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DEFENDING A TITLE
I know it was a Friday, don't ask me why I remember that, but I do. I was sitting here playing FOF2K2 with my Houston Cardinals team when I sent an email to Cringer inquiring about being in the IFL, it would be my first FOF MP experience.
I wasn't sure what to expect, the dispersal draft was a challenge, both due to logistics and strategies. Could I get my friends out of here quick enough to log on and be a part of as much as the draft as I wanted to?
I wasn't sure what to expect when it came to drafting against 31 (mainly) human owners but I was set to do my best.
The first round wound down and in the span of 12 picks I was able to grab both Louie Maldanado and Drew Sandstrom.
My next 7 picks netted me CB Charles Yon, SLB Robert Yates, MLB Noel Daniels, QB Mark McMurray, WR Grady Gomez, FS Gil Langevin and WR Zachary Hall. 9 picks and 6 young Defensive studs, it was clear which way this team being built.
Year 1 was a struggle, but a weak division may have been more of a blessing than just allowing us a division title, it gave us a big game attitude in every game that season. Everytime we took the field we felt like our playoff lives were on the lines. We hosted a playoff game that year against Hartford and won easily, with what else, a dominating defense.
The next week we travelled to West Virginia and were beaten soundly by the Beasts in a Divisional Playoff matchup.
While a loss is never good, it was a vauable learning experience and concluded a season that far exceeded expectations for a talented, but young team.
The next year we added G Marhsall Cuomo and TE Conrad Beyer to our Offense to go along with the developing LT Dan Dale and stalwart G William Salmon. These additions improved our offense to one that had the ability to hold it's own with our defense.
We expected the personel additions and experience gained from the year before to carry us towards the top of the Conference. It didn't happen. We struggled, both in the pass and run games and became a rather 1 dimensional team that relied far too often on Defense to carry us. A Division title should never be considered a dissapointment but a 1st round Playoff loss at home to Hartford was a crushing blow to this team, in almost every sense of the word the 2004 season was a dissapointment. We were at a crossroads, would year 3 bring the progress we thought this team could achieve? Or would we again tread in place, or worse, regress.
2005 began with a sense of urgency, urgency to dominate. 500 would not be tolerable, adaquecy would not be tolerable.
And we responded, with a fury. Thru 8 weeks we were 7-1, our only loss a road defeat by 3 points in West Virginia.
With 6 minutes left in a game against Louisiana, a game that could have blown open the division race, things fell apart.
Louisiana scored 10 points in the final half quarter to escape with a 17-16 win. In the span of 6 minutes a momentum that had been built up for 8 weeks had dissapeared.
A rebound win at Murfreesboro seemed to right the ship. But in Week 12 the wheels seemed to come off. Leading 19-14 at home against Oakland we had the ball with 1:16 left. We merely had to run out the clock. Dominique Winton took a handoff and fumbled the ball, Oakland recovered, went on to score and left us shell shocked. It was the end of Wintons Cardinal career, and in the locker room a sense of doom began to prevade the air.
We went 2-2 over the next 4 weeks, including an embarresing road loss to Reno where we were destroyed 38-6 all led up to 1 last regular season battle, at Louisiana, where for the 3rd straight year, the division crown would be decided between the Cardinals and the Voodoo.
"The games we've lost we've lost, they're over, we can't go back and win them today. We can't get that fumble back, we can't stop Reno today, we can't avenge a playoff loss to Hartford that happened a year ago, we can't do any of those things today. Those things are done and over, those things no longer affect you. Today, today is the day you begin the march to your destiny, since the day many of you first walked in to this locker room you did it with a swagger, you talked the talk and you walked the walk. Today I want you to unleash that swagger, unleash it on the Voodoo, unleash it on the next team to get in your way, and the next, THEN THE NEXT, AND THEN THE NEXT!! They can't run on you, they can't throw on you, they can't stop you, none of em, NONE OF EM! 5 wins, 5 wins is what it takes to achieve immortality, and I don't want you to win 5 games, I want you to take 5 games, I WANT YOU TO REACH UP, GRAB DESTINY BY THE THROAT, AND MAKE IT YOURS!"
The words echoed thru the locker room, the feeling echoed thru the locker room. And on the field we began the run, a 17-13 win over Louisiana. And we didn't celebrate, not for the win, not for the division. We've had that before, it isn't a consilation.
First against WV and then against Iowa City we needed late comebacks to win, and both time we dug down deep and pulled out victories, against Iowa City we overcame a 17-0 deficit in the final quarter and a half, kicking a game winning FG as time expired to complete the comeback and send Snipe Hunters fans into silence. And there it was. 72,000 people fell silent all at once as the kick split the uprights. It was then that we knew. There was nothing we could face that could stop us, nothing we couldn't overcome. And then in the silence of that cold December day in Iowa City, it returned. The swagger was back. You wouldn't see it for 7 days, prognosticators couldn't use it to determine their predictions, but it was there, and it was all we needed.
League MVP Harold Lozier saw it first hand in the AFC Championship game. He was beaten, bruised and battered en route to a 19-41 day that included no Touchdowns and an Interception. Finaly in the 4th quarter Lozier limped from the field, down 13-9 and unable to go on, the game wasn't officialy over, but to look into his eyes at that moment, you would see that yes, indeed the game was over, in fact, it was over before it had begun.
The next week it was Little Rocks vaunted offense that the media wondered how we could stop. Nobody stopped to question how they would move on us. They should have. 4 Sacks, 1 Interception, and only 260 total yards later, the Toads offense looked anything but vaunted. Despite a bone crushing defensive assault we trailed 12-7 with 12 minutes left when we took the field at our own 20. Now the question would have to be answered, could our offense step up to the plate? The next 8 minutes proved that answer to be a resounding yes, an 80 yard drive that culminated in a 5 yard Jamal Cotter TD run to give us a lead we would never give up. A few moments later, as I stood on the sideline and watched Mark McMurray take a knee and run the remaining 40 seconds off of the clock to give us our first Imperial League crown, a fan rushed by me on to the field and I heard him yell "It's all over, It's all over!!" I just smiled and thought to myself, "no my friend, it's only just begun."
I know it was a Friday, don't ask me why I remember that, but I do. I was sitting here playing FOF2K2 with my Houston Cardinals team when I sent an email to Cringer inquiring about being in the IFL, it would be my first FOF MP experience.
I wasn't sure what to expect, the dispersal draft was a challenge, both due to logistics and strategies. Could I get my friends out of here quick enough to log on and be a part of as much as the draft as I wanted to?
I wasn't sure what to expect when it came to drafting against 31 (mainly) human owners but I was set to do my best.
The first round wound down and in the span of 12 picks I was able to grab both Louie Maldanado and Drew Sandstrom.
My next 7 picks netted me CB Charles Yon, SLB Robert Yates, MLB Noel Daniels, QB Mark McMurray, WR Grady Gomez, FS Gil Langevin and WR Zachary Hall. 9 picks and 6 young Defensive studs, it was clear which way this team being built.
Year 1 was a struggle, but a weak division may have been more of a blessing than just allowing us a division title, it gave us a big game attitude in every game that season. Everytime we took the field we felt like our playoff lives were on the lines. We hosted a playoff game that year against Hartford and won easily, with what else, a dominating defense.
The next week we travelled to West Virginia and were beaten soundly by the Beasts in a Divisional Playoff matchup.
While a loss is never good, it was a vauable learning experience and concluded a season that far exceeded expectations for a talented, but young team.
The next year we added G Marhsall Cuomo and TE Conrad Beyer to our Offense to go along with the developing LT Dan Dale and stalwart G William Salmon. These additions improved our offense to one that had the ability to hold it's own with our defense.
We expected the personel additions and experience gained from the year before to carry us towards the top of the Conference. It didn't happen. We struggled, both in the pass and run games and became a rather 1 dimensional team that relied far too often on Defense to carry us. A Division title should never be considered a dissapointment but a 1st round Playoff loss at home to Hartford was a crushing blow to this team, in almost every sense of the word the 2004 season was a dissapointment. We were at a crossroads, would year 3 bring the progress we thought this team could achieve? Or would we again tread in place, or worse, regress.
2005 began with a sense of urgency, urgency to dominate. 500 would not be tolerable, adaquecy would not be tolerable.
And we responded, with a fury. Thru 8 weeks we were 7-1, our only loss a road defeat by 3 points in West Virginia.
With 6 minutes left in a game against Louisiana, a game that could have blown open the division race, things fell apart.
Louisiana scored 10 points in the final half quarter to escape with a 17-16 win. In the span of 6 minutes a momentum that had been built up for 8 weeks had dissapeared.
A rebound win at Murfreesboro seemed to right the ship. But in Week 12 the wheels seemed to come off. Leading 19-14 at home against Oakland we had the ball with 1:16 left. We merely had to run out the clock. Dominique Winton took a handoff and fumbled the ball, Oakland recovered, went on to score and left us shell shocked. It was the end of Wintons Cardinal career, and in the locker room a sense of doom began to prevade the air.
We went 2-2 over the next 4 weeks, including an embarresing road loss to Reno where we were destroyed 38-6 all led up to 1 last regular season battle, at Louisiana, where for the 3rd straight year, the division crown would be decided between the Cardinals and the Voodoo.
"The games we've lost we've lost, they're over, we can't go back and win them today. We can't get that fumble back, we can't stop Reno today, we can't avenge a playoff loss to Hartford that happened a year ago, we can't do any of those things today. Those things are done and over, those things no longer affect you. Today, today is the day you begin the march to your destiny, since the day many of you first walked in to this locker room you did it with a swagger, you talked the talk and you walked the walk. Today I want you to unleash that swagger, unleash it on the Voodoo, unleash it on the next team to get in your way, and the next, THEN THE NEXT, AND THEN THE NEXT!! They can't run on you, they can't throw on you, they can't stop you, none of em, NONE OF EM! 5 wins, 5 wins is what it takes to achieve immortality, and I don't want you to win 5 games, I want you to take 5 games, I WANT YOU TO REACH UP, GRAB DESTINY BY THE THROAT, AND MAKE IT YOURS!"
The words echoed thru the locker room, the feeling echoed thru the locker room. And on the field we began the run, a 17-13 win over Louisiana. And we didn't celebrate, not for the win, not for the division. We've had that before, it isn't a consilation.
First against WV and then against Iowa City we needed late comebacks to win, and both time we dug down deep and pulled out victories, against Iowa City we overcame a 17-0 deficit in the final quarter and a half, kicking a game winning FG as time expired to complete the comeback and send Snipe Hunters fans into silence. And there it was. 72,000 people fell silent all at once as the kick split the uprights. It was then that we knew. There was nothing we could face that could stop us, nothing we couldn't overcome. And then in the silence of that cold December day in Iowa City, it returned. The swagger was back. You wouldn't see it for 7 days, prognosticators couldn't use it to determine their predictions, but it was there, and it was all we needed.
League MVP Harold Lozier saw it first hand in the AFC Championship game. He was beaten, bruised and battered en route to a 19-41 day that included no Touchdowns and an Interception. Finaly in the 4th quarter Lozier limped from the field, down 13-9 and unable to go on, the game wasn't officialy over, but to look into his eyes at that moment, you would see that yes, indeed the game was over, in fact, it was over before it had begun.
The next week it was Little Rocks vaunted offense that the media wondered how we could stop. Nobody stopped to question how they would move on us. They should have. 4 Sacks, 1 Interception, and only 260 total yards later, the Toads offense looked anything but vaunted. Despite a bone crushing defensive assault we trailed 12-7 with 12 minutes left when we took the field at our own 20. Now the question would have to be answered, could our offense step up to the plate? The next 8 minutes proved that answer to be a resounding yes, an 80 yard drive that culminated in a 5 yard Jamal Cotter TD run to give us a lead we would never give up. A few moments later, as I stood on the sideline and watched Mark McMurray take a knee and run the remaining 40 seconds off of the clock to give us our first Imperial League crown, a fan rushed by me on to the field and I heard him yell "It's all over, It's all over!!" I just smiled and thought to myself, "no my friend, it's only just begun."