Bewildered By Bismarck Bucks?

Up North in the plains of North Dakota, a small city called Bismarck, offers a unique entertainment experience every Spring and Summer.  The city of roughly 75,000 occasionally comes together on the weekends to watch some gorgeous and glorious football--as their beloved Bismarck Bucks battle opposing teams in the Indoor Football League.

A fairly dedicated fanbase shows up and makes noise to help the home team win a few games, donning antler headbands, hunter orange, and even blowing annoying horns to distract or rile the opposing teams.  The "Horny Bucks" fan group will get close to the visitors bench and noisily try to get in their heads.  It's quite magical, really.  The entertainment value that the Bismarck Bucks provides for a small ticket price is quite extraordinary.  The intimacy of football is felt in an arena where fans are only a couple feet from the sidelines; where errant throws can end up in fans hands, and even players might land in their laps.  For those who have been to these games, they understand that the entertainment value far exceeds the cheap ticket price.

On the football side of things, however, the Bismarck Bucks have struggled with consistency.  Of course, this is no mystery to the players, coaches, and front office.  It certainly isn't meant as an insult. The team has made dramatic improvements on the field since their joining the Indoor Football League.  When they first played in 2019, the team finished with 2 wins and 14 losses.  In 2020, they hosted one game prior to a Covid shutdown in which they lost.  In 2021, they made the playoffs, finishing with a 7-8 regular-season record, losing in the first round of the playoffs to the Massachusetts Pirates, 44-19.  The Pirates went on to win the United Bowl.  Now we come to the current season, where the Bismarck Bucks are currently 3-4 and play again tonight against the Green Bay Blizzard.  While a 10-13 record the last two years doesn't sound bad for Bismarck, it doesn't help when we mention that 6 of their 10 wins have come against the Green Bay Blizzard, who are currently 7-14 the last two years.  On the flip side, they'd be 7-8 if it wasn't for the solid play of the Bismarck Bucks.

So where does my "bewilderment" come from?  What's confusing about the Bismarck Bucks?  To be frank, it's their lack of consistency.  It's carried over from last year into this year.  It seems as though they've established a pattern: "One step forward, two steps backward."  Case in point: last year they win the Blizzard on the road, then come home and only put up 18 points against the Pirates.  A 36-18 loss.  Later in the year, they'd have an outstanding, gritty one-point victory over the 5-1 Frisco Fighters, 43-42.  The next game, they'd go play the struggling Tucson Sugar Skulls, down 34-27, in the red-zone with a chance to tie the game.  One play left, and the QB rolls his ankle and falls to the turf without throwing the ball.  Then, they'd repent and beat the Blizzard again 41-30, then head to Iowa, force overtime in dramatic fashion, and with a chance to tie the game again, a line-drive kickoff hits a Bucks player and Iowa recovers.  Game over.  They wouldn't win again the rest of the season.

In Bismarck's defense, they circulated through 5 quarterbacks a season ago.  Kelly Bryant showed alot of promise and was promoted to the CFL--cuing another Bucks QB change.  Keyante Allen took over toward the end of the season and had flashes of brilliance but consistency was found wanting.  Fast-forward to 2022.  Through 7 games, Bismarck has managed to only circulate through 2 quarterbacks.  Much of their 2021 team returned to the Quad City Steamwheelers, and I give huge credit to Head Coach Rod Miller for finding the right personnel and coaching them to relevance considering almost every single player is different from last year's playoff team.  With that said, the "one step forward; two steps backward" pattern continues with Bismarck.  How does a team go to San Jose and put up 76 points, then return home to score only 17?  After a 76-46 win over the Bay Area Panthers, the Bucks slumped at home against old teammates and coach (Corey Ross), in a dismal 36-17 loss to the Steamwheelers.  They'll surely do better next week right?  After all, the 1-4 San Diego Strike Force are coming to town.  Easy win for the Bucks!  Except not.  They got down early.  First two passes for San Diego?  Two touchdowns.  A 14-0 deficit early in the game can be hard to overcome.  A 38-28 loss leaves Bismarck at 3-4, struggling for a playoff spot in a competitive Eastern Conference.  This pattern of blowing a team out, to consecutive losses where the offense struggles, is what plagues the Bismarck Bucks.  To score 76 points in a game on the road, and then return home to only score 45 combined points the next two games, is the inconsistency I'm talking about. I could be wrong; often am.  But it seems as though, the Bismarck Bucks have a bit of a hangover with each glorious win.  Perhaps they can stay humble and keep working every time they have success, so it doesn't appear that they have a victory hangover.  Some may call me critical; others, observant.  I call myself an honest fan of the Bismarck Bucks.  My hope is to see them win a United Bowl championship within the next couple years.  They're a great organization, a good football team, and have captured my heart.  If anything, I offer this as constructive criticism. They're aware of this, and I will keep cheering them on.  Until then, this inconsistency by the team leaves me wary and "Bewildered by the Bismarck Bucks." 

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Wide Receiver JT Stokes scores a touchdown against the Frisco Fighters in 2021