The Waterdogs are coming off a season that saw them make it all the way to the championship game before inevitably coming up short against a highly touted Archers team. This team returned virtually all of their talent in the offseason, securing all of their contract extensions heading into the 2024 season. The Waterdogs had a fantastic draft night as well, earning an A+ grade from myself by adding to their already loaded roster with Branadu, Brower, Hudgins, and Boehm. This team on paper has absolutely zero reason to be 0-3 at the time of this article, which has left fans scratching their heads, wondering where it all went wrong. I’m here to tell you what I feel the Waterdogs’ issues are and how they can turn them around for the remaining weeks of the regular season.
Problem 1: Securing Close Games
Man, what a wild start to the year it has been for the Waterdogs. They currently sit with an 0-3 record, following repeated one-goal losses. The Dogs faced adversity to start the year, falling behind on the scoreboard against the Archers before bringing it within one to end the game. In their home weekend double-header, they felt the weight of two overtime losses to the Whipsnakes and Cannons. While this wasn’t the ideal outcome for Philadelphia, it at least shows that they can remain competitive against anyone in the league. The solution here is just to secure close games. The Waterdogs could very easily be 3-0 right now, sitting on top of the league, and I wouldn’t be writing this article. With seven weeks left in the regular season, I am confident that they have the talent and experience to close out these close games.
Problem 2: New Coach
There is no one on the face of the earth that will deny Bill Tierney his greatness. The man revolutionized the lacrosse landscape on multiple occasions while going on legendary runs at both Princeton and Denver. Tierney is one of, if not the best, coaches in lacrosse history at the collegiate level. When he was announced as the Waterdogs’ Head Coach, there were some skeptics, myself included. Similar to the NFL experiment of Urban Meyer taking over the Jacksonville Jaguars, some college coaches are not made to coach at a professional level. This is not a dig at Tierney but an accurate assessment of the current PLL landscape. It’s not that Tierney won’t be successful in the PLL, but he might not have been fully ready for what the PLL entails from a coaching perspective. The solution is to give him time. Surely, he will be able to figure it out in the coming weeks, as there has been no challenge too large for Coach Tierney to overcome.
Problem 3: Faceoffs
Saving the best for last, the decision to completely ignore faceoffs as a whole has completely destroyed Philadelphia to start the season. Some teams saw moderate success last season without dressing a true FOGO, but with teams adjusting to the PLL rule changes, this has just been the Waterdogs’ Achilles heel. In their first three games, Philadelphia has gone 8-72 at the dot—absolutely pitiful numbers. To give the Dogs some credit, this experiment didn’t go great in Week 1 against the Archers, so they decided to give it another go for their Week 3 double-header following their bye week. They haven’t had the time to address this issue, especially considering just how bad it got in just a three-game sample size. The solution is simple: sign a FOGO. I hear Connor Farrell is still sitting in free agency!
