1st Quarter Team Grades

[Warhammer]

Since everyone has played 4 games now, I thought I might get some discussion started for the week....

Hartford Grizzlies 3-2 2nd Place AC East

Good: The offense has been absolutely outstanding by our standards. We have outgained our opponents in each game thus far. We have also limited our turnovers this year. The defense has been great, given the teams we have played. Until last game, we had yet to give up 300 yards to an opponent. The secondary has played exceptionally well, stiffling the opposition's QB. Our only problem so far was allowing Steiner to go 4 of 9 on deep balls last game, that was the difference in an otherwise close game.

Bad: Stanley Jamison is not playing as well as he did last year. There are a few possibilities for this, primarily that we are running out of different formations than we did last year and do not have as many blockers on the edges, since we are running fewer 2TE sets. The only other bad thing has been the schedule. We have played 3 first place teams so far, and the top 2 teams in the AC. We've gone 1-2 against these teams and played SLC and ANC close.

Reasons for Hope: Even with our brutal schedule, we're still 3-2. We're 2-0 in the division and that is without playing WVA. Even with Hickman out, we've been getting the ball to the WRs as our top 3 WRs have caught at least 10 balls. We've played some of the best offenses in the league and the defense has been very stout, to the tune of a top 10 defense. If we can survive until Boyer and Hickman are healthy, we could challenge for the division crown and possibly make some noise in the playoffs.

Reasons for Despair: With Boyer and Hickman both out for the next few weeks, this could go from a season of promise to one of despair. We face California, Albuquerque, and Portland in the coming weeks, and we could come out of that stretch at 3-5. Mulcahe seems to be coming back to earth as of late, so he might not be able to hold the ship down until Hickman returns.

Revised prediction: 10-6 with losses to Norfolk, Albuquerque, Boston, and Oakland.

[VitoStallion]

I'm very pleased with my record. This team seems to respond with Chaplin at the helm and we are starting to gain momentum.

Good:

Chris Chaplin's career is not yet over! The veteran has brought accuracy to our passing game and he distributes the ball so team's can no longer double Gomez full-time. We've jumped out to a 4-1 record with almost no injuries AND a bye week before we get at it again. While Booker is arguably one of the best QBs in the game, Chaplin is outplaying him in the SLC offense. The re-emergence of James Tart and Chaplin's scrambling has propelled the rushing attack to a top 5 ranking. That OC signing in the off-season may prove to be more of the reason Chaplin is playing the best ball of his career.

Bad:

Our defense has been suspect and we need to get more out of our players on that side of the ball. We're giving up too many points and teams seem to want to exploit our leaky pass defense. TJ Palmeteer may be out after this season if he can't do a better job with this defense.

Overall:

4-1 is better than I had hoped for at this point in the season. It was hard letting Booker go but that move helped me field a better overall TEAM. Rich, Otey, and Chaplin have each been key in our victories. I'm going to keep the hype tempered though. SLC was 5-0 two seasons ago and lost a ton of games in the stretch run.

[Suicane]

Good: Offense is clicking nicely

Eh: Defense is playing ok

Bad: Injuries

Superb: My in depth analysis

[Kobeck]

Offense - on life support
Defense - 50/50
Overall - stay within 3-4 games of the 6th seed and see what happens when Opie comes back.

[Hell Atlantic]

Good: Rookie RB JB Lincoln has been the dynamo we felt we stole in the 2nd round. At his current pace he's gonna make a lot of people consider him for Offensive Rookie of the Year. My backup TEs have been pitching in admirably in the absence of the injured TE stud Alvarez. We caught a break by having a trade to bring in QB Todd Terrel fall through, and with his 20 point ratings drop we'll look back on this one as the trade we were happy to not make.

Bad: Injuries to TE Alvarez and now WR Terry. We really wanted to overload people on the passing attack, not allowing them to focus in on any one particular player, even including 2 RBs with great catching abilities. But offensively we just aren't scaring anyone. We need more games like the one we had in week 5 against Boston - that's Heroes football.

Overall: we didn't expect to have just one win thus far. if anything i'm happy i didn't trade away my 1st round pick. i think at this point 5 wins will be expected out of this team, which would be a step down from last season. something tells me the Heroes are one of those teams that are just better than the result. talent-wise we have a very competitive team, i guess 1 win in 4 games played is to be expected when you factor in cohesion hits we got by aggressively changing the face of this team. this is one time when i think "we'll get 'em next year" really is a true statement.

[hawkster]

Re: 1st Quarter Team Grades

Albuquerque Matadors 3-2 2nd Place AC West

Good: The defense keeps this team in games. The offense has had an opprtunity in all of our losses and a few wins to win the game in the 4th quarter, and a lot of that is due to our defense keeping us in game. David Humphrey is putting up his usual above averages stats, and the running game is solid when Kelly 'Fragile Fuck' Wheat is healthy. The run defense is solid if not spectacular. The offense hasn't been turning the ball over.

Bad: The offense just isn't putting up the kind of points it used to, and the pass defense seems to be a target of opposing defenses. We're also simply not generating the game changing plays, averaging less than a takeaway per game. Both losses were by less than 7 points, one play could have made that difference in either game.

Reasons for Hope: The team finds ways to win, even in dire situations such as last week against Portland. The schedule is fairly soft with upcoming games against only 4 teams with winning records. With few wild card contenders emerging, it shouldn't be hard to keep pace with Houston or Hartford for at least a wild card spot. Our only 2 losses came with LT Miles Perkins out of the lineup, he's back and healhy again.

Reasons for Despair: We still have 2 games against Anchorage, also without a healthy Kelly Wheat, it's hard to see us going deep into the playoffs. We've already lost one of our offensive line starters for most of the season, and out best D-lineman is out for at least a game now as well. If the injuries pile on, our depth isn't solid enough to counter that.

Revised prediction: 11-5, we should split with Anchorage this season, and chances are mistakes will give us another few losses here and there.

[Warhammer]

Re: 1st Quarter Team Grades

Albuquerque Matadors 3-2 2nd Place AC West With few wild card contenders emerging, it shouldn't be hard to keep pace with Houston or Hartford for at least a wild card spot. Our only 2 losses came with LT Miles Perkins out of the lineup, he's back and healhy again.

Four weeks from now we'll see who gets the tie-breaker!