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Originally Posted by Andy Grady
I think those Wildstang guys came out to New England last week and learned something...and it certainly showed! Defense wins championships, especially in this game.
Congrats to Wildstang and co. on a great job!
Better bring those bumpers to Atlanta...its gonna be a rough one! 
-Andy Grady |
How'd I know you were going to start harping on us about your East coast defense again Grady. Don't you get tired of it?
In this case you're only partially right. Defense was a key to winning the MWR, but offense in autonomous is what set up the win. In the first round of the finals 1810 missed Beatty and they sank a bunch of balls in the 3-point goal while our partner 1756 made its usual ~8 balls in the 1-point goal and we missed most of our attempts at the 3-point goal. We lost autonomous, started the match with a near 30 point deficit, and never got back in the game because neither us or 1756 had any balls to score in our offensive period.
In the second round 1810 tapped Beatty while they were shooting in autonomous so they missed all their shots. We made a bunch and 1756 dumped low, so we started with a ~40 point advantage. Beatty was out of balls and when they went back to reload, our partners trapped them and harassed them for the rest of the match. They ended up on our ramp by the end.
The third round was similar to the second. Beatty conceded the autonomous victory to us and didn't shoot any, so we started with a huge lead again. This time they were ready to shoot at the start of the second period, and our partners were ready to defend. Beatty sank a few while being harassed, and had to reload during our offensive period. We gave up on shooting during our offensive period and concentrated our entire alliance on stopping Beatty from collecting balls and getting back to the goal. We pushed them around for 80 seconds, but they were still able to score a few and the final score was much closer than I thought it would be.
So the lesson is that defense is important, but only if you already have the lead. If you lose autonomous, defense will get you nowhere since you already have a huge deficit to make up. As others have mentioned, the real key this year is winning autonomous and you can't do that without what Grady? That's right,
offense.
We'll bring our bumpers to Atlanta and be ready for a tough fight, but we'll also bring our offense.
Disclaimer: before any of you get bent out of shape, the ribbing I'm giving Andy is all in good fun.