Ultimus Bowl XXI
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| Stadium | The Meme Coliseum, New Orleans, Louisiana | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Offensive MVP | Forrest Gump, Running Back (NOLA) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Defensive MVP | Maurice Virtanen, Linebacker (YKW) | ||||||||||||||||||
Ultimus Bowl XXI was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Simulation Football League (NSFL) for 2036 (S21). The American Simulation Football Conference (ASFC) champion New Orleans Second Line defeated the National Simulation Football Conference (NSFC) champion Yellowknife Wraiths, 33–13, to win their third Ultimus Bowl in franchise history. The game was played at the The Meme Coliseum in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Yellowknife Wraiths lost their fourth straight Ultimus appearance, extending their previous record.
Contents
Background
Teams
The NSFC was represented by the wild card playoff seed Yellowknife Wraiths, while the ASFC was represented by their second seed New Orleans Second Line.
Yellowknife Wraiths
The Wraiths finished the regular season with a record of 7-6. It was an uncharacteristically up and down season as they failed to win back to back games until the later half of the season. The story of their season changed when they won an improbable Week 10 game on the road against the Second Line. The Second Line were vying to go 10-0 but were stopped by a valiant Wraiths team who beat them 32-29. The Second Line had a lead as large 24-5, before the Wraiths rallied for the win in the second half. That was the turning point of their season as they rallied of 3 straight wins to put themselves in a position to get to the playoffs. They finished third in their conference and knew that to win an Ultimus, it would have to be done on the road. The Wraiths were a middling team in both points scored and points allowed league wide. Cooter Bigsby, the veteran gunslinger, led the number one offence in both yards, and passing yards per game.
New Orleans Second Line
The Second Line finished the regular season with a record of 9-4, finishing second in the ASFC to the Orange County Otters who finished 10-3. The Second Line had a historic start, where they started 9-0 before falling to the Wraiths in Week 10. This seemingly derailed their season as they lost 4 straight games, and lost their hold on the number 1 seed in the ASFC. They were led by Stan Francisco who had one of the most efficient passing seasons in NSFL history as well as Forrest Gump who had yet another 1000 yard rushing season. Led by Gump, the Second Line boasted the number three rushing attack in the NSFL with 149 rushing yards per game. They were 1st in the league in points scored and on the defensive side of the ball they were 2nd in the league in points given up, only to the Orange County Otters. This was a well balanced team with a dangerous passing attack combine with the one of the best running games in football and a stingy defence. Despite being a wild card team, they knew they had a chance of getting to the Ultimus if they got past the Wild Card round as they had already beaten the Otters on their home turf earlier in the season.
Playoffs
The Wraiths started their playoff journey on the road against the Colorado Yeti in the Wild Card round. The game was a back and forth affair as the the score was 13-13 at halftime. The Wraiths managed to pull away in the final seconds of the third quarter on a touchdown throw from Cooter Bigsby to Bender Rodriguez. They put the game away with 5 minutes to go in the fourth quarter as Bigsby led them on another touchdown drive.
The Wraiths faced off against the Baltimore Hawks in the NSFC Conference Championship. The score was 0-0 after the first quarter but in the second quarter, the Wraiths exploded offensively. They scored three touchdowns, on of which was an 83 yard interception return by Leonard Mervin. The score was 24-3 going into the second half. The Wraiths managed to hold on for the rest of the game, as they were granted their fourth straight Ultimus berth.
The Second Line started off at home against the Austin Copperheads in the Wild Card round. The Second Line dominated the line of scrimmage as they ran for over 200 yards, led by Forrest Gump who was named the offensive player of the game.
The Second Line matched up against the Orange County Otters in the ASFC Conference Championship. They had split the season series, and the Second Line had watched as the Otters had taken away the lead in the conference after the Second Line had started 9-0. They were eager to get revenge. They jumped out to a 17-3 lead in the game, but the Otters managed to crawl all the way back. Franklin Armstrong and the Otters were down 24-17 with 7:06 to go and had to drive 70 yards to tie the game. What occurred was a 16 play drive that ended in a 1 yard rushing touchdown by Ludicolo Bigby that sent the 24-24 game into overtime. The Second Line won the toss and drove down to take the 27-24 lead on the leg of their kicker. The Otters tried to drive into field goal range to tie it but the vaunted Second Line defence were able to stop Armstrong and the Otters offence to earn the right to host Ultimus Bowl XXI.
The Yellowknife Wraiths had faced off against the New Orleans Second Line once in the regular season. They were the ones who had broken the Second Line hopes for an undefeated season, and were probably responsible for the downward spiral for the Second Line who lost their next 3 games and their right to home field throughout the ASFC playoffs. The Wraiths were oddly confident going into this game, knowing they had went into the New Orleans and pulled off a huge victory against the Second Line not too long ago.
Game summary
First Quarter
Ultimus Bowl XXI started off with a tentative beginning as both teams exchanged sacks, miscues and punts. But the New Orleans Second Line were the first team to settle down as Francisco engineered their first touchdown drive of the night, featuring zero runs from their stacked backfield. Austin McCormick was on the receiving end of the 7 yard slant and the Second Line were officially up 7-0 in the first quarter. The Wraiths couldn't manage to get anything on offence yet again and went 3 and out. The Second Line proceeded to put together a dominate 13 play touchdown drive ending in another touchdown pass by Francisco, this time to [Bona'Beri Jones]. The Second Line were off to a great start as they dominated the quarter 14-0.
Second Quarter
The Wraiths continued to struggle on offence, just not being able to get anything through the ground nor the air as the frustration was palpable on the face of Cooter Bigsby. He was especially frustrated at the state of the offensive line as they were being absolute pummeled by the versatile New Orleans defensive line. Blake Faux and Bjorn Ironside both got in damaging sacks against the wily old gunslinger. The Second Line managed to get with the Wraiths 13 yard line before Leonard Mervin made a great defensive play and intercepted the pass. Unfortunately the Wraiths just could not manage to get out of their side of the field and were forced to punt yet again.
Third Quarter
The 2nd half for the Second Line started off much like the end of the first half, with another long and time consuming field goal drive to make the score 20-0. The Wraiths finally managed to get on the board with 5 minutes left in the third quarter, scoring a short range FG from rookie Dougie Smalls to make the score 20-3. The Second Line didn't let their foot off the gas pedal as they went down the field in their next possession and scored a touchdown on just four plays. Running back Forrest Gump snuck behind Wraiths coverage and scored a long 49 yard receiving touchdown to mostly likely put the game away at. The score was 26-3 going into the last quarter of the season.
Fourth Quarter
The Wraiths managed to get a field goal at the top of the fourth quarter to make the score 26-6. The Wraiths showed some life after holding the Second Line to a punt. A few plays later, they were on the Second Line side of the field before Bjorn Ironside forced a fumble which was deftly recovered by linebacker Mack Arianlacher. The Second Line offence then went to work, dominating the line of scrimmage all the way down the on a more than 5 minute drive. Marcella Toriki ran it in from the one yard line to put the nail in the coffin. The Wraiths managed to finally score their first touchdown of the game but it was all for naught. The Second Line were officially crowned NSFL Ultimus Champions after a stifling 33-13 performance against the Wraiths. This was the Wraiths fourth straight Ultimus Bowl loss, while the Second Line celebrated their 3rd Ultimus Championship in franchise history.
Forrest Gump was named the Ultimus Bowl VIII Offensive Player of the Game after putting up 221 total yards from scrimmage, 291 all purpose yards and 1 touchdown. A small consolation prize for the Wraiths was their young linebacker Maurice Virtanen was named the Defensive Player of the game for his 10 tackle and 1 sack performance.
Game statistics
Statistical comparison
| Statistic | Yellowknife Wraiths | New Orleans Second Line |
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| First downs | 13 | 25 |
| Third down efficiency | 6/15 | 11/19 |
| Fourth down efficiency | 0/0 | 1/2 |
| Net yards rushing | 59 | 225 |
| Rushing attempts | 18 | 50 |
| Yards per rush | 3.3 | 4.5 |
| Passing – Completions-attempts | 24/40 | 22/37 |
| Interceptions thrown | 0 | 1 |
| Net yards passing | 278 | 353 |
| Total net yards | 337 | 578 |
| Fumbles-lost | 1-1 | 0-0 |
| Penalties-yards | 3-25 | 5-30 |
| Time of possession | 23:10 | 36:50 |
| Turnovers | 1 | 1 |
Box score
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
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| Wraiths (NSFC) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 13 |
| Second Line (ASFC) | 14 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 33 |
at Burial Grounds, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
- Date: 25 January, 2037
- Game time: 8:00 p.m. EST
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