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Some mofo called The Road Writer asked me to post this for him since he doesn't have the ability to post anything yet, and he doesn't have time to sit around and wait for permission......
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With 7 weeks down and the half way point of the season coming up, every team has 6 or 7 games in the books. Everyone has had their injuries, everyone has had a disappointment or surprise in a position or two. So at this point of the season, I thought I would take a look at some of the best, and worst, offensive and defensive units in the league. A close look, to see what is making them what they are so far this season.
Top Rushing Offense - Lawrence is at the top of the Yards Per Game list, and based on that is the top rushing team in the league. We don't want to overlook Pittsburgh though, and so right away want to mention that they have an outstanding Team Yards Per Carry, at 5.11. Back to Lawrence though, because it is kind of an interesting team to look at. After a strong season last year by Bucky Beaver, they have morphed into a team with a running back duo. Fourth year RB Harris Mahoney has come alive this season, and the patience shown by the coaching staff has paid off. Though Beaver is still the starter, Mahoney actually has the majority of carries. Hard to keep the ball out of the hands of a guy who is averaging over 5.0 ypc. Between Beaver and Mahoney, this team has a running back ready to go on every play, both capable of making plays. Though there is another big reason why these running backs are so successful, and that is their offensive line. A group of home grown players that are playing extremely well together. This is a group that has five starters who have never played a down for another team. Two former first round picks, two more 3rd rounders, and Ezra Baumbartner at LT who was taken in the original league draft in the 6th round. Such a group of linemen has allowed the Phantoms to run left, right, or up the middle with out concern. They are also one of the top red zone rushing teams in the league.
Worst Rushing Offense - Hands down, the Lousiana VooDoo are a horrible running team. There are other teams who may not be happy with how their team runs the ball, but all they have to do is look at the VooDoo. We don't want to be cruel to the VooDoo, but the stats speak for themselves. In six games they have a league low 499 yards rushing as a team. A league low 83.2 yards per game. Last but not least, by far the league low with only 2.8 yards per carry. This non-threatening attack is led by RB Bennett Jones. The 9 year vet has clearly seen better days. After seven consecutive seasons with over 1,000 yards rushing, he is in great danger of missing that mark this year. Already a guy who has never run for great average, his YPC is down to 3.05 this year. Backup RB Cary Morris is not any help at 2.82 YPC. Jones being on the downside of his career, and Morris just not having the talent, is not really the big reason for this ineffective running game though. Four new starters on the offensive line this season has to be looked at as a major reason for the running problems. Myron Reiss is the only VooDoo starting lineman who was with the team in previous seasons, and he is a guy who has never been considered a good run blocker in the first place. So with four new linemen, despite their talent, just has not been able to get on the same page and gel as a whole unit. We hope to see things to improve as the year progresses, and I am sure VooDoo fans do as well. The VooDoo sit at 3-3, and with some better running could shoot for a winning record this season.
Top Passing Offense - Not too much to ponder with this one, it is clearly the Portland Seals. They lead the league in Yards Per Game, Yards Per Attempt, and Yards Per Completion. All this despite being 26th in the league in pass attempts. Now that is called being very efficient. Clearly thier yardage is not simply a product of going long. Oh they do do that, and are very effective at it, too. They have 60 attempts long, compared to teams like Vancouver, Lousiana, or Little Rock, who's long pass attempts only get into the 30's. Completions are key though. Only Iowa City can match Portland, who are both 27/60 going long. In comparison, look at a team like Newark who only has 19 completions in 77 long attempts. That is the difference. This team will hit you anywhere though. For short passes they have 72 attempts, 65 in the medium range, and the 60 attempts long. Of course it all starts with Jay Caro. He is the 2009 league MVP, and is looking for another MVP this season, though a bit off his pace from a year ago. The recipients of of his passes? Another case of homegrown talent. Receivers Blake Ameche and Dominic Field joined the team 4 years ago via the draft, and have grown along with Jay Caro. A solid TE in Alan Bryant in second on the team in receptions. Seven different players are in the double digits for receptions, impressive for a team that does not actually pass as much as most teams. The final element is a solid offensive line, which may not be considered the top pass blocking line in the league, but combined with the intelligent, quick Jay Caro, is more then effective at keeping down the pressure from opposing defenses.
Worst Passing Offense - Salt Lake City gets the nod for worst passing team so far this season. They have challengers in certain passing categories, but the Stallions have the whole package. Or should I say, are missing the whole package. They have only 827 yards passing in seven games, at a horrible 118.1 YPG. That is about 53 yards per game less then the next lowest team, Little Rock. They are tied with Newark for having the most passes defended, at 43, and their opponents PD% is a league high 87.1. Of course, some trouble is to be expected, because most of the time at QB this year has been filled by rookie, 1st round pick, Tom Dewit. Chris Chaplin started the season with an injury, and now with a poor record, the decision to throw the rookie into the fire to learn probably was not a hard one, and will probably be the status quo for the rest of the season. Still, Dewit seems to be getting worse with each game, instead of improving. His completion percentage has dropped from 75% in his debut game, to 29.6 in his last start. It has dropped every game. Dewit has veterans at RB and TE, with Tart and Daniel, to lean on. Unfortunetly that is it. His receiving corps though is not one you want to have on the field for a rookie QB. All are considered below average receivers, and with several free agents in their first year with the club they are not all on the same page as they try to learn a new system the same time their rookie QB is learning about the IFL. The o-line has seen some shuffling as the games past, but as a whole has done a decent job protecting Dewit. No, the line is not really to blame here. Most of the blame falls on the shoulders of a rookie QB, a sub-par group of receivers, and all of them trying to play in a system that they are just not ready for.
Top Rushing Defense - As of this point of the season, the St. Louis Cardinals are being named the team with the best rushing defense. Sure, being one of the teams with the fewest rushing attempts against you helps, but you can not deny the fact that they are very strong against the run when it happens. They give up only 75.7 yards per game, and a very impressive 3.05 yards per carry. Also, along with Texas, they are one of the two teams in the league who are giving up less them three yards per in the middle on the line. We look to the surprising play from free agent signing, nose tackle Brad Giles. The slightly undersized DT, is having one of the better years of his career, and is helping create plenty of tackle opportunities for ILB Noel Daniels. Daniels has always been solid, but in his 10th season he is on pace to have one of his best seasons ever. The Cardinals have also been happy with the play of rookie 6th round pick, Randal Kaplan, who has held up so far this year, seems to be maturing quickly, and may be considered a steal in the draft if he keeps this up. Kaplan hasn't been THAT good though. What is making this a tough front seven to run on on the veteran leadership at LB, and DE Maldonado. They are playing well together, and clearly have been able to key on stopping the run when they feel they need to.
Worst Rushing Defense - This is possibly the hardest category to pick one team for. Tulsa, Salt Lake City, and Cleveland all seem to have reasons to claim this title. Not that they want to claim it. I am going to go with Cleveland for now. No they don't give up the most yardage per game, they rank thrid in that category. The Clawz do have the worst Yards Per Carry against them though, and at 5.11 YPC they are the only team allowing over 5.0 ypc. They are even close to allowing 6.0 ypc (5.92) on runs to the right. A close look at the starting front seven shows what the problem with the Cleveland run defense is. You have two long time Clawz starters in LBs Vance and Gregorio, but after that is a bunch of inexperience. The WLB position either has a guy who is not the best run stopper, or a guy who is not used to that position, playing there. That leads us to the defensive line, the key to their struggles. A couple of early injuries have in part led to some young, unexperienced guys up front. Rookie DE James Larimer could be decent, but has many aspects of the game he still needs to pick up. RDE Weaver is coming along in his third year, but is more of a pass rusher then run defender. RDT Phillips is a solid guy, but he can't teach J.J. Johnson everything in a few games, and the second year guy is struggling as he tries to pick up playing the LDT spot instead of his more natural RDT spot. Overall it is not the owrst group of players in the world, though it is a group who will be better off in a year or two. If they make it that far as a group.
Top Passing Defense - Once again, a hard choice. Lawrence could claim this to go along with their Top Rushing Offense, but I give the edge to two other teams. SO now it comes down to Little ROck and Vermont. After almost giving it to Vermont, Little Rock gets it for now. Vermont is pretty impressive because no team gets passed on more then they do, and they do extremely well. Little Rock gets the nod though because of after throwing out the Yards Per Game and lessening how Defended Passes impact my decision (because Vermont gets passed on so much more), Little Rock has the lower Yards Per Catch and has a better PD%. The Toads then, what makes it a tough team to pass on? Focusing on the defensive backfield, the four starters have been there forever. Rodney Love has been on the team for seven years, and is still the new guy. They are also a talented group, that helps. Rochester, who seems to get a lot of playing time as a sometimes starter, has even been there for 8 years. The team is tied for second for passes defended with 39, despite having fewer pass plays against them then over half the league. DBs don't do it all though, and they get help from a defensive front that has been putting good pressure on QBs, ranking 2nd in team sacks. All in all though, this could easily swing back over to Vermont by year's end.
Worst Passing Defense - This category is not as cut and dry as looking at who gives up the most Passing Yards Per Game, you have to go beyond that and I did. The not-so-proud winner at this point is the Orlando Pirates. Only four teams in the league have had FEWER pass attempts against them, as the Pirates only have 176 passes thrown at them through six games. Of those 176 passes, 124 have been completed. That is a completion rate of 70.5%, which in case you didn't know is kind of bad. Such a high completion % has led to them being 5th in the league in Passing Yards Per Game given up, and they are only a few yards per game from taking over second place. To combound the situation, they are tied for 26th in the league with only 18 passes defended. Need one more thing? Their opponents QB Rating is an insanely high 107.3, which is only beaten by West Virginia's 110.3. The Beasts of course would be our #2 team on this list. One thing that has hurt the Orlando pass defense is having CB Carl Grim on the bench for the year after a season ending injury in week 2. That leaves two free agent signings working at CB, though Jeff White did play for Orlando in 2008. A Lack of talent at the safety positions is also hurting the Pirates. Veteran Lee Mears is starting to look is age and can't make up for the lack of talent and experience around him anymore. At FS is Charlie Heath, a 4th year guy who is in his first year as a regular starter and a free agent brought over form the Mules. I would like to say some more time for these guys would help them improve, but an infusion of some talent is going to be needed as well.
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With 7 weeks down and the half way point of the season coming up, every team has 6 or 7 games in the books. Everyone has had their injuries, everyone has had a disappointment or surprise in a position or two. So at this point of the season, I thought I would take a look at some of the best, and worst, offensive and defensive units in the league. A close look, to see what is making them what they are so far this season.
Top Rushing Offense - Lawrence is at the top of the Yards Per Game list, and based on that is the top rushing team in the league. We don't want to overlook Pittsburgh though, and so right away want to mention that they have an outstanding Team Yards Per Carry, at 5.11. Back to Lawrence though, because it is kind of an interesting team to look at. After a strong season last year by Bucky Beaver, they have morphed into a team with a running back duo. Fourth year RB Harris Mahoney has come alive this season, and the patience shown by the coaching staff has paid off. Though Beaver is still the starter, Mahoney actually has the majority of carries. Hard to keep the ball out of the hands of a guy who is averaging over 5.0 ypc. Between Beaver and Mahoney, this team has a running back ready to go on every play, both capable of making plays. Though there is another big reason why these running backs are so successful, and that is their offensive line. A group of home grown players that are playing extremely well together. This is a group that has five starters who have never played a down for another team. Two former first round picks, two more 3rd rounders, and Ezra Baumbartner at LT who was taken in the original league draft in the 6th round. Such a group of linemen has allowed the Phantoms to run left, right, or up the middle with out concern. They are also one of the top red zone rushing teams in the league.
Worst Rushing Offense - Hands down, the Lousiana VooDoo are a horrible running team. There are other teams who may not be happy with how their team runs the ball, but all they have to do is look at the VooDoo. We don't want to be cruel to the VooDoo, but the stats speak for themselves. In six games they have a league low 499 yards rushing as a team. A league low 83.2 yards per game. Last but not least, by far the league low with only 2.8 yards per carry. This non-threatening attack is led by RB Bennett Jones. The 9 year vet has clearly seen better days. After seven consecutive seasons with over 1,000 yards rushing, he is in great danger of missing that mark this year. Already a guy who has never run for great average, his YPC is down to 3.05 this year. Backup RB Cary Morris is not any help at 2.82 YPC. Jones being on the downside of his career, and Morris just not having the talent, is not really the big reason for this ineffective running game though. Four new starters on the offensive line this season has to be looked at as a major reason for the running problems. Myron Reiss is the only VooDoo starting lineman who was with the team in previous seasons, and he is a guy who has never been considered a good run blocker in the first place. So with four new linemen, despite their talent, just has not been able to get on the same page and gel as a whole unit. We hope to see things to improve as the year progresses, and I am sure VooDoo fans do as well. The VooDoo sit at 3-3, and with some better running could shoot for a winning record this season.
Top Passing Offense - Not too much to ponder with this one, it is clearly the Portland Seals. They lead the league in Yards Per Game, Yards Per Attempt, and Yards Per Completion. All this despite being 26th in the league in pass attempts. Now that is called being very efficient. Clearly thier yardage is not simply a product of going long. Oh they do do that, and are very effective at it, too. They have 60 attempts long, compared to teams like Vancouver, Lousiana, or Little Rock, who's long pass attempts only get into the 30's. Completions are key though. Only Iowa City can match Portland, who are both 27/60 going long. In comparison, look at a team like Newark who only has 19 completions in 77 long attempts. That is the difference. This team will hit you anywhere though. For short passes they have 72 attempts, 65 in the medium range, and the 60 attempts long. Of course it all starts with Jay Caro. He is the 2009 league MVP, and is looking for another MVP this season, though a bit off his pace from a year ago. The recipients of of his passes? Another case of homegrown talent. Receivers Blake Ameche and Dominic Field joined the team 4 years ago via the draft, and have grown along with Jay Caro. A solid TE in Alan Bryant in second on the team in receptions. Seven different players are in the double digits for receptions, impressive for a team that does not actually pass as much as most teams. The final element is a solid offensive line, which may not be considered the top pass blocking line in the league, but combined with the intelligent, quick Jay Caro, is more then effective at keeping down the pressure from opposing defenses.
Worst Passing Offense - Salt Lake City gets the nod for worst passing team so far this season. They have challengers in certain passing categories, but the Stallions have the whole package. Or should I say, are missing the whole package. They have only 827 yards passing in seven games, at a horrible 118.1 YPG. That is about 53 yards per game less then the next lowest team, Little Rock. They are tied with Newark for having the most passes defended, at 43, and their opponents PD% is a league high 87.1. Of course, some trouble is to be expected, because most of the time at QB this year has been filled by rookie, 1st round pick, Tom Dewit. Chris Chaplin started the season with an injury, and now with a poor record, the decision to throw the rookie into the fire to learn probably was not a hard one, and will probably be the status quo for the rest of the season. Still, Dewit seems to be getting worse with each game, instead of improving. His completion percentage has dropped from 75% in his debut game, to 29.6 in his last start. It has dropped every game. Dewit has veterans at RB and TE, with Tart and Daniel, to lean on. Unfortunetly that is it. His receiving corps though is not one you want to have on the field for a rookie QB. All are considered below average receivers, and with several free agents in their first year with the club they are not all on the same page as they try to learn a new system the same time their rookie QB is learning about the IFL. The o-line has seen some shuffling as the games past, but as a whole has done a decent job protecting Dewit. No, the line is not really to blame here. Most of the blame falls on the shoulders of a rookie QB, a sub-par group of receivers, and all of them trying to play in a system that they are just not ready for.
Top Rushing Defense - As of this point of the season, the St. Louis Cardinals are being named the team with the best rushing defense. Sure, being one of the teams with the fewest rushing attempts against you helps, but you can not deny the fact that they are very strong against the run when it happens. They give up only 75.7 yards per game, and a very impressive 3.05 yards per carry. Also, along with Texas, they are one of the two teams in the league who are giving up less them three yards per in the middle on the line. We look to the surprising play from free agent signing, nose tackle Brad Giles. The slightly undersized DT, is having one of the better years of his career, and is helping create plenty of tackle opportunities for ILB Noel Daniels. Daniels has always been solid, but in his 10th season he is on pace to have one of his best seasons ever. The Cardinals have also been happy with the play of rookie 6th round pick, Randal Kaplan, who has held up so far this year, seems to be maturing quickly, and may be considered a steal in the draft if he keeps this up. Kaplan hasn't been THAT good though. What is making this a tough front seven to run on on the veteran leadership at LB, and DE Maldonado. They are playing well together, and clearly have been able to key on stopping the run when they feel they need to.
Worst Rushing Defense - This is possibly the hardest category to pick one team for. Tulsa, Salt Lake City, and Cleveland all seem to have reasons to claim this title. Not that they want to claim it. I am going to go with Cleveland for now. No they don't give up the most yardage per game, they rank thrid in that category. The Clawz do have the worst Yards Per Carry against them though, and at 5.11 YPC they are the only team allowing over 5.0 ypc. They are even close to allowing 6.0 ypc (5.92) on runs to the right. A close look at the starting front seven shows what the problem with the Cleveland run defense is. You have two long time Clawz starters in LBs Vance and Gregorio, but after that is a bunch of inexperience. The WLB position either has a guy who is not the best run stopper, or a guy who is not used to that position, playing there. That leads us to the defensive line, the key to their struggles. A couple of early injuries have in part led to some young, unexperienced guys up front. Rookie DE James Larimer could be decent, but has many aspects of the game he still needs to pick up. RDE Weaver is coming along in his third year, but is more of a pass rusher then run defender. RDT Phillips is a solid guy, but he can't teach J.J. Johnson everything in a few games, and the second year guy is struggling as he tries to pick up playing the LDT spot instead of his more natural RDT spot. Overall it is not the owrst group of players in the world, though it is a group who will be better off in a year or two. If they make it that far as a group.
Top Passing Defense - Once again, a hard choice. Lawrence could claim this to go along with their Top Rushing Offense, but I give the edge to two other teams. SO now it comes down to Little ROck and Vermont. After almost giving it to Vermont, Little Rock gets it for now. Vermont is pretty impressive because no team gets passed on more then they do, and they do extremely well. Little Rock gets the nod though because of after throwing out the Yards Per Game and lessening how Defended Passes impact my decision (because Vermont gets passed on so much more), Little Rock has the lower Yards Per Catch and has a better PD%. The Toads then, what makes it a tough team to pass on? Focusing on the defensive backfield, the four starters have been there forever. Rodney Love has been on the team for seven years, and is still the new guy. They are also a talented group, that helps. Rochester, who seems to get a lot of playing time as a sometimes starter, has even been there for 8 years. The team is tied for second for passes defended with 39, despite having fewer pass plays against them then over half the league. DBs don't do it all though, and they get help from a defensive front that has been putting good pressure on QBs, ranking 2nd in team sacks. All in all though, this could easily swing back over to Vermont by year's end.
Worst Passing Defense - This category is not as cut and dry as looking at who gives up the most Passing Yards Per Game, you have to go beyond that and I did. The not-so-proud winner at this point is the Orlando Pirates. Only four teams in the league have had FEWER pass attempts against them, as the Pirates only have 176 passes thrown at them through six games. Of those 176 passes, 124 have been completed. That is a completion rate of 70.5%, which in case you didn't know is kind of bad. Such a high completion % has led to them being 5th in the league in Passing Yards Per Game given up, and they are only a few yards per game from taking over second place. To combound the situation, they are tied for 26th in the league with only 18 passes defended. Need one more thing? Their opponents QB Rating is an insanely high 107.3, which is only beaten by West Virginia's 110.3. The Beasts of course would be our #2 team on this list. One thing that has hurt the Orlando pass defense is having CB Carl Grim on the bench for the year after a season ending injury in week 2. That leaves two free agent signings working at CB, though Jeff White did play for Orlando in 2008. A Lack of talent at the safety positions is also hurting the Pirates. Veteran Lee Mears is starting to look is age and can't make up for the lack of talent and experience around him anymore. At FS is Charlie Heath, a 4th year guy who is in his first year as a regular starter and a free agent brought over form the Mules. I would like to say some more time for these guys would help them improve, but an infusion of some talent is going to be needed as well.
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