GroupThink 3 - Kitty Hawk, 2022

[Fritz]

we have a first round bye, so I am going to sim the space and set the O.

[albionmoonlight]

Middleton OUT?

Dang it!

[Fritz]

file 1

[Fritz]

file 2

[Buzzbee]

It seems the dreaded flu has caught up to lead scout Buzzbee and he may or may not be able to scout in time for the first round of the playoffs. He is confident that if he is unable to get the scouting report done in time for the playoff game his able assistant scout Cuervo can take over the reins to give the team the needed information. In between prayers to the porcelain god, Buzzbee was heard to say "Man, that number 97 is a HOSS!!"

(I won't be able to scout until at home tonight)

[albionmoonlight]

I certainly want to look over the D depth charts, injuries, etc. before we sim.

I can sim 0, 1, 2, or all games tonight depending on what people want (and how we are able to scout).

What say the masses?

[Fritz]

albion - I am set on O barring an injury or a scouting plan that suggests a drastic change.

The only thing to do is swap Francis in when you feel he is ready.

[Buzzbee]

Originally posted by albionmoonlight
I certainly want to look over the D depth charts, injuries, etc. before we sim.

I can sim 0, 1, 2, or all games tonight depending on what people want (and how we are able to scout).

What say the masses?

I believe in the past we have expressed a desire to slow things down for the playoffs and take it one game at a time. Hopefully this is something we will have to worry about.

[QuikSand]

I agree - one playoff game at a time. Maybe one tonight, and if all goes well one tomorrow during the day - after some discussion.

[QuikSand]

Front Office Football: The Fourth Edition
2022 Summary for Kitty Hawk Flyers
   
Record: 11-5
Winning Pct.: .687
   
Kitty Hawk Flyers       Team      Rank  
Rushes                  545       1           
Rushing Yards           2339      1           
Yards Per Carry         4.29      1           
Pass Attempts           452       32          
Completions             249       32          
Passing Yards           3465      23          
Yards Per Attempt       7.66      3           
3rd Down Conversions    44.5      2           
Points Per Game         27.4      1           
Turnovers               21        2 (T)       
Turnover Margin         +9        5 (T)       
   
Opponents               Team      Rank  
Rushes                  389       1           
Rushing Yards           1391      3           
Yards Per Carry         3.57      10          
Pass Attempts           597       29          
Completions             376       31          
Passing Yards           4133      30          
Yards Per Attempt       6.92      25          
3rd Down Conversions    39.0      23          
Points Per Game         18.8      10          
Turnovers               30        13 (T)      
   
Week  Team  Versus        Oppnt  
1     34    MAZ           19      
2     17    at LVL        24      
3     17    HWK           19      
4     21    SAC           27      
5     24    at MEM        19      
6     27    at  PS        24      
7     52    ATH           10      
8     22    at MAZ        18      
9     30    DVY           17      
11    31    BER           34      
12    16    at OCY        13      
13    37    at SSM        6       
14    21    LKE           16      
15    21    at BER        24      
16    38    WHE           10      
17    31    at ATH        21      
$$CS        YPS                   
   
Passing             Pos   Att   Comp  Yards Y/Att TD    Int  
8 Francis           QB    290   159   2273  7.83  16    10      
18 Sparks           QB    153   85    1141  7.45  9     8       
**Team              ---   452   249   3465  7.66  26    18      
   
Rushing             Pos   Att   Yards Y/Att TD  
20 Finley           RB    290   1255  4.32  9       
47 Harden           RB    140   613   4.37  10      
39 Rubble           FB    70    365   5.21  2       
**Team              ---   545   2339  4.29  21      
   
Receiving           Pos   Targ  Catch Yards Y/Ctc YAC   TD  
84 Song             WR    125   53    887   16.7  129   9       
81 Carr             WR    74    36    578   16.0  64    5       
39 Rubble           FB    46    33    262   7.9   75    4       
20 Finley           RB    36    25    277   11.0  57    1       
47 Harden           RB    32    20    274   13.7  96    1       
86 Wylie            TE    26    19    328   17.2  51    0       
87 Jefferson        WR    25    15    189   12.6  23    3       
83 Sanderson        WR    24    12    192   16.0  19    0       
80 Diana            TE    22    11    162   14.7  16    0       
**Team              ---   452   249   3465  13.9  570   26      
   
Defense             Pos   Tack  Asst  Sack  Hurr  Ints  Defn  
33 Hawkins          S     88    24    1.0   2     1     13      
98 Middleton        OLB   86    22    20.0  16    2     3       
30 Reynolds         S     84    31    3.0   0     3     6       
29 Bordano          CB    77    17    1.0   1     3     28      
96 Daniels          ILB   70    28    5.5   4     3     8       
42 Henderson        CB    56    15    1.0   1     2     10      
45 McNair           S     53    6     1.0   0     1     4       
77 Littlejohn       DT    49    18    4.0   7     0     1       
50 Mills            OLB   45    20    0.0   1     0     5       
97 Rapp             OLB   41    18    0.5   0     0     4       
90 Sinclair         DE    35    8     8.0   5     0     0       
93 Manning          DE    22    8     5.5   8     0     0       
70 Peters           DT    22    14    1.0   7     0     1       
55 Mitchell         OLB   22    10    7.0   6     0     0       
75 Upshaw           DE    17    6     5.5   5     0     0       
**Team              ---   891   264   69.0  66    15    88      

[QuikSand]

LB Buddy Middleton might get the Defensive MVP award this year... wow.

[QuikSand]

Front Office Football: The Fourth Edition
Kitty Hawk Flyers Roster, Injury Report
   
  Player                #   Pos  Health       Injury           Full Strn.  
##Duran, Luther         28  LCB  Out          Torn Ankle Ligame12 Weeks   
**Wylie, Larry          86  TE   Out          Strained Adductor5 Weeks    
##Guthrie, Bart         91  RDT  Out          High Ankle Sprain8 Weeks    
**Manning, Bryan        93  LDE  Out          Broken Tibia     6 Weeks    
**Middleton, Buddy      98  WLB  Out          Strained Deltoid 3 Weeks    
Hernandez, J.T.         99  NT   Doubtful     Broken Ribs      4 Weeks    
Perry, Shane            35  RCB  Questionable Pulled Groin     2 Weeks    
Francis, Ethan          8   QB   Probable     Deep Thigh Bruise1 Week     
Sinclair, J.C.          90  RDE  Probable     Sprained Lateral 3 Weeks    

[albionmoonlight]

We had to be close to leading the league in sacks, huh?

Also--our offense kicked ass this year. Way to go, Fritz. 27+ ppg is insane.

[cthomer5000]

Seems like Middleton would probably be available for the Conference title game and/or Super Bowl if you guys make it that far too.

[Fritz]

Originally posted by albionmoonlight
Also--our offense kicked ass this year. Way to go, Fritz. 27+ ppg is insane.

the credit goes to the team that brought in Harden. He is not the star, but he takes our run game from good to great.

[cuervo72]

Wow, our defensive front is rather unique right now, isn't it? It's more like we're playing a 2-5 than a 4-3.

Well, we'll get 2 more years of Buddy Middleton on the cheap. Wondering, are we allowed to use a franchise designation (was curious for Bordano too, considering his contract is up and he's looking for a bit of a raise).

And yes, our OC sure has done a good job getting the most out of the offense.

[Buzzbee]

Originally posted by QuikSand
LB Buddy Middleton might get the Defensive MVP award this year... wow.

Amazing what happens when he isn't pulled off the field when we're in the nickel. Kudos to the person/people responsible for discovering that!!

[Fritz]

albion- please swap Jefferson in for Ellison.

When we lose Carr or Sanderson, I will be happy to insall Jefferson in as #3. I think Francis to Jefferson on 3rd down could become a staple.

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by Buzzbee

(I won't be able to scout until at home tonight)

That will likely be in plenty of time, but I'll jot down an advance report sometime this afternoon.

Of course, it may be of the form:

$gradyBagette_LDT = "hoss";

[Buzzbee]

Originally posted by cuervo72
That will likely be in plenty of time, but I'll jot down an advance report sometime this afternoon.

Of course, it may be of the form:

$gradyBagette_LDT = "hoss";

That would probably be more helpful than my ramblings!

[Fritz]

Originally posted by cuervo72
That will likely be in plenty of time, but I'll jot down an advance report sometime this afternoon.

Of course, it may be of the form:

$gradyBagette_LDT = "hoss";

are the fool that did this:

Dim BryanManning

sub FreeAgency {

BryanManning = "Stud"

}

sub TrainingCamp {

BryanManning = "Stud"

}

sub RegularSeason {

if BryanManning = "Stud" then
BryanManning = "Tease"
end if
}

sub PostSeason {

if BryanManning = "Stud" then
BryanManning = "Tease"
elseif
BryanManning = "Money Sucking Dud"
end if

}

[Buzzbee]

Classic. Absolute classic.

Best. Code. Ever.

[QuikSand]

I suspect I get most of the blame for Manning... but at least all we singed him to was the one year deal.

The worst thing is, I'm thinking to myself... "you know, since he was hurt so much, he might be even cheaper next year... we could lock him up long term!"

Stop me before I hurt someone.

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by QuikSand

Stop me before I hurt someone.

Odds are that would end up being Manning...

[Buzzbee]

Originally posted by cuervo72
Odds are that would end up being Manning...

Nah, he doesn't need QS's help in getting hurt. He can do it all by him widdle self.

[Fritz]

In my personal FOF4 careers DL is high injury occupation. Does anyone else see this?

[Buzzbee]

Originally posted by QuikSand
I suspect I get most of the blame for Manning... but at least all we singed him to was the one year deal.

The worst thing is, I'm thinking to myself... "you know, since he was hurt so much, he might be even cheaper next year... we could lock him up long term!"

Stop me before I hurt someone.

Actually, I'm beginning to wonder if it is just the way Jim's code is working. In scouting opponents I have noticed that Defensive Ends seem to be quite injury prone. Last year Beigen and Martin rarely saw the field in the same game. This year Manning is plagued with injuries. I think it might be a DE injury bug.

{EDIT: Was typing this as Fritz replied. I concur with Fritz that DL does seem to get an inordinate number of injuries.}

[cthomer5000]

Originally posted by Fritz
In my personal FOF4 careers DL is high injury occupation. Does anyone else see this?

Certainly higher than most positions... but how out of whack do you think this is?

[Fritz]

I think DLmen go out on a lot of little things, but dont have the frequency of season ending injuries that skill players do.

[cuervo72]

Not scientific, but a quick breakdown of the NFL's injury list (I assume w/o bye week teams):

	P	Q	D	O
QB	4	1		1
RB	7	8	4	
TE	5	6		1
WR	6	13	3	1
C	4	1	1	
G	6	6	3	
T	5	2	2	1
DE	4	6	2	1
DT	7	7	1	1
LB	10	8	4	2
S	5	5	3	1
CB	6	7	2	4

[Fritz]

heh, that could be one of my FOF teams

[albionmoonlight]

What got me with Manning is not so much that he was hurt a lot, but that he played pretty pedestrian when he was in the lineup.

[cuervo72]

I haven't gone through nearly as many seasons, but I usually have problems with injuries in the secondary. But again, small sample size. Starting with an OPU tracking injuries free of age and training camp settings might have been an interesting task (not one that I wanted to do though). Maybe DE's seem to be getting injured more often because they hang around in the league longer and are more susceptible to injury in Jim's system as they age? Of course then that should affect OL as well...

[cthomer5000]

Originally posted by cuervo72
I haven't gone through nearly as many seasons, but I usually have problems with injuries in the secondary. But again, small sample size. Starting with an OPU tracking injuries free of age and training camp settings might have been an interesting task (not one that I wanted to do though). Maybe DE's seem to be getting injured more often because they hang around in the league longer and are more susceptible to injury in Jim's system as they age? Of course then that should affect OL as well...

Can you print the league-wide injury list to file? I don't have the game on hand, but I feel like it's not an option on that screen (lord knows why EVERY screen isn't printable).

It would be quite interesting to track injuries across the board.

[Fritz]

a lot more can be printed now than in the second version. (I do not own the first. Oh if I did I would be lording over most of you. I would leave Big Blue alone because he does too good a job of putting me in my place, even when I don't have one.)

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by cthomer5000
Can you print the league-wide injury list to file?

Negative.


But I, too have noticed that in FOF4, DL spots are much more frequently subject to injuries than any other position. And certainly far more so than, say, OL. (This mirrors the same issue in TCY, which makes me think it was deliberate - probably resulting from some kind of study)

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by QuikSand
Negative.

And was from the NFL, not FOF. The same could be done by going through all of the scouting reports, I guess.

Oh, I should mention that for Ypsilanti:

Brad Powell - QB - Out
Craig Winslett - CB - Out
Dana Sanders - DE - Out
Matt Harmon - DE - Out
Hugh Hamilton - DE - Questionable
Charlie Bell - DT - Probable
Greg Vaughn - DE - Probable
Erik Hickman - DE - Out
Hardy DeWaters - FB - Probable
Jerald Henry - T - Probable

edit: Harmon and Hickman, their two best DE's, are both on IR.

further edit: quote changed due to QS changing his post without me realizing it. It had said something about hunting and pecking...

[QuikSand]

Looks like my edit caught you, cuervo. I gathered that the list above was from the NFL, but only a moment after my original post.

[cuervo72]

Yep Looking at a couple of teams, it does look like a number of DE's are banged up. Maybe I'll look at the Transaction Log to see how many are on IR....

One of those banged up DE's was Brad Rosa. He finished the year for Puget Sound with 9 GP (all starts), 16 tackles, 5 asst, 1.0 sack. He signed for just $1.35M though.

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by cuervo72
Oh, I should mention that for Ypsilanti:

Brad Powell - QB - Out
Craig Winslett - CB - Out
Dana Sanders - DE - Out
Matt Harmon - DE - Out
Hugh Hamilton - DE - Questionable
Charlie Bell - DT - Probable
Greg Vaughn - DE - Probable
Erik Hickman - DE - Out
Hardy DeWaters - FB - Probable
Jerald Henry - T - Probable

edit: Harmon and Hickman, their two best DE's, are both on IR.

Perhaps they will be vulnerable to the best running game in the league, eh? I have to think for us this game is a case of "we'll do what we do, and you try and stop us."

[cuervo72]

That would seem to be a good plan.

[QuikSand]

I just did a quick check, and in our league (which, recall, just got through a week off for 24 out of 32 teams) currently has 101 defensive linemen listed on its collective injury report.

There's no way that I can conclude that is anything but absurd. I'd hazard a guess that the total number of players on the injured list is something like 250 or so (about 8/team seems to be what I saw). Very possible that 1/3 of all injures are to defensive linemen, which make up less then 1/6 of a typical roster.

**Buzzer**

[Fritz]

In my games I counter this by moving to a 3/4 and not investing in high dollar DL.

[albionmoonlight]

In addition to being a lot of fun, GT has caused me to learn a lot more about the FOF engine than I would have otherwise. In my solo games, I never picked up on the DL injuries or on the nickel/WLB thing.

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by Fritz
In my games I counter this by moving to a 3/4 and not investing in high dollar DL.

I have had trouble getting a 3-4 defense to be really good against the run, something that I like to do whenever possible. Have you had luck doing this?

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by QuikSand
collective injury report.

Did you compile this, or am I missing something in the game?

[Buzzbee]

One other observation:

Last year we had LB's playing in the DE spot. I don't THINK we suffered many injuries to our psuedo DE's. I wonder if the injuries are based solely on the players listed position rather than where they play.

If that's the case, perhaps we should simply shed ALL DE's and only draft/sign LB's and play them as DE's. We didn't SEEM to have too much of a performance dropoff playing LB's as DE's. With the abundance of LB's and dearth of DE's in the past two drafts, one would believe that this is feasible.

[Fritz]

Originally posted by QuikSand
I have had trouble getting a 3-4 defense to be really good against the run, something that I like to do whenever possible. Have you had luck doing this?

From things you have posted I gathered that you put much more thought into the def than I ever have. So the answer is no, but I have not tried.

My guess is that "blitzing" is coded more as a pass function and not for run, which you ought to do in the 3/4.

[Fritz]

Originally posted by Buzzbee
One other observation:

Last year we had LB's playing in the DE spot. I don't THINK we suffered many injuries to our psuedo DE's. I wonder if the injuries are based solely on the players listed position rather than where they play.

If that's the case, perhaps we should simply shed ALL DE's and only draft/sign LB's and play them as DE's. We didn't SEEM to have too much of a performance dropoff playing LB's as DE's. With the abundance of LB's and dearth of DE's in the past two drafts, one would believe that this is feasible.

a good idea, but too metagame for me.

edit: I am cool with plaing LBs there because of talent, or injury, but not to avoid a game 'feature'.

[Buzzbee]

Originally posted by Fritz
a good idea, but too metagame for me.

edit: I am cool with plaing LBs there because of talent, or injury, but not to avoid a game 'feature'.

My "just say no to DE's" strategy was half serious, half tongue-in-cheek. It might be a viable strategy, but I really wouldn't expect us to adopt it here in the GroupThink. Probably more suited to an experiment in an individual game.