FOFC All-Time NFL Challenge: Epilogue

[WSUCougar]

Congratulations to TroyF for his victory in the Challenge! His Team V defeated Chief Rum’s Team II by a narrow 16-14 margin.

Thanks to Buccaneer, Chief Rum, cthomer5000, primelord, Sabotai, Shorty3281, Solecismic, and TroyF for their participation. The challenge dragged out a bit too long, and in retrospect I would have done some things differently, but overall I found it an interesting process.

Hopefully, we’ll see some breakdown discussion from the challengers here, as well as some commentary from the voters.

[Chief Rum]

Congrats, Troy! The best team definitely won. Good job.

This was a lot of fun, but, yes, Coug hit it on the head when he noted how long everything took.

I'll offer more in-depth thought later tonight.

Chief Rum

[TroyF]

Thanks guys. :)

I should have the mini dynasty thread ready by the middle of the week.

I can tell you now that my main thought was to build a team that was strong up front and could cover any major threat an offense threw at it. I wanted to get a diverse group of LB's who each had a different skill set. Same with the CB's and safeties. I couldn't believe I snagged Lewis and Brooks with 1 point bids. That may have been the single biggest reason I won the tournament.

On offense, I wanted to build a team to run the football with a QB who could create something out of nothing if a pass play broke down. I thought the defenses would be too strong to have a statue back in the pocket.

I think there were some really good teams in the challenge. I wouldn't have been shocked to lose any of the rounds. Thanks to WSU for putting this together. I had a lot of fun with it. :)

TroyF

[MIJB#19]

Congrats, Troy.

So tell me, where was I wrong in calling you the clear favourite (together with QuikSand, who did not participate)?
Of course, John Elway as QB was a clear sign who the owner was of Team V...:rolleyes:

So, what are the other owner-team combinations?

[Buccaneer]

Team VI had the best team on paper. But on the field? Eh.

[Ufer]

All 8 owners did a great job on this, including some very inventive choices. Since any of these teams would easily win the Super Bowl and probably go undefeated in a regular league, I (reluctantly) had to nitpick to vote each matchup –> look for weaknesses or identify players who were all-stars but not all-time dominators in their prime. That was not easy. For example, in the final, I voted for Team V:

Team V: fantastic offensive line and the best defense in this contest -- besides the great LB’s, add Reggie White, Bob Lilly, JJ, Haynes... I know others will disagree, but I rate Emmitt a bit below the all-time greats (Brown, Simpson, Payton, Sanders) and Daryl Johnston was a B/B+ in this context.

Team II: equally great O-Line and with Payton and Czonk, the best running game in the contest. fantastic interior run-D with Greene, Olsen and Singletary (and a great foil for Emmitt). Marino is superb but lacks deep wideout threat ideally suited to his long passing game (and mandatory to loosen up Team V’s great D). K.Greene and Thomas are great pass-rushers but (only in this context) slightly one-dimensional. I’m not sold on Tim McDonald.

I thought the 1 team unit idea employed by teams VI (Bears D) and VII (Skins O-Line) was creative, but eventually I counted it against them. Some of these players were not great and would get picked on in this league. VI and VII do have the 2 best QB’s.

[sabotai]

As owner of Team IV, I would just like to say...Mike Alstott...what the FUCK was I thinking? I don't remember...

Anyway, with regards to my team, I thought I was weak on the offensive line, missing out on most of the top guys I bidded on. Same with the linebackers. I got outbidded on A LOT of players. Usually only by a few points. 12 more points on my bid and L.T. would have been mine. :)

I thought that a lot of people would try to steal players with the 1 point or 5 point bids, which is why I never bidded fewer than 10 points. I don't know if that won me any players or not.

But, my 1st round lose was the closests lose of the round, only lost 19-14. All the other 1st round losers got blown out :D

[WSUCougar]

Any sign of those mini-dynasties?

Also, I don't want to "out" challengers if they don't want to reveal themselves, but I think it'd be interesting to hear some more about bidding strategies and approaches to filling the roster.

[TroyF]

WSU,

My mini dynasty is posted. I still have to finish it up with some bios, but the majority of it is complete.

Ufer,

Emmitt may be a step below some of the names you mentioned. Thing is, he fit this team perfectly. I didn't care about 80 yard jaunts. I cared about moving the chains. Emmitt will put the offense in 2nd and 7 more than he'll put it in 2nd and 12. (I wholeheartedly disagree with you on Barry Sanders being better than Emmitt for just that reason) Against defenses like this, there is no way you could recover from 2nd or 3rd and long. They'd pin back their ears and kill you. Emmitt is what he is. An inside runner who gets stronger as the game goes along. He's a terrific blocker and he rarely puts the ball on the ground.

He wasn't my first choice. I lost out on Brown by 6 points. I should never have bid 20 points on Johnston. If I'd have bid 1 point on him and 119 on Brown, I think my team would have been designed about as perfect as I could have dreamed it.

TroyF

[Ufer]

I agree with you Emmitt is a great fit for your team and a deserving hall of famer. You are also probably right about Barry Sanders -- he was not a great inside runner, maybe less effective in goal line situations and likely was tackled more in the backfield, though I'm sure not having Stepnoski, Williams, Gogan etc. blocking had some effect. I do have the impression Emmitt lacked the big play ability of OJ, Walter or Barry, but as you point out, there's only 1 Jim Brown and 8 contestants, and you did an outstanding job assembling the best team.

I hope none of the contestants take any of my comments as very critical; it was just hard to decide which of these all-star teams to vote for, so I needed some criteria.

[sterlingice]

Very cool idea and that was fun to follow. Great job guys!

SI