As you all know, I favored Austin as the top team in my season 5 A7 west power rankings, and despite an early-season loss to the Silverymoon Elves, I still have them ranked as the "Best in the West". Copied from my A7 West Power Rankings thread, here's why Austin remains the team to beat:
"I can tell you one thing...watching the replay of the Austin vs. Silverymoon game, Austin pretty much gave that game away. Goalline offense running the ENTIRE 1st half, including going for it on every 4th down, giving away field possession to Silverymoon and then holding the Elves' offense to only 6 pts. in the first half. I don't know if something happened with their AI or they were trying to catch Silverymoon in it's goalline defense and break a long run on them or what. Regardless, Austin is a phenomenal team and despite that poor planning still had a very close game with a team that I considered to be one of the top 3 teams in the West this season. With a cake schedule, Austin will be 3-1 going into a tough week 5 matchup where we'll have a chance to see how they do against another top team in the league. Very interesting decision by Austin...i'm STILL shocked! Nevertheless, they showed commitment to a lopsided offensive attack which was what the Chicago Pterydactyls did in the playoffs all last season--but Chicago didn't do it just loading up on goalline running, and they mixed in short WR passes on 4th & 3.5+ situations, converting a lot of 4th downs into 1st downs through the air. We'll see if Austin makes some adjustments and rights the ship for their week 5 matchup with (if I remember correctly) a very tough Buffalo team as they continue to tweak the AI of their unique offensive approach."
"I can tell you one thing...watching the replay of the Austin vs. Silverymoon game, Austin pretty much gave that game away. Goalline offense running the ENTIRE 1st half, including going for it on every 4th down, giving away field possession to Silverymoon and then holding the Elves' offense to only 6 pts. in the first half. I don't know if something happened with their AI or they were trying to catch Silverymoon in it's goalline defense and break a long run on them or what. Regardless, Austin is a phenomenal team and despite that poor planning still had a very close game with a team that I considered to be one of the top 3 teams in the West this season. With a cake schedule, Austin will be 3-1 going into a tough week 5 matchup where we'll have a chance to see how they do against another top team in the league. Very interesting decision by Austin...i'm STILL shocked! Nevertheless, they showed commitment to a lopsided offensive attack which was what the Chicago Pterydactyls did in the playoffs all last season--but Chicago didn't do it just loading up on goalline running, and they mixed in short WR passes on 4th & 3.5+ situations, converting a lot of 4th downs into 1st downs through the air. We'll see if Austin makes some adjustments and rights the ship for their week 5 matchup with (if I remember correctly) a very tough Buffalo team as they continue to tweak the AI of their unique offensive approach."
Last edited Sep 23, 2008 16:55:05
