May 7, 2024
By Evan Lepler
1. Colorado’s New-Look O
With two guys from last year’s O-line, four members of last year’s D-line, and another ultimate veteran making his Summit debut, Colorado seemingly found the right offensive recipe in their 23-19 season-opening victory over Seattle on Saturday. Alex Atkins had six scores and 627 total yards, Jonathan Nethercutt went 33-for-33 with four assists, and the other five all created a good problem for the Summit coaches as they contemplate who will give way for Quinn Finer when the All-UFA superstar returns to the lineup after missing the opener. Denny Bechis caught five goals in his first pro game since 2015, while Noah Coolman, Saeed Semrin, Conor Tabor, and Alex Tatum all made strong impressions too.
“The offense definitely survived Quinn’s absence, which is certainly a compliment to the individuals on the O-line playing well and stepping up across the board,” said Nethercutt. “For the most part, it felt like a pretty balanced workload overall as well, with each player doing a great job of filling their role.”
A year ago, Coolman, Semrin, Tabor, and Tatum combined to play just 30 O-points all season, a huge contrast to Saturday’s 2024 opener, when all four were on the field for 20 O-points together. Without them on D, Colorado still created six breaks in 12 chances to hand Seattle its first loss.
“I think I was most pleased by the fact that we were getting strong contributions from all 20 players on the roster, and that we had several long periods on D-points of consistently excellent pressure,” added Nethercutt. “You have to have depth to win in this league, so it’s always a good thing when you can point to specific instances where all 20 of your players had a positive impact on the game.”
The Summit have plenty of big games in the weeks ahead; next up is undefeated Salt Lake on May 18. After that, the surging Atlanta Hustle on May 31. Although the Summit went unmentioned in Part I when asking who deserves to be considered the 2024 UFA favorite, Colorado certainly could play itself into the forefront of the conversation by the end of the month.
2. Seattle Survives in Oakland
Saturday’s setback in Colorado should not overly dampen Seattle’s spirits, as their 22-21 road win over the Spiders could be a massively meaningful result as the season marches on. Sure, the Cascades allowed a seven-goal second-half lead to slip down to one in the waning moments, but six completions in the final 32 seconds let Seattle escape with the victory.
Derek Mourad continued his strong play for the Cascades’ offense, going 35-for-35 for 303 throwing yards against the Spiders, while Mikey O’Brien earned the Honor Roll nomination for his D-line domination, accruing three goals, three assists, and two blocks along with 222 total yards.
The Spiders, to their credit, were relentless in the second half, transforming a 16-9 deficit into a one-goal game, but the Oakland offense surrendering nine breaks for the game was too much to overcome. It was a missed opportunity for the Spiders, who could have been 2-0 for the first time since 2015, the year the franchise last won the UFA championship.
Instead, Seattle had its first 2-0 start since 2017, and even after Saturday’s result, the 2-1 Cascades, with five home games remaining and a relatively easy schedule compared to their other West Division peers, are nicely positioned to make a run at their first playoff berth in eight years.
3. Boston Trounces Toronto
Though the road gets tougher this weekend, presently the Glory are 2-0 with a couple home wins in the bank. Boston will take its unblemished record to DC on Friday and Philly on Saturday, which precedes the much-anticipated battle against New York on May 17 when Jeff Babbitt will face his old team for the first time.
Saturday’s 21-13 victory over the Rush featured just nine Boston turns, tied for the fewest in a four-quarter game in franchise history. Even while missing Ben Sadok and Tanner Johnson-Go, the Glory offense was only broken once, as Ned Dick, Colin Sunde, and Cole Davis-Brand combined to complete all 113 of their throws. Simon Carapella also went 29-for-29 for 658 total yards to claim an Honor Roll spot, and Tyler Chan went 29-for-30 for 519 yards in his first game on O this season.
“Their offense had really good spacing,” acknowledged Toronto’s Ryan Poloz. “I would say their handlers stood out; they were swinging the disc well.”
All things considered, it was a tough Saturday for Torontonians in Boston. The Rush were down by four or more the entire second half, and later that night, the Maple Leafs fell in overtime to lose game seven of their first round series against the Bruins.
At least the Rush maintained some optimism at the end of the weekend.
“It was a tough loss for sure, but we’ve already been able to build off it,” said Poloz. “We were able to highlight a few key points to improve on that are only going to make us better.”
4. DC Dominates Philly
You might say that DC’s Sunday trip to Philly was a Breeze.
Lauren Boyle earned her first win as the new DC Head Coach, and the Breeze offense went unbroken through four quarters in a 22-10 triumph, their biggest win over Philly since 2016.
“Practically a flawless offensive performance from our O-line,” said Breeze Captain Rhys Bergeron. “I like to think that is the norm.”
Sorry, Rhys.
While the Breeze are usually somewhere between pretty good and great on offense, Sunday was a different level of pristine disc distribution. It was the 58th time in UFA history that a team has not surrendered a single break in a game, but just the fourth time ever that an offense only confronted one break opportunity for its opponent. Before Saturday, it most recently happened in last year’s East Division final, when DC went 0-for-1 on break chances during New York’s historic offensive night. The other two times both involved Detroit, who twice have gone 0-for-1 on break chances during their embarrassing 75-game losing streak.
That’s certainly not the company that Philly wanted to be in after a much-hyped season opener, and the Phoenix are eager to get back to work and prove that Sunday was not who they are.
“That game was a major wake-up call, and it falls on our entire team to be better” said Greg Martin, who caught 30 percent of his team’s goals on Sunday. “There’s nowhere to go but up after that. The only good news is Boston will not be getting any insight on what we will be bringing [this Saturday] by watching our game against DC.”
French rookie Elliot Bonnet paced the Breeze with four goals and 269 receiving yards, while Jonny Malks was involved in seven scores and 449 yards. Bergeron led the DC D-line with two goals and three assists, as the Breeze bounced back from their Salt Lake loss with a convincing double-digit road win.
“Something I love about the DC Breeze is how hungry people are to get better, buy into the team’s structures, and be accountable for their part,” said Boyle. “That is reflected in our Week 1 to Week 2 performance [...] I would say that [Sunday] was a complete game from an energy standpoint. Never letting up or giving up on opportunities. I do think there is still work with our offense to rise to our own metrics of excellence.”
5. Austin Halts the Havoc
Friday’s Texas tussle was a relatively competitive game early in the third quarter. But after being down just three at 12-9, the Havoc were outscored 13-5 the rest of the night. Austin’s 10-2 burst over a 14-minute stretch completely broke it open, and the Sol rolled to a 25-14 victory in their season opener.
There’s no doubt Austin was happy to win and win convincingly, but the Sol also understand and recognize that they will not be judged by their margins of victory against Houston or Dallas.
“The Texas circuit is a tough one to manage for a team like us that is trying to cement our place as a top four team in the league,” said Austin Captain Mark Evans. “We can’t overlook Houston or Dallas or they’ll sneak a win, but we also can’t draw too much data from these games, as we risk developing a false sense of confidence before we meet tougher opposition further down the track.”
I appreciate the honesty from Evans. Some could accuse him of being disrespectful, but the fact is he’s spot on. As presently constructed, the Sol should handle their business against the Havoc and Legion with relative ease. That’s not to say one of those games won’t be close, but they know they are being valued much more based on their results against Carolina and Atlanta, each of whom already has a signature win.
It was interesting seeing the Sol, a little like Colorado, shifting some of their personnel around. Jake Radack, who only played 12 D-points in 22 games over the last two regular seasons, was primarily a D-line QB on Friday night. He finished with six assists and completed all 21 of his throws engineering a bunch of breaks. Josh Zdrodowski and Jackson Potts, two traditionally defensive anchors, both shifted to offense for the Sol, joining returning stalwarts like Evans, Kyle Henke, Evan Swiatek, and Duncan Fitzgerald. Austin finished the night with 10 breaks, while the Sol’s O was only broken once.
“A really strong starting point for Sol, which has historically floundered and scrapped through the early season Texas games,” said Evans. “The boys put in the required effort and won every quarter.”
6. 75 and Counting
Chicago 24, Detroit 9.
It didn’t even feel that close.
The Mechanix slogged through 41 turnovers in 48 minutes, going an anemic 8-for-44 on offensive possessions and 0-for-6 on defensive possessions.
(In a quirk in the UFA stats, a Callahan does not count as a break or a break chance. That should probably be rectified, but the Mechanix did have a Callahan, accompanying their eight offensive conversions to add up to nine goals for the game. Just in case you were wondering why the math in the previous paragraph did not add up.)
Chicago was not exactly a polished diamond either, but the Union, despite falling behind 1-0, led 9-2 at halftime and won all four quarters by multiple scores. Chicago finished the day with 23 blocks, more than any other team has recorded in a game so far this season or at any point last season.
“I’m feeling good about Union,” said John Lithio, who tallied two goals and one assist in his relatively quiet Chicago debut. “The vibes around the team are good so far, which I’m hoping we can maintain throughout the inevitable ups and downs of the season. There’s less continuity for the Union this year than I’ve had with the Empire the past couple of years, which means we’ll hit some bumps in the road as we sort things out, but I’ve been enjoying the new challenge of figuring out how everyone fits together.”
Saturday vs. Minnesota will absolutely be a much more meaningful measuring stick for Chicago, while the the Mechanix go to Indy for the AlleyCats’ season opener.
7. Indy and Madison Set for 2024 Debuts
The last two teams sitting at 0-0, Indianapolis and Madison, both commence their ’24 seasons this Saturday, though, theoretically, the latter of the two has the much tougher opening challenge.
Madison hits the road to Pittsburgh, where the Radicals experienced buzzer-beating heartbreak in last year’s season opener, when Max Sheppard skied the crowd for the game-winning goal with no time left.
While the Radicals are the last team from their division to win the UFA Championship, Madison has not tasted the playoffs since that 2018 title. Aside from Detroit, no Central Division squad has a longer playoff drought. But veteran Radicals Coach Tim DeByl remains steadfast in his belief that this year’s Madison team can make it back to the dance.
“We expect to make the playoffs [and] to contend to go to the Final Four,” DeByl told Ryan Baker for a Radicals season preview.
Though I remained unconvinced that Madison has the capacity to contend, I should perhaps apologize for not including the Radicals in my Sunday morning tweet outlining the league’s longest active winning streaks. The fact is the Radicals head into their 2024 opener riding a three-game heater, tied with the Shred as the longest active streak in the league.
As Bill Walton would say, “Print the Banner!”
Meanwhile, the fine print reveals that two of those three wins have come against Detroit, a Mechanix team that Indy will see on Saturday. The Mechanix did not look worthy of a berth to D-III Nationals against Chicago this past weekend, but Detroit did give Indianapolis all it could handle last June, when the AlleyCats narrowly prevailed 20-19 in the Mechanix’s closest game of the 2023 season.
Indy should win by double digits in their opener this weekend. For the sake of some "Swing Pass" pod fodder, perhaps Cam Brock can outscore the Mechanix by himself.
The way they looked against Chicago, the non-player "Swing Pass" host Adam Ruffner could probably stuff the stat sheet against Detroit too.
The Hammer
After several preseason conversations about the new disc, we are two weeks deep in the new pro Frisbee era, and I’ve received a handful of comments from players and coaches. Feedback is mostly positive, though there’s also an understanding that it will take some time for everyone to get comfortable with all the intricacies and situational details.
“After watching a lot of teams’ first games, I think it’s safe to say no one is fully used to the new disc,” said Philly’s Greg Martin.
I mostly agree, and the thing I underestimated was how much it would impact receivers and defenders. It’s natural to think about how throwers will deal with the distribution, but I probably did not dive deeply enough into how downfield targets would have to recalibrate their reads, their steps, and their leaps in pursuit of that rotating, floating plastic.
“The new disc is certainly different,” said Colorado’s Jonathan Nethercutt. “I think it’ll be pretty interesting to see how that continues to influence certain things. I think strong throwers have even more deep range with the new disc, since it tends to be more stable and carry further. I also think defenders have to get attuned to the fact that they’ll have opportunities to make plays on some throws with the new disc that they wouldn’t have had a chance at with the old disc, since the new one hangs a bit longer. Upside downs feel especially different, in my opinion. Not worse, but the throwing angles change a bit.”
Interesting perspective for sure, and we’re only 18 games in. Of the 22 teams that have taken the field, 15 already have at least one loss. It feels possible, if not likely, that only one or two teams will finish the month of May undefeated.
This new era feels as wide open as ever, and the journey has just begun.
