Front Office Football Central  

Go Back   Front Office Football Central > Main Forums > Dynasty Reports
Register FAQ Members List Calendar Mark Forums Read Statistics

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 04-16-2020, 12:08 PM   #1
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
FOF8: run the damn ball

This is the first time i attempt to write in this section of the forum, and it may well be that this thread doesn't go very far. no promises, and don't expect the literary quality of the other FOF8 dynasties that you've seen here.

I can't believe but I decided to entertain myself with building a run-first team over a long-term career. maybe i will find out if it makes sense to run the ball in any down. i will also share some thoughts on building a roster, drafting, and other random stuff.

i've mentioned this elsewhere, but i find it much easier to build a team when you have a football philosophy in place. it becomes easier to draft, target specific players, and to build gameplans. offensive and defensive philosphy should go together, because what you do on offense determines how many times you give the ball to the opponent (not necessarily time of possession). to me it seems clear that if your opponents have 7 drives per game you play one type of defense, while if they have 12 possessions, it's another defense. so before even starting a proper career in-game, I will start discussing the football philosophy for this team.


Last edited by tzach : 04-16-2020 at 12:09 PM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2020, 12:32 PM   #2
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Football Philosophy

We will not score much when running the ball (< 30 ppg), so in this career the philosophy will be to minimize the number of scoring opportunities of the opponent. I will run the ball as often as needed for that and invest on a top 3 defense against the pass and top 10 against the run. hopefullly this will be enough for playoff success. Since I'm going way out of my comfort zone with the offense, will not to do this on defense as well and build a 4-3 defense. i've never done it, so it should be fun enough.

I will start building this team as follows and see how this goes. On the offensive side, I need the personnel to run the ball (duh). This includes a couple of RBs, a stud FB, 3 run blocking TEs, and at least 4 stud OL with high endurance and run blocking. I will get a roll-out QB that can scramble and doesn't throw picks or get sacked. I will limit myself to a maximum of mid-50s at QB. This will allow for a high medium-passing bar, sense rush, scrambling, and another couple bars. I will focus on getting WRs with high route running and third down bars, and i promise that i will not hoard stud WRs.

On defense, I will invest in a stud MLB, FS, SS, and CB, and try to get away with smart fits elsewhere. I.e., pretty much follow the SEA philosophy that seems to work well as long as you don't fight with the players.

edit 1: I forgot about special teams. they make a difference for any team, and it seems to me that specially for the kind of run-first philosophy that I am going with, a stud special teams core is highly desirable. So I will invest roster spots in 3 stud special teams core players on offense (rb, wr and te) and 3 on defense (tall DL, LB, and DB), plus a stud P and K. I really think this investment will pay off and likely give this team 2 to 3 wins per season when the machine is well oiled.

Last edited by tzach : 04-17-2020 at 12:12 AM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2020, 12:48 PM   #3
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Coaching


We are drafting from 15, and we pick a HC that can develop players and has reasonable motivation and scouting bars. OC time, and I almost change my mind and go back to building a passing attach. for some ironic reason, this career is full of coaches that are great for developing and scouting WRs. seriously? So I pick the best Smashmouth OC available, AQ Shipley. Perhaps I will have better luck with 43 coaches....no. a 72 stud coach in Earl Thomas is now an expert in True 34 -- maybe his years in BAL have taught him that. So I get an anonymous 43 under DC that is rated 53. at least he can scout DBs. I get another 43 under AC, and just skip the Strength coach as I will play with no injuries.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2020, 01:08 PM   #4
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Draft, take 1


The draft has some promising RBs, which is just what I need. also heavy with OL talent, so we may be able to build a line in this draft. I'll mortgage the future picks and try to trade as much as I can into this draft with them. I'll pass the class through my machine learning code and see what comes out in terms of predictions.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2020, 01:14 PM   #5
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2020, 01:16 PM   #6
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
We sit at #31 in the draft, and i expect at least the LB the drop to me. We'll see.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2020, 03:37 PM   #7
MalcPow
College Benchwarmer
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
I can't see the screenie but will definitely be following closely!
MalcPow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2020, 05:07 PM   #8
QuikSand
lolzcat
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
Lessee if this image works:

https://i.imgur.com/43NOHxP.png

Last edited by QuikSand : 04-16-2020 at 07:38 PM.
QuikSand is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2020, 05:07 PM   #9
QuikSand
lolzcat
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
oh dear
QuikSand is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2020, 05:37 PM   #10
MIJB#19
Coordinator
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!
__________________
* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen
* Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail
MIJB#19 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2020, 07:13 PM   #11
MalcPow
College Benchwarmer
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
*hits the quote button on Quik's post*
MalcPow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2020, 12:22 AM   #12
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
I am having fun with this career. the draft and FA strategies look polar opposite to what i've been doing for some time now with a passing team. given our phillosophy above, i'm open to spend first rounders on a RB, TE, OL, LB, and DB, both from talent and salary cap perspectives. these are pretty much the positions i wouldn't touch when building a passing team (except db). i won't have money to keep a stud wr or DE on the long term without sacrificing elsewhere, so i'll not draft these guys in picks 1-20. 1.31 is different as the cap flow start to decline, but I will likely try to trade down and get people in the 2nd round for that purpose.


it's difficult to turn a bllind eye to the FL/SE prospects and look closer at...RB and LB for the first round pick.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2020, 12:24 AM   #13
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Quote:
Originally Posted by MIJB#19 View Post
Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!

hehe

Last edited by tzach : 04-17-2020 at 12:24 AM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2020, 12:46 AM   #14
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Quote:
Originally Posted by MalcPow View Post
I can't see the screenie but will definitely be following closely!
it had a malcpow firewall hehe

but seriously, i'll use another image host...let me know if the screenshots below from imagebb work.

Offense, 2031 FA1

I am starting with a passing-team test career -- this gives me the benefit of 1) having some players to build on, and 2) learn the ropes in case i ever decide to (downgrade) convert one of my passing teams.

this is what i'm starting with.

image — ImgBB

QB: according to the philosphy i'll get rid of the 66 QB, while the 12/54 QB Silverstone has a high avoid INT and SR=60, so he may stay. he's not roll out or an excellent scrambler though, so i may try to shop him during the draft.

RB/FB: I don't have anything there, no surprise.

TE: I have one good run-blocking TE that is making too much money though and is getting old. he may hold ouy.

WR: I have a couple of pretty good guys there in Lane and Gallegos. it's not entirely clear to me what will come out of the smashmouth passing game, but they will stay as they have large dead money. Gallegos is a good possession receiver for 1st/2nd down, here's how he looks.

image — ImgBB

this guy was money in 8.2, he's still pretty good in 8.3, but his 3rd down catch is not fantastic. interesting to see how he will turn out with 40 targets per season hehe. ok, enough about wrs.

OL: they are great pass protectors, so nothing to build on.

offensive roster summary and strategy: I don't have much there to build on. because OL last longer than RB, i will first build a line through the draft and FA asap. i'll plug the best RB that I can at the beginning, but it's unlikely that i will commit serious RB cap (ie draft with high pick or prized FA) this season. i want to get a stud FB asap, and i will only take a TE at 1.31 if they guy is an excellent run blocker and 3rd down receiver.

Last edited by tzach : 04-17-2020 at 12:55 AM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2020, 01:15 AM   #15
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Defense, 2031 FA1

I have some pretty good pieces to start with, but remember that i'm converting from 34 to 43 under. this is the roster view with the 34 positions.
image — ImgBB

so the first thing that i do is read again the 43-under entry in the Defensive Philosophy help page to guide my decisions. i'm not sure I like this front because of lack of position flexibility between LB and DE, and i'll try to switch to 43 over if I can.

DE/DT: I have two stud, cap-eating 34 DEs with 290 and 280 lbs, so for now i'll keep them as 43 LDE and RDE, respectively. Schwartz (290 lbs) seems too light to play DT, but i'll keep this in mind. they look great defensive pieces, but they are eating valuable cap. we'll see where this goes, but they are obviously staying. i have also a pair of decent 1-tech DTs, which translate to LDT in the 43 under. they can both play the run, and cooley may generate some pressure.

LB: i'd like to have a stud player at the MLB position, so that's still a priority. so far we have two pieces that look best as SLB and WLB (van Pelt and Rister). Rister weights in at 241, and i'm sure he could still produce as 43 over DE. i may give him some snaps in 4-5 WR personnel at DE just to see how he does.

CB/S: I two talented CBs, but they are undersized (5-7 and 5-8). Nowlin is ideally a nickel corner, but he'll have to play LCB for now. we have two stud S, and I'll play Hren at the SS position. he's also a top returner, so that is covered.

defensive roster summary and strategy: I should be able to play decent defense. we are missing a top MLB and true lockdown CB. we don't have enough interior 3rd down pass rush, but these guys can be found cheap in FA or late in the draft.

Last edited by tzach : 04-17-2020 at 02:08 AM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2020, 02:22 AM   #16
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Special Teams, 2031 FA1

While I'm prettty good at PR and KR with S Hren, I need several more core special team players (ST bar above 90, ideally). this includes a RB, TE, WR, DT and LB. I have usable P and K, but they are to be upgraded as well.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2020, 10:46 AM   #17
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
FA1, 2031


I was able to turn the stud 66 rated QB into a 2nd round pick (well done AI) and the C into a 4th. so we get a few more extra picks. it's officially Dwight Silverstone time. We enter FA with quite some needs, and we put offers to sign what would be a 5th yr stud MLB if not for the low endurance, the top C and FB available, and a few minor pieces at RT and DL. our interior DL look poor for now. we also go after the core special team players that we are missing. we get most of them except the MLB. we also trade a future 4th round pick for a top P and 2.28 for a young top K (well done AI).

Last edited by tzach : 04-17-2020 at 11:27 AM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2020, 11:50 AM   #18
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Draft, 2031

I can't believe but I ended up talking myself into picking a....RB. I'm pretty sure I picked one in the 1st round in my previous life in the GML, but boy oh boy. My machine learning code is telling me he'll be 69 overall. I also got what could be a pair of 60 rated LBs, a project QB, a S to CB convert, and a roster filler RT that can start if needed.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2020, 12:31 PM   #19
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Ex2, 2031

Note to self: remember to edit your playbook during training camp. i almost never do that, but now we have this wonderful 170-pass playbook, but we are commited to running. at least the 30 run plays are 'best fit' to smashmouth.

we win our first preseason game, 22-17. the rookie class turned out more or less as expected.

image — ImgBB

the RB looks quite good -- a complete smashmouth RB with pretty good bar distribution. he can catch out of the backfield as well. we converted a 40 rated LB to RDE and he has pretty good pass rushing bars, plus 85 ST. he will stick around. the project QB has scramble=98 but nothing else. i'll watch carefully what he does in preseason. if he can run the ball, he may be interesting to experiment.

image — ImgBB

we got 2 starters at the LB position, the S -> CB conversion worked pretty well, so another starter there. the G has RB=72 and great endurance, so he should start eventually.

Last edited by tzach : 04-17-2020 at 12:31 PM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2020, 01:09 PM   #20
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
We finish pre-season 1-3, which usually means our game plan is not working. I will work a bit on the offensive game plan and try to convince this team that we are now running the ball for the foreseable future.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2020, 01:19 PM   #21
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
regseason, 2031


after a quick look at some advanced pre-season stats, we decide to go with the 20/40 scrambler who answers by the name of Courtney Craig. Dwight Silverstone just can't get it done. so craig opens the season pretty well with 14 for 20 passing, 1 TD, 1 INT, 9.5 ypa and 10 rushes for 55 yds. sweet. we win 31-14 on the road. time to check what we are doing as it seems to be working.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-18-2020, 09:47 AM   #22
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
we go on to a 12-4 record and a bye week. ok.

we run for a whopping 519 times, behind a bad line, a vanilla game plan, and it seems that the defense has carried this team. we were lucky at times, and we have a decent postseason run capped by a SB loss. i like where this is going.

Last edited by tzach : 04-18-2020 at 09:48 AM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-18-2020, 11:00 AM   #23
QuikSand
lolzcat
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
game is solved
QuikSand is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-18-2020, 11:14 AM   #24
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Quote:
Originally Posted by QuikSand View Post
game is solved


i wish, but i like where this is going. i'll post some advanced stats (not available in game) when i have a chance to process the season. but i'm intrigued to see what this team will do with a custom game plan, a good line, and a slightly better qb. qb ccraig turned the ball over too much (17 INTs in 400 passes)
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-19-2020, 12:06 AM   #25
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-19-2020, 12:08 AM   #26
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Season Review, 2031
Going to the SB with a rookie QB has to be a pretty good season, although i'm sure we were on the lucky side of many close games. this career is more on how we get there rather than discussing the wins and losses. let's see in more detail how this team is doing with respect to the philosophy I set above, and whether that makes any sense.

Offense: we rush 32 times per game, so this is checked. we get 3.8 ypc on 519 carries, but that doesn't tell me much. what i want to see is how effective this team is when running the ball. the way that football works is that you don't play on average gains, but on the margins of the distribution. otherwise our 3.8 ypc would mean a lot of 1st downs (3.8 * 3 = 11.4), and this is not the case (we are #23 in 1st downs). so let's have an overall look on how we do in different offensive situations according to my game analyzer code.

here's a quick look at a team's performance on offense. for a given team and offensive situation (i.e. each entry on the game plan screen), my code computes yards per play, total yards, number of plays, success percentage (defined as a given number of yds depending on the down, based on football analytics references), and a success average rating that tells me how well my team does in that situation when successful (100 means getting exactly the numbers of yards needed for a successful play in that down).

Code:
Team, Offsituation, YdsperPlay , TotalYds, nplays , SuccessPct, SuccessAveRtg NED,1-10poss, 5.39286, 1057.00, 196, 47.4490, 134.821 NED,1-10earn, 4.95652, 1026.00, 207, 44.9275, 123.913 NED,1or2-1-2, 1.60870, 37.0000, 23, 47.8261, 180.602 NED,1or2-3-5, 4.98611, 359.000, 72, 58.3333, 216.524 NED,1or2-6-9, 5.26415, 558.000, 106, 34.9057, 115.416 NED,1or2-10-12, 3.93443, 480.000, 122, 19.6721, 58.3247 NED,1or2-13+, 6.03571, 338.000, 56, 23.2143, 62.2554 NED,3or4-1, 4.15789, 79.0000, 19, 73.6842, 415.789 NED,3or4-2, 6.37500, 153.000, 24, 62.5000, 318.750 NED,3or4-3, 7.18750, 115.000, 16, 81.2500, 239.583 NED,3or4-4-5, 5.92308, 308.000, 52, 51.9231, 133.077 NED,3or4-6-7, 4.59574, 216.000, 47, 29.7872, 68.9970 NED,3or4-8-9, 5.97059, 203.000, 34, 23.5294, 69.7712 NED,3or4-10-12, 6.73810, 283.000, 42, 21.4286, 65.3247 NED,3or4-13-16, 3.54545, 78.0000, 22, 4.54545, 24.1388 NED,3or4-17+, 2.37500, 19.0000, 8, 0.00000, 13.3255 NED,1or2-own5, 6.09091, 67.0000, 11, 54.5455, 116.540 NED,1-10-RZ, 3.00000, 87.0000, 29, 37.9310, 78.5179 NED,1or2-Opp6, 1.37500, 33.0000, 24, 37.5000, 59.2949 NED,2min-drill, 4.27184, 440.000, 103, 37.8641, 113.970


there's a lot to be taken from this table, and i could do a whole thread discussing only that. fow now, here are some observations relevant for this career.

1. what this tells me is that we are succesful in about 50% of the first down plays, when we run the ball a lot. this is not good. my passing teams get about 60% success rate on 1st down for a 200 successAveRtg. i wrote the code to analyze mainly my passing offense, so i'll have to break these columns down in running and passing plays. but as you can see most of the yds from a given team come on 1st down plays (2083 from the 3156 total yds, so about 66%). this is not a lot, and because we play on the margins of the distribution, even a pretty efficient running team won't get much more consistently. so this team will not get to the red zone many times.

2. 1st/2nd down and short are not kind to us. this is when the vanilla game plan runs almost 100% of the time. so we are wasting these plays as we are not very successful. i'd expect we do better once we build a better run blocking OL. for this 1st season, all i could get was 27/44/82/42/69 for LT/LG/C/RG/RT, respectively.

3. the run game stilll does a decent job of puttig this team on 3rd and less than 7 yds most of the time (60% of the time). my goal here would be something like 80%.

4. we are not very good in the RZ and opp6 -- it pretty much mirrors the 1st/2nd and short as expected. we gotta improve here.only 4.7 pts per visit to the RZ, and we only got there 40 times.

Defense: I will defer a detailed analysis to when i have the pieces in place. for now, this team was #1 in ppg allowed, which is by far the most important defensive category. we are #2 against the pass and #10 against the run in my custom rankings, so this defense gets the job done as is. in terms of philosophy we are getting this done with two stud DEs and no LBs. i'm curious to see if what happens once the DEs retire and the LBs develop. the stud Ss are getting the job done (PD 83%), as are the CBs. the rookie CB should develop into a pretty good lockdown corner.

Special teams: at the beginning of the season we traded a 2nd rounder for a K and 4th for a P. also signed 5 core special team players. the K had a superb performance with 14 for 18 from 50+, and he won 3 games for us. also 3 for 4 from 50+ in the playoffs. this seems great value to me. the P had 47.8 ypp and 39.5 net ypp, with 50% of the punts inside the 20. pretty good as well. we are #1 in the PR game (14.7 ypr) and #10 in KR. we give up 10.1 ypr in PR, which is way too high. i'll have to check who is playing special teams. only 22.1 ypr in KR, which is good.

Last edited by tzach : 04-19-2020 at 02:28 AM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-19-2020, 02:38 AM   #27
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Season Outlook, 2032


We will keep experimenting at the QB position. maybe stick with this guy craig, let him build cohesion, and ride the low cap hit. we got nice pieces last season, and the priority seems to be to build an OL that can run block. we got a C and have a G to develop. i'll follow the plan and do whatever it takes to get a couple of stud T, either from the draft or FA. oh, and i'll not forget to change the playbook this time.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-19-2020, 11:20 AM   #28
MalcPow
College Benchwarmer
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
Cool stuff on that output, that's great information.
MalcPow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-20-2020, 05:37 AM   #29
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Coaching, 2032

We get a new DC that is superb at young development of LBs (97). that will be hand to develop our 2nd yr LBs (future 70 and 60) as true starters by mid season. he was the best fit for 43, and while his scouting is not that good, he can play call pretty well (77). we retain our other coaches.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-20-2020, 05:59 AM   #30
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Draft, 2032 take 1

we enter this draft with 9 picks (extra 2nd and 4th rounders, all late) after the trades from last season.

here's how the top of the draft looks.

image — ImgBB

i like the pair of stud G and T to the point that i'm considering to trade up with a future 1st if one of these guys fall a bit.

the QB class is meh. i may use a late pick on QB Franz -- he should have high avoid INT and SR. i wish he could scramble more. here's his view on gstelmack's Draft Analyzer.

image — ImgBB

i don't foresee using another high pick on a rb, but who knows. the priority has to be to build the run-blocking OL. remember that our philosophy dictates taking a RB, TE, OL, LB, or DB with high picks. we have our LBs in place, so maybe we will draft a S if we cannot get an OL.

Last edited by tzach : 04-20-2020 at 05:59 AM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-20-2020, 10:55 AM   #31
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
FA1, 2032

we sign a stud CB that looks best as a FS. we are paying 8% of the cap to this guy, heavy bonus included. otherwise no other significant signings during FA. i am a bit disappointing that this universe doesn't have too many run blocking OL, and the AI does a good job at holding to the ones that are generated. noted.

Draft, 2032 take 2


The draft proceeds with no surprises for the first 10 picks. our options are quickly vanishing, the two stud G are still available, as well as a lockdown CB and CB to S conversion. a couple of S-> CB conversions seem to be there, plus an interesting S to ILB prospect.


We talk to NOS to see what it will take to move up to 1.11, and it takes a couple 1st plus change to get it done and take the G. the other stud G goes in the following pick, so the timing was good. we end up taking a few more LBs, a C, and a DE. here's how our two draft classes look so far.


image — ImgBB
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-20-2020, 11:03 AM   #32
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
...and i almost forget again about the damn playbook!
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-20-2020, 12:14 PM   #33
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
...i definitely forgot how complex it is to put a new playbook and game plan in place. it may take a few days before i get something going again.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-21-2020, 10:37 AM   #34
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Training Camp, 2032 playbook (tzmashmouth v1)

what a silly playbook name i came up with.

anyway, I got something going with the new smashmouth playbook. it was an interesting experience.

the first thing that i found was that setting the Fit to Offensive philosophy (or whatever it's called in the automatic playbook generation page) to 1 didn't produce good results. when you set it to 1 the game generates plays that are most aligned with the off philosophy (either 'best' or 'solid'). the default is 15. for generating my west coast and balanced play books I always used 1, but here i couldn't get anything good. anyway, since 15 produced better results than 1, why not set it to an even higher number (40). so we got our playbook.

the main issue with the setting=1 is that there were not enough pass plays to my playmakers (X, Z and A). most of the passes went to Y and T. yes, i know this is a 'run the damn ball' career, but we are still passing about half of the time (the glass is half full), and i don't have TEs yet. so we have a fair share of 'fair' fits to smashmouth going, which is not good, and i'll deal with that in tzmashmouth v2.

Last edited by tzach : 04-21-2020 at 10:37 AM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-21-2020, 10:48 AM   #35
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Ex2, 2032


the rookie class looks good, with the G being a stud RB with future 80. the 2nd round LB has a good dev during Ex2 and hold up with future 60. the C took a bit of a dump (RB=59, overall 50), but he's still cheap depth and can start if needed. we converted Ward to LDT, and he seems to be cheap depth there as well. we cut the 4th round LB, and the remaining picks were traded for a future 5th from NOS.

we iterate a bit on the game plan and go 4-0 in the preseason, which is always a good sign.

Last edited by tzach : 04-21-2020 at 10:49 AM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-21-2020, 10:54 AM   #36
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
regseason, 2032
I sim the whole regseason at once without injuries. the talent distribution in this league is pretty even, and we get a bye again at 10-6. ok again. it turns out that our wk17 game @ MIA was a win-and-you-are-in game, and we came on top with a stout 4th quarter defense. in this league, 1 win is the difference between making the playoffs or not, or bye or not. here are the full standings.

image — ImgBB

as you can see in the team summary below, we are not a very good offensive team, let alone because we don't have a decent qb, and we are getting it done with the redzone defense and special teams. this tells me this team can improve a lot.

image — ImgBB

Last edited by tzach : 04-21-2020 at 11:09 AM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-21-2020, 11:21 AM   #37
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
postseason, 2032


Getting a bye makes a huge difference in postseason success. we win the divisional round against DEN, which plays quite similarly to us. but our RB put a show and ran for 21-107yd-1TD, and caught 3 balls for 62 yds. our QB passed 21-24-1TD-10ypa-122rat, which is the kind of performance i'm looking to get consistently. he also rushed for a TD.

we play the conference game against JAX. we cannot get anything going in the passing game this time, but neither can the jaguars. our RB steals the show again and rushes for 31-143yd-1TD. we win 16-6 and make a second trip to the SB with the players that you can see below.

image — ImgBB


we play the SB against NOS, and i like our chances better this time. it seems that we can win against teams that cannot defend the run, and NOS is #21 in that department. NOS start on top 10-3, but our young players start to get hot. really cool. our 2nd yr ILB Spruilli picks up their QB to set up a FG (that's ok for this team), 2nd yr RB Heath breaks long runs for 38 and 21 yds, and rookie G Warren picks key run block after key run block. NOS is playing a lot of cover 1 and press 1, which is nice as it seems that rex identified us as a good running team. but you can play all the cover 1 you want, and you will still not gonna get much done if the personnel is not in place. NOS has a DL with 36/56/40 in Run D, and they get run over. we score a TD to take the lead, our D forces a 3 and out shortly before halftime, and our PR returns 30 yds to setup a 51 yd FG. pretty darn cool to see the game reacting exactly as I wanted -- stout D and strong special teams get 3 pts on the board, and we lead 16-10 at halftime.

Last edited by tzach : 04-21-2020 at 11:32 AM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-21-2020, 12:02 PM   #38
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
SB, 2032

we get the ball to start the 2nd half, our KR returns 31 yds, the RB gets 3 receptions for 30 yds, runs for another 15, and our qb craig tosses a short TD pass. 23-10, and we are built to win when up by 13. really nice to see the K (for who we paid pick 2.18) put the ball at NOS12. they still converts a 3rd and 14yds from their 5 yd line, but we get the our D off the field after 3 plays. this is set up by a -4yd tackle by our stud S. our QB then manages to throw a pick 6. we need to get rid of this guy!

our QB then manages to get sacked, we punt, and NOS gets a FG in their ensuing possession to make it 23-20 for us at the beginning of the 4th quarter. we need our 4th quarter D to win this game, because the QB will not win it for us. he does get sacked again by the NOS stud pass rushing DL, and we punt 59 yds. awesome punter. we make NOS waste 5 min of clock and then punt from our 40yd line. our RB gets a first down and eats some time of the clock, and our punter puts the ball at their 9 yd line. pretty cool to see the philosophy for this team working as I read the log. so now it's on the D, and NOS has 1:50min to march 99 yds for tiying or getting the lead. we get 2 incompletions after hurries from our DL, and our CB surrenders only 5 yds to the the 3rd down slant route. we need a stop in the 4th and 5, and we will probably call another tampa 2. so it's ILB Spruilli time. we get a sack from the DL, but the SS gets a flag for a face mask. here we go again. we play stout defense and our DT blocks the 3rd-and-2yd pass. 4th down again, this time short, but at the NOS26 yd line. i hope we don't call a cover1 and give up the big play. we call cover3 sky, we get a hurry and incompletion, and 2nd yr qb craig and his 39 overall just need a kneel down to bring the bowl home. sweet.

Last edited by tzach : 04-21-2020 at 12:02 PM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-21-2020, 12:50 PM   #39
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Season Review, 2032


The progress of the team's performance is going as expected. Our coaching and offensive talent is somewhat below average in this universe, but the team did enough for finishing 10-6. We turned another gear in the postseason with a quite deserving trip to the bowl. I think we have a good formula for winning close games with special teams and the 4th quarter defense.

Here's the output from my game plan analyzer.

Code:
Team, Offsituation, YdsperPlay , TotalYds, nplays, SuccessPct, SuccessAveRtg NED,1-10poss, 4.04464, 906.000, 224, 41.9643, 101.116 NED,1-10earn, 4.81364, 1059.00, 220, 47.7273, 120.341 NED,1or2-1-2, 3.66667, 143.000, 39, 64.1026, 406.312 NED,1or2-3-5, 6.65000, 532.000, 80, 57.5000, 253.942 NED,1or2-6-9, 4.78667, 718.000, 150, 34.6667, 102.023 NED,1or2-10-12, 4.81633, 472.000, 98, 21.4286, 71.3667 NED,1or2-13+, 3.86458, 371.000, 96, 14.5833, 46.3483 NED,3or4-1, 4.06897, 118.000, 29, 62.0690, 406.897 NED,3or4-2, 3.80000, 57.0000, 15, 66.6667, 190.000 NED,3or4-3, 0.541667, 13.0000, 24, 29.1667, 18.0556 NED,3or4-4-5, 8.42553, 396.000, 47, 53.1915, 186.064 NED,3or4-6-7, 5.79592, 284.000, 49, 34.6939, 85.3256 NED,3or4-8-9, 4.73469, 232.000, 49, 16.3265, 55.8957 NED,3or4-10-12, 8.60417, 413.000, 48, 35.4167, 81.1648 NED,3or4-13-16, 4.58065, 142.000, 31, 12.9032, 31.8483 NED,3or4-17+, 8.06250, 129.000, 16, 18.7500, 44.1855 NED,1or2-own5, 2.12500, 34.0000, 16, 25.0000, 49.0385 NED,1-10-RZ, 2.88235, 147.000, 51, 47.0588, 73.5586 NED,1or2-Opp6, 1.25000, 25.0000, 20, 50.0000, 92.9487 NED,2min-drill, 4.72839, 766.000, 162, 37.6543, 115.594


compared to last season, we do sligthly worse on 1st downs, but much better in the RZ. 3rd-3-or-4 yds and 1st 6-to-9yd are clearly problematic, so we will address this in tzmashmouth v2.

Last edited by tzach : 04-21-2020 at 01:06 PM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-22-2020, 04:30 AM   #40
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Season Outlook, 2033 (season 3)

This is our 3rd yr into this career and we still don't have a decent QB or OL. not surprisingly, it's been easier to assemble defensive talent drafting when picking from the bottom of each round. it may be just me, but i have the impression that the AI is doing a much better job of drafting and keeping talent. there's no decent OL reaching FA, and it's clear that the aI also gives preference to building a team that can run, at least in this universe that I am in.

We'll go into the 3rd season with an eye at getting a QB that can better manage this offense, and also finish buillding the OL. i'm not sure that the D can get the job done without the excellent DEs that i have, so I need to try to get some situational players.

Last edited by tzach : 04-22-2020 at 04:30 AM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-22-2020, 05:19 AM   #41
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Draft, 2033

We make no changes at the coaching staff -- some pretty good ones were available this time when drafting from #8, but i want to keep things realistic for MP careers. i don't want to get coaches that would be very difficult to hire in MP unless you have a top franchise.

We don't sign any impactful player in FA, and the only notable extension is our exp=7yr, 70 rated C . he's getting about 5% of the cap on a 5yr contract, which fits the bill. whenever we manage to build a top OL, it would be desirable to get them signed for 25% cap hit long term.

Here's a view of the top of the draft class according to my code.

image — ImgBB

We don't have a 1st round pick this time (we used to get the stud RG), but have an extra 5th. to keep things realitisc, i plan to only trade into the 1st below 1.25, and only to get players that would be typically available in a top MP league.

I fast fwd the draft to 1.26, and at this point there's a couple players I start considering (i'll not get the 60-rated QB, 62 rated WR or 68 rated CB that that would be long gone in an MP league).

Last edited by tzach : 04-22-2020 at 05:19 AM.
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-28-2020, 12:47 PM   #42
tzach
High School JV
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
i'm still running this career fwiw. still trying to find the best QB with overall rating < 50 to run this offense
tzach is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:14 AM.



Powered by vBulletin Version 3.6.0
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.