Village Challenge Reborn: 2009 and counting

[SackAttack]

Yes, that's right, boys and girls. The Village Challenge is back after an oh-so-brief hiatus for Turkey Day.

Our championship 2008 season yields a year-end score of 73; a score that was dragged down a smidge by our Franchise Value (66) and Profit/Loss (62) ratings.


The league is expanding by 2 teams this season.

Please welcome the following teams:

Bakersfield Cyberhawks
Honolulu Timber Dogs

That's the good news. Two new teams to beat up on, both on the Grapevine and in the Land of the Lei. Any nominations for new nicknames for those two teams? The Bakersfield Grapevine sounds pretty good to me. How 'bout Honolulu?

The bad news is, the cap is only increasing by $800,000 this season. No, that's not a typo. That's living hell.

Safety Sam Shade went out on top, leaving us with a hole to fill, and approximately $8 million in cap room to sign all the FAs we'll need. This should be fun.

We're more than set at scout and coach, so I skip straight to the end of the period.

This brings us to the protection list. I let the scout select the exposures, taking care to keep Uffins, Jonathan "The Mmm-Bopper" Hansen, and DJCQ protected, and we're off.

Glancing over the pool before pushing "the button," I notice some interesting exposures. The Giants have evidently grown disenchanted with Brett Favre and his $13 mil salary, and the #3 overall pick from a year or two ago, QB Terrell Harrison, has been left unprotected by the Falcons. A slippery slope is the path to stardom.

Favre is selected 14th overall. We lose FB Harvey Price and LB Rico Brock. Our new cap room total: $17,350,000.

With 32 guys under contract, that isn't nearly going to be enough, so its time to rework a few deals.

CB Leland Jacobs takes a pay cut of around a mil to get an extra two years added to his deal.
T Mo Collins takes a cut of nearly double that to get a new 4 year deal.
DT Carlos Grande also takes a cut in exchange for a 4th year at $7 million.
C Burt Conway, like his other self-sacrificing teammates, takes a cut of around $1 mil this year in exchange for contract security.
LB Ted Johnson isn't quite so forgiving, but every little bit helps. In this case, that's about a quarter mil.
WR JaJuan Dawson, coming off his first career 1000+ yard season, accepts a pay cut of slightly less than $900,000 in exchange for a two year extension.
LB Sekou Sanyika takes a cut of about $600,000 in exchange for a 3rd year.
G Levon Teague takes a cut of only about $200,000, but more importantly, his new deal is bonus free for the next two years.
QB Terry Uffins, in a show of loyalty, takes a cut of $2.5 mil this year and about $900,000 next year in exchange for two more years after that worth approximately $19.7 million total.

We now have around $27 mil to play with, and while that's not terrific, it'll at least allow us to field a full roster.

[This message has been edited by SackAttack (edited 11-27-2000).]

[SackAttack]

To free up a tiny bit more cap room, we trade backup DT Shannon McClinton to Kansas City for the #15 in the 3rd round this year. We certainly won't get any WORSE as a result of the trade, and $3 million will sign us a decent backup, hopefully.

We offer UFA safety Duane Laxdal $23.31 million over 4 years, and TE Tony Gonzalez $11.44 mil over 3 years. The restricted fellas we'll wait out to see if they lower some of their demands. More later tonight.

Josh

[SackAttack]

We also tender a 4 year offer in the neighborhood of $30,000,000 to Tampa tackle Rich Mathers. I don't expect him to sign, but as Boselli's kinda old and won't accept a one year offer, I had to at least make the offer.

St. Louis antes up on Gonzalez, and the Ravens quickly make the Mathers bidding a bit too rich for our blood. We might be able to afford Jerry "The Beaver" Mathers, though.

Gonzalez and Mathers sign with the Rams and Ravens in week 4, leaving Laxdal holding our lone remaining unsigned tender.

Laxdal bolts for a shorter, though comparable, deal with Kansas City in week 6, leaving us in the lurch. We still need a safety, a tight end, and a tackle, though we may have to wait until after the draft at this point.

Chester Forster has some return skills, adequate pass defense ratings, and loads of endurance. Best of all, he's cheap - we'll make an offer and see if anybody cares to match. We also make a similar offer to 2nd year TE Jared Diaz.
Surprisingly, T Willie Anderson of the Saints hasn't even received an offer yet, despite a BPct of 39.3 over the last 3 years, all as a starter. We'll see if he wants to play for two-time champs as well.

Diaz signs immediately. Forster follows suit the next week, and Minnesota jumps in the bidding for Anderson, who obviously knows he's a bargain. Still, our offer of $15 mil over the next 3 years entices him away from the higher bidders. Hopefully he'll provide some quality pass protection for Uffins.

At this point, we're probably done with FA, although Deltha O'Neal signs a contract extension that saves us about $2 mil this year. FB Malcolm Salcedo inks a 3 year deal, ending his holdout.

We now have 35 fellas under contract, and about $23.6 million to spend on the remaining 11 or so that we need. Still not ideal, but the cheap rookies will help fill that column without busting the bank.

[SackAttack]

2009 Amateur Draft

The draft pool looks fairly deep this year, especially where impact linebackers are concerned. That's good to see, as we could use a 5th LB. We'll also be targeting a quality wideout, as well as a couple corners and safeties.

As it turns out, fate hates me. The impact LBs are long gone by #34, there aren't really any quality wideouts, but there IS a stud tailback out of Mizzou (!) available.

Under ordinary circumstances, I'd probably draft the running back - my own careers have proven very productive with multiple talented RBs coming out of the backfield. Unfortunately, we really DO need to improve the secondary, so I'll hope that the RB drops to the 2nd or third round.

In the meantime, the Jacksonville Jaguars welcome their first pick of the 2009 amateur draft:

34. Jacksonville - Ellard, Cornelius, CB, North Carolina

He's solid against the pass, but where he really shines is stuffing the run. He's got an endurance rating of 70 as well, so this isn't just a 3rd down corner.

The RB I wanted is still available in the 2nd round, but is the top rated back on the board. I decide to bite the bullet and take him, despite the safety I wanted still being available. The difference? The safety is a better bet to fall to the third round, and doesn't have the same impact prospects. The running back is great trade bait, if nothing else.

68. Jacksonville - Linares, Stanley, RB, Missouri

Behind DJCQ and my own Ross Herndon, Linares is probably the third most impressive back I've ever seen. With DJCQ's injury history, its probably not a bad idea to have another impact threat out of the backfield.

I got lucky - we had the #15 in the 3rd round, unbeknownst to me, and the safety is still on the board. Its a slam dunk.

83. Jacksonville - Hefner, Andy, S, Pittsburgh

One of Hugh's love children, he brings solid defense and a multitude of hot would-be cheerleaders to the table.

102. Jacksonville - Eberly, Floyd, TE, West Virginia

Our other third round pick is strictly out of necessity. We needed a third TE, and this boy can block with the best of them.

136. Jacksonville - Stanley, Ricky, C, Arizona

I know we already have two centers, but let's face it - Cooper doesn't have the endurance to be a starter. Stanley does, and the skills to boot. He'll be a great replacement down the line for Conway.

170. Jacksonville - Oliver, Austin, QB, Connecticut

A solid QB, capable of playing the role of 3rd QB to a "T", and perhaps even displacing Johann as the primary backup.

204. Jacksonville - Buchanan, Bo, S, Henderson State

A pleasant surprise for a 6th round pick. He probably won't be a star, but he can hold his own on the gridiron.

238. Jacksonville - Warren, Lionel, CB, Arkansas

Like Buchanan, he's not particularly special, but that works both ways - he's not overtly horrible either. He probably won't start, but barring a training camp disaster, he's not anybody to cringe at if a starter goes down.

[SackAttack]

Oddly, the draft doesn't quit after the seventh round, allowing us to select RB Tracy Blanchard out of Texas A&M with the sole pick of the 8th round. Strictly for shits and giggles, I assure you - I don't expect him to blossom, though he's not completely without talent.

We sign all our rookies, and, needing a couple of wideouts, re-ink Darren Rose for 3 years, and bring Lester Giles over from New England. He's probably a bit overpaid in the capacity we'll use him for, but he was the best available.

With $6.6 mil in the bank, we'll wait until after training camp to see about that 5th LB.

[SackAttack]

Surprisingly, but pleasingly, not one of our rookies busts - not even the phantom 8th round pick.
Linares proves to be the real deal; enough so that Kansas City comes bearing gifts in an effort to woo their way into our trade pants, to no avail. Hey, they just didn't have the LB I wanted. That first round pick would have been nice though.

Searching the FA market, I immediately see a 4th year LB who, despite his talent, is evidently the Isaiah Rider of football: 3 years, 3 teams, 48 games, 48 starts. His name? Emmitt Dagostino. Oddly, he appears to have been an undrafted FA three seasons ago. Who was the bum who missed this guy?

Josh

[SackAttack]

We blow through preseason at 4-0. We come out of the 5th week of preseason with several injuries, though most are of the 0-2 week variety. Dennis Malano is out 3-5 weeks with a bruised shoulder, and 2nd year FB Harry Foreman is out 2-3 months with a broken foot. Mickey Germaine is still recovering from back surgery.

We pick up FB Xavier Kramer, formerly of Oakland on a 1 year, $900,000 contract.

2009 Regular Season

Week One

JACKSONVILLE 38, Arizona 34

DJCQ has a decent day, picking up 121 yards and 3 TDs on the ground, but Rondell Blanding absolutely lights us up, picking up 4 TD passes, including an 82 yarder and a 7 yarder to Chuck Tepper, who, incidentally, picked up 174 receiving yards on the day. That would tie him with Tony Gonzalez for the 100th best day all-time.

Week Two

JACKSONVILLE 24, Philadelphia 7

DJCQ had a rough day on the ground, picking up only 39 yards and a TD on 15 touches. Fortunately, Linares picked up the slack, hauling home 108 yards and a score on 15 carries of his own.
Bad news - our punter broke his arm and is out for 2-3 months. Tough to catch those snaps one-handed, I guess. Its slim pickin's out there, so we settle for Courtney Alibadi to fill in.

Week Three

JACKSONVILLE 24, Baltimore 14

DJCQ had 62 yards on 19 carries, and Linares put up a goose egg on 9 touches. Still, those 62 yards were good for one score, and he caught a pass for a 2nd. Good enough to win.

Week Four

Pittsburgh 17, JACKSONVILLE 7

The rushing attack failed to materialize, and we had two interceptions on offense. Not a winning combination. And with that, we lose our dreams of perfection to a team that was giving up an average of 30 ppg on defense and scoring a smidge under 16 ppg on offense. Did I mention they were coming off a 43-2 spanking to Cincinnati, who scored only 33 points in the first two weeks combined?

[SackAttack]

Week Five

JACKSONVILLE 19, Cincinnati 14

Olindo Mare did the work in this one, putting 4 hard leather balls between the uprights. Our offense continues to sputter, but at least we're getting in field goal range.

Week Six

Cleveland 39, JACKSONVILLE 28

Cleveland was 1-4 going into this game. Their only win was against the same Pittsburgh team that beat us in Week Four. Of course, when you factor in 46 yards rushing, 3 INTs, and 20 unanswered points allowed in the 3rd quarter, you have a formula for embarrassment. I hate to say it, guys, but I think I'm going to bench DJCQ. He has double the carries Linares has, but only 40 more yards rushing. Considering he's started all 6 games, that's downright ugly.

Week Seven

JACKSONVILLE 9, San Diego 7

The good news is, DJCQ picked up 74 yards on 22 carries. The bad news is, Linares picked up 48 of his own on TWO carries.
You're probably wondering why the starting tailback only had two carries. The broken finger played a role, I'm sure. I'll put him on inactive for a week or two. At 5.4 yards per carry, I don't want to take ANY chances.

Week Eight

JACKSONVILLE 20, Pittsburgh 12

22 carries, 65 yards. Nothing to write home about. Even Tracy Blanchard is picking up more ypc than DJCQ. What makes the win really surprising is the fact that Uffins threw three more picks. That gives him 7 on the year against only 7 TD passes. That needs to change in a hurry.

[SackAttack]

Week Nine

JACKSONVILLE 30, Cincinnati 8

18 carries, 27 yards, 2 TDs. I hate to say it, guys, but I think DJCQ's glory days are over. As soon as Linares' finger heals, I'm making him the permanent starter (or at least until the next guy in line has his say).

Week Ten

Big game this week, with playoff bye implications. We're 7-2, and we face ]Denver, who, at 7-1 look to be our chief rivals for the 2nd playoff bye. The Jets and their 9-0 record would appear to have the first one locked up, but they still have one game remaining against Buffalo, whom they beat 38-30 in Week Eight, two against Miami, who currently hold the last AFC playoff spot, one against Denver, and one against the Lions, who lead the NFC Central at 6-2. If anybody's interested, Carolina is also undefeated.

JACKSONVILLE 23, Denver 14

The win puts us in the driver's seat. 22-49-1 for DJCQ, and Mare is still putting most of our points on the board. Carolina falls to 8-1 courtesy of a 13-12 defeat at the hands of the previously 2-6 Seahawks.

Week Eleven

Our bye week. Hopefuly this will give S Teddy Fulton some time to heal from his dislocated shoulder. Buffalo upsets the Jets, so there will be no run at perfection in the second half. Fulton is still doubtful as we head to Week Twelve, so we sign marginal prospect Winston Reilly to take his place for a few weeks. Fulton would only have been a backup while he healed anyways.

Week Twelve

A battle with first place on the line, as the 7-3 Ravens come to town. We won the first go-round, so taking this game would put us a HUGE step towards a 3-peat in the AFC Central.

Baltimore 42, JACKSONVILLE 32

We gave up a 98 yard kickoff return to start the game, and we never quite recovered. Giving up 14 points in the first, third, and fourth quarters didn't help either. Interesting stat: Our total time of possession was 40:25. I think that speaks volumes about the state of our offense. Or our defense. Probably both. We're now in second place, and probably deserve to be.

[SackAttack]

Week Thirteen

JACKSONVILLE 27, Washington 24

Kurt Warner lit us up for the 219th, 220th, and 221st TD passes of his career. Yes, he's the all-time leader. We pulled it out, however, on the strength of Mare's foot, Linares' legs, and Giles' hands. You know, I thought he was overpaid when I signed him 13 weeks ago. Now I'm counting that as a stroke of genius, as it was his 11 yard reception that sealed the win. The win wasn't without cost, however: JaJuan Dawson sprained his back and will be out until the playoffs. Fortunately, Germaine is ready to test his surgically repaired back.

Week Fourteen

Tennessee 23, JACKSONVILLE 17

A 91 yard punt return and 200 yards on the ground for the Titans. We're now a game out of first with 3 to play. We can still win a playoff bye, but we'll need the 6-6-1 Titans, and the 5-8 Bengals and Steelers to upset the Ravens, while beating the 7-6 Browns and Bills, and defeating the Titans in our Week Seventeen rematch.

Week Fifteen

JACKSONVILLE 27, Cleveland 13

A game out with two to play. The Titans didn't deliver for us, but if we take care of business, all we need is one loss by the Ravens. Linares picked up 206 yards on 30 carries, falling just 15 yards short of a new franchise record for single-game rushing yardage. The win clinches a playoff spot, so the only question now is whether or not we'll get a breather after the regular season.

Week Sixteen

JACKSONVILLE 21, Buffalo 10

Linares with 212 yards this week. Back to back 200+ yard games for the young man from Mizzou. Who said smashmouth football doesn't win games? Incidentally, we have the highest power rating in the league. Nice to know, I suppose. We also have the benefit of going into week 17 with revenge on our minds, while Cincinnati hosts Baltimore wanting to close out the year at .500. We're guaranteed the playoff bye if we win the division. Let's see if we can take care of business!

Week Seventeen

Baltimore wins in a squeaker, 9-3, so the best we can hope for is an impressive 2nd place finish. We'll have to do it without T Mo Collins, who tore a calf muscle last week and is done for the year. We sign Broderick Williams, who, if his ratings are to be believed, is an absolute stud, as the replacement.

JACKSONVILLE 41, Tennessee 20.

It boils down to we could have won the bye if we hadn't lost to Baltimore. Just that simple. Oh, yeah....Linares had 193 yards rushing and 3 TDs. He averaged over 200 ypg for 3 straight games. If that's not impressive, I don't know WHAT the hell IS. Even more impressive: He finished 3rd in the league in rushing despite starting fewer than half of our games. Seven games, to be precise. He doubled DJCQ's yardage on only 8 more carries, though DJCQ had 12 TDs to Linares' 8 on the year. I'm going to let that sink in for a while and do the playoffs tomorrow.

[SackAttack]

2009 Playoffs

Wild Card Round

We're still the highest rated team, with an 89 on the power rankings. Baltimore, despite winning one more game than us, is a paltry 77. Then again, they were 5-11 last year - a case could be made that they won on a last place schedule.

TE Britt Kahn tore some knee cartilage in Week 17, looks like. According to his ratings, his career is probably over. We don't really have enough cap room left to sign a replacement for him, so we'll bury him at 3rd on the depth charts. Its unlikely he'll get any playing time.

Denver 17, JACKSONVILLE 12

An ignominious defeat for the boys of teal and black. As usual, we controlled the clock fairly handily, but Uffins was seemingly unable to put the ball in the end zone. A temporary setback or the end of a dynasty? We'll see.

San Diego 33, Indianapolis 22
Washington 33, New Orleans 0
St. Louis 31, Tampa Bay 7

Divisional Finals

Baltimore 18, San Diego 6
Washington 30, Carolina 27
New York 36, Denver 10
Detroit 27, St. Louis 17

Conference Finals

New York 34, Baltimore 0
Detroit 38, Washington 10

That 9-0 start for the Jets wasn't such a fluke after all; neither, it seems, were those 11 straight wins sandwiched in between 4 losses for the Lions. Should make for an exciting Super Bowl.

2009 Super Bowl

New York 49, Detroit 30

Fitting that the Jets, with the league's best offense and 5th worst defense, should win this one in a shootout. There may be hope yet for the 2000 Rams. Billy Jenkins was the Super Bowl MVP, and Kurt Warner was the NFL MVP for the second time.
We had three award winners:
Stanley Linares, Offensive Rookie of the Year
Jonathan Hansen, All-Pro First Team LB
Leland Jacobs, All-Pro First Team CB

Other performances of note: Dagostino had 91 tackles at LB, falling 7 tackles shy of his 2006 Def. ROY performance 4 seasons ago.

We get a year-end score of 67.

[This message has been edited by SackAttack (edited 11-29-2000).]

[SackAttack]

2010 Preseason

The league signed a seriously lousy TV deal. Still only an $800,000 increase.
In other news, Canton opened its doors wide for the following fellas:

Please welcome the following players for induction into the Hall of Fame this season:
Troy Aikman
LeRoy Butler
Marshall Faulk
Neil O'Donnell

Also, T Willie Anderson retired.

37 guys signed, $10 mil under the cap.

Reuben Nixon, our coach who's managed to go an astounding 46-9 over the last three years, is on the open market. Can anybody say "payday"? He's far and away the best guy out there, from the looks of things. He'll easily command the kind of payday that Steven Belcher and Marshall Weaver are getting (that's, uh, $10 mil for those of you in West Palm Beach). I'll offer 11.5 and see what happens.

He signed in the 2nd week. Ours was the only offer; I suppose he wanted to see if anybody was willing to pony up more dough.

All 3 keepers are under contract, so the franchise tag will be used on Broderick Williams, whose role becomes even more important in the aftermath of Anderson's retirement.

[SackAttack]

We resign Forster to a two year extension, saving us about 200 grand this season. Unfortunately, he appears to be the only one willing to take a pay cut. Hansen is in the final year of his contract, so we'll try to negotiate an extension for him, but we've only got around $9.3 mil to play with. That's about a mil per player for those of you playing at home. I'm gonna have to resume this in a bit as I have to dash out in just a couple minutes here.

Josh

[SackAttack]

Making one last desperate run through the roster trying to free up salary, I come up with the following:

CB Leland Jacobs signs an extension that frees up about a mil this season and around $300k next season before adding a 3rd year at $6.3 mil.

LB Ted Johnson signs a renegotiated deal that, thanks to the magic of bonuses, will actually DECREASE each of the three years in the contract. Impressive. Bizarre, though.

Finally, I trade G Levon Teague straight up for Miami S Riddick Steed. He's in the final year of his contract, but he's only a 4th year guy, and pretty decent to boot. Plus, this frees up about another $500,000. I'm sure I'll be able to find a decent guard in the mid-late rounds of the draft (at least one who plays down to Teague's level).

The draft is where we're likely to get most of our incoming talent; the defensive line is askin' about $8 mil apiece, and with only $11 mil in the bank, that's a little pricey. Ideally I'd trade DJCQ with Linares in the wings, but the $5 mil cap bonus hit and the 'keeper' status make that a pipe dream.

FA offers:

K Olindo Mare, $3.16 mil/2 years. Can't let this guy go. He's a big reason why we won 12 games last year.

P Blaine Baldridge, $3.20 mil/2 years.
40% of this guys punts are inside the opposing 20, and neither of our FA punters are anything special.

The rest of our dough we'll save for the draft and beyond.

[SackAttack]

DE Justin Prior didn't waste any time, signing immediately with Denver.

Baldridge stays with Seattle, taking about 1/2 of what he was offered elsewhere (including here...grr).

Our own FB Xavier Kramer took the Vikings' money to the tune of about $3.5 mil per year.

Craig Hentrich took $3.20 mil of Riverside's money over the next two years; they must have been desperate.

DT Andy Bailey is now a Giant.

Olindo Mare finally re-upped with us for 3 years in week 11.

Nobody else from our team does anything in FA, though we manage to trim $300,000 from DT Carlos Grande's contract.

[SackAttack]

Williams signed a 3 year contract worth approximately $14 mil prior to the draft. That leaves us with about $6.5 mil to play with and 7 players needed to fill out the roster, and an expected draft cost of about $5 mil. Not bad.

2010 Amateur Draft

Several good players abound in this draft. Our need positions, DE and G, are fairly weak, though there are several good QBs, a good looking punter, and several impressive linebackers. As Uffins' ratings appear to have declined since last we saw him, I'm going to take the best available QB, target a decent looking G in the 2nd round, and go for a punter in the third. We'll see how it plays out.

28. Jacksonville - Schulze, Riddick, QB, Colorado

He looks pretty good from where I'm sitting. He could be ready to start within a season or two.

62. Jacksonville - Buchanan, Junior, G, Oklahoma State

The best available guard remaining, and the guy I had targeted to boot. I figured that if we're going to avoid a repeat of last year's problems, we need to bolster the line.

At this point, I notice that there are still some VERY good WRs out there, so I trade Lester Giles for TE Rickey Dudley. Dudley's a 15 year vet, but he's still got skills, and dumping Giles' salary gave us an extra $2.3 mil to play with. With that in mind, our 3rd round selection:

96. Jacksonville - Bilodeau, Stephen, WR, Tennessee

So-so endurance-wise, but he's better than Giles overall, and has some nice return skills to boot.

130. Jacksonville - Haus, Dominic, P, Texas

The punter I had initially planned to take in the third round. He's got a nice leg and will hopefully do for us what Baldridge might have.

164. Jacksonville - Montgomery, Jimmie, DE, UCLA

The best remaining DE. Not spectacular, but not horrible. He'll do.

198. Jacksonville - Lindsay, Clyde, DT, Iowa

A VERY pleasant surprise in the 6th round. We needed a DT too, so this was fortituous indeed.

232. Jacksonville - Beyer, J.C., DE, Central Florida

Absolutely no endurance, but decent skills. Hopefully two-a-days will fix that.

[SackAttack]

Training camp had the opposite effect on Beyer that I had hoped for. Skills decreased slightly. Looking at the FA market, we see DE Bart Caswell, selected in the 2nd round. Who by, I don't know. We snap him up and give Beyer his walking papers.

We sign G Clarence Ballard, formerly of Tampa Bay, to a 1 year deal at $990,000, spending the rest of our cap room. Regular season to follow a little later on.

[SackAttack]

Alright, it looks like things have finally settled down for the evening. Let's wrap this up so RPI-Fan can have his turn.

2010 Preseason Games

Week Two

JACKSONVILLE 24, Seattle 10

Linares got the season rolling in fine fettled fashion, racking up 128 yards on 25 carries. DJCQ had 2 yards on 6 carries. I'm not sure, but I think he's on his way downhill.

Week Three

JACKSONVILLE 30, Tampa Bay 6

DJCQ may still have some life left in those ol' legs of his after all. 82 yards on 14 carries, compared to 14-67 for his good buddy Linares. Still, its nice to see the running game get going consistently.

Week Four

Detroit 31, JACKSONVILLE 21

The Lions and their 190 yards rushing dominated the T.O.P. Not much you can do about that when you rely on the run as well.

Week Five

JACKSONVILLE 3, Kansas City 0

I know its preseason, so the games don't count, but if this had been the postseason, I'd have been thanking my lucky stars for Mare. Our rushing attack, btw, is chewing up a MARVELOUS 5.0 ypc. Why we didn't score more points that game, I have no idea.

[SackAttack]

2010 Regular Season

Week One

Uffins bruised his shoulder and won't play this week. We'll give the rookie Schulze some development time here, as he'll mostly be handing off to the Dynamite Duo.

Tampa Bay 22, JACKSONVILLE 10

The irony - live by the foot, die by the foot. Tampa Bay hit 5 field goals to win this one. They fumbled the ball 5 times, and we only recovered one. That's just wrong.
Uffins is ready to go, however, so he'll get the start in week 2.

Week Two

JACKSONVILLE 40, Cincinnati 13

Beautiful. Linares rushed 26 times for 173 yards and a score, and DJCQ had 5 carries for 41 yards. He's doing much better for me in his new limited role than he did in 9 starts last season.

Week Three

JACKSONVILLE 31, Pittsburgh 28

Stephen Bilodeau had his first career touchdown reception, a 2 yard pass late in the first quarter. Uffins had 3 TD passes on the day, and Linares had a TD on 85 yards rushing as we outscored our kicker for the first time in a while.

Week Four

JACKSONVILLE 20, Cincinnati 7

Swept the season series. Linares had 143 yards on 27 carries, and DJCQ picked up another 21 on 5 carries. We've got a good shot at putting the division away before the bye in week 10, as we play Tennessee twice and Baltimore once in the next 5 weeks, along with the 2-2 Bears and the 4-0 Jets (do these guys ALWAYS start undefeated?). It should prove to be an interesting month.

[This message has been edited by SackAttack (edited 11-30-2000).]

[SackAttack]

Week Five

JACKSONVILLE 23, Chicago 17

Even Chicago QB Shark Tooth Samuels couldn't take the bite out of the Jaguars. Linares picked up another hundred yards.

Week Six

Tennessee 27, JACKSONVILLE 7

We need to stop doing that. Tennessee now leads the division on tiebreakers. Not really a whole lot else to say about that one. We sucked, plain and simple.

Week Seven

Baltimore 31, JACKSONVILLE 21

We're now solidly in 4th place in the division. We scored 21 points in the first quarter to take a 21-0 lead after 15 minutes, and let the momentum get away. Linares picked up 144 yards, for all the good it did us. We face the 7-0 Jets next week. .500 is looming large.

Week Eight

JACKSONVILLE 34, New York 17

Boy oh boy, that felt good. HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES?!
Linares was a thing of beauty. 32 carries, 181 yards, 2 TDs. Uffins completed his usual dozen passes, but did it in half as many attempts this time around. He seems to have learned that they can't pick it off if you don't throw it.

[SackAttack]

Week Nine

We win this week, we have a shot at salvaging the tiebreaker against the Titans. We also still have two games with the 4-2-1 Browns. We'll probably need to win both of those as well to take the division.

Tennessee 22, JACKSONVILLE 20

Mare missed the winning field goal with 27 seconds left, a 45 yard attempt. This after hitting a 55 yarder just two minutes earlier, and a 51 yarder halfway through the first half. Of course, he can't be blamed completely; if Uffins doesn't throw a pick that gets run back for a score, and if SOMEBODY makes the freakin' tackle on that 89 yard punt return, the score would probably have been in our favor. Do dimpled divots count?

Week Ten

Blessed bye week. We're still in the final playoff spot by virtue of our two wins over 5-4 Cincinnati. Four of our next five games are division games. If we win them all, we're probably a lock for the playoffs, though not necessarily the division. That would take a minor miracle.

Week Eleven

Baltimore 20, JACKSONVILLE 17

Two Raven field goals in the final 2 minutes stole the win from the jaws of defeat for the boys in Black and Purple. We now MUST win out over Cleveland to make the playoffs. No ifs, ands, or buts.

Week Twelve

Cleveland 30, JACKSONVILLE 17

Two more interceptions for Uffins. One more will give him his 4th straight double-digit season. We're -1 for the year on turnovers/takeaways.

[SackAttack]

Week Thirteen

JACKSONVILLE 24, Pittsburgh 10

The much-needed win halts the free-fall and keeps our flickering playoff hopes alive. Two of our final 4 games are against wild card competitors. It'd be nice to win those.

Week Fourteen

JACKSONVILLE 34, Indianapolis 24

That was one of those two games I mentioned. Everybody else lost, so beating Cleveland next week would put us in the driver's seat again for the playoffs. Its a must-win game. The loser may well wind up watching the playoffs on TV. We're at home, so we have the apparent advantage.

Week Fifteen

JACKSONVILLE 17, Cleveland 7

A three game winning streak. Things are coming together at the right time, looks like. However, our next game is against the Broncos, who are trying to take our playoff spot away, and our final game is against the Lions who are also fighting for their playoff lives. This isn't the time to let up.

Week Sixteen

Denver 28, JACKSONVILLE 3

I swear, they don't listen to a goddamn thing I say. Uffins threw three picks. That's what you'd expect from a rookie in a big game, not a fucking 10 year veteran. Our season is probably over. We need to beat Detroit and hope that Pittsburgh is playing for pride against the Bengals. Oh, and both San Diego and Oakland need to lose.

Week Seventeen

Kansas City obliges with a 31-28 defeat of Oakland. Riverside loses 30-13 to San Diego. Tennessee formally clinches their spot with a defeat of Green Bay. Baltimore sends Cleveland to a 7-8-1 season with a 26-23 win. Cincinnati CRUSHES Pittsburgh by a score of 40-3, officially ending any hopes we may have had. Despite that, we play our game:

JACKSONVILLE 22, Detroit 19

Two losses to Tennessee, two losses to Baltimore. Both of those teams made the playoffs. One win in ANY of those four games would have put us in. Our failure to stop Baltimore in the final two minutes of Week 11, Mare's breakdown on what should have been a relatively simple 45 yard FG attempt in Week Nine...there are a thousand what-ifs and ten thousand might-have-beens. In the end, we have only ourselves to blame.

The, um, good news is, Linares led the league in rushing yards with 1677 and rushing TDs with 11. If he had had any kind of support under center, we might have been going somewhere.

2010 Playoffs

Wild Card Round

Atlanta 27, New Orleans 3
Baltimore 21, Cincinnati 17
Buffalo 23, Tennessee 17
Washington 36, Green Bay 20

Divisional Finals

Atlanta 13, Arizona 9
Denver 48, Baltimore 20
New York 52, Buffalo 22
Carolina 26, Washington 20

Conference Finals

Atlanta 30, Carolina 7
New York 35, Denver 29

Atlanta surprised a lot of people, going from a wild card at 11-5 and beating 2 consecutive 2-loss teams en route to the Super Bowl. The Jets, OTOH, lost 5 of their final 9, beginning with our victory over them in week 8. It must have shocked them badly, but they recovered in time to make it back for a title defense.

2010 Super Bowl

New York 24, Atlanta 17

Jets QB Daunte Culpepper hit the trifecta, winning the NFL MVP, Super Bowl MVP, and All-Pro First Team Quarterback. Oh, yeah. Did I mention we had him for 5 seasons? Unfortunate that he got away, as his base salary was only $990,000 this season. Sure, an $8 mil bonus, but hey. Irritatingly, Thomas Jones of Cleveland stole what should have been Linares' First Team status. However, he made the Second Team, so he'll have a shot to prove the naysayers wrong in Hawaii. Tom Nutten, Carlos Washington, and Jonathan Hansen also received All-Pro consideration.

I'll be sending the file on to RPI-Fan as soon as I dig up his email address.

Josh

[This message has been edited by SackAttack (edited 11-30-2000).]

[CubsFan915]

You know, Chris Uffins clearly hasn't worked out the way I expected him to. I'm taking him off the keeper list, effective immediately, hoping to open up some more flexibility for you guys...

[SackAttack]

Keepers...thanks for reminding me.

The current list then is:

RB D.J. Conquergood
LB Jonathan Hansen

my addition:

RB Stanley Linares

I know that looks like a lot of RBs, but I honestly do think DJCQ is going to retire soon. He just hasn't been himself the last couple of seasons. And Linares has some huge upside, as well as better stamina.

RPI-Fan, if you're out there, what's your email addy?

Josh

[RPI-Fan]

[email protected]

I won't be able to get started tonite, as I'll be going to the RPI hockey game vs. Union.

I'll hope to get started tomorrow morning.

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Secant, Tangent, Cosin, Sin, 3.14159!

[RPI-Fan]

Hmm...Vegas, we have a problem...

The file that Josh sent me doesn't have the saved game in it, though it does have the various box scores and whatnot. Apparently he's overwritten it, and we've tried sending it again etc.

Anyone have any insight as to what we should do to correct this fairly massive problem?

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

[andy m]

cry?

[ShagVT]

Uffins hasn't worked out the way you wanted him to? He won us two championships! What do you want?

The trick with Uffins is that you cannot use the default gameplan that emphasizes has 50% short passing, because short passing is his weakness. Drop short passing down to 30 or so, split the other 20 in medium, long, and deep, and he can and does dominate.

In my two seasons he had 3485 yards, 21 TDs, 88.8 rating and 3901 yards, 32 TDs, 96.9 rating.

Both of those seasons were in Conquergood's prime when he was rushing for 1500 yards a season, and with a rookie starting at WR.

I think Uffins is fine.

[CubsFan915]

As much as anything, I just didn't want to tie everyone's hands with Uffins... He's been very good, and has brought us the titles, but his numbers haven't been spectacular... He's definitely gotten the job done, but if someone better comes along, I don't want to get our hands tied...