 24 passes defensed. Not too shabby. Our secondary was also on-again, off-again this year. Our best player back there is S Mitchel Enoch, who missed 5 games but was effective when he could play. When he couldn't play it seemed as though our entire secondary fell apart. Everbody else was pretty "meh," although Keven Biggs should be singled our for at least being above average. So there you have it, our season in a nutshell. Some good, some bad, more good than bad, but not enough good to get to the Land of Ultimate Goodness (The Playoffs). With the veterans we have on this team I think we have a window of a couple more years to be competitive (but that will depend a bit on retirements, of course). All we really need is some help for the O-line and I think we'll be in pretty good shape for next year. Ah, next year. You can't get here soon enough. Last edited by Fonzie : 07-01-2006 at 10:47 AM. |
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