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May 26, 2012
Playoffs
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Stranglers Crash Perfect HomesWhether it was due to Mobile's gamble with WR Guy Nicologi in regular season, losing him to injury in a game after they had clinched everything including home field for the playoffs, the bid for the second complete perfect season came to a crashing halt. The 1985 Chattanooga Choochoos retain the distinction of the complete perfect season, Hyperbowl and all. The Boston Stranglers stretched their winning streak to eight in ending Mobile's amazing season at -- well, just that: a regular season, 15-0 thought it was. Mobile QB Jethro Ittaway, who rode one of the most dominating seasons in LAF history to surpass Boston QB Sebastian Ophuls statistically as the best QB in the Eastern Conference had the tables turned on him, with Ophuls, considered the East's premier pure passer, even outrushing him in this game. The game turned was a surprisingly defensive affair, especially for the pass, as both QBs were held to under 200 yards. But Ittaway, the league's leading rushing QB, carried six times for -19 yards rushing, that including two sacks. While Boston was considered precisely the sort of danger to a Mobile without Nicologi, who was set to return next week had Mobile advanced to the conference final, even the Stranglers' vaunted duo of WR Luke St. Everything and TE Marky DeSade were held largely in check. Boston was simply able to grind out more scores, with most of their drives involving at least one big run or scramble by Ophuls. Because the Stranglers have the worst record in the playoffs, they will have to travel for the Eastern final. |
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Natives Throw off New Jerseys, Face Boston AgainAfter all the noise the Mobile Homes caused with their perfect regular season, the Eastern Conference Championship this year is status quo: a repeat of Columbus v. Boston. This time Columbus heads in as defending East champs and the host, after reaffirming their regular-season result against division foe New Jerseys. And while New Jerseys TE Bud Ugly was named to his 12th All-East Team this year, the most selections of any player in SCAB history, he had to step aside in at least this one game for Columbus TE Phil Awful. The game was a scrappy, defensive affair, the style that favors Columbus, with five interceptions, Natives second-year QB Bug Zappa throwing three of them. But the Natives held veteran and marquis QB Upton O'Good to just 114 yards passing, and once again confounded analysis, just as they did in last year in streaking to their division title and through the playoffs to the Hyperbowl. |
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Linemen Turn Tables on BulletsWhen Dodge beat Wichita just two weeks ago to surge into the playoffs, much as they did through the playoffs last year, there was one glaring statistic: three interceptions of seven-time All-West QB Payne Indiass. The chances of that happening again were very slim, and the Linemen proved in this game just how hard it would be for even the defending league champ Bullets to get around them without that. Indiass even helped out his own cause with some well-timed runs, forcing the Dodge defense to worry about containing him that way. The Linemen WR duo, Ringo Fire and Adolph DeFlore, phenomenal in the regular season with those two 2nd and 3rd in the league in receptions, was too much in this showdown against the Dodge dynamic duo backfield of RBs Olivus and Hugo Faq-Yusef, and this time Wichita shut down the Dodge passing attack that helped take them by surprise in their last meeting. Indiass had one of the best seasons in LAF history for QB rating, and Wichita was charging to the playoffs and an anticipated showdown with the breakout Mobile Homes, before that dramatic loss to Dodge. Now the Linemen are back riding high, possibly over the league after Mobile's loss, chink in the armor notwithstanding. |
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Bunch Bomb, Flatten Gila MonstersBut then there was this display. Iowa QB Tab Lloyd, who won the Demetrius Award at Puke in 1996 and led the Bunch to they Hyperbowl in 2007, was having a resurgence this season, but not even that prepared anyone for a performance like this. The Bunch were either so on, or so thoroughly flummoxed Flagastaff with the passing attack, that they scarcely bothered with the rush. They netted 29 yards rushing, while RBs Orson DeWater and Elian N. Vasian contributed 7 catches and 77 yards to the passing total. Star WR Hollis Assaway, as might have been expected, did the most damage with 8 catches for 147 yards and a TD, but TE Dick Cass had 3 TD catches. The Gila Monsters scored the first TD, on a 21-yard run by Shlomo Replay, who led all rushers, and his running mate, the West's leading rusher Carlo DeChix added 60 yards rushing, but it was all Iowa through the air after that. The Bunch will now travel to Wichita where Lloyd will hope to fare more like this in his showdown with Payne Indiass than like he did when the teams met in the regular season and Wichita won 42-9. |
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