Village Challenge Reborn: Jacksonville Jags

[SackAttack]

2000 Allocation Draft

God, I love the sound of that.

I left the bars at the default, figuring that that was as close as its possible to get to an average team, giving equal weight to all positions, and all that other good stuff. Here's the goodies we grabbed:


From the desk of Harry Peters of the Jacksonville Jaguars

Position/Player Current Est Future Est Exp Sgnd
QB Rich Gannon 13 13 13 2002
QB Cade McNown 8 13 2 2002
QB Shane Matthews 6 7 8 2001
RB Eddie George 12 12 5 2002
RB Glyn Milburn 10 11 8 2002
RB Frank Murphy 8 12 1 2000
RB Andy Whitcomb 8 11 1 2000
FB Mack Strong 7 7 7 2001
FB Blake Spence 4 5 3 2000
TE Tony McGee 11 11 9 2002
TE Ben Coates 9 9 10 2001
TE Ryan Collins 5 7 2 2001
WR Raghib Ismail 12 12 8 2002
WR Darnay Scott 11 11 7 2003
WR Terrance Wilkins 9 13 2 2002
WR Craig Yeast 8 11 2 2001
WR Billy Miller 6 8 2 2002
C Jeff Mitchell 13 13 4 2003
C Tom Bundren 5 7 3 2001
G Everett McIver 15 15 8 2002
G Jim Pyne 12 12 8 2003
G Scott Rehberg 7 8 4 2001
G Orlando Bobo 5 9 4 2000
T Jon Runyan 11 11 5 2003
T Mo Collins 10 11 3 2002
T Mike Sheldon 5 7 4 2001
T Jose Portilla 3 4 3 2001
P Mitch Berger 14 14 7 2000
K Todd Peterson 13 13 7 2000
DE Mike Strahan 14 14 8 2003
DE Rob Burnett 13 13 11 2002
DE Anthony Cook 9 9 6 2001
DE John Burrough 6 6 6 2000
DT Cortez Kennedy 18 18 11 2005
DT Brad Culpepper 12 12 9 2003
DT John Jurkovic 6 6 10 2000
DT Chris Hovan 2 10 1 2002
LB Carlos Emmons 11 12 5 2003
LB Mike Caldwell 11 11 8 2002
LB Winfred Tubbs 10 11 7 2001
LB Shawn Barber 7 10 3 2001
LB Johnny Rutledge 7 12 2 2000
LB Adrian Ross 7 11 3 2000
LB Rob Morris 6 12 1 2002
CB Otis Smith 11 11 10 2002
CB Tyronne Drakeford 8 8 7 2001
CB Brian Kelly 5 7 3 2001
CB Tony Blevins 4 9 3 2000
CB Corey Chavous 4 6 3 2002
S Tim McDonald 10 10 14 2001
S Jerome Woods 9 11 5 2001
S Darrius Johnson 6 8 5 2001
S Tony George 4 6 2 2001

Not a bad haul, if I do say so myself. Cortez Kennedy will anchor the defense, and McNown and George should give us a solid offense for a few years. Gannon's kinda old, and all those 13s worry me. I'll look at FA a little bit, but don't expect to find much, so this is the roster we'll probably start the VCR with.

[This message has been edited by SackAttack (edited 11-03-2000).]

[SackAttack]

2000 Preseason

With a full complement of 53 fellas, I need to either cut or bench 7 folks before I can set my depth charts.

Having already played a few seasons on Wall Street, I know that there tend to be a few more major injuries (i.e. 2-3 months+ in duration) than in FOF2, so I decide to just bench 7 guys, rather than cut them and scramble for warm bodies if anybody gets hurt.

The unfortunates:

RB Frank Murphy
G Orlando Bobo
T Jose Portilla
DE John Burrough
DT John Jurkovic
LB Johnny Rutledge
LB Adrian Ross

After setting my depth chart, I glance at some of the other teams in the league, trying to figure out who the boys to watch out for might be. After noticing both Donovan McNabb and Kurt Warner on the Redskins, as well as Jerome Bettis, Torry Holt, and Travis Taylor, and a corner corps of Deion, Charles Woodson, Sam Madison, and Champ Bailey, I suspect these will be the guys to beat.

If you're interested, Gannon beat out McNown for the starter's job.

[SackAttack]

2000 Preseason Games

Week Two

JACKSONVILLE 17, Carolina 14

Gannon played like an old man in a boys' game - which, come to think of it, he is. Here's his line:


Passing Att Comp Yards Yd/Att Long TD Int
10 Gannon 13 3 29 2.2 16 0 0

Not pretty, needless to say. By comparison, Matthews and McNown were a combined 9 of 10, with McNown throwing the only airborne TD of the day.

Week Three

New York Giants 31, JACKSONVILLE 7

The Giants put 17 points on the board before Eddie George ran it in from 10 yards out, but the two INTs thrown by McNown and Gannon (one apiece) didn't help us any. While Gannon rebounded from his poor start, McNown went 17-27-202 to continue to make a strong case for the starter's job. The bad news is, G Scott Rehberg dislocated his shoulder and will be out about a month.

Week Four

JACKSONVILLE 24, Kansas City 17

We were outpassed, outclassed, and outrun. And we still won. We have DE Rob Burnett to thank for it, too. The man blocked a punt and ran it back in 11 yards for the winning score with a little over 4 minutes remaining.

Week Five

JACKSONVILLE 28, Atlanta 13

Gannon turned in a respectable 13-21-204 day, but it was Cade McNown and the Jacksonville rushing attack that led the way to victory, with rushing TDs from Glyn Milburn and Blake Spence, and a TD pass to Terrance Wilkins from McNown late in the 3rd quarter. Even KJ and his 32.5 YPC average couldn't save the Dirty Birds. Guess that's what happens when you don't have a QB.

[SackAttack]

2000 Regular Season

Week One

Under any other circumstances, an Opening Day matchup against the Browns would almost be a guaranteed win. Thanks to the wonders of the allocation draft, the Dawgs have Chris Chandler at the helm and James Stewart to pound 'em between the tackles.
So the result isn't really a surprise, though it is a disappointment:

Cleveland 34, JACKSONVILLE 24

We were held to just 16 yards on the ground, and it was the kind of day you'd see on the highlight reel: No less than three INTs run back for touchdowns between the two teams, two of them from Cleveland's Donnie Abraham. The first one came with less than two minutes remaining in the first quarter, a 32 yard scamper that put the Browns up 10-0. His other pick was a devastating 95 yard return that probably cost us the game. Take away that touchdown and give us the 3 points, and we at least send it to overtime.

Week Two

JACKSONVILLE 27, Baltimore 20

Mack Strong and Eddie George each had TD runs, our defense hauled in two picks, one that set up a FG, and the other keeping Baltimore from getting in range with under a minute to go. One rather disturbing statistic: Gannon was sacked 4 times, including 3 in a row on the opening drive. Gotta do something about that line.

Week Three

JACKSONVILLE 16, Cincinnati 10

Given that this is the same Cincy team that Cleveland destroyed 43-28 last week, I'm not sure if this win is a "good" win or not. Gannon was 10-12-120 with a TD pass, but also bruised his ribcage in the process.
McNown was 17-22-166, but no TDs.

Week Four

Indianapolis 13, JACKSONVILLE 10

Eddie George doesn't seem to be getting the rushing yardage I'd expect from him; 50-70 yards a game seems to be about par for the course for him, and I suspect Milburn is bleeding touches from him. I'll tinker with the play time settings (God, I love that) and see if I can't get George some more looks.

[SackAttack]

Week Five

Pittsburgh 17, JACKSONVILLE 13

It was a tale of two halves. We led 13-0 at the half behind Eddie George and his 102 yards on 23 carries, but we couldn't hang onto the ball in the second half, fumbling three times (recovering two) and throwing an interception en route to a rather embarrassing 17-13 loss before 69,000. Gannon couldn't even complete half his passes. Six were bad throws, 2 were dropped, 2 were blocked, and 1 was intercepted. Another game like that and I'll be tempted to start McNown.

Week Six

JACKSONVILLE 20, Baltimore 3

Eddie George continued to respond to the increase in playing time, racking up 133 yards on 25 carries, including a TD. Gannon bruised his shoulder again, this time after just one pass, and McNown took care of the rest. Our next three opponents are a combined 7-9 leading into the bye week, so this would be a real good time to separate ourselves from the pack.

Week Seven

Tennessee 44, JACKSONVILLE 14

Um. Ouch? Antowain Smith. 23 carries, 225 yards, 4 TDs. An 82 yard run 3:43 into the contest, a 15 yarder with 1:07 left in the first quarter, a 66 yard run 13 seconds into the 2nd quarter, and a 3 yarder 27 seconds before halftime. You talk about an ass-whuppin', the boy had us put away after just 15:13 of play. I don't think I want to say any more about this one. Except that, uh, McNown was sacked seven times. Boy, Ah say, boy, if you don't learn to get out of the pocket, you're gonna be CRUSHED, Ah say MUTILATED.
Further cementing the fact that when it rains (as, in fact, it did), it pours, we lost LB Carlos Emmons for 3 months to a broken arm, and DT Cortez Kennedy for 5 weeks to a pulled groin.

Week Eight

Kurt Warner and Company come to town, sporting a surprising 4-3 mark. I would have expected more from that bunch.

JACKSONVILLE 19, Washington 7

As it turns out, I'm more than happy to take advantage of their struggles. Warner was an astounding 18-40-212 on the day, though whether that's a bad day for him or a great day for my secondary is anybody's guess. 9 bad throws, 7 defensed passes, 3 hurried passes, and an INT against the man tell me that it was probably a remarkable day for the secondary.
Eddie George got into the act as well, scoring 2 TDs on a 22-122 day, providing our only forays into the end zone.
4-4 isn't quite the record I had hoped for at this point, but we're only .5 games out of the playoff picture, so I can't really complain too much.

[SackAttack]

Week Nine

JACKSONVILLE 20, Dallas 17

Our 20 points were sandwiched in between Dallas' 17. Our only real standout performance came from McNown, who put up 26-34-253-1. Between the foot of Peterson and George's TD, it was enough.

Week Ten

The bye week, and not a moment too soon. We have a couple of guys who are questionable and could use the rest.

Week Eleven

The good news is, we're in a virtual dead heat for the final playoff spot, tied with Buffalo at 5-4. The bad news is, they and Tennessee hold tiebreakers over me.

JACKSONVILE 20, Seattle 13

24-32-233-2 for Gannon in his return from a bruised shoulder. The key to the game was holding Duce Staley to 18 yards, and Seattle to 28 total rushing yards. More importantly, the win gives us the playoff spot that had been Seattle's. It also puts us 1.5 games out of the division lead with 3 consecutive division games coming up, including two home games against the 2nd place Titans and the 1st place Browns. Two must-win games.

Week Twelve

The first of those three division games.

JACKSONVILLE 34, Pittsburgh 28

Revenge is a dish best served cold. Eddie George had 107 yards rushing, and Rich Gannon had a career high 4 TD passes, tying him with the likes of Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning for 2nd all-time in single game TD passes.
Tennesee did us a big favor and knocked off Cleveland 31-30, putting the three of us within a half-game of each other. A win against the Titans next week would keep us within striking distance of first going into our Week 14 rematch with the Browns. Of course, an upset win by the 1-11 Ravens over the Browns wouldn't be ungratefully received.

[SackAttack]

Week Thirteen

JACKSONVILLE 20, Tennessee 10

So far, we've taken care of business. This was a particularly sweet win, especially after the way Antowain Smith anally abused us last week. Oh, we still gave up a big day, to the tune of 6-140-1 to Justin Armour, but one of those 6 receptions was a 93 yard doozy for a score.

Week Fourteen

With G McIver making his triumphal return, and Kennedy a week or two away from HIS return, this game had a playoff atmosphere to it, and indeed, the very division title may have been at stake, with us having a game in hand over Cleveland.

JACKSONVILLE 45, Cleveland 26

Eddie George was a crazy man, rushing 26 times for 111 yards and 3 scores, and Gannon had a 27-35-342-3 day himself, punctuating our third straight win in a crucial stretch against three opponents who had beaten us the first go-round. At 9-4, and with Kennedy healed and Emmons 2 weeks away, things are looking WAY up.

Week Fifteen

JACKSONVILLE 27, Arizona 3

The win does three things:

1) extends our win streak to 6 overall, and proves fears of a post-Cleveland letdown unfounded

2) clinches a playoff spot, and

3) all but eliminates Cleveland from division title contention. We're a game up on Tennessee with two remaining, but a Browns win next week will just about clinch the division for us.

Week Sixteen

Cleveland knocks off the Titans 12-10, giving us a clear path to the title. Win one, and its ours! Oh, yeah...our game:

Cincinnati 28, CLEVELAND 21

We scored all 21 points in a 17:23 span covering the 2nd/3rd quarters, but blew the win by allowing a TD and conversion with 2:21 remaining in the game. No worries; we're still going to the playoffs.

Week Seventeen

New York Giants 27, JACKSONVILLE 24

Not the way I had hoped to go into the playoffs, and blowing the division title hurts (note to self: extract foot from mouth), but not as much as losing Kennedy for the playoffs does. We face Tennesse in the first round...can we take them 2 of 3?

[This message has been edited by SackAttack (edited 11-03-2000).]

[SackAttack]

2000 Playoffs

Wild Card Round

San Francisco 21, Carolina 7
Cincinnati 17, New York Jets 13
Minnesota 35, Tampa Bay 17

JACKSONVILLE 23, Tennessee 20

Never let anybody tell you kickers aren't important. Todd Peterson hit one from 27 yards out with 2 seconds on the clock to steal a win from the shocked Titans. Jaguars evidently have long memories when it comes to anal abuse. Of course, we have to face Cleveland next week for the right to advance to the NFC title game. Can we take BOTH teams 2 out of 3?

Divisonal Finals

Chicago 23, Minnesota 17
San Diego 24, Cincinnati 3
New York Giants 34, San Francisco 10

Cleveland 14, JACKSONVILLE 10

In the end, Cleveland tailback Trung Canidate proved too much for us to handle, both rushing for a TD and hauling in a TD pass. Fumbling twice (recovering one) and throwing a pick didn't help matters any.

Conference Finals

Chicago 35, New York Giants 17
Cleveland 28, San Diego 22

Cleveland earns a trip to the Super Bowl, overcoming a late season slump that nearly cost them the AFC Central and the late-surging Jaguars. My hat's off to them.

Super Bowl I

Chicago 19, Cleveland 11

Even adversity only carries you so far, I guess.

We had no season awards.

[This message has been edited by SackAttack (edited 11-03-2000).]

[Original Prankster]

Have we determined an order yet, guys? I can go whenever...How does:

SackAttack
Myself
ShagVT
CubsFan850328949874
andy

sound?

Any objections?

------------------
Secant, Tangent, Cosin, Sin, 3.14159!

[RPI-Fan]

So you guys know, this is my (Original Prankster) new username.

------------------
Secant, Tangent, Cosin, Sin, 3.14159!

[andy m]

can't break with tradition man, it's the villy chilly!

my proposed:

SackAttack
RPI-Fan
CubsFan90210
andy m
ShagVT

[SackAttack]

Heh, you guys can haggle out your order amongst yourselves.

Just a minor update here...I had intended to have my turn finished tonight, but got a little sidetracked.

Y'see, I was about to press the "continue to next season" button when I realized "Y'know...we don't really have a record book anymore."

So instead of taking my turn tonight, I put together a simple, no-frills Village Challenge 2k1 record book. Well...simple in that its not real flashy, but I've covered a LOT of ground in it. We've got single season, career, playoff, single game, and team records in this sucker.

It might be a little difficult to maintain, since we have two-season turns goin' on here, but I think there's a relatively simple way to solve that. As is the nature of record books, a lot of these records are going to remain fairly static. That is, there isn't going to be a whole lot of turnover in areas like "single game touchdowns scored," for example. And the stuff like single game records can probably be updated every two years at worst (meaning that when somebody's turn ends and they send the file to the next guy, they need to CC it to me as well).

The stuff that IS going to be update-intensive will be the career franchise record holders and the W/L/T record breakdowns for each team. The WLT stuff I can easily grab from the career thread updates.

The franchise record stuff won't be as easy to obtain, but shouldn't be very difficult, either. If you guys can print the individual/team season stats and the individual career stats for the Jags to a text file, that can be easily emailed to me at the end of each season, allowing me to make the necessary updates without taxing modem connections and such.

I apologize if this sounds like a massive undertaking; its not intended to be. If you folks wanna go ahead with this, let me know. I think it could be pretty cool, but its definitely going to require a team effort to maintain.

Whatcha think?

Josh

[andy m]

do it, do it

anything that can add to our teams personality for us has got to be good! would you put the book up on the net as a website? perhaps a long with a small team history page, detailing major events in the course of our team?

[SackAttack]

Andy,

That's how I designed it, yeah. Used FrontPage 2000 to throw it together real quick, and when I get the chance, I'll probably sign up for a free website someplace or other and throw it up there.

If somebody wants to write up a detailed history of where the Village Challenge has gone, we can even put that up there as well, along with the chronology you suggested (might be a good way to prevent future losses of data as well in the event of catastrophe).

Any other ideas?

Josh

[SackAttack]

Update - I will be finishing my turn for sure tomorrow evening. I used this evening to fill the record book up before pressing the 'next season button,' as I didn't want to lose stats to retirement until AFTER the leaders had been safely ensconced away in history.
I'm about 95% done with that (and too tired to squint anymore). Only around 6 categories left in the single game records, and that's easily done courtesy of the game logs.

Josh

[SackAttack]

Update - Franchise Record Book is finished. I decided to make one last push at gettin' the thing complete so I could maybe continue the VC before bed. However, its about 2 am right now, so I don't plan on gettin' to that until I wake up at the absolute earliest. Don't count on hearing from me before noon, and don't be surprised if its early evening or so before I stick my head in the door. I will try to get the record book up sometime before I continue, however, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Ideally one of us would have some webspace stashed away somewhere so I wouldn't need to sign up for a whole new site.

Any volunteers?

Josh

[SackAttack]

2001 Offseason

Herb, in whatever incarnation he currently resides, gave us a year end score of 70. That is, incidentally, the highest score I've managed yet in FOF2k1.

The new season brings a cap increase of $9,600,000, but it also brings the retirement of Jim Pyne. All told, we have cap room of close to $8,000,000 heading into free agency. I suspect that will shrink some after I click "Continue Free Agency," but for now, it looks good, at least.

We seem to be set for a LONG time at the coach/scout positions. Coach for sure, at least. We have probably the best coach it has ever been my good fortune to start with:

QB: VG
RB: VG
WR: VG
OL: VG
DL: F
LB: F
SC: VG
K : VG
YT: G
MO: G
DI: EX
OP: VG
DP: F
AI: VG

He's also still in diapers, at the age of 38. His contract is up after this season, however. Whoever's next, KEEP THIS MAN.

None of our 11 FAs (4 UFA, 7 RFA) are worth the franchise tag, so I leave that be.

We made $16 mil last year, but the increase in the cap is sure to eat some of that, so I nudge ticket prices upwards gently. We wanna stay profitable, after all.

We receive a couple of trade offers, but neither are of any significance, so its to the FA pool we go. At this point, we have about $5.8 mil under the cap. Not great, but not nearly as horrible a hit as some teams take going into the 2nd year after an allocation draft.

Still, I want to free some room up.

Kennedy's injury last year proved beneficial for us, as he's willing to take a pay cut of nearly $3 million this year, as well as a stable salary of around $5.9 mil for the next four years. The last year of the contract represents a payroll slash of nearly $10 million. Needless to say, this doesn't happen very often on Wall Street in FOF2k1, so I'd be a fool to turn him down.

Mike Strahan also takes a paycut of around a mil this season, and a few mil over the next two seasons, but he's getting an extra year at $4 mil added to his contract, so he's probably not TOO heartbroken.

Rob Burnett is willing to take a $500k cut this year, and about $1 mil next year, but he wants a third year as compensation. We gladly accept.

As it turns out, those are the only three players of any consequence willing to accept a cut. Don't underestimate their importance, however - those are three of our starters on the defensive line. The savings there will go a LONG way towards helping us keep other key players, such as Eddie George in about two seasons.

[SackAttack]

2001 Free Agency

Our cap gymnastics give us around $9.4 mil in room to play with - nearly double what we had had. That should be enough for 7 draft picks and maybe a free agent.

The supreme irony here - the top oh, 20 free agents are all of the kicking persuasion. Yes, we need a punter and a kicker, since ours are FA, but in such a weak class, that could be an expensive proposition. Nonetheless, we'll take a look.

Olindo Mare and Craig Hentrich are both better than are current options and cheaper to boot. We'll place bids, but I don't expect to land both of them.

Mare signs in Week 4. Berger gets signed by the Steelers, forcing us to ante up for Hentrich, who finally signs in Week 12. The upshot is, he's STILL cheaper than Berger would have been. With $7,810,000 left, we'll save the rest of our cash for the draft.

[SackAttack]

2001 Amateur Draft

Prior to beginning the Draft period, we receive three trade offers - all of them centering around either an offensive lineman or Rich Gannon. There's a good looking QB in the draft, but its unlikely he'll fall to #23, let alone to the #6 in Round 2. We decline all three deals.

Heading into the draft, we need a 3rd RB, a 2nd FB, and a backup G. Anything after that is gravy. Our scout is rated VG at running backs, so we'll naturally concentrate our early efforts there.

Two RBs stand out immediately:

Fernando Lyons, out of William & Mary, and Tony Kuberski, out of Michigan. Lyons appears to be the greater skill player, but he also has a fairly low endurance rating. He looks to be more of a situational back, as opposed to a true feature back. Since the two are fairly close other than endurance, I decide to go with Kuberski.

Lyons falls to the 2nd round, making him a tempting backup selection, but I decide to go with G Neal Horton instead.

The third round rolls around, and both Lyons and FB Harvey Price are available. I had had my eye on both, but didn't expect Price to maske it out of the second round. Then again, I didn't expect Lyons to last past the first. We'll take Price, and if Lyons drops, we'll snag him in the fourth.

Lyons doesn't last, so we turn our attention to drafting backups, and its here that we get a couple of big surprises. There are two WRs, a C, a DT, and a S that all look capable of starting a year or two from now.

I decide to go with S Irving Wynn, in the hopes that DT Mack Francis drops one more round.

He does, and I quickly snatch him up. So far, this has been an incredibly deep draft. If all 5 players taken so far pan out, we're going to be a VERY strong team in about 3 seasons.

Our 6th round pick is a decent LB out of Duke, Richie Staat. Not the greatest player in the world, but he provides us with adequate depth in the event of injury.

Our final pick is TE Jessie Hitchcock. Nothing special here. He's simply the best player remaining that we might actually be able to use.

Amateur Draft Report:

Rnd 1 - Tony Kuberski, RB, Michigan
Rnd 2 - Neal Horton, G, Illinois
Rnd 3 - Harvey Price, FB, Boston College
Rnd 4 - Irving Wynn, S, Middlebury
Rnd 5 - Mack Francis, DT, Notre Dame
Rnd 6 - Richie Staat, LB, Duke
Rnd 7 - Jessie Hitchcock, TE, Oregon

That's our final draft report. I'm ecstatic with the quality of our first 5 picks. Hopefully our scout wasn't on crack. I'm reasonably confident about our first three choices, given his ratings in those areas. Less so about the defensive players, but one can always hope.

[This message has been edited by SackAttack (edited 11-06-2000).]

[SackAttack]

2001 Rookie Signings and Training Camp

The first rookie into camp is FB Harvey Price, the third round pick, signing a contract that will bring him $2.38 million over the next 4 years.

Second round selection G Neal Horton is the next to fall, signing a 3 year contract worth about $3.18 million.

First round choice Tony Kuberski inks a 5 year deal worth $9.59 mil. It's more than I wanted to spend, but I think he'll prove to be worth it.

Staat, Wynn, Hitchcock and Francis all sign minsal deals for either 2 or 3 seasons, leaving us with around $4 mil for injury replacements during the season.

In other news, we have around 18 players who are due for new contracts after this season. RPI-Fan, you might wanna change that to RIP-Fan.

[SackAttack]

2001 Preseason

A bit of good news and a bit of bad news here. The bad news is, S Irving Wynn was a victim of some overly enthusiastic hype on the part of my scout. He's not crap, but he's not quite as good as advertised either.

The good news is, all 6 of our other draft picks either improved or remained within 2-3 points of where they were on draft day, meaning our scout seems to have actually done a pretty good job here.

Before starting the preseason games, we sign C Tony Mayberry to a one year, $540k deal. He'll be an excellent backup, and may even be able to parlay this into a longer deal next season.

[i]Week One[i]

Buffalo 21, JACKSONVILLE 6

Mare hit two field goals, but McNown threw an astounding 5 INTs, including one returned 98 yards for a score early in the first quarter, and one returned 65 yards for a score with 1:24 left in the game. Paul Ford had 4 picks on the day, and Jacoby Rhinehart had the other two for Buffalo.

Week Two

JACKSONVILLE 12, New York Giants 0

Mare hit two more 'tweeners, and Kuberski rushed for his first TD in a Jags uni, as we held on for the shutout despite being outrushed 159-102 and outpassed 166-116. Time of possession was remarkably equal despite the yardage discrepancies.

Week Three

Detroit 19, JACKSONVILLE 16

This was a game for the kickers, as the two teams combined for seven field goals, four by Stoyanovich. The bad news is, we lost LB Shawn Barber for 3 months with a torn calf muscle. Makes me glad I drafted Staat.

Week Four

JACKSONVILLE 19, Washington 14

Who knew? Billy Miller returned a kickoff 108 yards for a score in the first quarter, and we never looked back. I'm tempted to put that in the record book, but since its a preseason game, the stats don't count, unfortunately. Poor Billy.
The advantage to starting our preseason games right away is that we now have a week to rest up and get healthy before our season opener against Pittsburgh. Should be a good one.

[SackAttack]

2001 Regular Season

The preseason is over, and now the games count. A return to the postseason is expected from this team, but much depends on the contributions of the rookies, and the consistency of the QB position - a real worry, given McNown's penchant for giving the ball away.

Week One

JACKSONVILLE 14, Pittsburgh 7

Rookie fullback Harvey Price, fresh off his successful attempt to steal the starting job, makes the most of his two carries, scoring the winning touchdown with 2:05 remaining. Tim McDonald saved the day after Pittsburgh recovered an onside kick with 1:28 remaining, intercepting Trent Green's first pass at the Jacksonville 22. Nice way to start the year.
What's NOT so nice is seeing Gannon go down for 3-5 weeks with shoulder tendonitis, and Winfred Tubbs for 3 months with a broken jaw. Good thing I saved the cap space.

We sign second year signal caller Gary Pietzryk to a one year deal while Gannon recovers, and bring back LB Adrian Ross from the waiver wire to replace Tubbs.

Week Two

JACKSONVILLE 29, Detroit 22

Olindo Mare kicked 5 FGs, and McNown kept the ball (mostly) on the right side of the line, passing for nearly 300 yards as we survived our first week A.G., albeit barely. 2-0 is a great place to be, but we'll face a test in Baltimore next week.

Week Three

Baltimore 17, JACKSONVILLE 13

We held Baltimore to 45 yards rushing, and still gave up two touchdowns on the ground. So how'd we lose? We picked up a [sarcasm]world-beating[/sarcasm] 13 yards of our own in front of a near-sellout home crowd. Oh, and, uh, McNown threw a pair of picks.

Week Four

Cleveland 14, JACKSONVILLE 6

McNown was held to just 196 yards passing, and George to 60 yards rushing, and we're suddenly a .500 team after such a promising start. And the first drops of the downpour are beginning to fall, as Milburn breaks his arm and goes out for 3 months, WR Craig Yeast does the same with a sprained back, and DT Brad Culpepper pulls his groin and will spend 3-5 weeks on his ass.

This doesn't look good.

[SackAttack]

We sign WR Robert Reed and Barry Clavell to one year contracts, cut CB Darrius Johnson, place Milburn on the IR, and activate DT Chris Hovan to make room for the walking wounded on the bench. We're at the roster limit of 53 now, so if anybody else goes down before some of the infirm are ready to go again, we'll be forced to either further use the IR or make some more cuts - neither of which is a pleasant prospect.

Week Five

JACKSONVILLE 35, Tampa Bay 3

Eddie George racks up 168 yards on 21 carries and scores 3 TDs, and our defense made sure that even McNown and his INT-happy arm couldn't give this one away.
Unfortunately, McIver sprained his neck and will be out - you guessed it - 3 months. To replace him, I cut marginal tackle Jose Portilla and sign G Kerlin Blaise to a one year deal. Still, we're 3-2. Better than expected, given the circumstances.

Week Six

Pittsburgh 37, JACKSONVILLE 3

An 83 yard INT return for a score by the Steeler defense, but it hardly mattered, as we never got anything remotely resembling an offense going anyway. Gannon is nearly ready to come back, fortunately. At 3-3, we're tied with 3 other teams for 2nd place, behind the Titans and Browns, who share first place at 3-2. Hope springs eternal.

Week Seven

JACKSONVILLE 23, Minnesota 17

Making this win even more impressive is the fact that the Vikes were 5-1 coming in. Robert Reed earns his keep with a 98 yard kickoff return for a score, and we score 10 points in the final 56 seconds to steal a win at home in front of 72,300. More importantly, we're in a virtual tie for first place now at 4-3.
Billy Miller succumbs to arthroscopic knee surgery, but that remains the least of our worries.

Week Eight

Chicago 34, JACKSONVILLE 3

We got whupped, no two ways about it. What makes it even more depressing is that I've noticed a pattern - its the third such blowout game in the last four weeks for us - two of those were losses.

[SackAttack]

Week Nine

Prior to our showdown with the Browns, we get some GOOD injury news - Gannon is healthy and McNown is done for 2 months. Could life be any better? Oh, yeah...Culpepper and Barber are back too.

Cleveland 26, JACKSONVILLE 23

Olindo Mare kicked a 55 yarder to send this one into overtime, but in the end, Chris Chandler and his 413 yards passing proved too difficult to overcome.
We got some more bad injury news, losing Caldwell for the remainder of the year and Wilkins until the playoffs. Sigh.
Gilbert Balderas will take Wilkins' place.

Week Ten

Tennessee 37, JACKSONVILLE 30

At this point, there are two questions:

1) Will Antowain Smith ever stop kicking our ass? He had 333 rushing yards and 2 TDs today.
2) Will we be able to run the table and make the playoffs?
It was kind of an unfortunate end to this game, to be honest. Despite letting Smith run wild, we had our share of "Hell yeah" moments, getting a 100 yard kickoff return from Ismail for a score and a 71 yard INT return for a score from Jerome Woods, as well as a safety sack from the newly returned Tubbs. Unfortunately, when you give up scoring runs of 55 and 69 yards to the same guy within 2:30 of each other...its difficult to win.

Week Eleven

Cincinnati 31, JACKSONVILLE 24

Kuberski and George combined for 183 yards and 2 TDs, but our inability to keep the ball (2 INTs, 1 fumble) cost us the win. Really, that's been the story all year long. With the exception of the two beatdowns, all 7 of our losses have been by less than a touchdown.

Week Twelve

JACKSONVILLE 23, Tennessee 17

Gannon found the endzone twice, and Mare kicked 3 straight FGs to close out the game, as we break through for our first win in a month. Ismail caught 5 balls for 125 yards.

[SackAttack]

Week Thirteen

JACKSONVILLE 23, Cincinnati 9

Our playoff aspirations may be a pipe dream at this point, but beating the division leaders is always sweet. Its going to take a miracle of biblical proportions to make it past week 17, however.

Week Fourteen

JACKSONVILLE 24, Baltimore 0

We've put ourselves in a position to pull it out provided the following happens:

1) We win out.
2) Buffalo wins no more than 1 game the rest of the way
3) Indy and New England lose at least 1 of their final 3
4) Cleveland and/or Denver knock off the Ravens.

Week Fifteen

Our bye week. Good time for it too, cuz we'll need all the rest we can get for our games against Buffalo and Seattle.

As it turned out, Cleveland lost to Baltimore, New England knocked off the Colts, and Buffalo beat Atlanta.

If we win out, Denver beats Baltimore, Cincy and Tennessee beat Pittsburgh, and New England loses at least once, we *should* be in, if I've worked this out correctly.

Week Sixteen

We get McIver back in time for our must-win game against the Bills. A loss will knock us out of the playoffs, while a win keeps our fragile hopes alive.

Buffalo 23, JACKSONVILLE 17

It went into overtime, but the trio of Jamal Lewis, Peter Warrick, and Charlie Batch proved to be too much, and as a result, we'll be watching the playoffs from home.

Week Seventeen

JACKSONVILLE 9, Seattle 7

Not much to say about this one, other than that at least we won half of 'em.

[This message has been edited by SackAttack (edited 11-06-2000).]

[SackAttack]

2001 Playoffs

Wild Card Round

Atlanta (11-5) 33, Arizona (8-7-1) 21
Buffalo (10-6) 16, Denver (8-7-1) 14
Cincy (10-6) 25, New York Jets (11-5) 13
Minnesota (9-7) 20, Dallas (10-6) 10

Divisional Finals

Green Bay (10-6) 20, Atlanta (11-6) 16
Miami (14-2) 26, Buffalo (11-6) 21
Cleveland (11-5) 45, Cincinnati (11-6) 28
Minnesota (10-7) 14, New York Giants (11-4-1) 7

Conference Finals

Green Bay (11-6) 28, Minnesota (11-7) 9
Miami (14-3) 23, Cleveland (12-5) 20

Super Bowl II

Miami (15-3) 9, Green Bay (12-6) 7

Cortez Kennedy and his 8.5 sacks took All-Pro 1st Team DT, and Olindo Mare made the 2nd Team as the Kicker.

[Blackwind]

Did you say 333 yards rushing for Smith?!

[ShagVT]

Well, I'm back. Four days in chilly Boston and a new job under my belt, and I come back to find the Village Challenge well under way.

Looks like you've got a pretty solid start for us, Sack. I guess we'll need to take a hard look at finding a franchise QB though, eh?

Tough break on injuries. Like in real life though, injuries generally play as much of a factor as a team's success as the talent on the roster.

Well, it took us 9 seasons to build a champion first time around with the Raiders - sounds like you've got us on solid footing, so let's see how we end up here.

I'll check with my ISP and see if I have any space for the records.