Welcome to Season 24
We are all set for another exciting season of USFFL Football. It’s been too long since I last played a game, and I am EXCITED TO KICKOFF the 24th season. This year we bring back 31 of our 32 coaches. New to the league this year is Zach Kaplan, son of none other than NY Giants coach Scott Kaplan. A big USFFL welcome to Zack who will be coaching the Atlanta Falcons. Welcome to the USFFL family Zack. Other coaching changes this year include Chris Kaufman, who will take over the Minnesota Vikings, Tim Hay who will now coach the Philadelphia Eagles, and Bruce Mogg who will slide over to the Dallas Cowboys.
Rule Changes
we had several proposed rule changes this year, including a new process for substituting for another coach, the often asked for BYE week healing, and a new process for the COY tournament.
Substitutions – The new process for Subs has been adopted and we are officially looking for volunteers for this season. Volunteering does NOT mean you are required to sub when your turn comes up. However, you cannot be eligible to sub this year without opting-in. To volunteer to sub any games this year, you MUST go to the #subs thread in Slack and officially confirm there your desire to be a sub this year. For context, we have averaged 7 games requiring a sub TOTAL in each of the past 2 seasons, so this should not be a big commitment at all. Let’s get some volunteers, gang! Head to Slack and reply on the #subs thread.
BYE Week Healing – As the name says, injured players will now heal during the BYE week.
COY Tournament- The COY Tournament will now be seeded by record and not split between AFC and NFC. This will correct imbalances where we had more teams from one conference and not enough from the other.
Week 1
With that in mind, the USFFL week one kicked off with a special USFFL Kickoff game. This year San Francisco and Pittsburgh kicked off ahead of the rest in a special Kickoff Classic. You can watch a replay of the game here:
Here are the (very) early playoff seedings after week 1 action:
Game of the Week
Carolina 23 – Atlanta 20
In a see-saw battle, the Panthers beat Falcons 23-20 on last second FG!
The Falcons took the opening kickoff and smartly moved into the redzone with a good mix of runs and passes. The drive stalled when Carolina had back to back sacks for 19 yards forcing Koo to kick a 48 yard field goal. After both teams exchanged punts, the Panthers got the ball on their 11 yard line. 9 plays later they were at the Falcons 11 yard line. From their, Hubbard ran it in for a TD and a 7-3 lead. The next 3 drives, 2 by Panthers and one by Falcons, ended in punts.
Early in the 2nd quarter, Atlanta started to dominate offensively. First they marched down the field with a 12 play, 77 yard drive which was finished with a 4 yard Ridder to Smith TD pass and a 10-7 lead. The Falcons got the ball back with 5 minutes left in the half at their 9 yard line. Ridder slowly moved the team down field and 18 plays later, they faced 4th down at the Panthers 5 yard line with 15 seconds left in the half. A FG was the right choice and Falcons moved out to a 13-7 half time lead. An exhausted Panthers defense, on the field for the 30 of the last 35 plays were good being down by only 6.
The second half started slowly with Panthers going 3 and out. They got the ball back on their 20 and Young started to get hot. He moved the team to the 8 yard line where he hit Thielen for a TD pass and a 14-13 lead. The Falcons had to punt and Young led the Panthers in position for Pineiro to kick a 48 yard FG extending the lead to 17-13.
The 4th quarter starts with Falcons on the Panthers 30 yard line. From there, Ridder had his best pass of the game hitting London on a 30 yard LP TD. The Panthers, down by 3, started their next drive on the 25 yard line. Young continued his hot hand hitting a few receivers for decent yards. This combined with Hubbard chunk runs resulted in first and 10 at the Falcons 11 yard line. A big sack killed the drive and forced a Pineiro short FG tying the game 20-20.
The Falcons took the ensuing kickoff and moved to mid field where their drive stalled. After a shank punt, the Panthers had the ball at their 39 yard line with 5 minutes left. With 2nd and 14 at the Atlanta 33, Young threw an interception killing a possible game winning drive. The Panthers D stiffened and forced a punt to the Panthers 5 yard line with 1:37 left. OT looked to be in the cards. Hubbard ran for 26 yards on 3 carries and with the ball on the Panthers 37 yard line and 15 seconds left, it was time for LP. The first LP was called back for a pre-snap false start. The next play the Falcons were offsides. So back at the 37 yard line with 8 seconds left, Young hit Thielen for 32 yards setting up Pineiro to hit a game winning 48 yard FG!
Both statistically below average QBs had great games with Young 27-39 for 293 yards and a TD and the 1 int. Ridder was 22-34 for 207 yards and 2 TDs.
Hubbard was the leading rusher with 20 carries for 139 yards.
Great game Zack and welcome to the USFFL!
Top Performers
Quarterback – Josh Allen 26 of 43 for 334 and 4 TDs
Wide Receiver – Davante Adams 14 receptions for 138 yards and 2 TDs
Running Back – Travis Etienne 18 carries for 146 yards (8.1 YPC)