INSANE Championship run by an AI team.
 

A discussion in another thread led me to post detailed info on this team. Carolina, run by the AI, had an incredible run that I think is worthy of being chronicled here:



Take particular note of 2008-2016. Over those nine years, they appeared in seven Front Office Bowls, and won five of 'em. A few key player details to follow...

The team was led by QB Allen Alcott, the 19th pick in the preference draft. Alcott won 139 POG Awards, 41 POW awards, 4 MVPs, and a number of other awards during his illustrious career. He remained with the Panthers from the pref draft until his retirement after the 2021 year. His overall stats:

58431 passing yards
409 TD passes
94.7 career QB rating
186-82-1 record

More players to follow later...

Only one RB worth mentioning was on the team for this run, Erik Talley. He was a preference draftee who rushed for 1,579 yards and 14 TD's in the first title season. Talley got hurt in the 2009 preseason and missed the entire season. He came back in 2010 to start 7 games, rushing for 972 yards, but was a shell of his former self at 3.70 yards per carry. He did get a second ring, then retired. The point of mentioning him is to note that Carolina obviously was able to handle the bonus hit from his retirement. He signed a 4-year, $48.25M deal in 2009, so he had a hefty bonus amount remaining when he retired.

From looking at the season-by-season numbers above, it's clear that the Panthers had two marquee receivers through the course of this run, Sam Blackwell and Ty Copperfield. Blackwell came first, drafted 1(13) in 2007 by Carolina. Copperfield was drafted 1(13) the following season, back-to-back 13th picks that proved to be incredibly unlucky for the rest of the league. Copperfield remained a Panther through 2016, and then played his final year in KC. He ended up with 11,319 receiving yards and 85 TDs in his career, and wears five championship rings. Blackwell also remained a Panther through 2016 and played his final year elsewhere, in Orlando. Blackwell racked up 12,497 receiving yards and 103 TDs in his career. Quite a combo!

The Panthers also acquired a lineman worth noting during this run. C Bubba Lareche was drafted 2(32) in 2009, and stuck with Carolina through all of his 15-year career.

There were also a few role player types that stuck around for 5-10 years during this time, but none worth really noting. I think the key thing to note, though, is that the AI kept together a trio of stars like Alcott, Blackwell and Copperfield long enough to go to seven Front Office Bowls, despite having to deal with the cap hit from an injury-forced retirement of a marquee player. Very, very nice!

Do me a favor and e-mail that team history screenshot to the underachieving John Fox.

Odd... in my current career, Carolina (from random rosters) also was a monster AI team -- they were 3-2 in the superbowls from 2006 through 2010. Do the math. Ouch.

Well, what you don't want to know is that I actually started this career with them not being Carolina, but OBX, using the city files that were created for the IHOF 2K7 test league. I switched to the NFL configuration when the new IHOF files came out, and I wanted to take over a new team to start my dynasty thread.

Wow, Iverson sure knows how to put together a team... ;)

Really impressive, wow. I think I've never seen anything like that in my SP careers.

Me either. Heck, none of my teams have had a nine-year run with 7 title game appearances in the new game.

I'd take just one freakin' trip to the FOF bowl. I've played 6 seasons so far, finishing over .500 each season, only making the playoffs 4 times, and I have an overall playoff record of 3-4, which counts two seasons where I was one&done. Stupid challenging game ;)

Sort of like the Colts, except for the Superbowl wins and all....

It's very easy to start winning bowls if you have an elite QB. It's very hard to even get to one if you don't. Before my game corrupted, I had a career with the best QB in the league. He had won 5 bowls already by his 11th year, and if the game hadn't gone belly-up, he'd probably have gotten more.

In an earlier game, I had a QB win 8 bowls with two different teams. It didn't matter whether he was AI or mine, he still won them.

I think the QBs are a tad too important in this iteration of FOF.

That's why I mortgage my future drafts to trade up for a franchise-type QB. In my 20-year Lions career, I had 2 absolute studs and won 10 championships. I just resigned the Lions to take over the Ravens, who in 20 years have not even been to the playoffs. My first task will be to find that franchise QB to start the turn-around.

As an aside, my first task will be to hire a head coach, and I see that the same guy has been the Ravens' coach since 2006. Twenty years, no playoff appearances, and the worst record over the past 2 decades, and he kept his job for the entire run?! This guy makes Matt Millen look like Richie Petitbon by comparison!

This is always a point of contention (after all quarterbacks are important), but I have to agree with you.

*Possibly pic to follow*

My stud QB went to the playoffs four years in a row, but I lost him in a free agency battle. The next season, with a rookie QB with low potential at that, I suffered a 4-12 season. It's very similar to the NFL. Obviously the pendulum may have swung too far on how dominant one particular team can be (7 out of 9???) but it's still a lot better than the almost random event the FOF championship used to be in the old days.

*snip*

Actually that makes no sense at all. Silly me.

Meh, I don't know if it's really that far off from the NFL. I've had success with mediocre QBs in this game. From an old thread I made:





I've put up good numbers with worse QBs, but I didn't keep track.

I've won several Superbowls in test careers with slightly below average to average QB's who had very good WR's, a very good back, a good line, and a very good defense. I think there are multiple paths to winning just like the NFL. Certainly, a stud QB is one of the more sure paths, but I don't think it is the only path.

Another AI dynasty appears to be in the works in my career. Detroit has won four Conference Championships in the last five seasons, and their starting QB is 66-15.

Later in the same career, the Lions had a nice run where they went to six out of eight Front Office Bowls from 2023-2030, winning two.

As quick as you play, I'd love to see you start in 1960 and see the records once you got to 2007. :)

Quik-sim™.