NOFL: Week 2 has started! Deadline is 8/21/08 at 10 PM

[Eaglesfan27]

Everyone can now do their week 2 activities. Everyone has a CPU game this week, so I'm hopeful we can get done much sooner than the deadline.

[bhlloy]

I just played Penn St, and then couldn't connect to the EA Servers for 30 mins so I had to abandon the result. Anyone else having issues?

[DeToxRox]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

I just played Penn St, and then couldn't connect to the EA Servers for 30 mins so I had to abandon the result. Anyone else having issues?

Had it in the EBFL. I just ended up having to throw out my win and replay the game. Thankfully I won again but it is frustrating.

[Kodos]

I've had that happen. I think if you wait around long enough, the servers come back up. Kinda tough if you want to go to bed though.

[Anthony]

i was up 30-6 in my game and the game froze after my opponent scored a td. i'm fucking pissed and will now have to reluctantly replay this game.

[Raiders Army]

Won 45-21, but two of their TDs were INTs returned for TDs. Much more difficult game this week. Anyhow, my team is rated a 81 overall now.

[BigDPW]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

Won 45-21, but two of their TDs were INTs returned for TDs. Much more difficult game this week. Anyhow, my team is rated a 81 overall now.

Yeah I noticed that in the preseason... I think you are rated 81 because Fairdale Kings reworked a duplicate player on OSU to become someone else...

[BigDPW]

So am I safe to play my game today or will I just lose the result?

[Eaglesfan27]

There is always a chance that the servers will be down, but there is no notice that they are down all day today. I'm planning on going ahead and playing my game in the RFL tonight and my NOFL game tomorrow morning. I'm crossing my fingers there will be no issues, but I'll be prepared to wait around for a bit and keep resubmitting if necessary.

[Galaxy]

Just shame. Shame. We fell to UB 42-28. A late fumble by our QB, that the UB defense scooped up for a touchdown return, put the nail in the coffin.

This team has no defense, or speed. It's going to be a long two or three years until I can get the talent and speed levels up on the roster.

I know how Pumpy feels with Minnesota in the RFL.

[Sun Tzu]

a lot of us are going to have tough games this week. I play the #14 Arizona State Sun Devils...oy vay.

[Anthony]

fucking 360 locked up on me twice (including the time i mentioned above). i was ahead in both games, and decided to give it one more go cuz i was getting tired replaying the same game. for the 3rd attempt the opposition went ahead in the 3rd quarter so i disconnected since i didn't want to be penalized for stuff out of my control. i played the game a 4th time and was able to finish. i don't know where this stands in terms of illegal gameplay or not, all i know is Duke isn't a good team so if i play a game where i'm trouncing the other team (rated higher than mine) and the game freezes up then i don't want to get penalized for that. just bringing this forward so there isn't any speculation that i'm trying to be shady.

[Kodos]

I think there is a real good chance we lose to GA Tech. I haven't exactly been crushing the cpu teams...

[Sun Tzu]

cheater

[Kodos]

I haven't even played yet!

[Kodos]

Sounds shady...













Just kidding.

[Kodos]

Well, this sucks. I was down 17-7 in the fourth with about 4 minutes left, and inside their twenty when I got a dirty disc error. The game had been freezing and restarting every now and again between plays, but I was hoping I could get to the end before it died completely. No dice. Part me thinks I should accept it as a loss, and part of me thinks I still had a chance.

Arrrrrrrrrgh.

[Kodos]

Well, in the redo, we lost the turnover battle 3-0 on our way to a 14-13 loss. We had a chance to take the lead late, but an interception while trying to get into FG ranged ended our chances. Losing our starting QB for a while and our star ROLB for most of the game didn't help either.

Ah well. We probably would have lost the first game as well. Now I at least don't have to feel guilty at all.

[Sun Tzu]

Tempe, AZ

The unranked Stanford Cardinal came into town against the #14 Arizona State Sundevils thinking upset. Could they pull it off?

The Cardinal struck first late in the first quarter, with a long and beautiful drive that resulted in a 1 yard plunge into the endzone on 4th down by their big senior FB Marecic. ASU would march right back in dominating fashion, making a statement of their own that nobody comes into their house and shoves them around. In a drive that took just under a minute and a half, the Sundevils Quarterback hooked up with his wideout for a 6 yard TD pass tying the game back up.

In the second quarter ASU would take it's first lead on a long 44 yard field goal that split the uprights. The Cardinal would march right back though, and with only 37 second left in the half, true freshman Quarterback Andrew Luck found his Tight End over the middle on a 13 yard strike, giving them a 14-10 lead going into halftime.

The third quarter would kick off with a long Cardinal drive that stalled out on the 23 yard line, where the Stanford kicker would convert a 40 yard field goal making the score 17-10. The Sun Devils took the ensuing kickoff all the way back to their opponents 45 but a shoestring tackle would save the touchdown. That tackle turned out to be huge as the Cardinal defense would tighten up and force the ASU offense to attempt and convert another field goal...thus making the score 17-13. Stanford them put together an amazing drive, mixing up run plays with Andrew Kimble and accurate clutch passing from Luck. On third and long from their own 19, Luck dropped back and immediately had 2 defenders in his face...the blitz was on! Luck avoided one of them and at the very last second fired a pass deep into the endzone where his Tight End was wide open...touchdown! With 1:22 left in the third quarter the upset minded preppies from Palo Alto take an 11 point lead...24-13.

ASU then put together another one of their absolutely beautiful drives. Completing pass after pass, and racking up yards on the ground. Several minutes later on the Stanford 16 yard line, Carpenter fired a perfect lob pass over the head of a DB right into the open arms of his Wideout...touchdown ASU! They would line up and attempt to a 2 point conversion to bring the game to within 3, and make the Cardinal really sweat...run up the gut...he's stuffed! No Good! The score is now 24-19.

This drive would be make or break for Stanford. Up by 5 with just under six minutes left in the game, they would have to not only score to help secure a victory, but they would have to grind it out and burn some time off the clock too. As it turns out, Andrew Luck was up to the task. Though the true freshman was rattled by the loud ASU crowd all game long, on this drive he finally silenced them. Completing pass, after pass, after pass, mixed in with some hard nosed runs by Kimble, Luck was seeing his recievers routes perfectly and firing pinpoint passes to them down after down. Burning several minutes off the clock in a long drive, Luck had brought them down to the 19 yard line with just over 3 minutes left in the game. Up by 5, Luck walks up to the line...he see's the Defense lined up in a massive blitz once again trying to rattle the young Quarterback...here's the play...

EA SPORTS World: NCAA Football 09 Video

This would be the nail in the coffin, putting the upset minded preppies from Palo Alto up by 12 points with exactly 3 minutes to play. Though the Sun Devils would score a late touchdown, Andrew Luck had led his team to a big interconference upset.

The Final Score
Stanford - 34
ASU - 26

POTG
Andrew Luck - 24/31, 246, 3-0

[Raiders Army]

Was that a 15 step drop?

[Sun Tzu]

Funny man

I was only 11 yards behind the line when I threw it, which isn't all that far when a team does an all out blitz.

[BigDPW]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

Was that a 15 step drop?

I counted 17 to be exact...

[Sun Tzu]

bastards

[Eaglesfan27]

Even though BYU is ranked in the polls, their overall rating is 79, the same as ours. I feel good about this game at home:

The game started off rough with a Locker pick on his first pass. BYU turned that into 3 points after we stopped them from the 1 on 3 consecutive runs. We then scored 21 unanswered points, but the last TD was costly. Our star FB, Kravitz dislocated his elbow on a TD run and will be out for 7 weeks. I expect us to run it more out of the spread as a result.


We are up 28-6 at the half.


Locker finally breaks one of his option keepers for a 48 yard TD run:

(I tried to embed it, but it was all messed up.)

http://www.easportsworld.com/en_US/video/213882

A minute later our defense gets its second INT of the game, and this one is returned for a TD. 42-6 late in the 3rd.


With a 49-6 lead, we pull Locker with over 6 minutes to go in the 4th. Not a great day for him, but a great win anyway. He was 12 of 22 for 140 yards with 2 TD's 2 INT's. Long of 38 yards to Goodwin for a TD on a streak. He also had 6 carries for 80 yards (1 scramble, 5 option keepers) and a TD.


We win the game 56-6.

[SirFozzie]

Won 38-14.. and it really wasn;t that close, they had one Offensive TD, and then a QB Sack Fumble/TD 3 plays later

[BigDPW]

I lost a heart breaker to Western Kentucky of all teams... 41-38 (2-OT) in my house... Was a shootout from the word go!

They racked up in excess of 400 yds total (mostly passing) and I totalled about 350 yds total (and ~180 yds rushing). My denfense could not stop them the whole game. I think in total I had about 4 stops and 2 of those were from INTs (another one from Terrell Manning my true frosh LB). I protected the ball well through the air but had a fumbled option pitch early in the game and a very costly fumble on a run up the middle in the 2nd OT on my first play from scrimmage. They were able to take the ball down to the 6yd line and kick the game winning FG on their possession. I forgot to ICE the kicker too now that I think about it... Should have tried that!!!

Oh well... I have alot of time defending CPU teams at this point (I am much better vs humans). I really need to spend a little more time with this game to try and improve that. I have taken a few steps back the last couple weeks as I prepare to take my board exam tomorrow and fiddled with NFL Head Coach... After tomorrow I am serving notice! I will be better!!!!

[Raiders Army]

hrm. From my experience, it's far easier to defend comps than humans.

[kcchief19]

Colorado wins, I think the final over Army was 45-7. It should have been more because Army isn't very good. Doesn't bode well for the future. Hawkins can't get hurt because my backup QB is even worse.

Now comes the hell ... vs. West Virginia, at Florida State, vs. Texas, at Kansas, vs. K-State (breather), at Missouri. 1-5 in the stretch isn't out of the realm, and frankly I'm hoping for 2-4. 3-3 and I'm popping champagne.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by BigDPW

Oh well... I have alot of time defending CPU teams at this point (I am much better vs humans). I really need to spend a little more time with this game to try and improve that. I have taken a few steps back the last couple weeks as I prepare to take my board exam tomorrow and fiddled with NFL Head Coach... After tomorrow I am serving notice! I will be better!!!!

Good luck with your board exam!


I'm with RA, I find the CPU much easier to defend than other humans.

[Raiders Army]

I'm just worried about my game against Texas A&M. The comp I can beat no problem, but Foz has me worried a bit. I can't remember who my other game is with ATM.

[Raiders Army]

Yeah, I run 4-4 and nickel against the comp (occassionally dime 3-2-6) and blitz a lot. The blitz will work against the run as well as the pass.

I find that unless it's a human player that tries to run money plays, it's far more difficult to defend against that person. If the human player runs money plays, sit your guy (normally a safety) in a zone where he likes to throw and more often than not you'll either get an INT or sack.

The problem with human players is that they like to scramble with the QB. I haven't played a lot of games online, but the ones that I have probably about 75% were against WVU. It's difficult to defend both against the pass and a scrambling QB. Even blitzing corners in a dime defense won't always work. All the QB has to do is juke once and he's off to the races. I don't even think the QB spy works that well either.

[kingnebwsu]

So Kentucky beat Miami University 56-16. It was a scary first half, as I was only up 21-16 at the break. Thankfully I righted the ship in the 3rd quarter, where I outscored MU 28-0. I was able to coast from that point.

I was the next-to-last person to play through my game. Cartman is the only person left. Is he gone or something? He hasn't been on Live in a week. Hopefully he'll play soon so we can move to week 3.

I should seriously play a warmup game in my single-player dynasty before playing in the real one. That first half had me quite a bit nervous...

BTW, I kicked a long field goal, and it went THROUGH the bottom upright and was ruled no good. This would have given me a 7-point lead close to halftime. Boy was I pissed at that. Quality EA craftsmanship shows its face again...

[Eaglesfan27]

Cartman said there was a work situation that kept him away last week and told us to advance prior to the deadline as he had no chance of getting things done by the deadline. He had a bye, so only his recruiting was hurt. I'm going to PM him to let him know the deadline is only a few days away.

[cartman]

Hey guys,

I got back last night after an unexpected extension of my business trip. I'll get my game played tonight when I get home so we can advance the week.

[Eaglesfan27]

Cool, thanks for the update Cartman.

[Raiders Army]

Nice! I'll be looking forward to playing another game tomorrow!

[BigDPW]

My pass defense against South Carolina and W. Kentucky was horrible... I mixed up alot of man, zone, and blitzed about 20-30% of the time... The problem I have is that I am so used to playing as D-lineman that I basically am a no factor in these games until I switch to another player as the play develops and about 20% of the time take that player out of the play by accident... WKU lined up in alot of 4-5 wide sets and passed alot but mixed in a few option plays too... I had a hard time with their spread... I actually felt better defending against S. Carolina than WKU... funny...