Ok, it is what it is.
We beat Brooklyn 20-13 in our place despite getting outgained.
We go play a Chicago team that beat us up early in the year and dominate possession and yardage. 447-205 on the net yards count, and we win 26-14 in their place.
We play the conference game in Chesapeake. Shootout with 800 combined yards between the teams. We do just enough and hold on to win 31-30 after getting a big 4th down stop just outside field goal range in the final minute.
We play the Bowl in the rain, and we dominate Atlanta, winning 29-7 and holding their passing game to 18-38 for 171 yards and 2 picks.
Code:
Front Office Football Eight
Hanalei Dragons 2036 Playoff Schedule
Week Opponent Result Attend Weather
W. Card BROOKLYN FIGHTIN' BUMS W, 20-13 56,900 Rain, 33, 8 mph.
Division at Chicago Norsemen W, 26-14 85,600 Sunny, 55, 2 mph.
League at Chesapeake Chitterlings W, 31-30 86,500 Sunny, 48, 8 mph.
Champ. vs Atlanta Vipers W, 29-7 57,500 Rain, 68, 9 mph.
It's a pretty nifty four game run for a team I hadn't really thought that highly of. I think our underwhelming start made our strong finish feel pretty suspect. This run, admittedly, also feels pretty suspect. I'm curious to see if a couple of the tweaks we made defensively toward the end of the season carry over into good performances next year. Or we'll see if I'm chasing more smoke on that side of the ball.
I'm not completely shocked here. We've got some legit talent on this roster. A sober look probably would have said this was likely to be our best team for a few years as well, so there's nothing really weird about us winning "at this stage" or anything. We inherited some very good players. Two good WRs. Two stud DEs. Two good OL pieces I never really talk about in C Wuagneux and G Shepard. We burned through an all-world LB in Benson. Some of the nice picks we've made have been just cheap enough to line up with those guys.
It's still surprising though. Definitely feels like one of those teams that was good enough to have things go their way. Going to be a fun challenge to keep us from being bad enough that a few tough bounces cause us to embarrass ourselves next year.
WR Neumeyer, C Wuagneux, DE Blackledge, and DT Wolcott are all 2nd Team All Pros. We didn't talk much about RB Donnell Fleming when we took him or this pre-season, but we shoved almost all the workload his way early in the year. He was really good and he probably would have been OROY in a lot of seasons.
We're losing a number of guys this offseason. We're pretty committed salary-wise. But we do have some extra high round pick assets to potentially do something with.