@DeputyVanHalen

I know its only 2-0, but I think you're in pretty good shape now. How did you do in the preseason? I know you coldcocked me pretty good when we played. I'd rather lose (but not get blown out..) than feel like someone is going easy / toying with me though, giving false hope. Not a good feeling.

@Mr_Mustache
I did OK in the preseason, but had a ton of turnovers especially once the backups were in just about every game. It's hard to say when there are so many people joining and leaving, but right now I feel pretty good about my chances to make the playoffs in both leagues. Speaking of which, I kinda hope hobbs has a cutoff point in the season, sort of like a trade deadline, where any new people that want to join after that have to wait until the offseason.

@DeputyVanHalen

Yeah, I asked him about that today (before you wrote this), and he told me that he'd be leaving both leagues open. Ugh, why? ESPECIALLY the Draft league. People have been joining as a team, looking at their roster, and then quitting to rejoin with another team. That is...TOTAL BS to me.

@Mr_Mustache
Yeah. That one guy joined, picked the Eagles, quit, picked the Redskins, quit, picked the Bucs because they have Brady, quit, and then went back to the Eagles, presumably because they were the only one of the 3 that was 1-0 and had an easy second game. What's really going to piss me off is if someone makes trades with that team before taking it. If he leaves it open later in the season, people are going to join and then look at the records of the available teams and then quit to take teams with better records. I get that he would eventually like to have no CPU teams, but if he doesn't cut it off by midseason at the latest it's going to become a joke.

@DeputyVanHalen

Voice your concerns. He thinks its only me right now. Well, maybe not ONLY me, but yeah.

I played my 2005 game last night (Bills w/ OJ Simpson vs. Colts in Preseason), and won. O.J. was electric. An hour or so goes by, and then I did my Bills @ Browns 2013 game online. Things didn't look very good at first, but I ended up winning, and tacked on a Bonus "cosmetic" TD to pad some stats and meet my HB goal.

Those games are two COMPLETELY different systems w/ COMPLETELY different functions. WOW!

@Mr_Mustache

I hate you.

Or more likely, I hate my defense.

@TheOldManFromZelda
It looks like we play each other next in the regular league. When do you want to play? I'm able to pretty much any time in the evenings.

@DeputyVanHalen

I should be free to play tomorrow night. I have volleyball playoffs tonight at 8.

@TheOldManFromZelda
OK, that will work for me.

Mustache, did I read that correctly? Did you win a game, in a blowout even, with 3 passing yards?

Speaking of blowouts, I got griped out last night for trying to get a first down and keep possession to run the clock out with over 2 minutes left when he was calling timeout. It was 34-7, I got an int at the goal line with just under 3 minutes to go. So I do a couple runs and wind up with 3rd and 8 at the 10. I throw a comeback route for 10 yards to get the first and break the tackle and because of the defense he was in, I could've had an easy 90 yard td, but after getting a little further downfield I realized that and dove thinking it would run to the 2 minute warning, then I could kneel it out because surely he's not going to keep using timeouts. Nope, he calls timeout immediately after I'm downed, pauses and goes to chat to gripe me out for not kneeling and giving the ball back to him. So as stupid as this version of the rule that I could swear is a fairly recent change is, I kneel and punt back to him with over a minute left. Then I had to resist the urge to run in the int I got after that, but I was nice and dove again to avoid it.

I also realized that I can save my time on scouting. I'm going to be out of state on draft day and the entire preseason for season 2. So no sense scouting players when I won't be around to draft them.

@TheOldManFromZelda

Dude, you were CARVING me up with your passes. And I don't want to say "hey, beat me!," but you didn't take off with RGIII at all! Thats like, haha, his thing!

@DeputyVanHalen

GOD, I can't throw in this game. 4 Picks!! 1 (ONE) completion. And I ended the game with back to back sacks on me, dropping my number from 25 or something down to 3. GARB. And I FINALLY got my Defensive Line going. Apparently the Cards have one of the worst DLs out there, but I'll take it. I was getting through with Kyle Williams (3 Sacks), and Mario Williams did 1/3 of his yearly goal in one half (5 Sacks). Both on hot streaks now heading to next week, pretty darn cool. (And as I mentioned before, a Sack, for me, usually brings another Sack immediately. I think I had 4 Sacks on them on their final 5 plays.)

Yeah, I read about that thing with IronHorse. He's just being testy, I think. A lot of those guys aren't used to losing. You know what is right and wrong, I reviewed what was written, and it sounded clean. I hate "kneeling" the ball, too. Gosh, just let me do DIVES. "Well, I only ran one play since the two minute warning, and it was for 2 yards." Not really a lot to complain about!! And yes, you were certainly valid in that if you just knelt it out, he'd still get the ball back! Sheesh.

Yeah, Comeback Route should be clean. Its not like you threw a slant or something. I think you're fine.

Scouting- I wonder if you can scout guys, and your people will try to draft them for you?? I mean...it seems pretty smart otherwise, I don't see why they wouldn't want to snag someone for you. I think you'll be ok; sorry you'll be missing it though!

@Mr_Mustache
Yeah, I think it was just frustration on his part. Really all he could do was 5 yard draws. He kept running the same 2 pass plays with draws mixed in, that both had a post over the middle to Gonzales and I shut it down consistently. Also, he got 1 legit stop on me to cause a punt, not counting the kneel at the end, and he fumbled the punt and I ran it in for a td. Still though, I let off the gas at halftime. If I wanted to be a jerk I could've beat him by 50. Sandman plays him next, so I have a feeling he's in for another beatdown.

Also, I think I've taken off with RG3 maybe twice all season, and one of those was a called QB draw that got me a huge play in my comeback against fumulitis.

I don't know if scouting would affect me on autopilot or not. I'll have to check into that.

@DeputyVanHalen

If someone thinks I'm one-dimensional with piles of running, please know that I'm running DIFFERENT running plays, even though they look almost the same. Draws? Man, I never run those. Its like "please tackle me for a loss."

You're not taking off with RG3 either? Whats are you guys doing?? I'd be running CONSTANTLY. Cripes, AirGator is in the Top 10 in league rushing w/ Tim Tebow in one of those leagues, haha!!


--Oh, haha, I got a Safety against me last night, too. It was 3-2 at halftime.

@Mr_Mustache
I throw in an occasional draw. I run a lot too, but it's several different plays. But this guy clearly had an offense consisting of no more than 5 plays. I can only imagine what things would've been like if I had started calling dime cover 1 robber earlier. In my last 3 defensive plays of the game I called that, and that's when I got my 2 int's, both by the safety in the robber zone against the post to Gonzalez on the same exact play.

And yes, I see that AirGator really overdoes it with Tebow. I have a plan for that, but I don't play him until next season, since the NFC East and AFC East play each other in season 2.

@Mr_Mustache

Running with the quarterback is a failed experiment for me. I tried it during a couple games, and it ended terribly. The delay between deciding to take off, and actually doing it on the screen is unforgivable. I find RGIII is a good pocket quarterback.

@DeputyVanHalen

In fairness, I guess it was his first game back on the Wii U? Don't think anything of it, just move on with the W. I'm sure what you did was fine, he was probably just frustrated. Oh, yeah, some guys don't know what to do against certain defenses. Seems they're bound to repeat their misfortunes if you catch them once, and I'm certainly guilty of that, too.

Man, you're getting ready for the Gator already?! Awesome, haha.

@Mr_Mustache
My plan is pretty similar to what I used against all the Vick players back in the 04/05 versions. If he plays differently than that I'll have to adjust, but I have a feeling it's not going to be too far off. The short version is to force him to run right if he's going to run which will take away the pass option since the pass would be crap. Against those guys I'd run corner blitzes from the left and manually control the ROLB or right DE. If they scrambled left they'd be walking right into a blitz and if they went right I'd take care of them knowing any pass they tried to get off was going to be terrible.

I'm also not that good with running the QB unless it's a planned run. Once in a great while it works, but usually when I tried to take off I'd just run right into one of the d-lineman.

I've had my vent over it so I'm good. I wasn't upset that he kept calling the same plays, just confused as to why he'd stick with a plan that wasn't even remotely working.

@DeputyVanHalen

Man, thats a pretty good plan, haha. He ran a lot of stuff between the Tackles though, too..

I actually find running with the QB SO much easier on Wii / Wii U than on GC. For starters, you don't have to pull your icons down to take off. Just hold turbo and take off! Isn't he quick enough to get around the corner?

Yup...I got IronHorse tonight. Let's see how I do. It seems like I barely squeak out wins against human opponents so it could be an interesting match!