1955 Season

 

East Division
The first true expansion teams in the AFL would meet in the first week of the season, with the New York Lions falling at home against the Boston Dragons 19-13 in the first game for either team. Boston would narrowly win against Pittsburgh the following week and they quickly looked like they could be in competition for a playoff spot. However, it all came crashing down that week. The Dragons were extremely unlucky during that game, losing 4 players in their starting front 7 for multiple weeks during the middle of the season. Now starting mostly backups, the Dragons would lose their next 7 games and quickly fell out of playoff contention, only being mathematically eliminated after a loss to the Lions in the penultimate week of the season. The New York Lions on the contrary started out cold, losing their first 4 games though each by a single possession. Their first win in the AFL would come against a hapless Detroit squad, silencing them in a 19-0 trouncing on the road. Now with the two expansion teams in an already weak division, the new East was incredibly top-heavy.  The biggest turnaround and early favorite to win the division was Buffalo, roaring back from a 5-5 regular season where they lost the division title in the last week to start 5-1 in the first half of the season. Second-year QB Brendan Turnbull improved upon his Rookie of the Year campaign with the addition of two young wideouts in second-year Harry Chilton and ROTY winner Justin Harris, narrowly winning Offensive Player of the Year over division foe Johnnie Sellers and Cincinnati’s Lester Parker. Vincent Merritt got right back into his groove as a head coach, having a squad just about as talented as the 1950 Hawks team he lead to a title. The Hammers had a two-game lead over new division rival Washington, who started out with a rough 3-3 record and left many baffled at why they couldn’t perform at the level they had been over the past few years. After a narrow loss to the Lions in week 7, the Feds would go on a tear winning 4 out of their next 5 behind Sellers and Washington’s incredible offense. The Hammers would go .500 for the remainder of the season, allowing Washington to sneak up on the division lead and take it in the last week. Both teams needed each other to lose for them to win the division, and it came down to the final week for the division title to be decided. As for the two remaining teams competing for the last remaining spot, the Shamrocks and Lions were the epitome of mediocrity. The Lions struggled on offense, as they were heavily reliant on QB Roy Woodward and RB Jeffery Spears to make most of the plays on offense while the defense struggled to mesh together. Though through this, they limped to a 4-7 record and were still in it until the final week. The Shamrocks still had the same issues as last year, though RB Paul Barker broke through to become the featured player on a new-look offense. OJ DeMille struggled less than he did last year, though he mostly handed the ball off to the new tandem of Barker and Marion Waters, who is more likely than not playing his last year as a pro. They started out 3-2 but have since lost 5 of their last 6 and needed to win in the last week to make the playoffs. In the final week of the season, Buffalo went on the road against Cleveland, Washington hosted New York, and Pittsburgh was the visiting team to Boston. Buffalo was the only team the decisively beat their opponent, destroying the Crows 27-12 and had to hope that the Federals lost to the Lions. The Boston-Pittsburgh game was a back and forth affair, with Boston able to take a late 27-23 lead on a quick TD pass to WR Lloyd Lawson. Pittsburgh looked like they were stalling out on offense, but RB Paul Barker took a handoff inside and ran past the entire Dragons defense for a touchdown and the lead. The Shamrocks did leave a little too much time on the clock, and the Dragons had one last chance to score. Boston QB Adrian Alfonso was flushed on a second down and quickly threw a pass over the middle to WR Henry Conley, and Conley made two steps before LB Barry Moore knocked the ball loose and recovered by Pittsburgh to ensure the Shamrocks made the playoffs. The New York-Washington game was close but significantly less dramatic, as the Federals pulled out to a lead where the Lions weren’t to come back from, clinching the East Division title with a 16-10 win. The Buffalo Hammers blew a division title for the second straight year, and they’ll have to play one more game if they want to face the Federals for the championship.

West Division
To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Chicago Hogs claimed the best record in the league behind another MVP campaign by the sensational RB Billy Gould. Gould was able to pair perfectly with rookie RB Arthur Busch, whose brute force fared nicely in short yardage situations where Gould was not enough. QB Nathan Aldenberg proved that he is a worthy successor to Alfred Walton, though many thought that inheriting the starting QB role with the league’s best offensive line and backfield was nearly impossible to screw up. Aldenberg proved that he can lead an offense, and one good enough to carry them to a 7-0 start. Most knew that the final two playoffs spots would come down to a combination of Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Tri-Cities, and early on it looked like the Crows and one of the Rivermen or the Hawks would make it past the regular season. The one team that was never in this conversation was the perennially disappointing Detroit Knights. The Knights looked like they were going to repeat their 1953 winless campaign, starting out at an abysmal 9 points per game and allowing over 24 in the first 5 games of the season. QB Terry Kadlec had been on the hot seat entering the year, and his ineffectiveness at leading the Detroit offense was showing. It was at this time that the ailing August Riddle finally let the Kadlec experiment end after a 3-12 record for the young QB, promoting second-year Mike Major to the starting job after their week 6 bye. Major would get shellacked in his first outing as a starter, throwing 4 interceptions in a 17-3 loss to Buffalo, but rebounded to remain around the .500 mark entering the final week of the season. Their offense did improve significantly, doubling their points per game to be a more competitive team on that front. Their defense now held a lot of the blame as to why they kept on losing games, as the young offense struggled to keep up. The rest of the West for the year was a dogfight between Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Tri-Cities. The Crows were 4-2 by the middle of the year, with the Rivermen and Hawks not too far behind them at 3-3. Cleveland had a relatively easy end to the year, ending with games against Detroit, Boston, and New York as games that they should be able to win to get into the playoffs. However, they would blow all of those games by single-digits, and a humiliating loss to rival Cincinnati in the penultimate week would ultimately take them out of the playoff hunt with a disappointing 5-7 record to end the year. Cincinnati would ultimately take charge during the final half of the season, with QB Lester Parker nearly winning Offensive Player of the Year in his efforts to get the Rivs over the hump and back into the playoffs after a 2 year absence by finishing 4-1 before the final week. The Hawks would do the same in what many thought was going to be a “lame duck” year before the Rocco Vanthourenhout era started. HC Hugh Harrison made the best out of his players, propelling them to play above their potential and push their way to their first postseason appearance in 5 years. The Hogs had already locked up the division, and were going to play their backups against the Rivermen on Thanksgiving. Cincinnati would do the same, marking the first career starts for Dwight Moon (Chicago) and Addison Golden (Cincinnati). The Rivermen would get out to an early lead, but the Hogs came roaring back in the second half to take a late 23-22 lead on a field goal. Golden would try his best to get into the endzone, but was stopped just short of K Brian Singer’s field goal range. Knowing they would have to win to get a home game in the playoffs, HC Alfred Joseph decided to go for a 48-yarder. His gamble would pay off, as the kick sailed through the uprights to end the first regular season Thanksgiving game as an all-time classic. The AFL would not get to celebrate its Thanksgiving victory for long, as the very next day Detroit Knights owner August Riddle died at the age of 79. His son, Florian, would personally meet with the ailing Knights squad the day before their final game of the year against the Hawks, inspiring them to win one in his honor. Tri-Cities had decided to rest their starters knowing they already were in the playoffs, but still needed to outscore the Knights by 12 in order to clinch the second seed. They underestimated a newly reinvigorated Knights team, who silenced them 23-14 in the memory of their late owner. Tri-Cities HC Hugh Harrison defended his position of resting his starters, stating that he was not worried about losing because their primary squad had already fought so hard to reach their current position that they needed the rest before the following week. While many were furious in the moment, it didn't matter to some, as the Hawks were officially back in the postseason.

Awards:
Most Valuable Player: CHI RB Billy Gould
Offensive Player of the Year: BUF QB Brendan Turnbull
Defensive Player of the Year: CIN DB Kerry Lantz
Rookie of the Year: BUF WR Justin Harris
Coach of the Year: CIN Alfred Joseph

West Division Semifinal: (3) Tri-Cities Hawks @ (2) Cincinnati Rivermen
1955 H2H: W2 - CIN 14-21 TRI ,W8 - TRI 10-19 CIN
Historic H2H: 5-4-1 CIN
Playoff H2H:  0-0

Two teams that have been struggling to get back to the championship face off against one another to move on in the playoffs. This is the first postseason game for both of these teams’ cores, with Cincinnati revamping its RB since last making it in 1952 and Tri-Cities finally making it back since their 1950 title. The Rivermen and Hawks are roughly equivalent in offensive power, but the Hawks’ defense has been suspect all year. Ever since trading away their best player DL Ralph Rogers and not finding anyone to fill his spot, the Hawks have been relying on their secondary, especially DB William Owens and S Tom Meltzger, to make plays and stop teams from gashing their front seven. Unluckily for them, Cincinnati has one of the league’s best backfield RB combinations of Perry Ferguson and Billy Garcia that will make mincemeat of defensive lines if they are not careful.
My Pick: Cincinnati

East Division Semifinal: (3) Pittsburgh Shamrocks @ (2) Buffalo Hammers
1955 H2H: W1 - BUF 9-22 PIT, W9 - PIT 16-20 BUF
Historic H2H: 4-2 BUF
Playoff H2H: 1-1

Buffalo’s offense was on fire to begin the year, but now has mellowed out and as a result saw their division title slide right out of their hands in the final weeks. QB Brendan Turnbull improved upon his rookie year with an OPOY award thanks to ROY WR Justin Harris and new HC Vincent Merritt’s coaching. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, limped into the playoffs. Their offense scored the second-most points in the league this season, but still finished with a negative point differential as they got blown out 3 times this year. Besides that, the Shamrocks could be a pain to deal with if they get their act together and play how they were at the beginning of the year. Both teams are coming off of collapses to end the year, so one of them will have to break their losing streaks and rise up if they want to get any further. The Hammers’ offense did not slow down to end the year, so it will more likely than not be them to come out on top.
My Pick: Buffalo