The Reno Snake Eyes, 2002-

[Marmel]

This continues the career of the Reno Snake Eyes. The first thread has a list of all the house rules, plus the first half of season number 1. We went 5-3 in the first eight games, and honestly, I would have been happy with 5 wins all season. However, 5-3 with 7 road games to play leaves us in a tight position. If we actually make the playoffs, everything will be great. However, more likely is the chance that we will miss the playoffs, and screw ourselves out of another top draft pick. A second top draft pick is something an expansion franchise really needs, and I am afraid we may be without it this year.

I have amended the house rules to limit the number of free agents that I can sign in weeks 1-10 to ONE (this is a change from 2).

You can read the rules and get the first 1/2 season recap here:

Reno Snake Eyes House Rules and 8 weeks of 2002.

[Marmel]

Week 9: bye week

Week 10:
Reno (5-3) at Denver (2-6). This is an important road game for us, and basically a must win. We lose 24-7. If we can't win this game, the rest of the season looks bleak. Basnight gets 90 and a TD, the defense gets 2 sacks.

Week 11:
Reno (5-4) at Chicago (3-6). We get crushed 34-2. Covington throws 4 INTS and no TDs. We also lose WR Na Brown for the season.

Week 12:
Reno (5-5) at Oakland (6-4). We take a 28-0 beating, and Basnight is no longer productive. Covington throws a pick and no TDs again.

Week 13:
Reno (5-6) at San Diego (6-5). Basnight runs for 178 and 2 TDs and we pull this one out 17-14. I'm afraid it just hurts our draft position though. Covington throws 3 INTs and no TDs.

Week 14:
Oakland (7-5) at Reno (6-6). A win here would tie us for the division lead, but all of our remaining games are on the road. Despite Covington actually throwing a TD, we lose 23013, and the seaosn is basically over.

Week 15:
Reno (6-7) at Minnesota (8-5). We win 28-21 behind three defense INTs. We stand at 7-7, which is tied for the final playoff spot. We will try to make the push to get in, since we will be drafting in the middle no matter what.

Week 16:
Cleveland (7-7) at Reno (7-7). Cleveland is in the playoffs right now and we are out. The situation could reverse with a win at Tark Stadium. The team is revved up and the fans are coming out in record numbers for this one. We get crushed 31-10 at home, an embarrassment.

Week 17:
Reno (7-8) at Seattle (7-8). We have a chance to go .500 in our inaugural season, which is absolutly amazing to me. It may hurt us in the long run, but the fans sure are happy. Alas, we lose 20-27, and that ends our season at 7-9.

[Marmel]

2002 Post Season Report:

Season Stats-
QB Scott Covington, 273/489, 55.8%, 2263 yards, 8 TDs, 23INTs!, 53.7 rating.

RB Michael Basnight. Led the league in rushing yards with 1471. 10 Tds places him 4th in the league.

Todd Collins had 107 tackles, good for 7th in the league.

Sam Madison and Levon Flowers had 7 INTs each, they tie for 5th best in the league. One of the few bright spots on the team.

The Carolina Panthers beat the Oakland Raiders for the 2002 Superbowl! Rich Gannon is named league MVP.

For the Snake Eyes, Sam Madison is named to the 1st team, and RB Michael Basnight is 2nd team.

[Marmel]

OffSeason Report:

We are not very happy with our scout so we make an offer to Howard Duerr, who is excellent and good at everything. Unfortunatly he signs back up with Oakland, and we settle for Marco Knobbs, primarily for his excellent QB skills.

We sold 73.6% of our tickets, which was 5th from last in the league, a decent start. We lost about $23 million dollars.

Free Agency Period:
We look for a young, impact player on defense in the first 10 weeks of FA. We target LB Jamie Duncan and offer him 15.57 mil over 3 years. Jamie signs with us in week 3, and we wait it out until week 11, hoping a quality QB will be available.

Shaun King from Tampa Bay is available and we pick him up right away.
We also get WR Bill Schroeder in week 13. That wraps up FA, and we feel we were very successful this year. We now have 3-5 very good defensive players who should start for the Snake Eyes for many, many years.


2003 Draft:

We have the 10th pick in this year's draft.

1: WR Jimmie Tubbs, from Utah
2: C Stan Horner, LSU
3: G Quentin Morton, Oklahoma St.
4: RB Jay Anderson, Pittsburgh
5: DE Herb Theriot, Navy
6: DT David Neumann, Oregon St.
7: QB Herb Barber, UNLV

We fill out our roster and head to training camp, as always, hoping for something good to happen.

Right away, we notice Stan Horner looks even better after camp than when we drafted him. But then we lose out on 3rd round pick Quentin Morton, a total bust. His rating are now 5/15/25. Everone else looks fine, so I guess we take the good with the bad and move on.