The Ladder - 2023

[Kodos]

I'll probably play tomorrow morning.

[Eaglesfan27]

USC crushed Wisconsin as our defense generally played very well and our offense was very efficient although we did stall on 2 drives. Bell had a near perfect day before being injured in the 4th. Fortunately, it was just a minor injury and he should be back next week.

[Kodos]

Great. Now I'm the one holding things up again!

[Kodos]

We're on to Week 9.

Week 8 Results

Indiana 69, Georgia 37
UTSA 56, Virginia Tech 28
USC 70, Wisconsin 6


Week 9 Games

Washington (4-2) at #1 Indiana (6-0)
#3 Florida Atlantic (6-0) at Texas A&M (2-4)
#6 USC (6-1) at UCLA (4-4)

We had a hard time stopping Georgia's offense, but they had no luck stopping us, aside from one interception. We won 69-37.

[Eaglesfan27]

FYI -

I'm on a cruise March 12th to the 19th. I will definitely get this week's game in before I go and possibly next week's depending upon when we advance.

[Julio Riddols]

I should be getting my game in tonight before I jump back into the black hole that is Terraria.

Edit: I was disappointed to find that I have a bye.

[Eaglesfan27]

Other than beating human opponents, there is nothing I like more in this league than demolishing UCLA. We crushed them 63-7.... in the first half.

I lost focus for a bit in the 3rd quarter but we cruised to a 112-14 victory over the little cubbies.

There are so many highlights, far too many to cover them all but a few:

My top two WR's and my TE each had 100 yards receiving in the first half.

My running back had 100 yards rushing in the first half.

Bell had 6 TD's passing by halftime.

Rowe, our star RB finished with a career high of almost 200 yards and 3 TD's.

4 receivers with at least 2 TD's receiving and 2 of them had 3. Lambert had a monster game with 15 catches for 250 yards and 3 TD's.

Fuller led the defense with 9 tackles, 5 for a loss, and 2 sacks as we harassed their QB all day and finished with 6 sacks and many throw aways...

Speaking of which, due to the pressure, their QB threw 4 picks including 2 to our star S Jordan Burks. Freshman starting MLB Sterling Brown also got a pick (2nd of his young career.)


Special teams also featured big returns by our speedsters, White. All 3 phases were completely dominant today.

[CU Tiger]

We won.
10 sacks by my D.
RB Tutins had a big game.
No where near as dominant as USC...but we did what we could...

[Kodos]

Week 9 Results

Indiana 76, Washington 30
Florida Atlantic 70, Texas A&M 17
USC 112, UCLA 14


Week 10 Games

#1 Indiana (7-0) at Penn State (3-4)
#2 UTSA (7-0) at #7 Duke (6-1)
#4 Oklahoma (6-0) at #3 Florida Atlantic (7-0)
#6 USC (7-1) at Stanford (3-6)

[Eaglesfan27]

Not going to get my game in before the cruise, but I will do my best to get it on Sunday when I get back.

[Julio Riddols]

Duke should be fun.

[Eaglesfan27]

USC's offense had an "off" day compared to what we usually do, but our defense came out playing lights out. 1st play of the game, So CB Eric Allen, finally showed some of the skills that I thought he would be displaying as he picked it off and used his tremendous speed to take it to the house. He and his teammates in the secondary shut down their offense for the first 3 quarters as we held them under 50 yards passing and to 0 points. Our defense did tire in the 4th and gave up over 150 additional yards. Still, they played great and Allen finished with 2 picks. The offense had 3 turnovers and that cost us points but we still took a 42-0 lead into halftime. In the 2nd half, our offense messed up 2 more drives but we still cruised to a 77-7 victory. Bell threw for over 500 yards and rushed for almost 150 more. 6 receivers had at least 1 TD and 3 of them had 2 receiving TD's. The defense had 8 sacks including 3 from Kiniry who is having a big year. Speedy WR TJ White had another kickoff return for a TD.

[Kodos]

IU falls from 1 to 3, top 4 is UTSA, FAU, IU, USC. Human dominance!


Week 10 Results

Indiana 70, Penn State 7
UTSA 59, Duke 7
Florida Atlantic 63, Oklahoma 48
USC 77, Stanford 7


Week 11 Games

#1 UTSA (8-0) at Texas A&M (3-5)
#2 Florida Atlantic (8-0) at Florida State (1-7)
#20 Buffalo (6-2) at #3 Indiana (8-0)
Arizona (3-5) at #4 USC (8-1)

[Julio Riddols]

I sometimes feel like the key to being ranked number one is to win by less than 60 and allow as few points as possible. Or something like that.

I'll get my game in tonight.

[CU Tiger]

Our defense is broke

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

I sometimes feel like the key to being ranked number one is to win by less than 60 and allow as few points as possible. Or something like that.

I'll get my game in tonight.

I think SOS is heavily weighed too.

[Julio Riddols]

Playing my game now. You may be right with SOS, but I do feel like the game penalizes teams for running up the score. Purely anecdotal, just a vibe I get. Otherwise I don't know why it would give you coach points for kneeling in the last minute of the game.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

Playing my game now. You may be right with SOS, but I do feel like the game penalizes teams for running up the score. Purely anecdotal, just a vibe I get. Otherwise I don't know why it would give you coach points for kneeling in the last minute of the game.

Interesting thought. I did used to be ranked higher when I didn't run up the score, but I also was usually beating Kodos in the regular season then.. I think defensive stats and SOS are most important factors.

[Julio Riddols]

Yeah, I think ultimately our teams are so close together that the game essentially flips a coin. If this was real life, people would be going nuts about there being no playoff in place.

[Eaglesfan27]

Nothing to do with the league directly, but I'm happy to be able to announce that my wife and I are expecting a child in late September/Early October! Mary is very excited to have a baby sister/brother on the way!

[Kodos]

Congratulations, EF!

[Julio Riddols]

Nice to hear the good news EF! We're considering trying for number 2 in June.

[Eaglesfan27]

Thanks guys! We are super excited!

[CU Tiger]

Congrats!

[Kodos]

I look forward to you being more tired when we play each other!

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I look forward to you being more tired when we play each other!

LOL. I am sure I will be. Looking forward to the paternity bonding time. I haven't taken 6 weeks off in a row in forever...

[Eaglesfan27]

USC had troubles stopping Arizona from moving the ball particularly the 1st drive where their QB ran all over us. He was very fast and elusive and had a very good arm. He torched us for a lot of yards, but except for the first drive and one long pass, we kept them out of the endzone. We cruised to an 84-17 win that featured over 600 yards passing from Bell and over 100 yards rushing along with 7 passing and 3 rushing TD's for him. SR DT Garrett Kiniry was the star of our defense with 4 sacks.

[Kodos]

6 weeks. Nice! I could go for that.

[Kodos]

Week 11 Results

UTSA 42, Texas A&M 14
Florida Atlantic 17, FSU 14
Indiana 42, Buffalo 12
USC 84, Arizona 17

I don't know what the voters are smoking. FAU barely beats a 1-7 FSU squad, and yet they stay ahead of us. Someone should tell the NCAA that it's time to get a new computer!


Week 12 Games

Nebraska (2-7) at #1 UTSA (9-0)
#2 Florida Atlantic (9-0) at #6 Georgia Tech (7-2)
#16 Michigan (6-3) at #3 Indiana (9-0)
Washington (4-5) at #4 USC (9-1)

[CU Tiger]

beat 'em on a last second FG no less.

they played like rockstars and I could do nothing

I dont deserve to be top 10...ive been playing bad all year

[Eaglesfan27]

Yay! I'm off tomorrow and was hoping I'd be able to play my next game

[Eaglesfan27]

Our defense was very bad today but our offense (with the exception of 1 fumble and 1 pick) was very very good. We cruised to an 84-35 win over Washington.

[Kodos]

I think Washington gave our defense trouble too.

[Julio Riddols]

I'll get my game in tonight or tomorrow probably. Gotta keep it close to hold that top spot, haha.

[Julio Riddols]

Game in, we won 49-3.. Nebraska was playing extremely aggressive and we scored 5 times on 16 plays in the first half mostly by beating the press with no safety help. Second half we started by trying to continue looking for the big play but they changed things up so we settled in and ran the ball and played defense most of the rest of the way.

In the 4th quarter our top RB went down to a season ending injury, so that sucks.. Gonna have to put even more on the shoulders of the Soph QB. Might consider putting our freshman backup QB at RB for a game to see how he does.

[CU Tiger]

Another close win. Another last minute score .


Nothing works on offense. So frustrated.

[Eaglesfan27]

Because we are older parents, we had to do some additional blood tests that test for Down Syndrome and a few other genetic issues as well as neural tube defects. They also test for the sex of the baby and genetic diseases on those chromosomes...

Well, everything is completely healthy from this test. Furthermore, I just found out I'm having a boy!!! One boy and one girl has always been my dream. Of course, I just wanted a healthy baby but I'm so excited that we will be having a boy!!!

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola -

Yesterday, my daughter said, "You know I just throw around the football because you like it. I hope we have a boy so he can throw the football with you."

Of course, I told her, "we don't have to throw around the football. I thought you liked it too. Let's do something else." She said, "No, I want to throw it around more."

[Kodos]

Week 12 Results

Florida Atlantic 28, Georgia Tech 21
UTSA 49, Nebraska 3
Indiana 63, Michigan 6
USC 84, Washington 35


Week 13 Games

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Another close win. Another last minute score .


Nothing works on offense. So frustrated.

FAU is barely winning against inferior opponents all the way to the top!

#1 Florida Atlantic (10-0) at Virginia Tech (4-6)
#2 UTSA (10-0) at Texas (4-6)
#3 Indiana (10-0) at Ohio State (5-5)
#4 USC (10-1) at Oregon State (5-5)

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Because we are older parents, we had to do some additional blood tests that test for Down Syndrome and a few other genetic issues as well as neural tube defects. They also test for the sex of the baby and genetic diseases on those chromosomes...

Well, everything is completely healthy from this test. Furthermore, I just found out I'm having a boy!!! One boy and one girl has always been my dream. Of course, I just wanted a healthy baby but I'm so excited that we will be having a boy!!!

We felt that way when our second child was a girl after the first was a boy. I was so happy to have a complete set and not have to worry about my wife pushing for a third child! Congratulations again, and always good to get over those hurdles with the testing.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Dola -

Yesterday, my daughter said, "You know I just throw around the football because you like it. I hope we have a boy so he can throw the football with you."

Of course, I told her, "we don't have to throw around the football. I thought you liked it too. Let's do something else." She said, "No, I want to throw it around more."

Ironically, my daughter likes to play catch with the football more than my son does.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Ironically, my daughter likes to play catch with the football more than my son does.

I was thinking the same thing yesterday... no guarantee that just because he is a boy he will want to play sports or throw around a ball.

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by Kodos

FAU is barely winning against inferior opponents all the way to the top!

It really beats anything Ive ever seen.
We've all played those games where from the word go it seems like the computer is out to get you? Well that has been every game this year except 1.


Ive shuffled starters, changed my defensive playbook.
Changed play calls. You name it.
This last game I forced quick turnovers and had two quick scores to go up 14-0 in the first 2 game minutes. From there it was unbelievable. I had 2 separate WR behind the D on go routes , one dropped a ball and it bounced off his hands 15 yards. The other the ball went out of bounds and was caught oob.

Running holes wide open, 95 speed running back caught from behind by NT for a 1 yard gain.

You name it, it was happening. And its been this way every week....except against texas A&M but even then they put up 400 yards of offense on me.

I have 1 little slant/wham combo route that is a go to for critical 3rd downs. I dont think Ive ever seen where both WRs are covered. Ever. Its been snuffed out the last 2 games completely.

[Kodos]

I've noticed that sometimes, if I fly down the field on my first possession, then the CPU suddenly becomes tougher. But, yeah, there are definitely games where it seems like the CPU is working to make you lose.

[Julio Riddols]

I think the AI adapts play to play and game to game. I used to be able to run curl routes all the time, now they counter it by running a safety or LB underneath the route or bumping my guy. So I start running slants. It works for a bit, then they start running cover 2 type plays and my guys are hard to hit in those tight windows. Well, now that they're dropping their LB's into zones, I decide to start running it on them. That works for a while, but then they start blitzing the run. I move to screen passes. That silences the blitz, and now they're back in man.

Some games the CPU has a good idea what I am going to do right out of the gate, other games I seem to hit them with something they either can't defend well due to the defense they run, or something they're not ready for. Sometimes they never adjust, sometimes they figure me out and I lose some momentum until I find something else that works.

There are those games though, where it is near impossible to get a guy open or find a running lane fast enough. Real hard to win those.

[CU Tiger]

And I have those same adapt and counter games myself. I get that. But this season has been something different.

There is one particular route that is present in a half dozen different plays in several formations.

The slant WR runs a 5 yard then wiggle slant. If they are in man or BNR, you can lead him and pull the WR to the ball. If they are in a zone look the traditional slant breaks the zone. And if they are in any combo coverage you can simply lob it and lead him up field and the WR will break the slant into more of a post and you can hit him under the high safety.

Julio I know you've seen it from me when we have played. It is my long go to 3rd and 4th and critical conversion play. All the variations still work to hit the guy in the hands with the ball. Now he just drops it. No matter who the guy is, Ive tried several different WR there.

Similarly I have like fake fly sweep counter play that eats blitzes for lunch. Only this year Ive ran it 4-5 times its been gobbled up everyone.

tiem to practice

[Eaglesfan27]

Oregon State's RB gave us fits in the 1st half and our offense fumbled twice that stalled us out but we still took a 42-21 lead into halftime. In the 2nd half, every phase clicked and we cruised to the 91-21 win.

The only downside is that our #2 RB suffered an injury that will cost him a few weeks. Hopefully, he can be back by the time we face Indiana again.

On the plus side, our 4th string HB (RS FR) got to play the entire 4th quarter and he had a huge game for 1 quarter. He is a much better player than I realized and scored 2 times with tough runs and great YAC. Our 3rd string HB also added 3 TD's on the day. Love to see the guys who will be featured next year step up big in this game.

Edit to add: Love seeing 3 USC guys in the top 5 for the Heisman race.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Edit to add: Love seeing 3 USC guys in the top 5 for the Heisman race.

That's right. Split the votes, and then Mark Roberts sneaks in for the win.

[CU Tiger]

Shit.
I'm not sure my xbox can stand this.

After trailing 21-7 at half I battled back to tie it at 24-24. I finally made VT punt and the ball bounced off my returners head and despite controlling him it wouldnt let me run towards the ball for several seconds. VT scores, I answer its 31-31. I 3 and out them and...the fumbled punt scene replays......now its 34-31.
I take my first lead of the game 38-34.
Stop them again here comes the ball and the chanc to put the game away. I change my punt returner and then I fair catch the punt. ANOTHER FUMBLE...VT recovers. First play not 1 but 2 DEs BOUNCE off their QB who then throws a 30 yard TD to a double covered WR....


Like a 12 year old I threw the remote.

Here is a fun fact for you. XBOX consoles are sturdier than the remotes. The controller exploded. The console froze...but appears otherwise fine.

So thats a restart...I'll replay the game tonight because Im out the rest of the weekend.


If the replay is like the last game I may be done with the league.....

This is stupid. I havent forgot how to play the game. Its crazy. I am giving up sacks on quick slants. Runs are useless. Im not sure why I am seeing this, I know we are all on Heisman difficulty. Im just dumb founded.

[Kodos]

I think we're on AA, actually. I could be wrong.