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The Totem Pole

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  • The Totem Pole

    Figured I'd keep a little catalogue of my Dakota Totems adventures here!

    It's week 4 of 2026, and we're off to the second 3-0 start of my tenure with the Totems. We started off 4-0 during my first season here in 2018, which was my first season ever in FOF MP. However, this team isn't as stacked as that one, that went 14-2 despite my noobness. McBriar has turned the ball over 9 times in the first three games, with 6 interceptions. That can't continue if we're going to keep winning, especially against the monstrous Gainesville Gators, our opponents this week.

    Hopefully we don't get blown out of this water against the Gators and their formidable WR duo Harward and Julio Strickland, the latter of whom was drafted during my first season. I drafted the somewhat forgettable and average Grant Giefeke, passing on numerous better options at WR including Lee Syms and Geoff Meadows.

    The Gators defense features three former Totems, all veterans of our bowl victory, who we traded to Gainesville: Ricardo Dudgeon (who had a monster postseason in our bowl run), Rondell Crossman (A trusty nose tackle in my old 3-4, who only played the majority of defensive snaps during our bowl year.) and Derrick Schwartz.

    Schwartz was drafted to replace Rich "Romancing The" Johnstone as our pass rushing WLB, but failed to stand out. He was also injured during our playoff/bowl run and saw little playing time late in the season, when we dusted off Johnstone who did just fine. Schwartz is yet another testament to my mediocre drafting abilities!

    Other members of the Gators who had a brief stint with Dakota include Toby Gribble (An old developmental guard who is still developing) and their starting fullback Maurice Albriktsen, who we once thought might be the heir apparent to longtime Totem Ron Dabbs, who finally retired last year after a long career. Gainesville Gators are to the Dakota Totems as the Dakota Totems are to the Utah Bees? MAYBE!

    We'll be without start LDT Jerome Howe against the Gators, unfortunately. Fortunately, Cedric Caldwell has been lighting the field on fire early this season, so hopefully he can keep his unlikely performance up in Howe's spot. Caldwell has 2 sacks, 4 hurries and a KD in the first three games this year. One of our many youngsters, 2nd year WR Artie "Reverend" Lovejoy (the heir to Seth "Rabbi" Shapiro, who is finishing his career with Brooklyn) will be playing hobbled, as will reserve linebacker Lorenzo Ferguson who is suffering from turf toe.

    If McBriar can just keep the ball out of Gainesville's hands and in our receivers' hands, our defense can keep the Gators below 30 points, and Duckworth plays like he did the week before last we have a shot in this one. That's a lot of ifs, though!

  • #2
    Huge win over Gainesville this week to improve to 4-0 for the second time in my tenure with the Totems.

    Items of note:

    -The Brandon Stokleys and Az-Zahir Hakims of the World WR3 and WR4 Bernie Jones and Ralph Bell continue to get targets and produce. I almost have an excuse to start Bernie Jones over Lovejoy (Cohesion!) but Lovejoy has strong affinity, while Jones' is a mild affinity. Also, Lovejoy has better GD and BPR. I've always regretted cutting Bell when I was a dumb FOF noob, so it's nice to at least get one year out of him.

    -THE DUCK OF DEATH Duckworth fumbled two more times. He has 5 fumbles in four games. This is worrisome, but he continues to come up with big plays in both the passing and running game.

    -McBriar - The Poor Man's Tony Romo McBriar also continues to make big plays and turn the ball over. No interceptions this week, but two more fumbles. He loves to scramble but he's not too good at it. 6 interceptions and five fumbles so far.

    -Where's Dat Pass Rush? - The vaunted Dakota front four hasn't produced much so far. 2nd year man Wes Pimentel, a situational pass rushing DE and Cedric Caldwell, my RDT are getting pressure but A.J. Hassett hasn't been bringing the pressure like last year, nor has Kyle Ackerman who performed well in limited snaps in previous seasons. I expect this situation will rectify itself, though.

    -Rejuvenation for veteran T Lincoln Lewis Roosevelt Dunn and Lincoln Lewis are the longest tenured Dakota Totems, and the only players left from when I inherited the team. Lewis has been a sack surrendering machine the past couple years, and was benched for the final 6 games two years ago. This year his pass protection has been better and his run blocking skill is actually a boon since I have a real RB now.

    -The Comeback Kid? - QB McBriar has only 4 active QBs ahead of him in the "4th Quarter Comeback Victory" stat. I assume he's had to orchestrate comebacks a lot in his career due to his propensity for turnovers.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by FoosballWizard
      The Comeback Kid? - QB McBriar has only 4 active QBs ahead of him in the "4th Quarter Comeback Victory" stat. I assume he's had to orchestrate comebacks a lot in his career due to his propensity for turnovers.
      Lol. That probably is true.

      Comment


      • #4
        Jumped out to a 17-0 lead and held on to win vs. a Chicago rally, finishing with a 24-17 victory.

        Bernie Jones lead the team in receptions and went over 100 yards, continuing to be my second favorite FOF slot receiver of all time. He currently leads the team in both receptions and yards. McBriar got pummeled all game but had a great day throwing the ball, but the turnovers continued. He fumbled twice losing one. More alarming, Duckworth fumbled again. Can my 1.3 RB have a bad avoid fumbles? I hope not!

        Star DT Jerome Howe came up with his first sack of the season as he returned from an injury, and overachieving DT Cedric Caldwell added two more pressures and 1.5 sacks. He already has set a career high for sacks in a season.

        We are off to our first 5-0 start during my tenure with the Totems.

        This team will contend this year, but I think we're overachieving so far. I just hope the crash back down to earth isn't too big!

        Comment


        • #5
          Ooooh, fumbling rookie running back? I'm looking forward to coming to town.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by garion333 View Post
            Ooooh, fumbling rookie running back? I'm looking forward to coming to town.
            Almost every game, sometimes multiple times.

            Comment


            • #7
              Hopefully that just goes away with development. It's like the developing rookie QBs throwing picks.
              Float likeabutterflysting likeabee.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Nutah View Post
                Hopefully that just goes away with development. It's like the developing rookie QBs throwing picks.
                I was hoping the same thing. I'm used to my undrafted FA RBs fumbling but not Duckworth!

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by FoosballWizard View Post
                  Almost every game, sometimes multiple times.
                  i went thru that will will shumway his first season and he mellowed out for the most part, but it seemed to go in cycles his fumbles per season would go like 10, 7, 5, 5, 11, 7,7,3,13. so i guess next season will tell

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by strickzilla View Post
                    i went thru that will will shumway his first season and he mellowed out for the most part, but it seemed to go in cycles his fumbles per season would go like 10, 7, 5, 5, 11, 7,7,3,13. so i guess next season will tell
                    10 fumbles tends to make me want to cut people in FOFL where I trot out the scrub RB of the week every season. Duckworth will definitely get the benefit of the doubt!

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Put up 41 points for the second straight week. Strong game from Duckworth who didn't fumble on top of that. Not used to having a strong RB in FOF, but I'm starting to like it.

                      Our biggest game of the year is coming up against Columbus. If we win this one we could be going places.

                      Bernie Jones has been less of a factor with more targets going to Lovejoy and Donaghy. Ralph Bell had a nice TD catch. Lovejoy did his usual trick: not catching most of his targets but coming up huge when he did.

                      We currently have the 5th ranked offense in the league and the 12th ranked defense and this team is coming along even faster than I thought it would...but can they keep it up?
                      Last edited by FoosballWizard; 11-12-2012, 12:26 AM.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        A stud RB is such a game-changer. I know I've got my eyes on one of NLB's stud pair already!
                        Float likeabutterflysting likeabee.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Nutah View Post
                          A stud RB is such a game-changer. I know I've got my eyes on one of NLB's stud pair already!
                          I used to be an "I could get by with whoever at RB" guy, and I still may regret passing on that TE, but having a good RB certainly is a luxury!

                          My team is going to be built around this guy for at least the next 6-7 years.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Our turnover problem finally came to haunt us this week. 4 turnovers (all McBriar) vs Columbus, who we gave the lead to late in the fourth quarter. The offense didn't finish drives, and the AI inexplicably went for it on 4th and 5 from the Columbus 18 early on with a 6-0 lead. I guess it was frustrated by the first two stalled drives?

                            Still happy with the team so far, but leading the league in turnovers isn't going to cut it. Parrish threw 23 ints the year Dakota won it all, but McBriar is outpacing him for picks and we're not going far in the playoffs with 3.5 turnovers per game.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              ***MIDSEASON REVIEW***

                              Generally, this team has been what I thought it would be and more. 8-1 is slightly better than I expected, even though I thought we would field a strong team this year. We've had a pretty strong defense and a pretty strong offense. Our big problem is turnovers by the offense.

                              QBs- Jonathon McBriar is the only one who played. He's been a turnover machine, but sometimes he hits big passes. Livin' la vida Romo over here. Backup Kurt Jackson hasn't had to play, but unless that exceptional affinity counts for a lot it could be scary if he has to.

                              RBs- Duckworth has been up and down but generally strong. Too many fumbles. Trotter has been the same guy he has been for many years, but with less carries.

                              WRs - The group is stronger than its ratings, although Donaghy still tends to catch passes for either 3 yards or 90. Lovejoy had a huge game the week before last and looks like he was a great pick last year. Bernie Jones and Ralph Bell continue to contribute strongly from the WR3 and WR4 positions.

                              TEs - They don't figure much into my offense, but old Britt Peters has come up with some huge catches this season in passing situations.

                              OL - Lincoln Lewis isn't just some guy who can't pass block anymore. His run blocking has been big for Duckworth. Chorak is finally performing decently, and Billy Wilkins who is now officially a full time starter has been satisfactory. J.T. Sandage has declined with age but is still doing alright. Andre Peterson hasn't even seen the field yet, after being injured in the preseason. His forte is pass blocking, and we're not looking for that as much as we used to be. Could be his last season.

                              DL - I'm still really excited about this young group, and despite some good performances I still think they can do better. My core DL is going to be here for almost a decade, they're mostly young and talented.

                              LB - Well, they're some average guys. But I only want an average performance! Rufus Mason is getting more snaps than Martinez at LB lately, and "Franchise" Montgomery will continue to be franchised until I can't afford him anymore. Lorenzo Ferguson looks like a guy who just vol bumped and isn't going to be the monster we hoped. He's also been hampered by turf toe, limiting his snaps.

                              DB - Cris Hutchins and Leslie Troglia look like a tandem who will be here for a long time, which is nice after fielding a pretty historically garbage secondary a couple years ago. We've had some pathetic CB2's the previous two years to their arrival, but we're solid now. At S Lamar Rivera continues to be worth the 7th rounder I traded Utah for him, and Roosevelt Dunn continues to start while mentoring his understudy Corey Maiher. Jorge May will be a backup at SS to Rivera, but Maiher is the future at FS. I expected Maiher to bump in his first TC and he didn't, but his strong zone defense skills guarantee him a spot on this team.

                              Special teams - Well, our special teams aren't really anything special, but our P Marcum has been clutch lately after a slow start to the year. Ike Hoffman does the trick at K for us - he's slightly above average. Our return men don't scare anyone, but perhaps we can improve that next year.

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