Micro Managed Cowboys

[OldSchool]

Starting as the Cowboys with an allocation
draft on Wall St. As in FOF2 the only house
rule I'll use is that I will sign any FA
outside of the 20step process unless they had zero starts the year before. (If a player had any starts in the prior year, I view them as a "holdout" that is still under contract to their previous team.) I'm also going to micro-manage and call every play, so this'll move slow (actually, maybe a little too slow for some, let me know if its dragging)

I decided to focus on the passing game and the secondary during the allocation draft. The results were pretty decent. We got Peyton Manning, and my secondary is lethal: S Lawyer Milloy and Lethon Flowers, CB Charles Woodson, Ashley Ambrose and Shawn Springs.

Here's how the team breaks down:

QB
Peyton Manning, backed up by Cade McNown and
Jake Plummer. A+

RB
We're pinning our hopes to rookie Shaun
Alexander. Our 2nd and 3rd guys are nonames
Justin Watson and Robert Farmer, who look to
be getting carries in August only. D+

FB
Jim Kleinsasser will be the starter. Backup
Marvin Powell will see time, and will
hopefully develop into a ferocious lead
blocker. D

TE
With David Sloan and Cam Cleeland it looks
like we'll be running some 2 TE sets this
year. Rookie Fred Toscano will likely see
only special teams duty. A

WR
Manning will have plenty of targets to choose from, starting with Keyshawn Johnson. Amani Toomer will start at Split End, and Rocket Ismail will be the slot receiver. Darrell Jackson and Travis Taylor are the 4th and 5th WR. Looks like a wide open offense will be the way to go B+

OLine
The line is young, but should develop into a
top notch unit. We're one T away from being
solid across the board. Here's the nucleus:

C Kevin Long (3rd year)
G Chris Villarrial (5th year)
G Benji Olson (3rd year)
T Mo Collins (3rd year)

Robert Hicks will start at the other T until

I can get someone better. B

P
Brian Barker. Solid but aging. B-

K
Adam Vinatieri. Average. C

D Line
Pretty average, and not very deep. DE Clyde
Simmons is good, but will probably retire
after the season. DE Troy Wilson is good,
and only 6th year. DT Kimo Von Oelhoffen and Chris Hovan are both solid. The reserves are all bottom of the talent pool types, though. D+


LB
Undistinguished but serviceable. Starters
will be Raynoch Thompson, Johnny Rutledge,
and London Fletcher. C-

CB
Outstanding! Charles Woodson, Ashley
Ambrose, Shawn Springs, and Walt Harris.
Opposing QB beware. A+

S
Another goldmine. Lawyer Milloy, Lethon
Flowers, and Reggie Tongue. If we get a
lead, the nickels and dimes are going to be
raining! A+

[OldSchool]

Exhibition Week 1
Off.

Exb. Week 2
at Atlanta (0-0)
We don't show much of our offense, going with a balanced attack instead of the run and gun we'll be using in the regular season. The Falcons hand us a 24-10 loss, but we escape the game without injury. (L 10-24 0-1)

Exb. Week 3
Oakland (1-0)
Our watered down attack is too much for the Raiders. Keyshawn sprains an ankle, but its not serious. We'll probably hold him out of next week's game as a precaution anyway. Mo Collins, our starting LT and best lineman goes down with a bruised sternum that's more serious. He'll sit out the rest of the preseason, but should be a go for the season opener vs the Eagles.(W 31-10 1-1)

Exb. Week 4
at Denver (1-1)
We lose a close one in Mile High. Collins shows significant improvement from the week off, but Rocket Ismail pulls a groin, and will be held out of the final preseason game. RB Robert Farmer was activated for the game since Keyshawn was out. I'd been planning on leaving Farmer on the IL most of the season, but turns out he's a decent KR. RB Justin Watson will be put on the IL to make room for Farmer when Keyshawn comes back (L 21-24 1-2)

Exb. Week 5
St Louis (2-1)
A lackluster performance to close out the exhibition season. Who cares though, because aside from minor cuts and bruises, we're healthy for the regular season!
(L 10-24 1-3)


Week One - Philadelphia (0-0)
Scouting
The Eagles appear to have laid the foundations for many seasons of fruitless mediocrity. They're built around an insane D-Line they'll never be able to keep together (Cortez Kennedy, Michael Strahan, John Thierry, and Norman Hand). These guys already take up 20mil in capspace. Their offense is like a bad dream: QB Rodney Peete, RB Brian Mitchell, WR Isacc Byrd are their "Big Three". Their LB and DB are average pass defenders, so the plan is to let Peyton have a field day, and hopefully rattle Peete into four or five interceptions.

Game
First quarter is slow going, FG's are exchanged and its tied 3-3. We're blitzing from the secondary a lot, and Peete can't get anything going, but Manning's also having a tougher time than I'd hoped. (5/8 47yd).
Things start to click in the second quarter. Manning leads an 8 minute drive for a TD, capped by a 1yd TD to Keyshawn to go up 10-3. We're also getting a ground game from Alexander, who has 10 carries for 47 yards. An unexpected bonus against the vaunted Eagles front four.
Manning gets picked off by Kwamie Lassiter right before halftime. The Eagles take over at our 27. They score on a 2yd Brian Mitchell run to tie it at 10-10.
Its all FG's in the third quarter, with the Eagles going up 16-13. Alexander and Ismail both get hurt, bad news for the offense.
We start the 4th quarter backed up on our own 3yd line. An inside route to Sloan gets us some breathing room, but the drive stalls, and after the punt Philly has the ball at midfield. An illegal contact penalty gives them a first down at our 38. They get down to the 18, then we send Milloy on a blitz two downs in a row. He blocks the pass on 2nd down, then gets the sack on third, backing them up to the 27. Longwell misses the 44 yarder. HUGE!
Ten minutes left, we're on our 23. Manning hits Johnson on a fly for 43 yards!! (Keyshawn has 6 catches for 77yd, Mannings 20/35 216yd 1td 1int) That sets up a 3yd Manning to Darrell Jackson TD to put us up 20-16 with 6 minutes to go.
The Eagles next drive stalls with 2:45 left to play, after Lawyer Milloy recorded another monster sack on 3rd down!
We get the ball back at the 2 minute warning on our own 14 with a 4 pt lead, but noone to hand the ball off to. It takes one first down (a pass to Cleeland) and we're able to run out the clock. Milloy wins the Game MVP.

Post Game
Arizona is the only NFC East team to get a win, so we're in a tie for first . Ismail aggravated the preseason groin injury, and is out for a couple of months. Alexander's injury turns out to be a broken nose, not serious. G Benji Olson (concussion) and WR Travis Taylor (knee) also sustained minor injuries, but will not miss any playing time.
Our running game was dismal, 45 yards on 24 carries, a 1.8 average. (Alexander was 14/52) The passing game was strong, though. Manning was 25/40 262yd 2td 1int. Keyshawn (6/77 td) was Manning's favorite target despite drawing frequent double coverage. Pass protection was excellent, only one sack allowed, and zero hurries.
Our defense made things much harder on Peete, with 5 sacks and 5 hurries. Milloy had a whopping 3 sacks and 2 hurries!!
Next up, on the road to ARIZONA!!
(W 1-0 20-16)


[This message has been edited by OldSchool (edited 11-05-2000).]

[OldSchool]

Week Two - at Arizona(1-0)
Roster Moves
Rocket Ismail to inactive list. WR John Galsworthy signed to 1yr/230k deal. He'll be the #3 guy until Rocket's healthy, and also return kickoffs. Cut G Lewis Kelly to make room for Ismail on inactive list.

Scouting
Only week two and already we've got a big game, playing for solitary possession of first place in the division. Frankly, this is another game we should win. Two words: Ryan Leaf. Arizona also bought into the 'build around the DLine' theory. Unlike the Eagles, though, the Cards sport a pretty formidable offensive line, so we'll have to tone the blitzing way down. Tony Martin is their key offensive player, and he'll be seeng a lot of double teams, forcing Leaf to go through his reads. Mike Anderson is a legit threat behind that offensive line. We'll give up some ground, so our defense needs to step up with some takeaways, which I think they will.

Game
We get on the board first at 5:52 left in the 1st quarter when Manning capped a sustained drive with a 3yd td pass to Cam Cleeland. We close the first quarter up 7-0. Our defense is dominating them, giving up only 4yd total. The offense has sputtered aside from the scoring drive, as Manning has been facing heavy pressure. Alexander is off to a good start with 33 yards on 8 carries.
We open the second half with a scoring drive. We got excellent field position as our defense forced the Cards to punt from their own 3yd line. The 7yd Manning to Jackson TD pass put us up 14-0.
A stupid roughing the kicker call lets Arizona keep their next drive going. They end up with a FG to make it 14-3. Alexander fumbles on the first play of our next drive, and the Cards take over at our 22. The Cards punch it in to make it 14-10 with 4:54 left in the half, ughh!
We're circling the drain now, Manning gets picked off on the next series and the Cards take over at our 28. The defense holds this time, and the Cards go away with a FG, we're now clinging to a 14-13 lead. My heart's in my throat when Manning fumbles after a sack on the next drive, luckily we recovered. Unfortunately the Cards tack on another FG to take the lead at the half 16-14.
The second half is pretty uneventful. The Cards played it pretty conservatively, and never could move the ball.
A 10yd rushing TD by backup RB Keaton puts us up 21-16 with 14:06 left in the game. We tack on one more FG and get the W 24-16.

Post Game
We're 2-0 and sitting atop the division, but still haven't faced a good QB. We have faced two good DLines, and Alexander (38/132 for the season) has been able to produce against both. Manning was sacked seven times, but this was against one of the better pass rushes in the league.
The defense was terrific all around, giving up only 154 yards. Milloy picked up three more sacks!! He's got six on the season, so I think its time to get him a higher percentage of the blitzes. DE Troy Wilson was game MVP with 9 tackles and 2 sacks. We held the pathetic Leaf to 12/23 139yd and sacked him 6 times. Mike Anderson was held to 45 yd rushing. I'm liking what I'm seeing from my NFC East rivals
No new injuries to report, and all happy faces in the locker room. Next up is 0-2 Washington, another division creampuff. (W 2-0 24-16)



[This message has been edited by OldSchool (edited 11-05-2000).]

[OldSchool]

Week Three - at Washington(0-2)

Scouting
Washington's OLine doesn't offer much in the way of pass blocking, so I'm planning on giving Milloy the green light to go after the QB (in this case, Erik Kramer). The OLine isn't doing to much run blocking either, Emmitt Smith has only 33 yards on 25 carries. I hope I'm not underestimating the opposition, but I think there's a good reason these guys are 0-2.

Game
Keyshawn gets injured on the first play of the game, an incomplete pass. Toomer catches a 26 and a 30 yarder, but the drive ends in the red zone when Manning is picked off by Marquez Pope in the endzone. Shaun Springs returns the favor, and his 27yd return sets us up on the Redskins 33. I'm in disbelief when Manning throws it away AGAIN at the 14.

Manning finally pulls it together and finishes a drive with a 7 yd toss to Toomer with 1:04 left in the first quarter. Washington gets down to our 26 on the next drive, but Milloy comes on the 3rd and 3 blitz and blocks the pass! He is en fuego!! Conway misses the 43 yarder, and its still 7-0.

No more scoring before halftime. As expected, the Skins can't do much on offense. I'm pretty stoked at the general crappiness of the division .

We trade FG in the third quarter. Washington's scoring drive took up much of the quarter before stalling out, and they were able to keep it going with a gutsy 4th down conversion.

We open up the 4th quarter with a bang, as Manning hits Toomer for a 49yd score.

The Redskins get inside the redzone on the next drive, but are held to a FG after another HUGE 3rd down sack by Lawyer "The Destroyer" Milloy. Kramer was seen crying when leaving the field.

Woa...we're getting ready to put the Skins away for good when Manning throws ANOTHER INT IN THE ENDZONE!! (that's three )

Washington drives down and scores, but they miss the conversion, and its 17-12. Of course, they recover the onside kick. The defense again comes up big when MLB Raynoch Thompson gets the game sealing interception three plays later. Toomer gets the game MVP.


Post Game
The running game came on strong. Alexander had his first 100yd game as a pro (20/122), but has yet to find the end zone. Backup Curtis Keaton added 49yd on 10 carries. The three redzone interceptions killed us though. Manning finished 11/20 240yd 2td 3int. Toomer had an amazing day, 6/179 2td. Milloy got 2 more sacks and a pass block. At 3-0, we're a game up on the Giants, and the only undefeated team in the NFC. Keyshawn's injury is moderate, he's questionable for next week with a broken finger. Its rumored that Jake Plummer has been stirring up trouble in the locker room and Coach Devin Bey wants him gone...

One item of interest is that I'd anticipated an aerial assault unit, but our inability to keep WR healthy during the game has sort of thwarted that plan. Through three games, we've got a 53/47 run/pass ratio.
(W 3-0 17-12)



[This message has been edited by OldSchool (edited 11-07-2000).]

[OldSchool]

BLOCKBUSTER ... JAMES IS A COWBOY!!!

Oh, how I'd long to see this as a real life headline *sniffle*

Yes, its confirmed. At 1:20 eastern time, the Cowboys pulled the trigger on a deal that sends Jake Plummer and next year's 1st round selection to the Dolphins for uber-RB Edgerrin James.

Plummer will step in as the Dolphins' starting QB, replacing the struggling Jeff Lewis. James will give the Cowboys one of the more powerful RB tandems in the league, joining impressive rookie Stephen Alexander (58/254yd)in the Cowboy backfield.

James has struggled this year behind a horrid offensive line (51/139yd 1td), and is thrilled to be a Cowboy

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

[OldSchool]

Week 4 - San Francisco (2-1)

Roster Moves
We pull a minor trade with the Rams to get a number three QB, sending them Justin Watson and a 4th round pick in 2003 for Jay Fiedler. Watson has been on the IL all season, and would've been our #5 RB after the acquisition of James. S Thomas Luellyn takes Watson's place on the IL. Watson had primarily seen special teams duty so far this season.


Scouting
Big game for us, San Fran has a mean defense, allowing less than 15 ppg. The defense is built around an incredible linebacking corp of Mo Lewis, Chad Brown, and Keith Mitchell. Their secondary is suspect, though, so hopefully we can spring some big plays. The threat of James and Alexander running the ball should give Manning some favorable defenses to throw against.

We're catching SF at a great time, though, their QB, Rob Johnson is out with a torn calf muscle, so we'll face Jason Garrett. I hope my defense doesn't get too cocky, I can't believe our luck of the draw in the QB we've been facing. The rest of the skill players are so-so, Tim Dwight and Jason Tucker at WR, Sed Shaw at RB. The only exception is TE Tony Gonzalez, who could be a real problem for our LB to cover. The OLine is pretty substandard so once again we'll be coming with some aggro blitzing.

I'm also going to experiment with leaving Woodson on the left side of the field, instead of the top guy. The 9ers are a good team to try this against, since they don't really have a go to guy. A lot of pro teams play this scheme, so that guys get more comfortable in their zone of the field, maybe something in FOF2k will reflect this, so if its a successful scheme, I may make it my standard plan unless we're up against a dominating receiver.

Looks like Keyshawn will be a "go" for the game, as will Travis Taylor, who's been playing with a sprained knee.

All in all, I'm very optimistic we can remain undefeated here.

Game
The first quarter is a defensive struggle. Our first break comes with 2:10 left to play in the quarter. David Sloan forces and recovers a fumble on a punt return, to give us the ball on the SF 42. We end up with a third and one at their 7. I go up the gut to EJ twice in a row and come up empty . I think the fans and the EJ frenzy got to me, I need to be a little more realistic about my OLine.

Things go from bad to worse. After we force them three and out, Bennett gets off a 60 yd punt, which Toomer then bumbles, and the Skins take over at our 33. The 9ers drive in for the TD, a Garrett to Tucker 6yd pass. We're down 7-0 with 9:15 left in the half.

Groan, with under three minutes in the half, SF is on our 49. Sed Shaw's had (-2) yds on 3 carries so far, and I gamble with a dime package. Shaw promptly busts a 40 yarder. Things turn up a little, as the defense holds makes a goal line stand. SF gets the FG, but Tony Gonzalez gets hurt on the kick, a fair tradeoff IMO. We go into the half trailing 10-0.

Luckily SF has been killing themselves with penalties, or this could be worse. They've been burying us deep anyway, their punter has got to be averaging 68 yards a punt.
Once again, we're getting no protection for Manning, I think he's gone down 3 or 4 times. EJ hasn't been too impressive in his debut thusfar, with only 26yd on 11 carries. Alexander is 3/13. Manning is 6/11 81yd, with 3 going to Johnson for 35yds. I'm going to have to open it up with more Shotgun and multiple WR sets in the second half. I hate to diminish EJ's role, but we've got to get behind their LB.

We score on our first drive of the third quarter. Its a crowd pleasing drive. Keyshawn catches a 36 yarder, James busts a 23 yard run, and the payoff is Manning to James for 4 yards!

We get something going early in the 4th. EJ busts a big run to get us out near midfield. Then, a roughing the punter keeps us going after the drive had stalled. Vinatieri ends up missing a 47 yarder that would've tied it. He's wide left, but came up short on a 49yarder earlier. I don't know what his problem is.

Milloy gets hurt blitzing on the next drive. Man, that just sucks the wind out of us. Somebody's gotta step up.

Luckily, someone does. Raynoch Thompson strips the ball from Evans, and we take over at the SF 44 with 4:07 left in the game. On 2nd and 10, Alexander takes it on a sweep left for 16 yards. SF tacks on about their 40th unsportsmanlike conduct of the day to turn it into a 30 yd gain. Unfortunately, we just can't move against the 9ers once the field gets shortened in the red zone. Fortunately, 31 yards is in Vinatieri's comfort zone, and we're tied 10-10 with 2:41 left.

Mr. "Give me the damn Ball" drops a pass that would have put us in position to kick the game winner, so we head to overtime.

We win the toss, and start out on the 20. James turned it on in the second half, and now has 121yd on 25 carries. Manning is an abysmal 11/31 157yd 1td.

EJ's getting tired, so our first six plays all go to Alexander. His four rushes and two receptioins have us on the SF 38. Manning hits Sloan across the middle for 12. We trade penalties on the next two plays to end up at the same spot. Alexander bangs for 3 more yd. A false start backs us up again. Manning runs a draw to bring up 3rd-7 at the 28. I run Alexander up the middle and he busts lose for 15yd, a facemask tacks 6 yd on to the play. We send Vinatieri in, and he closes the deal with a 24 yarder. Raynoch Thompson takes home the game mvp, another hard fought victory for the D.


Post Game
Good news, Milloy's injury wasn't serious, he's 100%. Also, Ismail's starting to get better. He won't be activated yet, but may suit up in the next couple of weeks. Fiedler's picking up the griping where Jake Plummer left off, and Marvin Powell is also making noise.

There are now only three undefeated teams in the league: us, the Bungals (James Stewart, crazy defense), and the Chargers (Chris Chandler, Randy Moss, Charlie Garner).

Our running game produced 216 yards. James was 25/121yd, and Alexander was 12/70yd. The difference in the game was having Alexander at Full strenght for OT, when James was tired.

The defense turned in an outstanding effort, allowing only 237 total yards, and forcing two turnovers. The Niners made it even harder on themselves with 120yd of penalties. Their punter kept bailing them out, 9punts for 444 yards, 5 in the 20.

In 4 trips to the redzone, we came away with 1td and 2fg. This is kind of troubling, but it was against a solid defense.

(W 4-0 13-10)




[This message has been edited by OldSchool (edited 11-07-2000).]

[OldSchool]

Week 5 - at Carolina (2-1)

Roster Moves


Scouting
Carolina is a solid all around team. The offense is powered by Steven Davis, Steve Buerlein, Marvin Harrison, and Joey Galloway. The defense is LB powered, where they've got Derrick Brooks, Jessie Armstead, and Donnie Edwards. They've held opponents to under 12ppg, which could spell trouble the way we've been moving the ball.

Game
Carolina goes up 6-0 when Beurlein hits Dave LaFleur with a 24 yarder with 3:39 left in the first quarter. Cary Blanchard blew the extra point.

The injury bug works our way again, when Steven Davis goes down on the next Panther drive. We're at the start of the second quarter, and he already had 35yd on 6 carries. Beurlein is 5/6 84yd 1td, so maybe we can concentrate on him now. Their backups are Leroy Hoard and Napolean Kaufman, so we're not totally off the hook. They end up with a FG from that drive, and we're down 9-0.

A 43 yd Manning - Toomer pass sets up a 40yd attempt for Vinatierri. He blows it, and is now officially on thin ice with management.

The Panthers immediately start driving, and get down to the 7, when Raynoch Thompson picks off a pass and runs it back 57yd to the Carolina 41. That's two games in a row he's given us the big play when we needed it, another Panther td and we would've really been hurtin'. We ride the momentum to a score, Manning - Alexander for 13yd, and go into halftime trailing 7-9.

James is struggling, with only 18yd on 9carries. Manning is starting to find his groove: 7/13 122 1td.

We start off with a good drive, with Alexander doing the bulk of the damage on the ground, but the drive gets killed by another Manning int in the endzone.

With 9:25 to play in the 3rd, Charles Woodson picks off a Beurlein pass and sets us up at the Panther 21 after an 18yd return. Our defense is doing everything it can, if we don't win this game, its all on the offense.

EJ punches it in on a 7yd sweep. Hopefully he gives us the strength we need in the redzone. In any event, we're up 14-9 with 8:43 to go in the third.

The Panthers come right back. A 60yd Hoard ramble sets up a 7yd Beurlein-Harrison td pass. The Panthers fail to convert the 2pointer, and we now trail by one, 14-15.

Consistency is becoming a problem. We give KR/RB Robert Farmer a rare carry, and he busts it for 31 yd. On the very next play Alexander fumbles the ball away. Argghh!!

The Panthers waste no time taking it down for a score. Beurlein throws his 3rd td, an 8yarder to Galloway. (Nice irony that we've been burned by LaFleur and Galloway) That makes it 22-14 with 11:37 left to come back.

Oh wow, we put a great drive together. James had about 40yd rushing, but there was a nervous moment when he put the ball on the ground at the Panther 8, luckily Toomer was there to cover the loose ball. Well, its now 4th and 1, with 4:29 left, what to do, what to do...I decide to take the points, and we pull to within 17-22.

Bad call, we self-destruct, giving the game away with an Illegal Contact on a 3rd-7 that could've gotten us the ball back. Carolina lets the clock run out, and we suffer our first loss of the season, 17-22. Raynoch Thompson is voted game MVP despite the loss.

Post Game
Well, we got a good first half from our defense, and a good second half from our offense, but overall a crappy game for us. We gave up 193 yd of rushing, a season high. Our ground game accounted for 161 yd, with EJ gaining only 61yd on 19 carries. Alexander added 67yd on 13 carries. Manning finished a respectable 14/22 197yd 1td 1int. Johnson was the primary target, with 4 catches for 52 yd.

Next week is the bye week, so we'll have plenty of time to stew on this one. Ismail may be back by our next game, good news definitely.
(L 4-1 17-22)

[OldSchool]

Still micro-managing, but I've barely had time to play, much less write. We're 8-3 now, and have had some interesting developments.

Manning went down 3 weeks ago with a broken wrist. McNown has a 124.8 rating in Manning's absence!

Also, after Alexander developed fumble-itis, I started giving Curtis Keaton some carries. It seemed like he was picking up 20 yd every other carry. He's now got almost 500yd for the season (over 400 in the last 3 games), and James gets most of the carries!