It was Coach Allen's third season in the LOC, second as head coach of his own team. 2014 and 2015 had been two brutal years, full of mistakes, but most importantly full of learnings. In 2014 Offensive Coordinator Allen went 2-12 with Jeff Seals, before being awarded his own team in 2015 and going 5-9. An improvement, but still room to grow. Well, the growth certainly came in 2016.
Coach Allen left the draft with what was widely regarded as the best team entering the season. And no wonder, with a lineup that consisted of Todd Gurley, Allen Robinson, Mike Evans, Jonathan Stewart, Melvin Gordon, Philip Rivers, and Tevin Coleman who could argue? Despite that good starting lineup, it did not start well.
In Week 1 Patistan faced Burdettinators, and it looked like the struggles of their first 2 seasons would continue as they lost a close one 90-86. He wouldn't know it then, but Todd Gurley only scoring 4 points would be a common theme for the season, as despite being a first round pick he did not live up to the expectation. Week 2 brought more troubles as Coach Allen oversaw his side in another defeat against The Dream Team, 111-74.
Week 3 brought some relief - well, a lot actually, as Patistan notched their first win of the season over arch rival Tuckfards, 127-68, due to great performances from - you guessed it - Gordon, Gurley, Evans, Robinson, and Coleman. Week 4 saw another win for Patistan, 98-91 over Tom's Tyrants, leaving them at a respectable 2-2 after the first month of the season.
The start of the second month was good too, with Patistan claiming their 3rd win of the season over The Brady Bunch in a close game, 101-98. The next game would be Patistan's closest of their career. They faced fellow struggers Forge Flyers in a nail biting game, 85.58-85.48, giving Patistan their 4th win in a row. The pre-season promise from the draft was finally living up to expectation. And this continued next week when they played IKNAN and curb stomped them 131-65 for their 5th win in a row.
For a team that had yet to have a winning season, and only 7 career wins, 5 on the trot is mighty impressive. But it didn't stop there, as they extended it to 6 against Bear Necessities (100-89), 7 against Cash4Gould (142-106), and 8 against Tom's Tyrants (97-79). 8 is where it ended however, as they faced Gridiron Gang in Week 11, a team that has a penchant for taking down the strong teams. Despite losing 123-82, Patistan still found themselves at 8-3 and basically assured of a playoff spot, with the regular season championship also in their sights.
Patistan edged another nail biter against Burdettinators in Week 12, 101.88-101.2. This is where the wins ended in the regular season for Coach Allen, but he'd still done more than enough to secure the regular season championship, and a division win, both a first in his career. The 9-5 record is also still his career best.
Unfortunately in Week 15, Patistan was felled by IKNAN who would go on to win Corona Bowl IX, 107-82. But this takes nothing away from Coach Allen's tremendous accomplishment in his 3rd year.
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