Coming into the 2011 season, hopes were high in Marshfield. They had just finished as the 3rd highest scoring team in the league and added to that high scoring team by acquiring DT Kyle Williams via trade with the Colliders. Then they proceeded to sign LBs Jackson and later Bowman (both of which turned out to be nothing short of awesome). With the expansion to 12 teams and 3 divisions, the Pirates were graced with being matched up in the division with 3 expansion teams, virtually guaranteeing a playoff spot according to Pirate “El Capitan”, Jason Enright.
The start of the season could not have been better as the Pirates raced out to a 5-0 start despite some key season ending injuries to the likes to S Eric Berry, DT Kyle Williams and WR Kenny Britt. Heading into Week 11, Marshfield was 9-1 and seemingly had all but locked up the #1 seed. Consecutive losses to Batavia and Fransburg suddenly had the Pirates reeling, but still controlling their own destiny. After spanking the Gridiron Gang in week 13, all the Pirates had to do was beat Biloxi (or have Madtown lose). Few teams were hotter than the Bulldozers come seasons end and despite scoring 164.90 points, the Pirates lost by 0.33 points in heartbreak fashion, thanks to a 27.25 point performance by Jason Pierre-Paul, which uncommonly included both a safety and blocked field goal and resulted in Enright coining the now popular phrase, “I’ve been Pierre-Pauled”.** Naturally, Madtown won a similarly close game over Fransburg, and 2 weeks later the Pirates, despite scoring the 2nd highest point total of the week, were ousted by Batavia in the semi-finals. Batavia would go on to whine his way to a championship.
After weeks of heavy blackout drinking and spending all remaining cap money at strip clubs (all $1.41 of it – really cheap hookers), Pirate brass settled down to examine exactly “what went wrong”.
Of the 10 positions, an astounding 81% of the Pirates total points scored were from 5 of them – QB, RB, WR, LB, and S. Despite leading the league in points from RB, S, and K (thank you David Akers), Marshfield was DEAD LAST in points from DT and DE, and 10th in CB. To put this into perspective, in the DT position, league leading Chitons scored 3.2x more points than Marshfield, and at the DE position, league leading Mauraders scored 3.7x more points than Marshfield.
Looking towards the future, the Pirates will really have to put the pieces together in free agency, given they have no draft picks in the first 4 rounds as of yet, thanks to desperation moves for players with expiring contracts in an effort to overcome injuries and win a championship. Fans were quick to sum the moves up as “Enright’s Folly” and used Twitter to relay the message that they were not happy, some with death threats. When asked about the comments, Enright blew them off and simply noted they may look to make some moves to free up some cap space, and perhaps try to jump into the top of the draft somewhere.
“The comments from the fans – that’s just to be expected. They’re a passionate group, and rightfully so. There’s a lot at stake with this kind of talent. I’m still pretty happy with our team right now. We’ll be completely healthy come the start of next season and when we’re healthy, our team is as good as any. But next year is the breaking point. Anything short of a championship and there will be some big time changes coming.”
**Congratulations Knight, I have a new “Rival” – profile updated accordingly.
© 2012, Jason Enright. All rights reserved.
Haha…so much to like about this article. But I think my favorite is “Enright’s Folly.” I can imagine using that in other situations as well…”I was going to take it easy at Happy Hour, but all of a sudden I’m buying shots and next thing you know it was all ‘Enright’s Folly’ up in here.”
Also, solid work on updating the owner profile. Hopefully others will remember to do that as well this year.