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12-01-2000, 09:54 PM
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#1 | ||
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Charlotte, NC
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Island of the Misfit Toys - Take II
I give all credit for this idea to QuikSand, who did an excellent career thread with this in FOF2. The question is simple: can you build a successful franchise from only undrafted rookies?
In FOF2, there was really no hope since a player after the draft was just as bad as he looked. In FOF 2001, this may actually be possible since there is a legitimate chance that players will breakout. I'm playing on Wall Street with possibility of being fired on. I'll let myself exploit the 7 year contract, at least in the beginning, to give myself a chance, since I'll have a lot of scrubs quickly looking for starter money otherwise. So without further ado, I assume the role of GM of the Titans, because theu have a pleasant color scheme, and "QuikSim" the 2000 season. The Panthers go 14-5 and win the Superbowl. Yeah, right. ---20001--- We get a new coach who is better with youngsters. Our scout is not so good at evaluating them, but nobody better is available this year. Before pre-season we cut everybody except Josh Evans, who is still injured from last season. We then skip FA, let the scout do the draft, and we're ready to go. I pick up a roster full of players and head to training camp. I take a look at the scout overview before camp - I actually have several players who project to be "very good". We'll see. Well, no breakout players. We're pretty weak at QB and across a lot of the defense so I expect us to thoroghly suck this season. Here's our roster.
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12-01-2000, 10:16 PM
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#2 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Excellent, glad to see someone give this a go. Here's hoping you find some breakouts in your early rookie classes-- you may need them...
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12-01-2000, 10:21 PM
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#3 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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I've got a good feeling about Shakey Jake at QB... keep an eye on him for us. (Great name!)
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12-01-2000, 10:53 PM
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#4 | |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Charlotte, NC
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On the plus side, we are $30M under the salary cap.
Quote:
At least he's not worried about the punter. We are absolutely miserable. We surprise 5-0 Cincinatti, and that ends up being our only win of the season. 1-15. How bad was it? We averaged 56.9 yards per game rushing. We averaged only 4.7 yards per pass. We allowed almost 160 yards per game rushing. It was bad. We made it to the redzone 18 times all season - about once a game. Thankfully there is nowhere to go but up. QB Vernon Perez : 2595, 8/19, 57.0 (ugh) RB William Mims : 326 yrds, 0 TDs, 2.8 (ugh) WR Sammie Selmon: 53-538, 1 TD (not bad in this offense) WR Jimmy Madison : 10 games, 3 punts returned for TDs, 16.3 yars per punt return. (most suprising is that we forced three punts) As bad as the offense was, nobody on defense did anything noteworthy at all. ---2002--- Player contracts last season were $13.1M. The TV contract was $28.8M alone. We were very profitable at least. So here we are at expansion. Amazingly, we don't lose a player. We invite a huge roster of players to tryout with us. Sadly, no breakouts. However, we did find one diamond in the rough in kicker Darnell Brandon, who looks to be pretty good. He's the only player listed as having a "Very Good" future at this point. We decide to try some new chemistry this season. Luke Webb gets the start at QB, Justin Simmons at TB. Simmons gets off to an abyssmal start, so we start Freisinger. It's net us another win over Cincinatti. We knock off the defending champs two weeks later, win a pair over the Steelers, and beat Cincinatti again to finish with 5 wins. Last season our point spread was ludicrous: 171/435. This year it's getting more reasonable: 261/350. The mark of a bad team, to be sure, but an improving bad team. In eight of our eleven losses, we were with two touchdowns. QB Webb had a tough rookie season - 2594, 14/14. 68.4, but it's better than last season. For that matter, it was better than Vinny Testaverde and Shaun King. Sacks were way down too - after 58 last season, only 36 this year. From the bench, Simmons actually led the team in rushing. With the benefit of only three starts, he had 685 yards, 5 TDs, but only 3.7 per carry. Freysinger had only 378 yards and 4 TDs, but 4.8 yards per carry. Second year receiver Marvin George really stepped up this season, with 61 catched for 935 yards, 5 TDs. Harvey Shaw was decent opposite him with 67 catches for 727 yards and 4 TDs as our possession receiver. Jimmy Madison managed 18.1 yards per punt return and returned another for a TD. Nothing much to report on defense again - a lot of pretty average numbers. We actually have some decent players on defense, but they have very low endurance. Key run blocks seem to be a big discussion point lately - our highest total was from C Jaramillo, who had 14. Our run blocking was not very good. As a team, we only managed 77 yards rushing per game, still last in the league, but a big improvement. Our passing was up to 5.9 prt attempt. The defense was still a sieve. |
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12-02-2000, 12:15 AM
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#5 |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Charlotte, NC
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---2003---
Well, attendance was way down, but we still cleared a $40M profit, so I don't think management will be grumbling too much just yet. I get a trade offer for Shaky Jake Davidson, a 6th round pick, one of five trade offers. Interestingly last season I had a post camps offer of a second round pick for a guard - this team let this guy go all the way through camps and was willing to cough up a 2nd rounder for him? Too bad those don't help me at all. We head into camps with 63 players on the roster, hoping to find something worth keeping. And the verdict is - no. We do some more reorganizing of the lineup and such, and find that our rushing leader from last season is not going to make the active roster this year. Luke Webb gets the start under center again, with Freysinger and Mims running - Mims was our RB in 2001, you may recall.
A quick tour of the lineup. QB Webb is developing pretty well, but we would certainly like a better long term solution. He is strongest at medium routes and is a scrambler. At RB, Freysinger is #1, mostly for his catching skills. Mims runs about as well, but has much better breakaway speed. FB Tyrone Poston is a pretty talented back, but without much blocking ability. A good runner, a great receiver. We are pretty weak at TE. Bias is as good as we've got, and while he is a moderate receiver, he is also not much of a blocker. WR is a mixed bag - Marvin George is a solid, fully developed WR at this point, and would make an outstanding #3 receiver on most teams. For us, he is #1. Harvey Shaw is our #2 - he's also reasonably solid - especially on 3rd down. Our other receivers are on the roster mostly for their special teams play. Things on the line are pretty scary, with our starters having basically 30-40s in run and pass blocking. C Jaramillo and G Stoffel are the "anchors". Brandon is a solid kicker, while punting remains an adventure. One the defensive line, we have a moderate pass rusher in DE Cohan, a moderate run stopper in DT Tate, and a bunch of stiffs. For a big change from FOF2, linebacker is probably the weakest position on the team. We are scary bad at linebacker. Our secondary is awkward. We have linebackers and safeties who can only play zone defense and corners who can only play man. We'll be primarily a zone team though. Our anchor in the defense is S Rob Spiller (51/49/38/24/x/x/28). We finish the pre-season a surprising 3-1. Unfortunately G Nick Stoffel tears a thumb ligament, is out very long term, and one of our only talented players is likely on a track to retirement. We actually lose to Cincinatti this season, but we do break Cleveland's 5-0 start. We are, in fact, swept by Cleveland this season, and repeat last season's record of 5-11. We were 4-4 at home. so maybe there is hope. QB Webb continues to develop - he had 2975 yards, 21/10, 78.8 rating. Not bad. And he was only sacked 34 times. Our running game continued to be non-existent, mostly because of poor OL play. Freysinger had 600 yards and 4 TDs, but only 3.5 yards per carry. WRs Shaw and George are actually becoming a pretty decent pair. Shaw had 79-1053 yards, 6 TDs (our first 1000 yard receiver), while George had 68-986, 6 TDs. George does have a bad habit of dropping passes. Unfortunately nothing exciting in the return game this season. K Brandon was reasonably sharp - 20/28, and 31/31 on PATs. S Samuels was impressive with 98 tackles, 17 assists, a sack, and four interceptions. DE TJ Cohan had a breakout year with 13.5 sacks and 6 hurries - both figures are double the last two seasons combined. We were actually getting pretty good pressure on the QB this year, evidenced by out +5 turnovers. We were blitzing a lot. We continued to make big money - $44M with our barebone salaries. Still with records of 1-15, 5-11, 5-11, we are certainly not doing anything to demonstrate that this challenge can produce a viable team. |
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12-02-2000, 12:50 AM
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#6 |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Charlotte, NC
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---2004---
There are actually some pretty decent players available in the post-draft pool this year. We pick up a solid punter, a good DT (with shabby endurance), a FB with decent blocking and great receiving, and a really good looking running back by the name of Wade Antoine. Antoine has breakaway of 71, YPC of 62, 3rd down of 72, and receiveing numbers in the 50s. Maybe a bust in the making? Could be. Worth a shot. A solid run stopper in the form of LB Corwin Gomez is available as well - not much of a pass rusher, but he will make an ideal inside linebacker. We head to camps with 63 players on the roster. We are offered a 1st round pick and a maxed out TE for QB Luke Webb. Oh well. Here's the latest roster ... as usual, no major breakouts in camps.
Antoine is certainly our RB. QB is an interesting question. I think Dodge is our QB of the future, such as it is. Webb has done pretty well, but he has a funny pattern of passing strengths - in particular, he cannot hit a pass that is less than 10 yards down field. Given those circumstances, I'm going to let this franchise try it's third QB, Shaky Jake Davison. I would like to see us come out of this season with 8 wins. With the improved running game, I don't think that's unreasonable. |
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12-02-2000, 01:19 AM
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#7 |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Charlotte, NC
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We follow an 0-4 pre-season with an inauspicious 0-2 start when WR Harvey Shaw goes down with an injury. Be interesting to see how this team can react without one of its two legitimate receivers.
We get off to a 1-5 start. Shaky Jake is not getting the job done (49.4), although to be fair, Antoine isn't doing much in the ground game either. Still, Webb gets the start again. I suppose it's his mobility that helps so much. With Harvey out though, I'm sure other teams are just locking down George in double coverage, which isn't helping things. We had a ton of injuries this season - we ended the year with six starters on the disabled list and three more on injured reserve. Our final record of 4-12 is probably an overstatement. Things didn't really improve with Webb running the show - Shaky Jake left with a 51.1 rating ( 1333, 6/12)and Webb managed only a 51.5. Antoine and Freysinger did give us our best rushing attack so far - Antoine had 802 yards (3 TDs, 4.1) and Freysinger had 428 (2 TDs, 5.2). George still managed to get 68 catches for 877 yards, but nobody else was close. Starting 13 games in Shaw's absense, Wells had 29 catches for 483 yards. That's not enough. K Brandon had a very accurate season kicking the ball, hitting on 19/21 fielg goal attempts, including a 57 yarder, and hitting on 21/21 PATs. Our defense was a ragtag bunch, especially our linebacking corps which was just devestated this season. Cohan led the way with 44 tackles, 11 sacks, 3 batted passes, 6 hurries. We have yet to have our first all-pro player. Our PF/PA was 230/321. Our defense is getting to where it needs to be, surprisingly. We're just not scoring points. |
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12-03-2000, 12:53 AM
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#8 |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Charlotte, NC
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Assuming that I have some readership here, it's hard to think that anybody is finding this very interesting reading. Largely I'm wondering how interesting this challenge actually is, since really, the only hope I have is for some serious training camp breakouts.
---2005--- Even after his abyssmal 51.5 rating last season, I get an offer for a second round pick for QB Luke Webb. Too bad that would be useless. In post-draft free agency, there are a few moderately interesting players. QB Bubby Herndon comes on - he has a profile that looks a lot like Webb's. Medium passing routes and lots of scrambling. Interesting here - he was actually a third round pick, who was then cut after the draft?? He actually required a $3M signing bonus to take the 7 year deal. We also get a couple of pretty decent guards. Again the big problem seems to be enurance - these are certainly passable players, with stats in the 50-60s, but teams put an emphasis on endurance and they fall through. Unfortunately, not a whole lot else. Certainly no players who match the "breakout" all red profile. Well, well, well. My first "breakout" player - the first player on my roster to have an "Excellent" future, says my scout. He definitely seems to have potential. FYI, my scout also says he is the best "current" player on the roster, to giveyou an idea of where this team is. Well, it's time to trim the roster. Shaky Jake Davison took a step backward, so sorry Quik - your intuition missed for once... We head into the season with a lot of the same problems we usually do - our offensive line is average at best, and we are totally devoid of talent at LB and CB.
After last season's debacle, obviously staying healthy at WR is imperative. If our scout is actually right about Lenny Beyer, all the better. |
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12-03-2000, 01:09 AM
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#9 |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Charlotte, NC
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We start out 2-0 to completley shock me. At mid-season we are 4-4, and an 8 win season looks possible. We actually finish - are you ready for this? - 9-7 and miss the playoffs on tiebreakers.
Our PF/PA is getting much better - 304/309, the first time we've scored more than 300 points and the fewest points we've ever yielded. QB Luke Webb - 4010 yards, 21/14, 80.5 - our first 4000 yard passer, by far his best season RB Lenny Beyer - 883 yards, 3.5 per carry, 9 TDs. Rookie of the Year. WR Marvin George - 65 catches, 924 yards, 2 TDs - Scoring was a little low, but another solid year from our mainstay WR Harvey Shaw - 53-716, 3 TDs. Not a huge season, but obviously huge impact having him healthy DE Cohan - 7.5 sacks, 4 batted, 5 hurries - a down year from our only serious pass rusher We did have four players tie for most interceptions with 4. Beyer's Rookie of the Year is the first post-season honor we have received. Rushing: 90.8/101.4/105.9 Passing: 250.6/215.3/220.6 Rushing: 3.2/4.9/3.8 Passing: 7.1/6.6/6.6 So, the numbers show that the real improvement this season was not our running game, which was actually pretty bad, but our passing game. This shines though on third downs, which we converted at a .389 rate, third best in the league. I don't know if this team actually have a playoff shot in them or not, but we'll see. |
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12-03-2000, 02:05 AM
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#10 |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Charlotte, NC
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---2006---
I take a peek at the Franchise Value screen. I don't know what Jim is thinking. Roster = 100??? I got a score of 0 for roster value last season, despite being the 12th highest value franchise. Cohesion on this team is a mess: 68/72/87/65. The stability is in the defensive line, where I am finding no new talent. We have still had no retirements. Last season the franchise raked in $36M, which is a moderate drop due to slow ticket sales, which is strange since I was actually winning. We get a few decent pickups in free agency this season, especially at DT and TE, positions which could both use help. Unfortunately, the CB and LB pools continue to be completely useless. I have no idea what to expect out of this season - I cannot help thinking our talent did not justify last year's results. Injuries Week 1 - S Profitt, Out Week 2 - C Jaramillo, Out Week 3 - WR George, Out Those three had never missed a game in their careers. All out 2-3 months. Our luck gets worse in week 8 when our other starting S goes out for the season. We thrash Dallas 30-0 as we pull into the midway point a shaky 3-5. With our injuries, especially to George, I guess I'm happy we're going that well. George is looking like he will miss the rest of the season. Webb is having a great season in any case, with a rating of 89.9 and Beyer already has 564 yards rushing. We are actually out-scoring our opponents 166-150, so perhaps the record is a bit of a fluke. Still, I doubt this team has what it takes to win 6 of the last 8 to have any playoff hopes. We start off the second half losing to 2-6 Pittsburgh at home, 38-10. Then we lose at 3-6 Jacksonville 40-23. At 3-7 any playoff hopes are officially dead. In the end we play the second half about like we played the first half, and finish with a 6-10 record. QB Webb: 3345, 18/20, 75.2 - lots of second half interceptions RB Beyer: 1130, 4.4, 6 TDs - a solid sophomore campaign - our first 1000 yard rusher WR Harvey Shaw: 72-1015, 4 TDs - picked up the slack in George's absence WR Dustin Poterala: 41-750, 4 TDs - Got to start with George out, not bad RB Gus Crawford: 43-627, 4 TDs - I needed a 5th WR, Crawford got the #3 position with George out and was outstanding With all of the injuries at safety, rookie Antoine Viera got a lot of playing time. He ended up leading the team in tackles (92), despite only 9 starts, and have 5 interceptions, which gave him Rookie of the Year honors. Rushing: 109.0/124.6/105.1 Passing: 232.5/242.8/222.1 Rushing: 4.0/4.2/3.8 Passing: 7.8/6.7/6.6 Obviously the problem remains our defense which is just abhorrent. [This message has been edited by ShagVT (edited 12-03-2000).] |
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12-03-2000, 02:22 PM
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#11 |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Charlotte, NC
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---2007---
This is an interesting season as it marks the beginning of a new phase of this challenge - rookies who have been signing seven year deals will now be completing those, with my first free agents coming next season. Some of the key performers in this list: DT Walter Tate - he has started all 96 games we've played DT Bob Hitchcock - missed six games in the 2001 campaign, has started the other 90 Both of those guys have ratings in the 50s, though Hitchcock has only 5 for endurance. They have both been stables of a not very good defense. However, with the difficulty in getting talented players, I may resign them just for the cohesion bonus. WR Marvin George - his abilities have never been that great, but he has been "the man" at WR for us. DE Cohan - our only legitimate pass rusher. Probably the most important of any of these guys. C David Jaramillo - we have comparable younger talent coming along at this point. "The Rock" (such as he was) may be rolling out. We get a new coach and new scout this season, hoping to help evaluate the talent we have on hand here. Luke Webb now draws the #15 pick in the draft... oh well. This was a pretty dry FA period. The only real improvments made were at DE, but that is huge. DE has been a terrible weakness for us for, well, pretty much since the start. We head into the season a cool $75M under the cap, the last time that is likely to ever be the case.
Don't know what to expect from these guys. Georige will not be starting this season - his injury last season took a lot out of him it would seem, and he is likely not going to be retained next season. |
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12-03-2000, 06:03 PM
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#12 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Nice grab with the RB Beyer, Shag. Too bad about Shakey Jake, too.
I'm a bit surprised that you've had such a bad run with linebackers-- that's the one position where I have found the most consistent number of identifiable breakout players-- I'm averaging about one every other season or so lately, I'd hazard. If you have the roster space, I strongly advise grabbing almost any LB with decent reds and practically no greens, even a guy like 15/16, 20/20, 18/18, 24/26. I would take a stab and say that about 1/3 of such players will grow green bars after one camp-- sometimes pretty significant growth potential. I don't know if you're already following the same model (and having worse luck than me) but if not, they are worth watching for. |
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12-03-2000, 07:31 PM
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#13 |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Charlotte, NC
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Thank Quik. Unfortunately there just haven't been many of the "redline" players available. I certainly take a chance on all of them that I can, knowing that that is obviously my only chance here. They just aren't there. The post draft market really has been particularly barren.
One thing that I have been finding that is kind of weird - in the interval between the draft and camps, I'm finding drafted players who have already been cut. One of the DEs I picked up this season was a second round pick, who the computer obviously signed as he was drafted (as the CPU is wont to do) and apparantly decided to eat the bonus before even getting to camps. |
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12-03-2000, 07:45 PM
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#14 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
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The #1 pick in the draft was released pre training camp in one of my careers. He was a frontline QB, I picked him up and traded 3 first and 2 second round picks for the team's 7th to make it fair.
Strange. good challenge and good job on the RB. QB seems to be the critical peice of the puzzle in FOF2K1. With a front line QB, you will rarely miss the playoffs. (unlike real life where the Jags, Colts, Redskins, Packers, Niners, etc will miss the playoffs with great signal callers) TroyF |
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12-03-2000, 09:43 PM
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#15 |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Charlotte, NC
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At the midpoint this season, it seems we have not improved much in the last year. Once again we are 3-5. The PF/PA is 144/147 and only one of our losses has been by more than 10 points.
Webb is looking pretty sharp again with an 87.9 rating and Beyer is third in the league in rushing with 647 yards. Unfortunately, in the first 8 games, we have 5 at home. Our last eight games include four games against teams with losing records, plus three division leaders and one second place team. Time to sink or swim, guys. We win three on the road, including what I believe are our first two road wins in franchise history before losing at home to the Bears. We beat playoff bound Cincinatti on the road though - they came back to score 21 points in the fourth quarter and take the lead with 1:09 to play, but Webb leads the team down the field and throws the winning TD pass with 0:01 to play. Going into the last week of the season we are in an unprecedented position. We are 8-7 and actually are the #2 wild card, but we face a must win game, on the road against our division leader, 11-4 Baltimore. This is effectively a playoff game for us - win and we are in the playoffs. Lose and our season is over. We take the opening kickoff and move effortlessly down the field. Beyer is running, Webb is passing, and the score is quickly 7-0. Unfortunately they come out and on their third play from scrimmage, Culpepper strikes deep for a 60 yard TD. It's 7-7. On our next drive, the refs are going crazy with the flags. Webb converts on a huge 3rd-and-17 to get us across midfield. On the next play, Beyer runs a sweep, but coughs up the ball and Baltimore recovers at their 43. Time to play defense. We stuff their runs and we get the ball back at our 13. On the first play, Webb goes deep, hitting WR Poterala for 32 yards. Shaw for another 15 and we are across midfield. Beyer gets a sweep for 21. As the first quarter comes to a close, we are at their 10 yatrd line. The first quarter saw us accumulte 11 first downs, 84 rushing yards, 105 passing yards. We can't push the ball past the 10, so we settle for a field goal, and it's 10-7, Titans. The Ravens come out and quickly reach midfield. Culpepper drops back to pass, but doesn't see LB Carr blitzing from his blind side - it's a sack and a fumble. We recover at the Baltimore 46. Webb hits Shaw for 15, Beyer runs for 10, but Webb is called for an intentional grounding penalty and it's 2nd-and-23. Webb goes for it all, but it's picked off at the 1, returned to the 9. Time for the defense to play tough and keep us in good field position. Unfortunately Culpepper passes for 18, passes for 12, passes for 12, and they are to midfield. We stuff a couple more runs though and force a punt. Kerr is downed at our 4. Three Beyer runs yield nothing and we punt it away. Baltimore takes over at our 49 on a fair catch as we still cling to a 10-7 lead with 2:37 remaining in the half. A 10 yard pass, a penalty, and a 31 yard strike puts them in the endzone with 1:49 remaining in the half, Ravens up 14-10. On the first play from Scrummage, Webb throws one about 20 yards deep looking for Shaw and ... it's picked off!... Clancy comes down with it and he races down the sidelines. He follows some nice blocking by his linebackers, and wins up in the endzone on a 52 yard return. Ravens 21-10. We have gone from looking like we had a chance, to looking like we're about to get crushed. Of course this is why Baltimore is the best team in the league. We get a nice kickoff return to the 44. We come out in a 4WR set, versus the Ravens dime. On the first play, Webb hits George 42 yards downfield. He's down at the 14 with 1:05 left in the half. Two plays later, with Baltimore still in the dime, Beyer cuts inside tackle and dashes to the endzone. The Ravens' lead is cut to 21-17. On the last play of the half, Culpepper heaves one way down field, but Proffitt comes up with the pick. At halftime, we have 15 first downs to their 9. We have 281 yards offense to their 196. Impressively, our unheralded line has held them to 21 yards rushing. They take the kickoff and drive to about midfield when our defense stiffens up again.on 3rd-and-9, Culpepper is under pressure and tries to scramble to avoid the sack. Pressured in that direction as well, he cuts back again, right into waiting arms of DE Cohan, who drops him for a loss of 19 yards. We take over at our 37. Some spiffy rushing by Beyer and a couple of nice passes by Webb move us down the field, but a holding penalty kills the drive and we settle for a 46 yard FG from Brandon to close to 21-20. The defense holds, but an intentional face-masking call reverses what should have brought up 4th down and gives the Ravens 1st-and-10 at the 50. No matter - Cohan drops Culpepper for a sack, and the pass coverage holds up as we force a punt, taking over at our 29. We trade punts. Another holding call kills our drive. Baltimore gets the ball back, and gets several deep completions to get into field goal range, which they make to take a 24-21 lead with 3:01 to play. Kerr returns the ball to the 29 yard line. So this is our season. 1st-and-71, with 2:55 to play and 3 time outs. On the first play, Beyer sweeps left, gets a huge block from the pulling C Jaramillo, and goes 16 yards to our 45. Antoine gives Beyer a break and carries for 4 yards, getting us to the two minute warning. On 2nd-and-6, Webb hits George for a 19 yard gain to the Baltimore 32. 1:37 to play. The Ravens bring out their dime package to counter our 3WR look. Webb goes for it all, and it's picked off!! Herring comes down with it in the endzone for a touchback. It's 1st-and-10 at the 20 for the Ravens with 1:28 to play. It looks grim. We stuff three runs but burn all of our timeouts. We get the ball back at our 27 with 0:50 to play. A pair of sacks put an end to the game We won this game in every respect except for turnovers, in particular the one returned for a TD. Beyer rushed for 149 yards and a TD, Webb threw for 220 yards but three picks. QB Luke Webb: 3648 yards, 20/16, 82.7, but a career high 45 sacks. Not as mobile as he used to be. RB Lenny Beyer: 1493 yards, 7 TDs, 3.9 per carry. The franchise. #2 in the league. WR Dustin Polatera: 74 catches, 1080 yards, 7 TDs - Great show as the #1 wide out. WR Harvey Shaw: 64 catches, 952 yards, 2 TDs. Another solid season. WR Marvin George: 56 catches, 827 yards, 6 TDs. Not starting? No problem! We actually had three linebackers as our top 3 tacklers. That's a good sign. Tackles by safeties were only in the 40s. Still not getting many sacks or interceptions though. Rushing: 120.5/91.8/100.5 Passing: 240.1/198.0/216.6 Rushing: 3.9/3.5/3.6 Passing: 8.0/6.4/6.5 We were the fifth best rushing team in the league with that 120 per game and #8 in passing yardage. Our offense is coming together. Fact is, we were better than league average in every category, which makes our 8-8 record a little disappointing. Our PF/PA was 319/266 - our best defensive effort ever. We may have a future yet - I'll have to get some of these guys under contract. |
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12-03-2000, 09:55 PM
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#16 |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Charlotte, NC
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Well, well, well.
When I said our season was over, it was because we were one of six 8-7 teams vying for the last two playoff spots. Can you believe that all six teams lost? At 8-8, we're in the playoffs!!! Our first opponent is the 11-5 Broncos. We lost to them in Denver three weeks ago, 20-17. They are a little banged up, especially on offense. We take a 10-0 lead early, but cannot move the ball again the rest of the game. There isn't much to report here - our defense played admirably, but we committed 10 penalties, turned the ball over three times, and the most imporant thing for our team - we got only 22 yards rushing. No awards at all this season, which is a little surprising. |
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