Originally posted by MeatBomb
Hey guys, Meatbomb from the Carolina Bar Stars here. GG in the championship Winnipeg. You guys did a great job to largely negate the "Taylor factor" that has bedeviled a lot of our opponents this year. We feel lucky to have won and lift our glasses up to as very worthy and very well coached opponent. Best of luck to you guys in finishing of that A league trophy this season and continuing on into the future. To avoid Raphael, we basically ignored the entire strong side of the field, but even having done this, he forced two fumbles (although one was on special teams). On the other fumble, ironically, it would have been better had Run Thru not broken through the defenders because he gave Taylor a chance to smack him:
http://goallineblitz.com/game/replay.pl?game_id=567523&pbp_id=16319704Sometimes, even when the play developed to the weak-side, Raphael had the speed to be in on it, so avoiding him was difficult:
http://goallineblitz.com/game/replay.pl?game_id=567523&pbp_id=16318936I didn't want to use the Cross-Up cause I knew your team would expect it, but on the other hand, I didn't want to pass to the right side of the field with Taylor. I did the math and I figured Taylor force fumbles an average of 1 out of every 3 tackles, so we couldn't afford the risk. Unfortunately, all the best pass plays are to the right, but I'd rather risk a botched pass to the left than a force fumble to the right. This is why I chose singleback formation runs to the left, since it forces Raphael to the left side of the field on a cover 2. Even that was hit or miss though, so yea nothing much we could do. Plus your defensive personnel outmatched us, so we couldn't afford a pass-happy offense. I could go on forever, but trust me when I say I examined all of Winnipeg's options =).
Sign that Taylor guy to a 6-season contract cause he's something special. Even when we made an effort to avoid him, he still performed. Good luck to your team in the future.
It's not exploitation, it's them scouting and gameplanning their asses off that make us a successful team, and I think I speak on behalf of zulk and the entire Winnipeg Warriors roster when I say that we are so very fortunate to have two coordinators this committed to winning. The level of competition we have faced in this tournament is a testament to that, albeit all being just a bunch of scrimmages that don't affect what teams are really striving to do.
