American - 2013
 

Invitations to AmericanFOFC have been sent to EF27, Gramm, Macro, and JR. It's time for the usual scheduling, redshirting, setting up of recruiting boards, etc.

I started everyone out at level 5, with the slow progression setting. Same sliders as the other leagues, but with 7 minute quarters instead of 8.

I think all of the quoted stuff below applies. Remember you can only recruit 2-star players or below. Also, don't forget to turn off Recruiting Board assitance.

Awesome

I'm all set on my recruiting board..

Are we going to try and play the exact same schedules? Like if one of us plays Duke we try to all play Duke?

I think that'd be hard to get 5 games against the same out-of-conference team for everyone. But everyone does play 4 humans each season. Plus, the cpu teams should all be strong.

I don't care how we do the schedules, I just wasn't sure if that was an idea being considered.. I guess the logistics would be damn near impossible to pin down anyway, heh.

Anyway, I kinda want some FCS action for my out of conference schedule. I feel like I need a couple games that might be in the easy category given this roster.

No FCS games, sir. Sorry. Please see rule 7. ;)

Oh shit, haha... Ok, give me mid tier teams, like Hawaii and Tennessee.

Alright guys, I will try and get stuff done if I can via the internet. Just so you know my schedule right now it is:

3/30 - Travel to BUF
3/31-4/1 Driving from BUF to UT
4/2 - Out of town for Work
4/4 - Back in town
4/6 - Hoping to get internet ordered and in the townhouse this week
4/9 - Out of town for work
4/13 - Back in town

I've finished my recruiting board (Outer Banks).

Not sure you can accept the invite online. We may need to hold until you can accept the invite in-game.

Week 2 - vs Hawaii
Week 4 - at UMass
Week 8 - at Tennessee

OOC game preferences?

Right now, I must say the scheduling logic sucks. Looking at Asheville right now, and they have locked conference games in weeks 1-8, then:

Wk 9 - Navy
Wk 10 - FCS
Wk 11 - FCS
Wk 12 Bye
Wk 13 Bye
Wk 14 Bye
Wk 15 at Vicksburg

Also, not sure why my coach prestige is C-, JR's is D-, and nobody else is listed. EF27 and Gramm - have you alloted your coach points yet?

There must be a randomness factor being applied?

I did allocate my points. I will look at those tomorrow morning.

Not sure why but my coach prestige is a B+.

I'll keep Navy. Please give me Tulane in week 11 and week 13 I will take any mid tier team.

Dola -

My recruiting board is set. Finding a 2 star gem is quite a treat! Of course, I know it is going to be very hard to actually get them to sign with our struggling program...

Must be some randomization in effect.

I'm just not very prestigious in real life, and the game has learned that by now I think.

:D

It makes sense. The game is powered by SkyNet, after all.

How about UMass, Connecticut, Marshall and whatever else in the mid tier range. Some other options are Florida Atlantic, UAB, FIU, MTSU, Western Kentucky, Old Dominion, Army.

And yes, I did allocate my recruiting points.

Can't get Tulane in any of your open weeks.

Week 9 at Navy
Week 11 vs. Kentucky
Week 13 vs. SMU

Let me know if those don't work for you.

Week 2 at Connecticut
Week 4 at Marshall
Week 5 vs. WKU

Unfortunately, your conference schedule starts with 4 away games, then 5 straight home games. Nice going, EA.

Those are fine.

Girlfriend ordered the internet today and I am damn excited. It should be there this week. It's going to be 105 Mbps! Screaming!

I have the 105 mbps... it is nice! :)

Accepted, board built.

Schedule requests?:)

The American 2013 - Week 1 - Deadline is 4/16 (Thur) at 11 p.m. EST
 

Looks like EF27 will be the first to dip his toe in the water. Good luck! The rest of us just have recruiting.

American

=============== Rochester Lake Monsters (0-0) ===============
This week, the Lake Monsters are idle.

=============== Orlando Talons (0-0) ===============
This week, the Talons are idle.

=============== Outer Banks Ospreys (0-0) ===============
This week, the Ospreys are idle.

=============== Asheville Axemen (0-0) ===============
This week, the Axemen travel to Chesapeake to face the Chesapeake Chitterlings (0-0).

=============== Maassluis Merchantmen (0-0) ===============
This week, the Merchantmen are idle.

Awesome! If my girl falls asleep early (she is allowed to stay up late for spring break), I will try to get my game in tonight. Otherwise, I will do my best to get it in before I go away for the trip.

Edit: Got the errors and had to do the fix Kodos posted. Didn't get my game in, but I did get my recruiting in. Looks like a tough road to even get these 2 star kids! Hope to get my game in during the next day or two. Worst case scenario is I get my game done when I get back into town as I am off all day Thursday.

Dola...

Just remembered that I don't leave for my business trip until 2pm on Monday and I am off that morning... So I will play my game Monday. Can't wait!

I'll get my recruiting in in a few.

EDIT: Done. The cache clearing worked for me.

Wow. Chesapeake's overall is 33 higher than ours. This is going to be very tough... :)

I'm excited about the possibility that none of us may make it to bowl eligibility.
In my SP career with this team I lost to an FCS team.

I'm hoping that it takes us a while to have competitive teams. I'll be disappointed if someone gets a national championship in the first couple of seasons.

Their first drive: 3 wild passes. We get a stop!

Our first drive stalled at the 50 when I decided I couldn't count on getting 2 yards and punted on 4th and 2.

Their 2nd drive - They marched down the field with ease. Their QB absolutely dissected our defense. Of course, he had wide open receivers to make it easy for him... They go up 7-0.

Our 2nd drive: We use a ground and pound with some short controlled passes to move the ball. We get inside their 10, but on 1st and goal from the 9, we get too cute and are sacked for a loss of 9. We just can't make up those yards and we have to settle for a FG :(

The only good news is that we ate up a lot of clock.

The kickoff return, they burst through our first line and have too much speed. Kickoff return for a TD. Down 14-3 like that.

We slowly march the ball down the field running it and using short passes. I decide to go for it on 4th and 3 from the 8... and the receiver holds onto the pass! We run the clock down more and get a TD with 19 seconds left to make it 14-10.

I consider squib kicking it but I kick it deep.... and I pay as they return another kickoff for a TD! Sheesh. 21-10 with 10 seconds left. At least, I get the ball next half.

Our first drive eats up most of the 3rd quarter but stalls inside the 10 as our receivers drop 2 potential TD passes. We decide to settle for a FG. Down 21-13.

We learned our lesson the hard way, we squib kick.

Somehow... someway, we get a defensive stop on 3rd and 10. They are going for it on 4th and 10 on our 34....

We pick off the pass!!!! Our first interception!

We go for it on 4th and 2 and complete the pass for 4 yards. Whew.

NO!!! Our best WR who is making all of our plays goes down with a serious injury and will miss most of the season :(

We are driving inside the 10... inspired by his loss... but now the windows are so small...

Colvin runs it in for a TD!!! 21-19. 3 minutes left. We are going for 2....

They stop the 2 point play with a quick sack of our QB.

We try squib kicking it but the speedster still gets it! Fortunately, a clipping penalty negates a huge return.

We get them into 3rd and 1.... we pack the middle.... they pitch it out and run it for 45 yards before our safety barely manages to catch the RB and shove him out of bounds. That gets them inside the 10 and we are running out of time outs.

We manage to stop them from scoring a TD but they were able to use up so much time before kicking the FG. We are down 24-19 and will get the kickoff with 12 seconds left...

No return of the deep kickoff.... can we get a deep pass somehow?

1st play... our WR drops a deep pass and he had a step on the guy...

2nd deep pass is broken up easily by their safety...

The Hail Mary is thrown so far wide left that it was out of bounds. Sheesh.

We fought hard but lose 24-19 to the Chitterlings.

(Now, please upload properly.)



Sheesh..... got the online dynasty error message :(

Retry isn't doing anything :(

I opened the ports and everything.

Sorry guys. I need to leave in 90 minutes, so not going to try again now. I'll try Thursday again. Hopefully, a patch or server update or something will get this going properly again.

Wow. That sucks that it still isn't working. JR's sig is right.

We get the ball first: They are stuffing our run game much better this time. We are forced into 3rd and 7... and convert. However, a sack on our next 2nd down put us into 3rd and long and we can't convert. Quick punt.

Wow. We get a sack on 3rd and 7 and force them to punt back! Go defense! :)

Our punt returner has a lane... he could... he gets tackled by a shoe string before he gets away for a long gain.

Our ground and pound is keeping the ball. End of 1: 0-0 and we are driving still.

5:39 to go in the half: Our backup HB runs it in from the 1 yard line. We take a 7-0 lead! :)

Our defense gets another sack on 3rd and 6 and we get the ball back again.


Crap... we got greedy and tried for a TD on 2nd and 8 from the 9 and instead threw a bad pick. At least, there were only 15 seconds left. Still, I blew a chance to take a 10-0 lead into halftime.

Up 7-0 at the half, but we are kicking off.

Wow. Our DE gets his 3rd sack of the day. At least 1 of them was a coverage sack... but the young man is having a suprising day. That gets them into 3rd and long and we get the stop (barely.)

The punt is a bit long and we get to start on the 20...

A big play action pass is the highlight of this drive... then our star WR goes down with an injury :(

4th and inches on the 2... we go for it.... and get stuffed. Darn, I should have taken the FG.

A pass to their TE gets them out of the shadow of their endzone.

Their QB (who is relatively slow) has a 31 yard rush to end the half. Darn. Should have kicked that FG...

Still, at the end of 3, we lead 7-0.

On 3rd and 2, our blitz forces the QB into a bad decision... they go for it on 4th and 2 from the 50... pass for 16 to their TE. He was WIDE open.

22 yard TD pass and it is tied at 7 with 5:31 to go...

31 yard kickoff return by our fastest player.

Our "star" WR has been able to return to the game!

Huge 15 yard pass to our TE on 3rd and 9!

Wow... we get a pass to our HB to covert a 4th and 11 from their 40...

We run the ball inside the 10.... we eat up clock....

We kick the FG with 1 second left... and it is good!!! We win 10-7! :)

Lambert, our DE, had 3 sacks to be our player of the game. Kid was huge.

(Now, please upload properly.)


I'm still getting the error. I stopped the highlights from uploading and everything.. such BS!

I hit retry at least 30 times. No luck.

Tried "retry" at least 100 times. No luck. So frustrating.

I think we're quickly running out of hope here, unfortunately. If anyone has a suggestion, I'm all ears.

I suggest we burn EA to the damn ground.

There's a suggestion we can all get behind.

Definitely. I've got the torch.

EF--do you want us to advance once everyone is done with recruiting, or do you want to give your game another swing?

I would like to give it one more try on Monday if that is ok.

Sounds good.

Depth chart change worked and also when we were having upload issues, I was getting odd messages about needing to sign into my EA profile or something like that... nothing this time. Everything has been smooth. Keeping my fingers crossed that the issue is fixed and this game will upload properly... starting it now. :)

At least you know your opponent pretty well now. :)

We elect to kickoff... we get them into 3rd and 10 as their QB has been erratic... then their WR blows by our man coverage and it is a long TD. Down 7-0.

Our 2nd pass of the game, they knock our QB out for the game. Gulp. We fail to convert on 4th down and turn it over at midfield.

After a rocky start, Jaime Canter is dissecting our defense but we get a sack on 2nd down and get them in 3rd and long and hold for a FG. Down 10-0 early.

Wow... our kick returned almost broke one but he gets caught from behind at their 45.

Our backup QB is Custer... oh boy.


At the end of 1, we are down 10-0 and have the ball on their 43 for a 3rd and 6...

We get 4 yards but fail to covert 4th and 2.

Claude Grim now has over 100 yards receiving for them in the 1st half... we have no answer for him.

On 4th and goal from the half yard line, we can't stop them from running it in. Down 17-0.

Custer is a terrible passer. He is throwing off target. When he throws on target, our WR"s are dropping it. We can't complete anything. This is getting ugly.

We get the ball back with 1 minute to go and down 20-0.

I decide to open up the offense and it works... we drive down the field with a hurry up offense. We get it on 4th and goal from the 3 as the half ends.

Down 20-7 at the half and we are getting the ball back.


Ground and pound offense eats up the whole 3rd quarter. We have 2nd and goal from the 1 as the quarter ends...

A power run works and we are only down 20-14 with 6:58 to go in the game...


2 easy passes and they are past mid field...

Overthrown ball. 2nd and 10...

Screen pass to Foreman for 5 yards. 3rd and 5...

Jaime overthrows his receiver! They punt and it is in the end zone. We start on our 20...

They stuff the run on 1st down...

Receiver drops a perfact pass on 2nd down....

Humphrey catches it and makes a move to pick up 9 yards more.. 20 yard gain!

They stuff the 1st down run again. Not working at all now.

2nd down pass is overthrown and almost picked...

Humphrey makes another play and catches it for 11 yards!

1st down, PA pass to our wide open TE for 18 yards!

1st and 10 on their 30...

1st down run only gets 1. 2nd and 9 and we are running down the clock..

Humphrey gets helped by a pick and gets open for 10 yard catch.

We get into a 3rd and 9 and Humphrey gains 8 on the catch..

On 4th and 1, I run it up the gut and gain 2.

We are inside the 15

A few runs and we get a 1st inside the 3... we run it for 2.

We run it in for a TD with 4 seconds left!

They try to ice our kicker...

He nails it!! We are up 21-20.



I'm not taking any chance on a kickoff return. I kick it out of bounds.


Hail Mary pass.... our Safety knocks it down!!!

We win 21-20!

Custer led a great last stand!

Humphrey may be underrated coming out of H.S. The kid can catch the ball!

He had 9 catches for 128 yards and a TD to win our player of the game.

(Now, please upload.)

It appears to have uploaded perfect! :)

We are set to advance!

True! Can't believe we pulled off the upset again. They were so tough.

We all wish we had someone like Humphrey on our roster. ;)

Congrats on the win. Will advance us tonight.

Week 2 - Deadline is 5/4 (Mon) at 11 p.m. EST
 

At long last, we are on to Week 2!

Outer Banks (0-0) at UConn (0-0)
Hawaii (0-0) at Orlando (0-0)
Asheville (1-0) at North Plainfield (0-1)
Rochester (0-0) at San Luis Obispo (0-0)
Vicksburg (1-0) at Chesapeake (0-1)

Oh god, oh man, oh boy, oh man... This is going to be a fun morning.

We actually had an easy time dispatching Hawaii, managed to score 42 on them. Our RB had 200 yards rushing and managed to find tons of room against them, breaking off a few long runs in the process. Our passing game was solid as well and our defense was adequate. I suspect things will get harder going forward, but Hawaii just wasn't ready for us.

Tried to do my recruiting, but got the error message. Grrrrrr. And I hate recruiting in the game. I liked using the website.

I'm getting the uploading error trying to do my recruiting as well... I was hoping to play my game today but not going to fight with it this morning if recruiting won't even work. Will try again later today.

Recruiting just worked this time, so trying to play North Plainfield who looks very tough...

They come out moving the ball very effectively. Long pass to their star WR and they are up 7-0 very quickly. 4 plays, 69 yards, in less than a minute.

Our ground and pound was doing good, until they forced a fumble and recovered it.

Wow. David Conti just gashed us for 27 yards rushing after shrugging off my DE.

We somehow hold them to a FG. 10-0.

Sheesh, our HB fumbles again. This time an OL dives on it.

We are down 10-0 at the end of 1.


This time, ground and pound works with a bit of passing mixed in. 4 yard TD pass to Humphrey. Down 10-7.

We got Conti into 3rd and 8, but he scrambled away from trouble and ran for 9 yards. Frustrating.

Conti runs for 10 more. Killing us with his feet.

He throws a nice pass and we are down 17-7 in a blink. Fortunately, we have a few minutes to get another score before halftime.

We run a hurry up offense and with quick passes we drive down the field... we are at the 5 with 3 seconds on the clock.. we hurry up and snap it... quick throw to Humphrey... TD!!!

Down 17-14 at the half and we get the ball to start the 2nd half.

We are grounding and pounding well but I decide to get cute and mix in more passes. 2 dropped passes inside the redzone and I have to settle for 3.

Tied at 17.

Conti picking us apart through the air. Moving it with ease this drive.

PA pass TD for Conti from the 2. We are down 24-17 late in the 3rd.


We convert a few 4th downs on this drive, but we finally get stopped on 4th and 2 from the 29. It will take a miracle to get the win now. 1:52 left.

No miracle. Bakken breaks a long run. Long TD run. We are down 31-17.

We lose the game 31-17. Only positive was Colvin had a nice day passing with over 200 yards and 2 TD's.

(Now, please upload.)

It appears to have uploaded fine! :)

Sounds like a good game. I hope the AI teams can be truly competitive in this league, so this recap made me feel good. (No offense!)

I understand and agree. I'd be disappointed a bit if I could win every game against the CPU stacked teams in this league.

I expect a lot more problems than when Hawaii gave me, in my SP career I am something like 2-4 I think.. Two losses against FCS teams.

Welp, San Luis Obispo whipped us, but so far, I can't get the game to upload.

They won the rematch, but not by as much. Yay, Lake Monsters. At least this time it uploaded.

I finally got the error to stop, recruited and got my game in. I'm now set to advance.

I am out of town until Saturday night. I won't get a chance to get a game or recruit in for any of the leagues until Monday...that is if it lets me.

recruiting is done, ready to advance

Week 3 - Deadline is 6/3 (Weds) at 11 p.m. EST
 

Welcome to Week 3! Macro's Maassluis Merchantmen get their American Conference debut against EF27's Asheville Axemen. Good luck, guys!



=============== Orlando Talons (1-0) ===============
Last week, Orlando won 42-30 against Hawai'i (0-1).
This week, the Talons are idle.


=============== Outer Banks Ospreys (1-0) ===============
Last week, Outer Banks won 38-24 against Connecticut (0-1).
This week, the Ospreys are idle.


=============== Asheville Axemen (1-1) ===============
Last week, Asheville lost 31-17 against North Plainfield (1-1).
This week, the Axemen travel to Maassluis to face the Maassluis Merchantmen (0-0).


=============== Maassluis Merchantmen (0-0) ===============
Last week the Merchantmen were idle.
This week, the Merchantmen will host Asheville (1-1).


=============== Rochester Lake Monsters (0-1) ===============
Last week, Rochester lost 28-10 against San Luis Obispo (1-0).
This week, the Lake Monsters will host Vicksburg (2-0).

EF27 let me know when you are open this week. I am off for the next 2 weeks but going to Vegas over the weekend,.

I work this week but can play most evenings after 9:00 or so.

The good news? This team is definitely a challenge for me. Vicksburg waxed us 42-14, thanks in part 6 turnovers, including two that went the other way for 6. When will the Lake Monsters get their first win?

Recruiting 2 stars and having to battle for them since were all recruiting from the same pool makes it exciting. It also means things won't be getting easy quick. I'll be recruiting tomorrow more than likely.

Macro,

If evenings don't work for you, I am off next week and can play anytime on Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday of next week.

Can we do Weds next week at 9 pm EST or later. I am getting ready to head out of town for fishing and Vegas for the weekend.

Deadline adjusted.

Sure. See you then.

Just checking to see if you are still on for tonight?

EaglesFan27, I just got hijacked to go to future in laws for dinner. I don't know when I will be back.

Can you do tomorrow night? If not, play the game without me.

I'm 90% sure I can play tomorrow night. I need to check with my wife who is out tonight, so it was a great night to play. But, I understand the importance of keeping the future in laws happy! Have a great night and I'll let you know once I talk to my wife if I can play tomorrow.

I can't do tonight after all. Daughter is spending the night at her uncle and aunt's place, so we have rare quality alone time. I can do most other evenings.

Ok, tonight was my open night, go ahead and play the game I won't be able to play until next Monday / Tues.

My future step daughter graduates tomorrow and we have a weekend of family stuff going on.

We can wait. This league is going to move slower by its nature. More head-to-head games = slower pace.

Sounds good. I can play Monday or Tuesday night after 9 PM Eastern.

Monday at 9 pm EST would be perfect. I will be there and ready to go!.

Sounds good! :)

Sorry! My girl took longer than usual to get to sleep due to Thunderstorms in the area. Hopefully, they don't cause any power issues. I'm on now!

Macro and I had an exciting offensive battle. He jumped to a 21-7 lead but we fought back and a key play was a fumble by Macro's QB on a long run turned into a key moment in the game. That led to a quick TD by our offense which was very explosive tonight. Macro responded with a long TD on a kick return. It was back and forth but we managed to maintain a lead throughout the 2nd half and a late interception sealed the win. We won 56-42.

We are all set to advance the week.

Games in this format I expect to be excessively fun and frustrating at the same time. Looking forward to my first one.

I don't know if you could hear my GF and her daughter and daughters boyfriend through my kinect but they were talking smack to me for giving up the lead and then losing the game, they took it to the next level! With them watching my games it's going to be a blast for me.

I would be like "Get out!"

I couldn't. My wife was napping on the couch next to me so I had the sound down. It was a very fun game!

:D

My wife talks during some games and then gets a bit frustrated when I give her "uh-huh" as an answer to everything.

I loved it, cause my first TD was a short pass to my FB out in the flat who rumbled it into the endzone mowing guys over and the girlfriend goes "Boom! That's how it's done!" set the tone for me the rest of the game, laughing and having fun.

When he hit my QB and I fumbled after the long run, I dropped a few choice words and she looked at me and said "Are you gonna take that! Stop him"

Yeah, it made it fun!

I couldn't believe that FB play at the beginning. You had some great calls against my blitzes and some great individual plays like that one.

Week 4 - Deadline is 6/10 (Weds) at 11 p.m. EST
 

Welcome to Week 4!

Rochester, still searching for their first win, will host Asheville this week, while the Talon-ted Orlando squad heads north to face Maassluis. Edit: UMass, not UMaass.

=============== Asheville Axemen (2-1) ===============
Last week, Asheville won 56-42 against Maassluis (0-1).
This week, the Axemen travel to Rochester to face the Rochester Lake Monsters (0-2).


=============== Orlando Talons (1-0) ===============
Last week the Talons were idle.
This week, the Talons travel to Amherst to face the UMass Minutemen (0-2).


=============== Outer Banks Ospreys (1-0) ===============
Last week the Ospreys were idle.
This week, the Ospreys travel to Huntington to face the Marshall Thundering Herd (1-0).


=============== Maassluis Merchantmen (0-1) ===============
Last week, Maassluis lost 56-42 against Asheville (2-1).
This week, the Merchantmen will host Vicksburg (3-0).


=============== Rochester Lake Monsters (0-2) ===============
Last week, Rochester lost 42-14 against Vicksburg (3-0).
This week, the Lake Monsters will host Asheville (2-1).

Its gonna be a UMassacre

Well it wasn't a UMassacre, but we won 45-33. UMass jumped out 21-7 before we recovered and figured out how to slow down their offense. Our offense was on the whole game, with only 2 drives failing to result in scores. It certainly helped that UMass is not much better than a cupcake team. 2-0 start, but we haven't really played anyone of note yet.

Heh. I got UMass and UMaass confused...

I can play Friday evening if we can start the game early (by 7 pm.). Otherwise, I can play any evening after Subday starting around 9:00 to 10:00 pm.