My Favorite FOF Season

[JPhillips]

I have been playing a solo career for the past few days as time allows. I am playing Bengals with Yab's great roster set. I still have most of the big names, but a terrible first season and a good second season draft has given me a number of new starters.

Before this season I had switched to a 3-4. I couldn't land quality DTs and Thorton/Robinson got old while Askew didn't develop into anything more than a situational pass rusher. I landed a real stud to play SILB and moved Thurman to WILB. I kept Pollack at SLB and Simmons at WLB.

I was having a good, but not great preseason as I was trying to build on my wild-card birth the previous year. In the last preseason game I lost all four linebackers to injury for at least five weeks! I didn't have any reserves that were on par with any of my starters and I knew I was in for problems.

I had no idea things would be as rough as they started. I lost my first six games as the defense couldn't generate a pass rush and gave up almost an entire yard more in rush/carry than the year before. The offense started worrying about the defensive problems and Palmer went on an almost 1.5 interception/game pace while being unable to throw more that 4 TD passes.

At 0-6 I figured I could play for a draft pick. All of my linebakers were finally back, but I would have to run off ten in a row to get a playoff spot. I started to win and pulled off four in a row. I still wasn't very excited and even a little upset that my draft pick was going to be a mid-rounder. At least five of the last six were on the road, so I knew I'd lose at least half.

Not so fast! I kept winning and had pulled off nine in a row when a divisional matchup at Pittsburgh loomed on the final Sunday. A win sent me to the playoffs and a loss sent Pittsburgh with the Bengals having a very slight chance of a wild card. Alas, Pittsburgh crushed me 34-9 and I didn't get the wild card.

This kind of season keeps drawing me back to FOF no matter what I do. I get sucked into the "reality" of this more than any other game. A lot of it is because I just don't follow soccer and have a limited grasp of hockey, so even though I love the SIGames lineup it just doesn't get me emotionally involved.

Thanks Jim. I'm not sure I've spent any entertainment money better.

[MizzouRah]

I'm heading to Kansas City next week and can't wait to get some FOF quality time in.