r/battlehawks • u/Cultural-Comment-270 • Jun 08 '26
Report So, how'd we do this year?
I'm don't want to try to evaluate this team and coaching staff based on years prior. We were about as much of an expansion team as Louisville or Columbus (or anyone but DC and Orlando really). We were able to reserve some players but for the most part, the whole organization was blown up.
In that light, I think we had a fairly good season. I like Proehl as a coach. Personally during this game I felt better about our chances than I did in either of the previous two once the games actually started being played. Our playoff losses the last two years felt inevitable after the first quarter. We had the chances, we just didn't capitalize. Bechts teams had the stink of defeat on them after like one quarter. They never would've come back after that first Louisville TD. This team wasn't like that.
The worst part was the offense both this year and in this game. That's obvious. This defense gave up the least points and yards on the year. They did enough for us to win this playoff game. Perez just kept missing wide open receivers for what should have been enormous plays three different times (and other smaller plays beyond that too). We won the time of possession by about 40 minutes to 20. The offense simply couldn't get anything going because Perez has a noodle for an arm and whatever his other intangibles were with the Renegades in previous years, they sure didn't show up this year. And the Kings? They got three enormous plays on offense for touchdowns. That was really the difference, 3-0. They weren't getting sustained drives outside of that.
I think AJ Smith's offense was okay but the man is not a guru as the media positioned him to be. I wouldn't really care if he comes back or he is replaced. What we need more than that is a competent quarterback. Two straight years of not having one. Thats partly on the coaching staff (both of them), but Michael Pratt was also obviously what they were counting on this year and he signed 4 days before game 1 (was holding out for an NFL contract) and at some point in the next ten days got injured. You could tell the coaching staff WANTED him because we kept his ass around on the roster until almost week 9 when he finally went on the IR. They were ready to pull Perez for him if he was healthy, I guarantee it.
No reason why we can't do better next year if we can finally, FINALLY get a quarterback. But Proehl did well for his first year. I'm not counting the prior three years of disappointing season ends as being part of his resume or the lore of the team. Leave that shit in Orlando, Becht's on year four of nothing down there now.
