The air of excitement still lingers in Dublin, but it has begun to damper. Despite the team hitting 8 wins last season, the highest total in Franchise history, it’d be dishonest to say the final result didn’t feel like a bit of a let down. To lose out on the playoffs due to tiebreakers, especially when you lost 4 of your last 5 games, was a devastating thing for the fan base to absorb. Firing Doug Pederson helped soften the blow but at some point the ire was going to turn towards Owner Matt. Floating around .500 couldn’t last forever, a rebuild couldn’t last forever, so the time to strike was now.
Owner Matt did all the usual preseason traditions. He took his ceremonial trip to the Blarney Stone, this time with Kingsbury in tow, he did the March of the Shamrocks and he even engaged in many traditional Celtic Rites. None of those things filled the void in his heart and the fans didn’t seem nearly as endeared by his actions as in years past. The only solution to these problems, the solution to all problems in football, was winning. That is what the Shamrocks owed the fans, and that is what Owner Matt once again swore to deliver.
The time of the Shamrock is now
As a reminder, here’s how our lineup looks heading into the season:
We’ve moved forward rating wise at almost every position but the pieces are mostly the same. The only main new contributor is 3rd Down Back Nathaniel Hines, which in the Air Raid is a pretty significant role. Thaddeus Craft also won the starting RT spot, returning to the starting lineup for the first time since his rookie season. While he is the weakest spot on our line you can’t help but be proud of his perseverance. You can’t tell the story of Shamrock football without Thaddeus Craft, well that’s not true, but good for him!
Switching to the Air Raid puts a lot of pressure on Kenneth “K-Dubs” Washington but it also is his best chance to thrive. By spreading everyone out we should be able to utilize K-Dubs’ proficiency with the short-to-medium routes while also creating more lanes to take advantage of his elite scrambling abilities. This does put more pressure on our receiving corps though and one of the big discussions during the off season was whether or not the ‘Rocks try and pick up another WR. We end up staying put with the intention of using some of our draft capital to get another star if it becomes an issue for us.
This is a new era of Shamrocks football, let’s hope Kingsbury can get us off to a fast start!
Week 1 @ Detroit
We start the year off against a Lions team that has been pretty successful in recent years. While they’ve yet to get over the Super Bowl hump, they have consistently put up big win totals. This will be quite a test for the new look Dublin Shamrocks and you have to think getting off to a strong start would be a major plus for this young team. We usually watch seasons openers but decide to sim this one and watch a Division game in Week 3. Let’s get it ‘Rocks!
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1-0 baby. A close game but, as opposed to previous seasons, we come out on top! We shockingly only throw for 138 yards despite being the debut of the Air Raid. K-Dubs completed 80% of his passes but I am perplexed by how little we threw the ball considering the kind of offense we ran. Dobbins has a dominant day, rushing 19 times for 98 yards and a TD. It was a tight game with weird numbers but we won, that’s all that matters.
Week 2 @ New England
The Patriots are a somewhat average team at this point in the timeline, but the signing of FA QB Gardner Minshew to replace Cam Newton has to give them some hope on the season. Gardner Minshew was finally supplanted by K-Dub’s old rival Buck Lamb and is thrilled at the opportunity to restore the Pats to greatness. Here’s hoping the Shamrocks crush those dreams before they even get started.
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Another close game, another win. K-Dubs completes 78% of his passes for 242 yards 3 TDs and 2 INTs. Our rushing and receiving yards are split all across the team, showing that we have weapons all over. Kendall Fuller had a crucial interception but that’s about it as far as impressive defensive stats. In past seasons we’ve lost all the close games like this, so to start the year off with two close wins shows promise. Good teams find a way to win and bad teams find a way to lose, have we finally crossed the threshold?
Week 3 vs Dallas
Dublin’s home opener is against our division rival Dallas Cowboys. Dallas has won the division the past four years in a row and has been a perennial contender in the NFC since their Super Bowl appearance in Year 1. Both teams are 2-0, and winning this game could go a long way towards proving this is a different team than years’ past. You can watch the game at the link below:
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WOW
What a game and what a win for our ‘Rocks. Kingsbury’s offense explodes but what’s crazy is we left a lot of points on the field. We slid at the one yard line, had a fake field goal try and missed two field goals. As I said before though, good teams find a way to win. K-Dubs completes a staggering 82% of his passes for 334 yards and a TD while adding 55 yards and a TD on the ground. Hines runs for 99 yards on 24 carries while also catching the ball 6 times for 32 yards. Steven Sims catches a smooth 10 balls for 112 yards for a TD. Our defense held strong when it mattered collecting 4 sacks, a safety, an interception and a fumble recovery.
The real hero of the day for me though was “Tiny” Turner O’Connell. The 6’7 338 pound TE has quickly become my favorite player on the team. Purely a blocking TE, Turner saw his role massively increase this game when David Njoku got injured in the first quarter. Tiny responded by catching the rock 6 times for 84 yards, running in a TD at fullback and clearing massive holes for Hines all day long. Tiny may not have the most impressive stat line in this game but, having watched it, we don’t win this thing without him.
Week 4 @ NYG
We’ll speed up a little now but we have to be happy about this team so far. We’re 3-0 and at the top of our division. Momentum is on our side and we’ll do whatever it takes to keep us going
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Excuse me, we’re 4-0 with two division wins. Our offense continues to be a little streaky and our running game falls apart in this one, but a wins a win. The defense leads the charge in this one as we survive another day.
Week 5 vs New Orleans
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Dobbins and McLaurin both break 100 yards at their respective positions and we move onto 5-0. We sit atop the NFL, but Dallas and New York are only one game behind us in the division. The NFC East is suddenly the best division in football in a rather strange twist. Next week we have the slumping Eagles and we look to have our revenge for losing our playoff spot to them last year.
Week 6 @ Philadelphia
The Eagles may have a losing record but this is largely the same team that kept us from the playoffs just a season ago. You have to think the Eagles would love to play spoiler to one of only two undefeated teams left in the NFL. You can watch the game at the link below:
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Yuck. What an ugly, ugly game. Once again though, we find a way to win. We won, we won, won and the whole world’s turned upside down. Our defense has blossomed into the elite unit we’ve predicted since year one and our offense does just enough to outlast our division rivals. All of our games have been close this year, not unlike years past, but the difference is we’re coming out on top. This team has taken a greater step forward than anyone could have imagined. A month and a half in and we’ve yet to lose, Dublin fans are losing their minds.
None of the offensive stats were particularly impressive, as one would expect from the score line, but we still only had the single turnover. Offense like this won’t get us a title but at 6-0 it’s hard to be too pessimistic.
Tiny Clears a massive hole for the Dobbins TD
Week 7 @ Dallas
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We sweep the Cowboys and tie our win total from the first two years. The offense plays efficient mistake free football and our defense does enough to limit a very dangerous Cowboys offense. I would never have predicted 7-0 in my wildest dreams and begin to feel emotional. The Shamrocks are finally coming together and becoming the team we’ve always envisioned. I’ve gotten ahead of myself so many times during this series and it’s hard to keep myself from doing so again. With a matchup against the 1-6 Jets on the horizon 8-0 seems to be right in our grasps.
Week 8
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Well there’s that humble pie. The one win Jets beat our team easily. There’s plenty of blame to go around as neither our offense or our defense does enough to get the job done. My mind again drifts towards the collapses of years past but I shake it away. We’re 7-1 and no one in their right mind could’ve predicted that. This game hurts and reminds us of our vulnerability but it’s hard to be sad. It is worth noting that our only non-close game was a loss but hopefully our offense gets more consistent with the Air Raid and fixes that problem. Good on the Jets for getting their second win I guess. Totally not bitter.
Mid-Season Round Up
At 7-1 we are tied for the best record in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks. Our division race remains tough as both the Cowboys and Giants sit at 5-2. It’s important not to get ahead of ourselves, especially being in such a tough division, but we positioned ourselves quite well for the back-half of the year. As a team we have the 2nd fewest points allows on defense and the 6th most offensive yards.
Kliff Kingsbury is the current leader for the Coach of the Year award, an honor well deserved if you ask me. Terry McLaurin after a few down seasons sits atop the Best WR Award race which makes me happy to see. Terry is the best player on our offense but hasn’t always fit the schemes we run, it seems Kliff’s offense has been a much more natural fit. K-Dubs is surprisingly in the race for Offensive Player of the Year due to his efficient play and he, Matthew Ioannidis, Montez Sweat, Ronald Darby and Brandon Scherff are all in their position award races as well.
For our Akron players we have two main storylines to note. The Cardinals moved backup QB Darius Patterson to HB after an injury to their starter and he is currently their leader in the backfield. Meanwhile Jared Oliver, the Vikings No. 2 back, sits atop the ROTY race and there’s no reason to think he won’t win it at this rate. Oliver would be the second Zip to win Rookie of the Year, following in the footsteps of our very own Kenneth Washington. It’s exciting to see that these guys are starting to contribute. We’re still a couple season away from when Akron started consistently producing 1st Round talent in Luke’s universe, at which time I imagine we’ll see a lot more storylines of note.
Here are some of the individual stats on the season:
There’s a lot to highlight here but one of the particularly interesting things is the evolution of JK Dobbins. He really didn’t play that many downs but when he was on the field he was extremely productive. His touches seemed to increase throughout the year and I’m hoping we continue to see more of him over Hines. It’s also worth noting that Washington’s stats volume wise are at or below previous seasons yet he is doing much better in award races. It seems his efficiency with each of his passes has really raised his stock which is a cool transition to see. I still wish we would see more of K-Dub’s rushing ability but I knew there was a chance we’d see a drop off with the switch to the Air Raid.
This is where we will end for now Shamrock Nation, but man has this been exciting. No one can predict the future but we couldn’t have asked for more from our boys in green during the first half of the year. There’s a target on our back now, but the ‘Rocks are up for the challenge
Thank y’all so much for reading! As always feel free to comment, email, discord or do whatever to contact me if you have any comments, questions, criticisms, suggestions etc. I have been overwhelmed by the support y’all have shown and it’s made this all worth it. We will stick with our Monday and Thursday model for the Twitch streams for now so if you want to watch the second part of Year 4 live I will be streaming Monday at 7 PM EST.
Also, since I know I’ve gotten a lot of new viewers as of late, if you’re confused about our genesis or why we keep talking about Akron players go check out Coach Luke’s series over at rubbercity.substack.com
Much love y’all and go ‘Rocks!
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