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College Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Berkeley
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The 2018 Richmond Archetypes Season in Review
Beginning of Season and Free Agency
As promised in mid season last year, the team decided to go with a coaching change to start their second year. It wasn't that we didn't win enough games it was because management really felt the old coach would never be able to properly use or develop our young developing superstar RB, Austin Coleman. Plus, the old coach was here before me and I really wanted to bring in my own guy for the job and for this reason the scouting staff was replaced as well. My new coach, Damon Patten, has a very good reputation for working well with quarterbacks and running backs and is especially known for his work developing young talent. My new Scout, Allen Behrendt, is only 37 years old, but already has a very good reputation as for finding talent at nearly every position.
Looking at my roster through with improved scout, I am disappointed to see Nelson take maybe a 10-15% hit across the board on his stats. Coleman takes a hit as well, but nothing by more than 10 points. After his performance last year we're still very happy to have made him our first pick last year. The franchise tag is placed on our kicker and we head to free agency.
We make a play for an amazing 5th year DT with current ratings of 75, 98, 95. After losing out on the two guys I wanted last year I make him what I feel is an amazing offer (I'll have cap room for a year or two anyway right?) of $42 mil for 3 years when he is only asking for $24 mil over 3 years. He draws offers from at least half the teams, but no one offering a 3 year deal is within 12 million of me, but I really don't want to lose out on a premier free agent for a second year in a row. Finally in week 5 he signs my deal. In week 10 we sign an average OT to a long term deal and spot 2 decent LB's from the hated Redskins without any offers, but I lose out on both of them. In week 19 I sign two passable backups at S and C.
Amateur Draft
I have this fifth pick in this year's draft. If it looks the same as last years I would be very happy. The first four picks are all QB's and RB's so I feel confident I can get a player I need. I really want a shutdown CB, but none are available so with the fifth pick in the 2018 amateur draft, the archetypes select Lenny Gutsche a 5-9" 190lb WR from Central Florida. Hopefully this will give Nelson the final tool he needs to be the force we expect him to be. With our second round pic we take a S with great potential at run defense and interceptions… just the way I like my safeties to be. There were a couple CB's available that would been reaches for the second round. Hopefully one will fall to me in the third. None of them do, but I get a great run blocking OT I was eyeing in the second round. In the fourth round I get a great run stopping DE that I was also eyeing in the second round. The fifth round brings me a pretty good backup QB. In the 6th I pull a pretty good G. Either this draft is much deeper than last years or I am seeing the effect of having a great scout finding me great diamonds in the rough. With my last pick I get a backup RB.
Preseaon
None of my players busted, but it seems a RFA DT may have broke out a little and the QB I took in the 5th round gains enough maybe 5-10 points across the board to make him starter potential.
Since Coleman's has already maxed out his potential I sit him in preseason to avoid risk of injury and we go 0-4. My goal for the regular season is 7-9.
Regular Season
We begin the season in Dallas and suffer a 38-10 loss. Coleman gets only 25 yards on 11 carries, Nelson gets 140 yards and one interception, and Gutsche mysteriously doesn't play.
We follow up our road tour with a stop in Cincinnati. Two of our three active safeties are injured so I pick up an injury replacement for a one year deal. We tear about the Bungles 33-13. Coleman got 80 yards on 15 carries while Nelson passed for 259 yards one TD and one interception.
In our first home game of the season, Portland comes to down and we loose 28-21. Coleman got four yards on eight attempts, but Nelson kept us close with 238 yards passing and two touchdowns. WR Barber, last year's second round pick, caught seven passes for 117 yards and two touchdowns.
San Francisco comes into Richmond Colliseum and we win 23-20. Unfortunately injuries are really starting to pile up on us. Coleman goes out with stretched knee ligament. Fortunately the backup I drafted in the 7th round turned out to be pretty good so far and should be able to do a decent job.
Bye week.
Coleman's condition improved but we'll still bring him off the bench this week at Arizona. .Even without him starting we manage to win convincingly 28-3! Coleman's replacement Van Pelt led the team with 90 yards rushing on 16 carries and two touchdowns. Nelson had a pitiful game. Throwing 10/21 for 68 yards with one TD and one interception. Safety RJ Harvey, my second round pick, won game MVP honors with one pass caught against, two defended, two interceptions, one TD in 29 pass plays. Its nice to finally have a playmaker in the secondary.
The much-hated Redskins come to town this week. This time we slaughter then 31-17 behind Van Pelt's 114 yards on 22 carries. Nelson has his best game as an Archetype passing for 228 yards and three TD's. Again Gutsche mysteriously does not play a down at receiver even though he returns a punt.
Tampa Bay at 1-5 comes into Richmond and sneaks out with a 10-7 win. Nelson throws zero TD's and 3 interceptions… 'nuff said. Coleman has been having more trouble then anticipated getting over his injury even though he hasn't had a carry in three weeks. We decide to play him on the inactive list for the next game in hopes it will help him heal faster. My tackle goes down with a serious injury and I sign a replacement to a one-year deal.
We travel to New York to face the division leading, 6-2 Giants. We squeak out a 13-7 victory. Nelson has a decent game and Barber pulls in seven catches for 117 yards and a TD. It seems Barber has taken to heart what I said about him not being talented enough to be my go-to receiver and has clearly outplayed Gutsche this year, although Gutsche did get six catches for 71 yards in this game. Coleman still shows lingering signs of his injury so we decide to sit him again for next week since we have been playing well without him.
This week we travel to Tennessee to face the 1-7 Titans. Somehow they sneak out a 24-20 win. That is the second loss this season to a bad team. Van Pelt had 82 yards and a TD. Gutsche decided to heat up the rivalry with Barber by grabbing eight catches for 113 yards. Barber, meanwhile, had four for 57.
We get to play our second straight AFC Central opponent this week at Jacksonville. The Jaguars enter the game at 5-4. I feel the winner of this game will make a huge stride toward the post season. Unfortunately that team is Jacksonville as they take us down 31-17. Despite Van Pelt's good job filling in for Coleman, we feel we really need Coleman's big play ability back and luckily the doctors have cleared him to play next week.
The Giants come over to play this week having dropped their last two games to drop to 6-4. We drop them even farther with a 27-14 thrashing. Coleman welcomes himself back with a 98 yard performance. Nelson puts up his best game ever going 22/38 for 353 yards with three TD's and one interception. Gutsche was named game MVP however with his eight catch, 174 yard, two TD tour 'de force performance.
With Eight wins and three losses Philadelphia is currently the class of the division. This week, however, they have to come to our house. We defeat them 27 to 20 to climb into a second place tie with Dallas at 7-5. This time Barber came up big with seven catches for 153 yards and one TD. Nelson, clearly benefiting from the play of his two big receivers, completed 20/26 passes for 281 yards and two TD's. My rookie S Harvey is again game MVP with another two-interception game. Unfortunately Coleman will be out 3-5 weeks with a hip pointer just as we went the home stretch.
We travel back to Washington once again to play the hated Redskins. WE SWEEP THE SEASON SERIES with a 26-16 win!! Nelson completes over 66% of his passes and gets three TD's and Barber gets ten catches for 125 yards and three TD's! Looks like this team is really starting to come together and now at 8-5 and just one game behind the 9-4 Eagles our playoff chances are starting to look pretty good.
Dallas is also at 8-5 and have similar hopes for the playoffs and we play this week. They have to come to our stadium though and hopefully that will swing the game our way. Apparently it does as we win 25-13. Van Pelt rushed for 122 yards on 25 carries and Nelson threw for three touchdowns in this win. I get the feeling my offense if becoming much more balanced which bodes well for the future.
This week we travel to Philadelphia. A win would leave us both at 10-5 but give my team the tie-breaker. We win 17-13. Van Pelt had 94 yards on 13 carries, Nelson passed for one TD with no interceptions, but the hero of the game was Nick Cunningham who returned an interception for a the winning TD late in the third corner.
This week we get 3-12 Arizona at home. It should be a gimme game, but we have already lost two gimme games this year so we take nothing for granted. That attitude carries us to a 20-17 win and an 11-5 regular season record.
Regular Season Recap
We reversed our record from last year going 11-5. Lets have a look at the stats for the whole season
QB Randal Nelson - 265/441, 3201 yards, 24 TD, 10 INT, 91.0 QB Rating
Now those number's are much closer to what we had in mind when we signed Nelson last year to lead the team. Nelson truly established himself as one of the league's top quarterbacks.
RB Austin Coleman - 6 starts, 69 carries, 301 yards, 4.3 avg., 2 TD
Coleman followed up his amazing rookie year with an extremely disappointing sophomore season. He suffered through nagging injuries in the middle of the season before finally being sidelined for the last 5 games. We still feel he is the key to our playoff chances.
RB Albert Van Pelt - 10 starts, 213 carries, 1103 yards, 5.1 avg, 7 TD
We couldn't have asked for more out this 7th round pick. He certainly played well above his ratings this year.
WR Carlton Barber - 83/136 catches, 1135 yards, 13.6 avg. 10 TD, 9 drops
"Carlton Barber, you have shown me something." Played much better than expected. Last year I said I doubted if he could develop into a good primary receiver and he really stepped up to prove me wrong. Only time will tell if he can keep it up.
WR Lenny Gutsche - 68/118 catches, 913 yards, 13.4 yards, 5 TD, 8 drops
Really played well despite his tendency to disappear during some games. Should pair up with Barber to be the best receiving corps of the next several years.
LB Kerry O'Neal - 108 tackles, 29 assists, 4 sacks, 1 int
Proved that last year wasn't a fluke by putting up almost identical number and earned himself a contract extension in the process.
S RJ Harvey - 57 tackles, 6 int, 1 TD, 8 passes defended, 52.9 PDQ
This season was a great showing for the second round pick. Anchored the secondary like a proven veteran.
Team stats
Rushing: 4.3 / 3.6 / 3.8
Passing: 7.2 / 7.2 / 6.5
My passing attack improved by 1.5 yards as Nelson had his break-through year.
Playoffs
I don't get a first round bye and get to play Philadelphia for the third time in six weeks. Since we defeated the evil Eagles both times we played, the team's confidence is pretty high going into this game.
Philly gets the opening kick off and drives for a touchdown. We get the ball to about midfield before we punt it away. Philly fair catches on their 24 yard line. They move the ball back to midfield before they are forced to punt into my endzone. We are forced to punt again and Philly scores a second TD. We punt, they punt, we move the ball pretty well and get in for a TD. Philly gets the ball back and misses a field goal as time expires. We go into the half down 14-7 just starting to get momentum. We come out in the third quarter and drive all the way to their ten yard line before we are forced to go for the field goal which we make to make it 14-10. Philly fumbles the ball in their territory giving us a great opportunity. After losing yards are a couple of successive plays we get the first down and then Coleman runs 21 yards for a TD to make it 17-14 with 2:31 left in the 3rd quarter. Philly gets the ball back and coverts several third-and-shorts on their way to getting the ball to my two yard line. We really need to hold them to a field goal. On first and ten they try to run off left tackle but we stop them for a gain of zero. On second and two they drop back to pass and Philly's QB finds 83 Dobler in the endzone for a 2 yard score. The PAT is good to make it 21-17 with 10:01 left in the game we get the ball at our own 20 yard line. My hand slipped and hit some keys on the keyboard and somehow the game magically ends at 21-17. I check the game log to see if it simmed the rest of the game or just crashed out of it and it appears to have just crashed out the game. The box score for this game is blank as well. Oh well.. I guess I let the team down this time. Sorry for the anti-climactic ending. L
Philly takes the momentum from their pseudo-victory and advance all the way to the
Superbowl where they are defeated 41-10 by my semi-hometown team, the Indianapolis Colts.
Player Awards
Albert Van Pelt - Offensive Rookie of the Year
Kerry O'Neal - 2nd Team All-Pro Linebacker
Carlton Barber - 2nd Team All-Pro Wide Receiver
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