Leaf's Tabletop Mini Replay - 1997 NFL Season

[RyanLeaf16]

I'll post more info in another post, but this will be a "mini-season" replay using 6 playoff teams from 1997 set of Strat-O-Matic football. Consider this a "test" run for this type of "franchise". That's why I'm only including 6-teams.

It'll be 3 teams from each conference. Double-Round Robin regular season format - so a 10-game regular season. Top 3 finishers overall will make the playoffs. #2 & #3 seeds will play for the right to play the #1 seed for the championship.

I will hold a supplemental draft after week 5. The team with the worst record will get the first pick and each team will only have 1 selection. The teams involved are: San Francisco, Green Bay, Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Denver & Pittsburgh.

If I enjoy doing this, then I'll likely replay more mini-seasons, but with more teams involved. If you don't know what Strat-O-Matic Football or APBA football is, definitely look it up on Youtube. As I get older, I'm less inclined to want to play Madden and more focused on Tabletop sports. This is going to be a little different, but I'm really just posting here to have a "depository" of my results, if you like reading - great, but I'm not basing my posting schedule based on that. I do hope you enjoy it though.

Week 1's games are already scheduled: Kansas City @ San Francisco, Tampa Bay @ Pittsburgh & Denver @ Green Bay.

It'll be nice to watch things play out from the 1997 season and the first game will be posted sometime this week. Games take me about 1-1.5 hours to roll and then I'll have to add up the stats and record them into my excel sheet since this is all done via tabletop and dice rolls.

https://www.strat-o-matic.com/football-board-games/

[RyanLeaf16]

SUPPLEMENTAL DRAFT


A Strat-O-Matic 1992 Steve Young card

To explain why there is a supplemental draft for this mini-replay, it's to create an opportunity for a poorly carded team to introduce a bit of chaos into the replay. Above, you'll see an example of a Strat-O-Matic (AKA SoM) card for Steve Young's 1992 season.

SoM doesn't always create all teams for season card sets when it comes to football. A lot of individuals have to use the secondary card market to create their collections. I have many full season sets and I also have partial season sets that have been acquired through the secondary market. There is also no "auto sim" option, so playing every game for every team in a full season repaly is quite the project.

Overall, I have 10 teams for the 1997 season. The other four teams - Eagles, Ravens, Bills & Jaguars. Only the Jaguars were a playoff team from this group, so I decided to go with 6-teams and use the other four teams' rosters for the supplemental draft. So after week 5, let's say the Steelers are struggling at the QB position and they have the worst record in the league at that time, they may decide to swap out their QB, Kordell Stewart, for Mark Brunell. The Bucs may want to improve their WR corps after week 5 and they may take Jimmy Smith or Keenan McCardell. Maybe San Francisco hasn't been great with their pass-rush so they might snag Bruce Smith for their defensive line from the Bills. Every team gets one choice of any player that is still available from the 4 teams I am not using.

In future replays where I have the entire league set (1972, 1977, 1983, 1992, 1999 & 2020), I'll use more teams for the replay and the draft pool for the supplemental draft will be much larger, but I am trying it out because I think it'll add some unusual results to the games when they are rolled.

[RyanLeaf16]

PLAYCALLING & INJURIES, ETC...

Former Jets & Bills HC Rex Ryan is a "Strat Head", though he prefers Strat Baseball to football and still collects card sets on eBay

In conducing any replay, I'm not trying to "win" or give preference to one team over another, so when playing solo instead of H2H (head to head), it's important to have a system that automatically calls plays. This is also important so you don't subconsciously call the same run plays over and over due to a certain players card - consider this "basic cheese."

So I have a automatic play-calling system that will not only call the offensive plays, but will tell me which player is the focus. I have also implemented some additional house rules to call the defense. The game is played with 3d6 (3 six-sided dice). 2 red, 1 white. The red will be combined to provide a number 2-12 and the white will determine which card (offensive player or defensive) you read the result from. 1-3 is read off the offensive card, 4-6 off the defensive card. I add in a "bullet" die on any situation where the yardage to go is equal to the card result - if the bullet comes up, then it is a first down, if ithe die is blank, then it's not a first down and it is considered "inches" to go.

i.e. Bucs are 3rd and 1. The playcall is a handoff to Alstott in the A-gap. The result on the card is 1 yard gained. I would then roll the bullet die and if it comes up blank, the ball was spotted short and it's now 4th and inches. If it comes up with the bullet, then it is a first down and move the chains.

The automatic playcalling system I use incorporates all offensive players, so it's not always gonna be a call where Alstott automatically gets it for a short yardage run, the system may call for Errict Rhett to come in for that run. This is how I keep it fair, fun and unknown. Game on the line situation, I will overrule the system if it is calling for a backup to be the focus on a play.

Injuries and penalties do occur in this game. Injuries, when prompted, are read off an injury table. In this replay, no one who was injured during 1997 (Jerry Rice) will start off injured. This isn't an "as-is" replay. Another reason why I have included a supplemental draft. Teams can lose guys at key positions and need a replacement other than what they might already have.

I will be tracking full offensive stats for this replay. Defensive stats will be limited to INTs, sacks, FF and FR.

[RyanLeaf16]

Started the KC @ SF game last night. I had some family obligations that kept me from finishing. Still early in the game, but Steve Young has sharted his pants to begin the contest...not a full blown sh!t your pants situation yet, but Grbac is definitely upstaging him at the moment.

[RyanLeaf16]

Quick Take:
Chiefs and 49ers both played a pretty sloppy game. It was really just a game of big plays with several short or stalled drives in between. Steve Young struggled to get a consistent pass game going all day. 49ers Rod Woodson kept the Chiefs out of the endzone himself with two interceptions in the red zone off Chiefs QB Elvis Grbac. Chiefs sneak out of San Francisco with the win on opening week, but the 49ers will be looking to return the favor when they head to KC.

Game Stats:

Passing:
KC - Elvis Grbac - 18/37, 308 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT, fumble lost
SF - Steve Young - 12/21, 151 yards, 2 TD, 6 rush, 27 yards

Rushing:
KC - Greg Hill - 9 rush, 70 yards, 5 rec, 108 yards, TD
KC - Marcus Allen - 4 rush, 41 yards
KC - Donnell Bennett - 5 rush, 16 yards, 6 rec, 68 yards, fumble lost
KC - Kimble Anders - 1 rush, 1 yard, 2 rec, 12 yards

SF - Garrison Hearst - 15 rush, 116 yards
SF - William Floyd - 10 rush, 18 yards
SF - Terry Kirby - 3 rush, 10 yards, 1 rec, 10 yards
SF - Steve Young - 6 rush, 27 yards

Receiving:
KC - Greg Hill - 5 re, 108 yards, TD
KC - Donnell Bennett - 6 rec, 68 yards
KC - Kimble Anders - 2 rec, 12 yards
KC - Tony Gonzalez - 2 rec, 54 yards, TD
KC - Lake Dawson - 1 rec, 13 yards
KC - Ted Popson - 1 rec, 15 yards
KC - Andre Rison - 3 rec, 65 yards, TD

SF - Terry Kirby - 1 rec, 10 yards
SF - Jerry Rice - 4 rec, 74 yards, TD
SF - Terrell Owens - 1 rec, 10 yards, TD
SF - Brent Jones - 2 rec, 27 yards
SF - JJ Stokes - 1 rec, 13 yards

Sacks:
KC - Derrick Thomas, Dan Williams, Tom Barndt

SF - Dana Stubblefield, Kevin Greene, Chris Doleman x2

INTs:
SF - Rod Woodson x2

[RyanLeaf16]

Up Next:
Bucs (0-0) @ Steelers (0-0)

Jerome Bettis was 65% of the Steelers rushing game in 1997 and the Bucs split the carries between their duo of Warrick Dunn and Mike Alstott. I fully expect that most of this game will take place on the ground and that carpeted cement at Three Rivers. The automatic play-call system will likely generate a grind it out game and it'll be determined by who can breakdown the oppositions front line. This edge goes to the Steelers here IMVHO.

If the Bucs can get a two score lead, I think that Bucs D will feast with their pass rush ratings going after Kordell Stewart. Bottom line is that neither team wants to leave this game in the hands of their QB (Dilfer or Stewart). It's gonna come down to execution in the run game for these two teams. Would not be surprised if this game doesn't generate 30 points between the two - the clock should be running quite a bit in this one.

[RyanLeaf16]

Quick Take:
Both defenses dominated, big plays and special teams were the difference. Bucs rookie LB Greg Bellisari had a big fumble recovery on a Steelers punt return that gave the Bucs the ball deep in Pittsburgh territory. Warren Sapp had 2.0 sacks on the day and CB Anthony Parker jumped in front of a Kordell Stewart pass to snag an interception.

The Bucs ran the ball 37 times in the game compared to just 23 pass attempts. Reidel Anthony had the longest Bucs reception on the day off a 25-yard completion from Dilfer.

Kordell Stewart struggled mightily in the passing game completing just 7 of 27 attempts. His longest pass of the day came on a 70-yard catch from Yancy Thigpen. Otherwise Jerome Bettis carried most of the load and did eclipse the 100-yard mark with 109 rushing yards on the day.

Key Stats

PIT - Kordell Stewart 7/27, 132 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
TB - Trent Dilfer 10/23, 153 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT

PIT - Jerome Bettis 23 carries, 109 yards
TB - Warrick Dunn 22 carries, 98 yards, 1 TD, 2 catches 13 yards
TB - Mike Alstott, 15 carries, 33 yards, 2 catches 39 yards

PIT - Yancy Thigpen 4 catches, 100 yards
PIT - Courtney Hawksins 2 catches, 24 yards, 1 TD
TB - Reidel Anthony 5 catches, 69 yards
TB - Dave Moore 1 catch, 38 yards

TB - Michael Husted 4-5 FGs

[RyanLeaf16]

RUNNING IS THE NAME OF THE GAME...

Broncos & Packers getting rolled today/tonight.

The player finders for both Levens and Davis are 11-52 on rush attempts. Basically those guys are running on 72% of their respective teams running calls. Those two dudes will be putting in work for sure!