Chesapeake Chili Dogs - a multi-player FOF dynasty - Page 14

QuikSand · 08-01-2007, 11:56 AM

Week 16: Chesapeake (9-5) at Mars (4-10)

No need to underscore the importance of every game form here – we can’t afford to slip up on the road. Mars has solid talent, but on paper we ought to be in control here. Need to avoid our meltdown tendencies, but nothing tricky in the gameplan this week.

Mars tends to mix up the run and short pass – but their running game just tears us apart in the first half, as they lead 17-7 at the half behind more than 200 yards rushing. They did have tow long runs ion there, but they are seemingly picking up 7-12 yards routinely, even when we are set to stop the rush. Go figure.

In the third quarter, our defense steps up and plays brilliantly – but our offense is just misfiring with turnovers and an emerging case of the familiars. We’re lucky to get out of the third quarter still down only 10 points. This is shaping up like another standard puzzling meltdown game for us, where we do plenty of things right, but just enough things wrong to lose the game.

With 12 minutes left, we score to get within a field goal – and it seems we have real hope. We force another three-and-out, and have a real shot to take the lead. It takes several efforts for us to mess this one up – a long bomb to Pearson called back by a penalty, a fumble that we manage to recover, and finally a second fumble that gets away from us inside their 20 yard line…which they promptly take back to the HOUSE for the score. That’s more like it – THAT is how we have been losing key games.

Oh, sure, we are awarded the empty TD drive in the closing moments, and even in our last possession, we suffer the indignity of seeing our aggressively stretch-the-field offense suddenly decide it’s time to gin up the 4 yard dinks to secure the critical loss. Nicely done. Fuckers.

Week 16, 2015

played in Mars, FL

45 degrees, fair, 1 mph wind

Chesapeake Chili Dogs	7	0	3	14	-	24
Mars Martians	7	10	3	7	-	27

Scoring Summary

1Q: 13:27 MAR - Chuck Covington 5 pass from Shannon Bucy (Freddie Savage extra point)

1Q: 08:22 CHE - George Ellis 3 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

2Q: 04:43 MAR - Ernie Mason 31 run (Freddie Savage extra point)

2Q: 00:10 MAR - Freddie Savage 49 field goal

3Q: 12:16 CHE - Cornell Rose 22 field goal

3Q: 09:15 MAR - Freddie Savage 39 field goal

4Q: 12:02 CHE - Burt Pearson 12 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

4Q: 04:28 MAR - Shane Doyle 88 fumble return (Freddie Savage extra point)

4Q: 01:56 CHE - Burt Pearson 10 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

Team Statistics	CHE	MAR
Record	9-6	5-10
First Downs	28	13
- by Rushing	7	8
- by Passing	18	4
- by Penalty	3	1
Total Net Yards	396	301
- Offensive Plays	72	54
- Yards per Play	5.50	5.57
Net Rushing Yards	109	216
- Rushing Attempts	22	29
- Yards per Rush	4.95	7.45
Net Passing Yards	287	85
- Att./Comp./Intrcpt	45 - 26 - 1	24 - 12 - 0
- Gross Passing Yards	321	92
- Sacks/Yards Lost	5/34	1/7
- Yards per Pass Play	5.74	3.40
Fumbles/Lost	4/2	2/0
3rd Down Conversions	7/15	3/12
- Avg. YtG on 3rd Down	8.7	9.0
4th Down Conversions	0/1	0/0
Penalties/Yards	7/60	8/81
Punt Returns/Yards	4/44	1/2
Kick Returns/Yards	4/109	3/31
Interception Ret./Yards	0/0	1/14
2pt Conversions	0/0	0/0
Red Zone Visits	5	1
- Red Zone TDs/FGs	3/1	1/0
Avg. Drive Start	OWN 35	OWN 25
Time of Possession	34:14	25:46

Online Box Score

So, in a great opportunity to hold serve and actually make something of our late rally, we instead completely implode and choke away this great opportunity. Washington has moved ahead in the wild card standings (but they are without their QB going forward) so now we need to beat out our division-mates to win the last slot. I don’t know if a win against Dodge City secures our slot, or if we need help – but losing here certainly didn’t help the cause at all. Fuckin’ wonderful.

QuikSand · 08-01-2007, 12:01 PM

Week 17: Dodge City at Chesapeake

Little to say here. We win here, and we earn a wild card. We lose, and we’re out. Playoff game, essentially. And it’s Dodge City and Isaac Mansour – lovely. We’ll see if we can hold him to fewer than 200 yards this week. That has been a real struggle for us.

**sigh**

Fitting start – we get a sack for force a punt, but then we promptly fumble away the punt return. Only saving grace is that they don’t go HOUSE with it, I suppose. They only cash in a FG from the short field, which at least speaks well of our defense in the early going. It could be worse.

We drive deep into DGC territory and then hand them the ball, and they march and stuff it right up our asses to take the 10-0 lead. This is great fun.

We do manage to regroup, and engineer a great drive to get Pearson into the endzone, so perhaps not all hope is lost yet. It’s still troubling to see their QB Bill Sampson go 11-for-12 in the early going – this could easily end up as another track meet game between these two games. In short order, it’s 17-7.

We get to celebrate, I guess (they say we did in the game report) when we settle for a long FG after missing on a bomb from 2nd and short, and then failing to pick up the 3rd and 2. Alas. Surely it could have been much worse.

We are very lucky to only yield a FG on their next possession – as we come up with a rare 3rd down stop. This game has a terrible feel to it – but maybe that’s just the whole season adding up in the back of my mind. They lead 20-10, but it feels like we have absolutely no hope of stopping them – unless, of course, the game opts to flip the switch on them. That’s what we saw against Mars last week, when suddenly our run D was a brick wall in the second half after giving up eleven yards a rush in the first (of course, we still blew the game… duh).

Honestly – I am wiring this in real time. My sense of dread really did come **before** the big screwing. Sedor pops a second interception to CB Billy Joe Scanlon (former Chit – at least one of our guys is going somewhere this year), and they immediately cash it in for the long TD pass before halftime. Awesome.

Of course, now that I am bitching so much – we get the tease, as we strike for a late TD and get back within 10 points by the half. I still predict gut-wrenching failure here – maybe a blowout loss would have been too kind? Perhaps we need to be close so the eventual crushing blow seems even more brutal? Stay tuned.

We open the second half with an 18-yard FG, which never feels that good. It obviously could have been a fumble to the HOUSE for them, so I can’t complain that much. We stop them, but they punt to our 1 yard line – this smells like trouble. We get a first down on a penalty, but the first “familiar” defense rears its head, and that might spell and end to our offense’s effectiveness soon. The laundry is all over the field on this “drive” and we end up punting after seeing a big play to Pearson called back. I guess I did something wrong with my coaching staff or something. Who the fuck can say?

They fumble the punt, but their “ground balls” stat (a la lacrosse) is just better than ours, so they don’t suffer for it. We actually come up with another stop – as we have turned the unstoppable DGC pass machine into a more human group, it seems – they are actually having a few passes fall incomplete. That’s new. If we an get the offense moving, we are only a TD down – despite my doom-and-gloom bluster.

See… I’m falling for it again. I’m thinking we might win. Heh.

We drive for a field goal, to pull within 4 points, at 27-23, early in the 4th quarter. And the fucking circus comes to town – we give up a 40 yard pass play right away, and then we get a pick that we take HOUSE 85 yards. This puts us ahead by 3 points – setting up a climactic conclusion of potentially epic proportions. There’s still plenty of time for two or three more absurd and heartbreaking things to happen – so hold on to your hats, gang.

We are aided by a “familiar,” one legitimate pressure, and then a stupid too-short pass on 3rd and 10 to force a three-and-out. Hardly a heroic effort, but we will certainly take it. They punt to our 2 yard line. Lovely.

We gat a couple of first downs to get out of our own goalpost’s shadow – but fizzle there and have to punt. DGC gets it at their 16, with 5:41 left on the clock. Another stop here would be huge.

Silly talk – they connect on two third downs, and get to our 45 with under 3 minutes left. Two dropped passes get us to 3rd and 10 – that’s not our defense at work, that’s just bad dice rolling, I reckon. We get a pressure to force 4th and 10 – will they go for it from our 45? With 2:19 left, I think thay have to punt and hope for a stop (or a freak play, that’s always on the table).

They go for it – and get precisely the needed 10 yards. Perfect. “And that is a first down.”

Pressure. Mansour. Thompson for six. Dodge City takes the lead. Awesome.

Just to twist the blade a bit – they **miss** the PAT, and it’s a 33-30 edge, with a little more than a minute left. How perfect is that?

Kick return gets us all the way to our 45 – great start. We get a 14 yard pass to a hobo off the street suited up to play WR, and are under a minute to play. A nice incomplete play coupled with a holding call – very timely, that – takes 13 more seconds and pushes us back ten yards. Just what we were looking for.

Pearson drops an apparently catchable long pass – good to see here. Making that play would have just made too much sense for us. We connect instead on a very effective 10 yard pass on 2nd and 20, with the clock ticking away. 16 seconds left, and it looks like we need a few yards to get within reasonable kicking range.

Of course – that ASSUMES that the game might actually make a reasonable decision, or even follow my instructions, in the waning moments. And we know that’s no lock. But just for kicks, I’ll play along and pretend like getting 5-10 yards here gives us a shot to tie the game. What the heck.

We instead go for the long bomb. That’s encouraging. Honestly – you just cannot make this stuff up. So, we tee up a 58 yard FG attempt… is there a way for the ball to just sit on the goalpost for 27 minutes before falling short here? That would be the ideal way to make this as painful as possible, but still cement away the loss that I have known as coming all along. Stay tuned…

“He didn’t get all of that one and it falls short.”

Great season everyone, now go hit the links!

VPI97 · 08-01-2007, 01:15 PM

Is there a way I can nominate that for post of the year?

I don't mean it in a bad way, QS (no one is reveling in your loss)...it's just that there's so much there that kinda sums up my game log reading experience, as well.

QuikSand · 08-01-2007, 01:44 PM

Wow, someone's reading this!

Quote:

Originally Posted by VPI97

...sums up my game log reading experience

Yeah -- I really wish I had the discipline to stop experiencing the joys of Solevision, and just go back to looking at the boxscores. I'd get out of this fucking agony that so many of use are suffering as a result of treating this like a football game and not a random number generator.

Anthony · 08-01-2007, 01:51 PM

wow, QS cursing makes me horny.

Kodos · 08-01-2007, 02:37 PM

I'd say your disillusionment with FOF2007 seems about ready to boil over.

TheDanbom · 08-09-2007, 10:09 AM

Great read, keep up the good work. Tough luck this season.

QuikSand · 08-10-2007, 09:11 AM

dj_morton · 08-10-2007, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Very cool. How did u make this?

QuikSand · 08-10-2007, 10:08 AM

I didn't - I poached it from the FOFL title game thread. cuervo72, owner of Bar Harbor, is the graphics genius and deserves the credit.

QuikSand · 08-10-2007, 10:09 AM

Front Office Championship, 2015

played in Little Rock, AR

50 degrees, fair, 4 mph wind

Hell Creek Tyrannosaurs	0	7	0	0	-	7
Bar Harbor Whitecaps	10	7	14	6	-	37

Scoring Summary
1Q: 11:39 BRH - Glen Hoover 21 field goal
1Q: 04:13 BRH - Lamar Dillon 40 pass from Kent Gill (Glen Hoover extra point)
2Q: 12:05 HLC - Paul Wolf 7 pass from Skip Peterson (Marlon Honaker extra point)
2Q: 08:42 BRH - Clarence Burks 3 run (Glen Hoover extra point)
3Q: 15:00 BRH - Justin Nail 95 kickoff return (Glen Hoover extra point)
3Q: 06:28 BRH - Clifton Gowin 14 pass from Kent Gill (Glen Hoover extra point)
4Q: 14:13 BRH - Glen Hoover 20 field goal
4Q: 08:19 BRH - Glen Hoover 45 field goal

Team Statistics	HLC	BRH
Record	17-2	14-5
First Downs	12	24
- by Rushing	1	11
- by Passing	10	12
- by Penalty	1	1
Total Net Yards	202	376
- Offensive Plays	45	61
- Yards per Play	4.49	6.16
Net Rushing Yards	30	181
- Rushing Attempts	13	43
- Yards per Rush	2.31	4.21
Net Passing Yards	172	195
- Att./Comp./Intrcpt	28 - 13 - 2	15 - 13 - 0
- Gross Passing Yards	199	212
- Sacks/Yards Lost	4/27	3/17
- Yards per Pass Play	5.38	10.83
Fumbles/Lost	2/1	0/0
3rd Down Conversions	2/9	6/12
- Avg. YtG on 3rd Down	10.4	4.6
4th Down Conversions	0/0	0/0
Penalties/Yards	5/38	6/35
Punt Returns/Yards	1/0	5/20
Kick Returns/Yards	6/146	2/127
Interception Ret./Yards	0/0	2/62
2pt Conversions	0/0	0/0
Red Zone Visits	1	4
- Red Zone TDs/FGs	1/0	2/2
Avg. Drive Start	OWN 23	OWN 37
Time of Possession	22:10	37:50

Drive Charts

Hell Creek Tyrannosaurs
Quar	Began	Poss	From	Plays	Yards	Result
1	15:00	1:28	OWN 32	3	-10	Interception
1	11:34	2:58	OWN 26	4	29	Punt
1	3:54	6:55	OWN 8	12	92	Touchdown
2	8:34	2:27	OWN 44	3	-1	Punt
2	1:53	1:48	OWN 20	3	-3	Punt
3	14:44	1:06	OWN 20	3	6	Punt
3	6:23	1:51	OWN 24	4	13	Punt
4	14:06	1:49	OWN 33	5	20	Fumble
4	8:14	1:26	OWN 28	3	13	Interception
4	4:22	1:31	OWN 12	3	4	Punt
4	1:03	1:03	OWN 14	2	29	Game

Bar Harbor Whitecaps
Quar	Began	Poss	From	Plays	Yards	Result
1	13:32	1:58	OPP 9	3	5	Field Goal
1	8:36	4:42	OWN 20	8	80	Touchdown
2	11:59	3:25	OWN 41	7	59	Touchdown
2	6:07	4:14	OWN 18	8	45	Punt
2	0:05	0:05	OWN 25	1	0	Half
3	13:38	7:15	OWN 22	11	78	Touchdown
3	4:32	5:26	OWN 17	11	80	Field Goal
4	12:17	4:03	OPP 42	6	14	Field Goal
4	6:48	2:26	OPP 44	3	-1	Punt
4	2:51	1:48	OWN 25	3	1	Punt

Game MVP: Kent Gill, Bar Harbor Whitecaps

Rushing Statistics

Hell Creek	Att	Yards	Avg	LG	10+	TD
Martin Todd	7	19	2.71	16	1	0
Lamar Lluellyn	6	11	1.83	6	0	0

Bar Harbor	Att	Yards	Avg	LG	10+	TD
Lamar Dillon	22	108	4.91	25	3	0
Clarence Burks	15	32	2.13	6	0	1
Kent Gill	5	37	7.40	10	2	0
Brandon Curtis	1	4	4.00	4	0	0

Passing Statistics

Hell Creek	Att	Comp	Yards	Sk/Yd	TD	LG	Int	Rate
Skip Peterson	28	13	199	4/27	1	36	2	52.5

Bar Harbor	Att	Comp	Yards	Sk/Yd	TD	LG	Int	Rate
Kent Gill	15	13	212	3/17	2	40	0	158.3

Receiving Statistics

Hell Creek	Catch	Targ	Yards	Avg	YAC	LG	TD
WR Todd Rausch	8	13	143	17.88	33	36	0
WR Paul Wolf	2	5	30	15.00	0	23	1
WR Steven Shepherd	2	3	8	4.00	1	6	0
WR Chris Jaax	1	4	18	18.00	2	18	0
RB Martin Todd	0	1	0	0.00	0	0	0
TE Doug Price	0	1	0	0.00	0	0	0
TE Eric Reed	0	1	0	0.00	0	0	0

Bar Harbor	Catch	Targ	Yards	Avg	YAC	LG	TD
WR Clifton Gowin	6	6	80	13.33	18	18	1
TE Glen Lofton	2	2	32	16.00	4	18	0
WR Justin Nail	2	2	25	12.50	3	14	0
TE Dwight Maynard	1	1	24	24.00	10	24	0
FB Mack Bruener	1	1	11	11.00	10	11	0
RB Lamar Dillon	1	2	40	40.00	34	40	1
RB Clarence Burks	0	1	0	0.00	0	0	0

Interception Statistics

Hell Creek	Ints	Yards	Avg	TD

Bar Harbor	Ints	Yards	Avg	TD
CB Ray Gregg	2	62	31.00	0

Fumble Statistics

Hell Creek	Fumb	Recov
Skip Peterson	1	0
Martin Todd	1	0
Jerome Burnham	0	1

Bar Harbor	Fumb	Recov	Force	TD
Louis Travis	0	1	1	0
Calvin Delgado	0	0	1	0

Punting Statistics

Hell Creek	Punt	Yards	Avg	Net	LG	In20
Benjamin Bullock	6	319	53.2	46.5	62	3

Bar Harbor	Punt	Yards	Avg	Net	LG	In20
Joe Preston	3	130	43.3	36.7	60	2

Kicking Statistics

Hell Creek	FGs	40+Yd	50+Yd	LG	PAT
Marlon Honaker	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	1/1

Bar Harbor	FGs	40+Yd	50+Yd	LG	PAT
Glen Hoover	3/3	1/1	0/0	45	4/4

Punt Return Statistics

Hell Creek	Ret	Yards	Avg	TD
Steven Shepherd	1	0	0.0	0

Bar Harbor	Ret	Yards	Avg	TD
Lamar Dillon	4	17	4.3	0
Zach Bettencourt	1	3	3.0	0

Kick Return Statistics

Hell Creek	Ret	Yards	Avg
Howard Atkins	4	104	26.0
Bryan Flynn	1	24	24.0
Steven Shepherd	1	18	18.0

Bar Harbor	Ret	Yards	Avg	TD
Justin Nail	2	127	63.5	1

Defensive Statistics

Hell Creek	Tack	Asst	Sack	RPlay	PPlay
ILB Bert Randle	11	2	0.0	37	18
OLB Devin Pritchett	11	2	0.0	43	18
S Matt Fitzgerald	7	1	0.0	34	13
S Tyrell Downs	6	2	0.0	40	18
DE Herman Devoe	5	3	1.0	37	18
DT Darryl Walker	4	3	1.0	36	15
CB Brian Conger	2	1	0.0	40	17
DE Marco Perkins	2	0	0.0	26	10
ILB Herman Hermann	1	0	1.0	4	2
CB Robbie Ballard	1	1	0.0	36	17
DT Albert Conway	1	0	0.0	17	6
CB Bryan Flynn	1	0	0.0	7	1
S Bruce Dolan	1	0	0.0	8	4
DT James Shepard	1	0	0.0	30	13
OLB Randall Lyon	1	0	0.0	19	6
TE Doug Price	1	0	---	---	---
T Ryan Humphries	1	0	---	---	---
TE Eric Reed	1	0	---	---	---
DE David Jizmejian	1	0	0.0	15	5
CB Jesse Myers	0	2	0.0	23	11

Bar Harbor	Tack	Asst	Sack	RPlay	PPlay
S Zach Bettencourt	4	2	0.0	12	31
CB Neal Shepherd	4	0	0.0	12	29
DT Calvin Delgado	3	1	2.0	13	31
DE Louis Travis	3	2	1.5	13	32
ILB Edgar Straub	3	4	0.0	11	20
S William Becker	3	2	0.0	13	31
OLB Ricky Heiser	2	1	0.0	3	16
DT Leon Dostie	2	0	0.0	11	20
ILB Bryce Mankey	1	2	0.5	12	30
CB Darrell Paredes	1	1	0.0	12	27
CB Rob Rice	1	0	0.0	0	2
CB Mickey Erdahl	1	0	0.0	3	11
CB Ray Gregg	1	0	0.0	13	31

Pass Rush Statistics

Hell Creek	Sack	Hurry	Knock	PPlay
DT Darryl Walker	1.0	1	1	15
ILB Herman Hermann	1.0	0	0	2
DE Herman Devoe	1.0	0	0	18

Bar Harbor	Sack	Block	Hurry	Knock	PPlay
DT Calvin Delgado	2.0	0	1	0	31
DE Louis Travis	1.5	0	3	1	32
ILB Bryce Mankey	0.5	0	0	0	30
DT Mario McKnight	0.0	2	0	0	30
DT Leon Dostie	0.0	0	1	0	20

Pass Defense Statistics

Hell Creek	Caught	Defnsd	PPlay
OLB Devin Pritchett	5	0	18
CB Brian Conger	2	0	17
S Matt Fitzgerald	2	0	13
ILB Bert Randle	2	0	18
CB Robbie Ballard	1	1	17
OLB Randall Lyon	1	0	6

Bar Harbor	Caught	Defnsd	Intrcp	PPlay
CB Neal Shepherd	4	1	0	29
S Zach Bettencourt	3	0	0	31
CB Ray Gregg	1	2	2	31
ILB Bryce Mankey	1	1	0	30
CB Rob Rice	1	0	0	2
ILB Edgar Straub	1	0	0	20
OLB Ricky Heiser	1	0	0	16
CB Mickey Erdahl	1	0	0	11

Blocking Statistics

Hell Creek	KeyBl	BlOpp	RPly	SckA	PPly
Jerome Burnham	1	4	11	1	28
Eric Reed	1	1	2	0	10
Lenny Meehan	0	3	10	1	25
Ryan Humphries	0	2	13	1	32
Eddie Hill	0	1	13	1	31
Kurt Long	0	1	10	0	26
Doug Price	0	1	7	0	9

Bar Harbor	KeyBl	BlOpp	Panc	RPly	SckA	PPly
Bernie Ackerman	4	7	0	33	1	16
Dan Heffner-Liddiard	2	5	1	43	0	18
Edwin Corbett	2	3	0	37	1	15
Deron Upshaw	1	10	1	40	0	17
Mack Bruener	1	3	0	27	0	9
Byron Weaver	1	3	0	10	0	2
Anthony Allen	1	2	0	30	1	15
Blaine McDaniel	1	2	0	3	0	1
Bart Surcon	1	2	0	19	0	6
Dwight Maynard	1	1	0	21	0	6

Special Teams Statistics

Hell Creek	Tackles	STPlays
Leonard Olivo	2	16
Bryan Flynn	1	18
Bruce Dolan	1	16
Lenny Meehan	1	4
Eddie Hill	1	3
Howard Atkins	0	16
Eric Reed	0	15
Alex Maestas	0	14
Doug Price	0	14
Steven Shepherd	0	12
Johnnie Tuipala	0	11
Herman Hermann	0	10
Randall Lyon	0	8
Robbie Ballard	0	8
Marco Perkins	0	6
Benjamin Bullock	0	6
Neal Dritlein	0	6
Marc Wright	0	6
Tyrell Halvorson	0	6
Tyrell Downs	0	4
Matt Fitzgerald	0	4
James Shepard	0	4
Robert Broxon	0	4
Brian Conger	0	3
Herman Devoe	0	3
Bert Randle	0	3
Devin Pritchett	0	3
Darryl Walker	0	3
Jesse Myers	0	3
Paul Wolf	0	2
Marlon Honaker	0	2
David Jizmejian	0	2
Nate Lane	0	2
Freddie Rhea	0	2
Jerome Burnham	0	1
Todd Rausch	0	1
Kurt Long	0	1

Bar Harbor	Tackles	STPlays
Rob Rice	3	22
Buddy Northern	2	13
Dwight Maynard	1	14
Pete Foley	1	9
Clarence Burks	0	22
Leon Burke	0	17
Mitchell Gruttadauria	0	13
Mack Bruener	0	12
James Jordi	0	12
Johnny Ridley	0	11
Glen Hoover	0	11
Ricky Heiser	0	9
Mickey Erdahl	0	9
Brandon Curtis	0	7
Glen Lofton	0	6
Byron Weaver	0	6
Blaine McDaniel	0	6
Vinny Ferguson	0	6
Bart Surcon	0	6
Lamar Dillon	0	5
Zach Bettencourt	0	4
Anthony Allen	0	3
Joe Preston	0	3
Edwin Corbett	0	3
Justin Nail	0	3
Bernie Ackerman	0	3
Geoff Sawyer	0	3
Edgar Straub	0	2
Darrell Paredes	0	1
Leon Dostie	0	1

Directional Rushing Statistics

Distance	Att	Yards	Avg
Left	2	18	9.0
Middle	7	8	1.1
Right	4	4	1.0
None	0	0	0.0

Distance	Att	Yards	Avg
Left	14	46	3.3
Middle	21	109	5.2
Right	8	26	3.3
None	0	0	0.0

Detailed Passing Statistics

Hell Creek	Att	Cmp	20+	BdTh	Drop	Dfns	Hurr	Knck	Intc
Skip Peterson	28	13	3	1	1	4	5	1	2

Bar Harbor	Att	Cmp	20+	BdTh	Drop	Dfns	Hurr	Knck	Intc
Kent Gill	15	13	2	0	0	1	1	1	0

Directional Passing Statistics

Distance	Att	Comp	Yards	Avg
Screen	1	0	0	0.0
Short (0-8 Yds)	3	3	20	6.7
Medium (9-18 Yds)	9	7	112	12.4
Long (19+ Yds)	15	3	67	4.5

Distance	Att	Comp	Yards	Avg
Screen	0	0	0	0.0
Short (0-8 Yds)	8	6	104	13.0
Medium (9-18 Yds)	7	7	108	15.4
Long (19+ Yds)	0	0	0	0.0

Detailed Receiving Statistics

Hell Creek	Targt	Caugt	Dropd	Yards	20+	PPlay
WR Todd Rausch	13	8	0	143	2	30
WR Paul Wolf	5	2	1	30	1	27
WR Chris Jaax	4	1	0	18	0	17
WR Steven Shepherd	3	2	0	8	0	11
RB Martin Todd	1	0	0	0	0	9
TE Doug Price	1	0	0	0	0	9
TE Eric Reed	1	0	0	0	0	10

Bar Harbor	Targt	Caugt	Yards	20+	PPlay
WR Clifton Gowin	6	6	80	0	17
TE Glen Lofton	2	2	32	0	15
WR Justin Nail	2	2	25	0	8
RB Lamar Dillon	2	1	40	1	8
RB Clarence Burks	1	0	0	0	12
TE Dwight Maynard	1	1	24	1	6
FB Mack Bruener	1	1	11	0	9

Red-Zone Rushing Statistics

Hell Creek	Att	Yards	Avg	Overall Avg
Lamar Lluellyn	1	1	1.00	1.83

Bar Harbor	Att	Yards	Avg	Overall Avg
Lamar Dillon	4	6	1.50	4.91
Clarence Burks	2	2	1.00	2.13
Kent Gill	1	5	5.00	7.40

Red-Zone Passing Statistics

Hell Creek	Att	Comp	Yards	Avg/Att	Overall Avg
Skip Peterson	1	1	7	7.00	7.11

Bar Harbor	Att	Comp	Yards	Avg/Att	Overall Avg
Kent Gill	3	2	28	9.33	14.13

Red-Zone Receiving Statistics

Hell Creek	Target	Catch	Yards	Avg/Targ	Overall Avg
WR Paul Wolf	1	1	7	7.00	6.00

Bar Harbor	Target	Catch	Yards	Avg/Targ	Overall Avg
WR Clifton Gowin	2	2	28	14.00	13.33
RB Clarence Burks	1	0	0	0.00	0.00

Third Down Rushing Statistics

Hell Creek	Rushes	Conversions
Martin Todd	1	1

Bar Harbor	Rushes	Conversions
Clarence Burks	4	3
Kent Gill	2	0
Brandon Curtis	1	1

Third Down Passing Statistics

Hell Creek	Att	Comp	Conversions
Skip Peterson	5	1	1

Bar Harbor	Att	Comp	Conversions
Kent Gill	3	2	2

Third Down Receiving Statistics

Hell Creek	Targ	Catch	Conversions
WR Todd Rausch	2	1	1
RB Martin Todd	1	0	0
WR Steven Shepherd	1	0	0
TE Doug Price	1	0	0

Bar Harbor	Targ	Catch	Conversions
RB Clarence Burks	1	0	0
FB Mack Bruener	1	1	1
WR Justin Nail	1	1	1

Section	Attendance
Stadium	61,900 (61,900 capacity)
Upper Deck	21,200 (21,200)
End Zone	15,400 (15,400)
Mezzanine	8,900 (8,900)
Sideline Seats	13,600 (13,600)
Luxury Boxes	2,800 (2,800)

QuikSand · 08-10-2007, 04:05 PM

Well, I have admittedly lost a lot of steam with this effort… this season was tough to take, and the nearly complete silence in the dynasty thread has me teetering on wrapping that effort up. I’m not quitting the league or the team, but I’m not sure I’m going to go forward with the piece-by-pieve write ups any longer.

Regardless, I can at least wrap up the season before things move ahead…

Code:


Front Office Football 2007
2015 Summary for Chesapeake Chili Dogs
   
Year                2015                                      
Record              9-7                                       
Winning Pct.        .562                                      
All-Time            139-69                                    
Winning Pct.        .668                                      
Playoffs            14-5                                      
Playoff Visits      8                                         
Bowl Wins           3                                         
Head Coach          Blake Baker                               
Record              130-91                                    
Winning Pct.        .588                                      
Off. Coord.         N. Grant                                  
Def. Coord.         J. Richard                                
   
Chesapeake Chili Dogs   Team      Rank  
Rushes per Game         26.4      21          
Rushing Yards           125.0     13          
Yards Per Carry         4.73      5           
Pass Attempts           33.1      22          
Completions             19.8      17 (T)      
Completion Pct.         59.8      12          
Passing Yards           261.8     6           
Yards Per Attempt       7.90      7           
Yards Per Catch         13.21     6           
Total Yardage Gained    377.2     7 (T)       
3rd Down Conversions    43.0      10          
Points Per Game         29.8      3           
Pass Rush Pct.          16.9      10          
Pass Defense Pct.       58.7      12          
Turnovers               19        7 (T)       
Turnover Margin         +2        15 (T)      
   
Opponents               Team      Rank  
Rushes per Game         26.1      14          
Rushing Yards           123.3     21          
Yards Per Carry         4.72      29          
Pass Attempts           40.3      31          
Completions             22.6      29 (T)      
Completion Pct.         56.1      7           
Passing Yards           262.8     31          
Yards Per Attempt       6.52      8           
Yards Per Catch         11.61     17          
Total Yardage Gained    374.6     31          
3rd Down Conversions    45.2      29          
Points Per Game         21.7      19          
Pass Rush Pct.          15.2      15          
Pass Defense Pct.       62.1      24 (T)      
Turnovers               21        21 (T)      
   
Week  Team  Versus        Oppnt  
1     24    at POR        30      
2     38    HPY           15      
3     27    CNI           0       
4     31    at HLC        28      
5     21    at STC        14      
6     23    at SCA        28      
7     17    POR           28      
8     41    MAD           14      
9     24    WAS           26      
10    49    at DGC        47      
12    42    AWN           10      
13    31    at NRW        34      
14    31    at CHA        10      
15    23    SCA           3       
16    24    at MAR        27      
17    30    DGC           33      
   
Passing                 Pos   Att   Comp  Yards Y/Att TD    Int   Rate  
16 B. Sedor             QB    530   317   4189  7.90  35    11    98.2    
**Team                  ---   530   317   4189  7.90  35    11    98.2    
$$Opp                   ---   645   362   4204  6.52  29    16    80.6    
   
Rushing                 Pos   Att   Yards Y/Att TD    Fum  
20 H. Small             RB    184   774   4.21  6     5       
35 R. Rosenfels         RB    86    409   4.76  3     1       
16 B. Sedor             QB    77    411   5.34  2     3       
43 R. Becker            RB    71    401   5.65  5     3       
**Team                  ---   423   2000  4.73  16    19      
$$Opp                   ---   418   1972  4.72  10    17      
   
Receiving               Pos   Targ  Catch Yards Y/Ctc Y/Tar Drop  TD  
8 B. Pearson            WR    173   102   1606  15.75 9.28  6     14      
86 K. Fields            WR    87    50    683   13.66 7.85  5     3       
18 G. Ellis             WR    84    37    647   17.49 7.70  7     6       
13 R. Cooper            TE    49    36    418   11.61 8.53  1     6       
85 N. Bellevue          WR    38    19    240   12.63 6.32  1     2       
20 H. Small             RB    23    18    109   6.06  4.74  0     1       
   
Defense                 Pos   Tack  Asst  Sack  Hurr  Ints  Defn  PDPct  
5 M. Sheldon            ILB   82    31    1.5   3     1     5     76.8    
29 D. Schwantz          S     70    20    0.5   0     2     16    83.0    
96 B. Lents             DT    59    25    6.0   15    0     0     81.2    
27 L. Kuehler           CB    57    11    0.0   0     3     3     75.4    
31 H. Padgett           CB    51    13    0.5   0     1     21    83.2    
28 C. Daniels           CB    48    14    0.0   0     3     10    81.3    
59 D. McKenzie          ILB   45    13    0.0   0     0     0     72.0    
57 H. Humphries         OLB   44    18    2.5   1     0     4     75.0    
21 J. McCartney         S     40    9     0.5   2     5     9     86.4    
51 R. Shaw              OLB   40    11    2.0   5     0     2     73.7    
70 D. Armagost          DT    38    10    2.5   5     0     0     80.7    
23 B. Vesser            S     37    20    0.0   0     0     6     78.3    
90 K. Meadows           DE    37    17    6.5   27    0     1     81.9    
32 Q. Gailey            CB    26    7     0.0   0     1     2     74.0    
98 D. Reynolds          DE    23    13    4.0   24    0     0     81.9    
92 A. Wilcox            OLB   17    6     0.0   0     0     1     74.5    
78 D. Kaesviharn        DT    16    9     2.0   4     0     0     81.4

So… we finish 9-7, and I feel like a complete failure. But in looking at some of the “core” stats, it’s a little bit puzzling. A quick comparison over the last few years:

Code:

2011
Chesapeake Chili Dogs   Team      Rank  
Yards Per Carry         4.50      3           
Yards Per Attempt       7.31      13          
Opponents               Team      Rank  
Yards Per Carry         3.27      1           
Yards Per Attempt       6.84      13          

2012
Chesapeake Chili Dogs   Team      Rank  
Yards Per Carry         4.98      4           
Yards Per Attempt       7.95      6 (T)       
Opponents               Team      Rank  
Yards Per Carry         4.84      30          
Yards Per Attempt       7.22      21          

2013
Chesapeake Chili Dogs   Team      Rank  
Yards Per Carry         4.15      17 (T)      
Yards Per Attempt       7.65      7           
Opponents               Team      Rank  
Yards Per Carry         4.24      19          
Yards Per Attempt       6.79      6           

2014
Chesapeake Chili Dogs   Team      Rank  
Yards Per Carry         4.78      3           
Yards Per Attempt       10.82     1           
Opponents               Team      Rank  
Yards Per Carry         3.62      3           
Yards Per Attempt       7.31      20 (T)      

2015
Chesapeake Chili Dogs   Team      Rank  
Yards Per Carry         4.73      5           
Yards Per Attempt       7.90      7           
Opponents               Team      Rank  
Yards Per Carry         4.72      29          
Yards Per Attempt       6.52      8

So, what do I draw from this? Well… I know that one 16-game season can yield differing results. It’s just too short a period to really expect true consistency. If we were leaps and bounds better than every foe, maybe we could expect dominant stats and records – but anything short of that is going to be subject to the vagaries of a short sample size.

Looking at the five seasons above – I’d find it fairly tough to sort out which seasons there are those of dominant championship teams, and which are those of second-tier pretenders. Our offense is basically well above average in both rushing and passing efficiency – that didn’t change in 2015, though we might have lost a half-step. And our defense has generally remained a bit below average, statistically – last year, if anything, we improved in the more important pass defense aspect.

But it would be tough to look at these core stats for 2012 and for 2015… and see much difference. And yet, in 2012 we nearly had a perfect season, and in 2015 we miss the playoffs. Yes, turnovers and special teams and big plays and changes in the game engine and all that stuff plays some part – but at the core, this remains a really good team. We took some bad breaks, probably more than our fair share. But it’s not like it’s time for us to rebuild or anything. This same group, more or less, has a perfectly good shot to go out and win 13 games this coming season and again be a bye week team and a serious title contender.

I may get to more detailed looks… but if not, I wanted to leave that note.

* shurg *

JMO · 08-11-2007, 01:55 PM

Please continue!! I have abandoned my own dynasty effort so i understand some of the work goes in. I really enjoy your dynasty and would like to keep rooting for your team in future seasons.

This team has alot left in it and I'm sure there are alot of people out there wondering how they will do next year. In fact I'd love to be able to look in on the league. maybe something to be included in future FOF games.

QuikSand · 08-11-2007, 08:15 PM

Thanks for the encouragement... we've just ticked over into the new season, and I'm already bubbling over with ideas on what to do this offseason. I do enjoy the sense of "accountability" that writing a public dynasty thread gives me -- so I think I'll keep writing, even if only for selfish reasons. But I do appreciate the positive feedback... makes it feel a little more worthwhile when it does (sometimes) feel like a chore, rather than a joy.

Daimyo · 08-11-2007, 09:11 PM

FWIW, I read (and enjoy) this regularly.

st.cronin · 08-11-2007, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daimyo

FWIW, I read (and enjoy) this regularly.

+1

MartinD · 08-12-2007, 03:04 AM

Just adding my opinion - I would be disappointed if you decided to stop the dynasty thread (although it's perfectly understandable, given the season that you've just had!), as it's very good read, and it's interesting to get a feel for what you're thinking when you make decisions.

It is your choice whether or not to continue (and I know that keeping a dynasty thread going can be very tough), but I suspect that there are quite a few regular readers out there who would miss your regular updates.

Martin

TonyR · 08-12-2007, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daimyo

FWIW, I read (and enjoy) this regularly.

+2

I've been following the C-Dogs for a while now. And while the season was disappointing, the end of this dynasty will be more disappointing.

QuikSand · 08-12-2007, 09:40 PM

Thanks, guys. Next few days, I'll come up with some offseason-appropriate stuff to write about.

QuikSand · 08-13-2007, 10:20 AM

Chesapeake Chili Dogs, 2016

With the new season underway, it’s an opportunity to shake off the dreadful 2015 outcome, and try to retain optimism that we remain a top team in this league. The first step is trying to avoid getting crushed by injuries… my biggest worries on this front are, more or less in order or concern:

MLB Doug McKenzie
LT Horace Kolodzik
CB Lewis Kuehler
FB Charles Emerson
…and then a number of chemistry guys, any of whom could bolt for lack of playing time.

And as we raise the curtain… here’s the actual list of CHE retirements:

S Jon Upshaw Chesapeake Chili Dogs retired
FB Charles Emerson Chesapeake Chili Dogs retired
RB Ross Rosenfels Chesapeake Chili Dogs retired
DE Christian Brignac Chesapeake Chili Dogs retired

So… we lose FB Emerson, who had been a favorite and a great affinity guy, we lose RB Rosenfels (who we hadn’t even re-signed anyway) and we lose two good chemistry leaders for us. We ought to be okay getting through, though I will definitely have either a challenge or an opportunity ahead with the newly formed chemistry voids.

QuikSand · 08-13-2007, 10:21 AM

Roster Speculation, early 2016

As we wade through the staff hiring phases… I don’t think CHE has anything to worry about there. We are the most profitable franchise in the FOFL by a pretty wide margin, so I expect that we will be able to retain our desired staff. So, I don’t expect any surprises there.

Instead, I’m trying to think about the CHE roster for the year ahead. As it stands, we have 44 players under contract, and by my current count, four more who are restricted free agents whom I intend to sign while they are exclusively ours. Add in our **one** unrestricted free agent (CB Leland Tellez) as a possible, to get to 49 players we essentially think we’re heading forward with. I don’t think that every single one of these 49 players have a roster slot completely locked up, though. My current count is at 44 – meaning that barring a trade-away, or a complete ratings collapse – we have nine roster slots essentially up for grabs this year. That’s not too bad.

I have made a trade block thread already – and have included a few solid veterans on that list. Most notable there is LB Doug McKenzie – a longtime starter for us.

It’s not that I am desperate to rid the team of McKenzie – not by any stretch. But he remains a very solid player, but his presence at MLB is forcing us to jam up playing time for guys like Matt Sheldon, last year’s 2nd round pick, and a guy we think has tremendous upside. Plus, we have several younger LBs who are similarly meriting playing time – so if we could deal away a veteran and get something of value for him, I think it would serve us pretty well. Not a “dump” by any means, as McKenzie has been an excellent player for us… but right now, getting a solid draft pick might be better for the team’s longer term plans.

Anyway, right now, the key holes in my roster are more or less as follows:

FB (we’re completely empty there right now)
RB (I don’t know what to make of Harry Small, basically the incumbent)
DL (we have five guys we like, but no meaningful depth)
CB (thinking longer term, as our starters are 11th and 9th year guys)
C (again, I like my starter, but our two guys are 11th and 9th year)

Of course, I’m open to investing most anywhere, and in reality I ought to be looking at things like performance as much as my own happiness with the scouted ratings – but all things considered, this is a pretty complete team, despite the mediocre showing last season.

We hold draft pick 1.19, and then picks in the 3rd, 4th, 6th rounds, plus an extra 6th rounder. Only five draft picks this year, so we definitely have room to be adding a veteran free agent or two. I am, however, not at all impressed with the quality of the players that I see in free agency this year – so maybe we’ll end up with a one-year rent-a-player here or there, but unlikely to see any major impact players landing our way. Plus, we’re on the low end up available cap space with only about $10m (yeah, I know) so I don’t expect to be a major player there anyway.

Okay, enough ramblings for now… some work ahead, but unless we try to make a deal for one or more established players, I don’t see us being a major mover this offseason.

QuikSand · 08-14-2007, 08:47 AM

Chemistry at a Crossroads

Well, one thing that remains to be seen for the Chili Dogs is whether we will continue to invest as much as we have in team chemistry. Longtime readers know that I have made this a focus with this team – even carrying a few extra players in most years who serve basically no other purpose. This offseason looks like a crossroads for that pursuit.

We lost three of these affinity keystone players this year – including our long-time secondary leader Jon Upshaw, around whom we had a number of solid affinities. As I look at the defensive front, I don’t see any easy way to build a strong complement of affinities now that Christian Brignac is gone – indeed, it will be tough to avoid having conflicts going into the season. And with FB Emerson gone, we have a void at the RB/FB group as well. At the receivers group, we have George Ellis as our leader, but like last year we have nothing positive built around him.

So… it’s possible that we replace one or two of these guys with proper fits. But I recognize that doing so – carrying three or four players who have no other purpose than generating good chemistry – comes at a cost. That means there are three or four more potentially promising young players we have to cut in order to make room for guys who add only by indirect benefit. I have found it worthwhile in the past – but this year, it’s a bit of an unknown quantity. I spent a bit of time looking for a “magic bullet” for our defesnive front (the largest group, and the one best suited for multiple matches) – but I don’t think there’s a single guy out there in free agency who helps us much. So, I might end up trying to land a suitable leader for our DB group, and let things go by the wayside elsewhere.

Anyway… I’ll make mention of this as the offseason continues. But we certainly could lose our status as the team with the strongest affinities in the FOFL.

cuervo72 · 08-14-2007, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuikSand

I didn't - I poached it from the FOFL title game thread. cuervo72, owner of Bar Harbor, is the graphics genius and deserves the credit.

Thanks for the kind words. I'd be lying if I were to say I *wasn't* motivated to do this because we were in the bowl, btw.

dj_morton - Actually it's a screenshot of a script I made to preview matchups, using data from the team summary pages for the rankings, and the schedule data for both teams. The idea is to have links to these from the league schedule page before games are played, then after the games are played display links to the (game generated) box scores/logs. In this case Subby took a screenshot of the script output and swapped in some nifty text as a header.

flere-imsaho · 08-14-2007, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonyR

+2

+3

QuikSand · 08-15-2007, 08:30 AM

Offseason Update

Well, as expected, we were able to retain our front office staff. Six other teams put in bids on our scout, Ralph Soutsos, but we had the biggest bottom line last season and were able to retain him. This is the incremental advantage to managing the money well, which apparently we either have done, or have lucked into. Either way, it’s all good – he’s an excellent scout, and he’s rather young, too.

With that, we’re looking forward to the beginning of free agency and the revelation of the draft class.

We have to select one player to go to Europe this year, and I think we have choices to make here:

CB Quentin Gailey (drafted at 1.17) is rated 40/55 now, but was a +2 in training camp, so he probably (and hopefully) has more to grow. It looks like he stands to see plenty of playing time this year, and will be mentored by Herman Padgett, so I’m not sure if we’d gain a lot extra from the trip.

LT Jake Tate (drafted 4.24) is rated 34/51, but I don’t think he’s likely to see a lot of time on the playing field this season. After a good camp last year, he is likely our future at LT, but right now he is solidly behind starter Horace Kolodzik.

WLB Winfred Wilkins (drafted 4.27) is rated 25/45 and has decent skills – but I’m uncertain about his upside – probably won’t have a clear sense until after this year’s training camp. So, investing in him might not be the wisest move here, even though by the bars, he looks fairly promising.

SLB Alex Wilcox (drafted 4.31) is rated 19/36 but is a definite creeper. Depending on what happens with the veterans on our trade block, he could end up starting for us this year – in which case he would presumably benefit a good deal from the Europe experience. If he indeed has another 10-20 points of potential beyond that 36, then he’d be the perfect candidate. I’m leaning toward sending him.

WR Jamie Leverette (drafted 5.15) is rated 19/24 and is also creeping. I’m not certain whether he has enough eventual upside to invest too much in – I still don’t have a great intuitive sense of what to do with players like him who have apparently lousy skills but are clearly hiding something. The plan for him is to make him the #4 option at WR for this year (unless we make a major move at that position) and let him contribute from the margin.

So… LB Wilcox probably makes the most sense, and we will hope to see continued gains from him in the pivotal development stages ahead.

My list of young players who fit into my long term plans with this club is growing pretty nicely – of the five guys mentioned above, I’m pretty sure that four of them will develop into starting-quality players. And that doesn’t include MLB Matt Sheldon, who is already fully developed at 77/77 and inked into a full-time role for us in the coming year (he led the team in tackles last year while being moved all over the place). On top of the players mentioned above, I think we have a couple of free agent signees from last year’s after-draft who are going to stick as well – RT Cole Glover looks like a creeper and might be the next guy in the storied tradition of undrafted rookie linemen who go on to really contribute here in Chesapeake. Plus, our kicker Cornell Rose looks like a long-term keeper as well, and he came to us on a 1yr undrafted rookie FA contract as well.

knolysis · 08-16-2007, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

+3

+4

As a long-time lurker, this Dynasty is a "must read" for me. I find it to be very insightful and entertaining to see the thought process that goes into building a winning FOF team.

Hope next season sees the Chili Dogs return to their former glory!

QuikSand · 08-19-2007, 11:08 AM

Free Agency Underway

So, the draft class has been revealed, and the offseason free agent market has kicked off. For me, these first few stages of free agency, and the associated draft speculation is about as fun as any part of an FOF season. Chesapeake, as usual, is not hip-deep in cap space (like much of this league is), but we will (also as usual) try to make up for that by being aggressive if there are players that we really covet.

So… we land three players right out of the gate, and once again I have to be really pleased with the first splash. We get one of the handful of “impact” free agents, a guy who will give us some real options with our starting lineup – and we add in two guys who are likely to help one way or another.

RT Donovan Webster is a 5th year offensive tackle with a perfect 100 rating for run blocking, and rated 65/65 overall by my scout. He is, oddly enough, basically a slightly better and slightly younger version of our current starting RT Jerry Burns (my scout rated him 76 in run blocking, and 52/52 overall… but as a long-term creeper I suspect he’s better than he appears).

To land Webster, we needed up be pretty aggressive with the contract offer – so we gave him a $4m signing bonus and a $20m deal over two years. However, the salary is loaded up in year two – his cap hit for us this year is $4m, and we’ll deal with the $14m in base salary next year when it comes. Given that I am perfectly happy with Jerry Burns continuing to start for us at RT this year and beyond, we have liberty to do any number of things here – three obvious things are now on the table, I guess:

-Start Webster this year, and cut/trade him next year, and use the “reserve” time for Burns as a vehicle to reneg him into a longer term, lower-salary contract.

-Start Burns this year, and use the “reserve” time to induce Webster to reneg to a longer term, lower-salary contract starting next year, essentially eyeing Webster as our future starter.

-Deal one of these guys now – likely Webster, who would probably command more on the open market. With the receiving team getting a chance to immediately work out a long term deal with him (or to wait a year if they preferred), someone would be making a long term addition with the solid 5th year player here.

In addition, we also landed RB Shaun Hayakawa. He fits the same mold as a number of running backs we have picked up (to be candid) in their twilight over the years. Hayakawa was a former #1 overall draft pick, and has posted nearly 9,000 rushing yards – but he is pretty clearly in decline. however – if we don’t land a promising RB in this year’s draft, I could see him getting into the mix for us, along with Harry Small (recently re-signed for another RFA contract) and Russell Becker.

Hayakawa is, interestingly enough, almost a mirror image of Harry Small in his ratings array (at least at this point in his career). Where Small has a great rating in elusiveness, and little else that’s noteworthy, Hayakawa looks good in getting to the outside and the “home run” play. In a more controlled environment, we might be able to use these offsetting skills fairly well – in FOF, probably not so much. We’ll see. It is, in usual CHE style, a low-risk contract, with very little guaranteed, so even if we have to cut him, we’ll come out unscarred. (Nobody made a serious offer to him, so don’t start weeping for those who lost out in the bidding to my mostly-smoke contract)

For those who may have missed these guys over the years, here are a few of the running backs who are notable on the all-time league-leaders list, and who tagged on at least a season or two with the Chili Dogs before hanging up the cleats for good:

Chadwick Morimasa – 6,984 yards in 6 seasons (last 2 with CHE)
Bill Briner – 8,752 yards in 8 seasons (last 2 with CHE)
Craps Copley – 6,794 yards in 11 seasons (last 4 with CHE)
Ross Rosenfels – 11,692 yards in 9 seasons (last 2 with CHE)

So… we’ll see if Shaun Hayakawa can do likewise, and put up a couple seasons here with the Chesapeake offense to finish out his career. It seems that of late, we get pretty respectable results from nearly any RB we toss behind this line, so he could end up being pretty productive.

Finally, we landed longtime QB figure Ian Arsenault, whom we have in mind for a possible role this year. He, too, is basically a contingent contract – signed for a few years with virtually no cap footprint nor guaranteed money. I do like him, but it’s tough to imagine him seeing meaningful playing time on this team at QB. Stay tuned there.

More weeks to come, and my best guess is that some of the teams sitting on $30-60 million in cap space will finally either wake or wisen up and will flex their muscles here, leaving teams like Chesapeake basically on the outside with the remaining top free agents. But, I have been wrong about this sort of thing before, to be sure.

QuikSand · 08-20-2007, 02:00 PM

Another Impact Free Agent Chooses Chesapeake

Well, my suspicions about the FA market heating up were largely correct, but we did manage to get one player to come to Chesapeake, even in the face of some other competitive offers.

DE Roderick Burgess is a 10th year player, and his strong suit is stopping the run (my scout pegs him at 83 there). He’s a pretty solid all around player, at a position where we were thin – so I think he can really help us. I don’t yet know how to work him into a rotation, but I’m okay basically making him a situational substitute in run-stopping situations at both DE and DT. The second year of his contract is a doozy (reneg or release, for certain) so this year will be a decision – either we use him heavily and probably let him walk next year, or we use him sparingly this season in an effort to lock him into a longer deal afterwards.

In either case, this deal puts us pretty close to the salary cap (the hit this year is $6m), so we will be working to clear out still more space. And we still have several irons in the FA fires.

QuikSand · 08-21-2007, 08:01 AM

Two-Part Trade Sees Chili Dogs Selecting a Top-Three Talent

Well, Chesapeaks has already been the biggest impact team in free agency this offseason (despite my suggestions to the contrary earlier), and now we are the biggest wave-maker in the draft as well. With picks 1.1 and 1.2 going QB and RB, we coveted the top CB in the draft, and eventually worked out a pair of trades to deal from 1.19 all the way up to 1.3 to land him. Here are the two deals, in total:

White Rock receives:

1.19
2017 CHE 2nd
LT Jake Tate

Chesapeake receives:

1.5

…this costs us draft capital, and also the “left tackle of the future” we had landed in last year’s draft. However, especially with the signing of OT Webster, we have liberty to make a move like this at OT, even if we might one day need to move RT Burns over to play at LT.

And, just to whittle away any uncertainly remaining, we move up two more notched to get the pick sitting on the board:

Madison receives:

1.5
2017 CHE 3rd
2018 CHE 2nd
2018 CHE 4th

Chesapeake receives:

1.3

…so, we get it done. We have not made a trade of this magnitude in years – really since the big deal for the pick we used to land Brent Sedor. What’s the target? Here’s the man we have in mind:

So, he scouts as a nearly complete CB in pretty much every way, and he graded out at or very near the top of the combine in every area. Absent a random bust (which I know can happen) this guy is basically a lock to be the most skilled corner this franchise has ever fielded. We have a CB mentor in Padgett, and can bring him along as needed – but in our division, I just felt like this was an impact player we really needed to land, and guys like this just don’t find their way down to the second half of the first round. Had to make a move, and we did.

QuikSand · 08-24-2007, 05:50 AM

Draft Underway in Earnest

Not a lot of action at the Chesapeake war room – we’re sitting tight until our picks in rounds 3 and 4, though we do have a target list. I’m personally out of town and largely offline, so my ability to mix things up and start trading away all of next year’s draft (as usual) is limited, which is probably good. If we luck out and get two of the handful of guys we really like at picks 3.17 and 4.15, I will be quite pleasantly surprised. I expect we will be okay with a couple of marginal players here… we only have one starting job open right now (at FB) and that’s not really a top priority.

We have one nice note to report from free agency – we have successfully moved FA acquisition Deion Hueffed from WR to FS, where he actually looks like something a shade better than a lump of coal – he still has some KR skills, and a little bit of coverage and secondary ability. The main reason for the move, of course, is his ability to play a chemistry role – basically we’ll have him take over for retired DB leader Jon Upshaw, and we now have four exceptional and three strong affinities built around Hueffed. So, as I’m looking ahead to the final roster, I’m seeing this being a slot worth dedicating. The defensive front looks like another story entirely – it’s a mess, and there’s no easy way out, it seems.

QuikSand · 08-25-2007, 06:22 AM

Free Agency and Draft Continue…

So, another stage of free agency gone, and we landed a couple more players we’ll mention.

FB Victor McSwainhas bounced around a couple of years, but signs with us and becomes our presumptive starter at FB. I don’t ask for very much from the FB position, to be fair – a little blocking and hopefully some blitz pickup. I’m not looking for much in ball carrying and even less in “route running” (a.k.a. target stealing) from my fullback. I pursued a couple more well-rounded guys, but he’s my current “good enough” guy that I co go ahead with if need be.

Drafting at a position like FB is pretty cool, too – because unless you really really really want a top guy, it’s hard to be too disappointed. I’m looking at a few guys in this draft as possible FB targets – the top guy went just ahead of our 3rd round pick – but there’s nobody who would break my heart by being picked ahead of us. Look for a FB to come off the board in round six for us, most likely.

We also landed another marginal guy in S Dennis Taber. He’s a 4th year guy who looks to me like he can play a little… my guess is that he will contend for a spot as our #7 or 8 option at DB. I’m surprised that he’s sitting here for minsal at this point… he looks like a decent enough depth chart guy for plenty of teams to me. No risk contract, of course.

And finally, our round three pick came up, and we decided to roll the dice on a no-combine running back that my scout liked after the interview. Seems worth the risk – I had planned to go RB at 1.19 before working out the mechanics of our trade-up for CB White, and ended up being a bit disappointed seeing the quality of RBs who presumably would have been there for us at 1.19 had we stood pat. Anyway – we ink Jumbo Kinney here, making him the highest-drafted RB in Chili Dogs history (which isn’t saying much). He skipped the combine, but did grade out as the smartest running back in the draft (a standout score of 35 on the test, and a strong 81 rating in intelligence) – and has some reasonably impressive skills, including great-looking blitz pickup. If he creeps, great – but even if not, we might get something out of him regardless. Solid flier at an obvious need position, I think.

QuikSand · 08-26-2007, 09:13 AM

Draft continues…

In round four, we once again approach our pick with two guys we really like, and once again the top one of our two gets nabbed earlier in the round, and we end up with the #2 guy on our list. (No offense to either guy intended)

So, we end up missing out on the guy I thought would have been a great fit for us at FB for this season, and instead select an interior lineman, LG Mark Noyeaux. Noyeaux weighs 329, and with the same level of experience at LT as LG, I’m hoping to move him over to that slot, and audition him to be the next “left tackle of the future” for us. After we dealt away our mid-round pick from last year who we had hoped to grow into that role, Noyeaux would be fine if he could creep into it as well. He’s more road-grader than typical blind-side protector, but we’d take a nice developing young talent for the OL at pretty much any slot.

We have two more picks coming up, in round six. Looking over my roster right now, I think that I have 52 players who are basically holding roster slots, and several more who are essentially battling for the fringe. My current thinking is that RB Hayakawa, QBs Baker and Boroniec, and a few of our lower-end DBs are basically battling for their jobs for this season. Signing two “keepers” in the FA market, and then adding an affinity-only guy at DB, has added a little more pressure on the down-to-53 decisions than I had anticipated. In looking at these last two draft picks we're now wondering who they'd beat out to even make the team.

QuikSand · 08-27-2007, 12:27 AM

Final Draft Picks Triggered

With our last two draft picks, Chesapeake makes a couple more pretty easy-to-read moves.

With the vacancy at FB, we finally take a prospect there as we pick up Bert Berube in the mid-6th round. Berube had a shaky combine, but is really just a “bars” pick for us – as his skill profile shows some ability in the limited things that I want from a FB. He also actually interviewed well, which made him a pretty appealing pick. He’s a stealth affinity for us (personality likely making it too low to register in-game) but I’m now thinking that he will basically be battling FB McSwain for one roster slot, and McSwain is the group leader with whom he has an affinity… so that may be out the window anyhow).

We have had great fortune with our offensive line, which I still rate as one of the better units in the league. As we start the season, we have four of three OL starters who came from the after-draft free agent ranks, along with our top reserve interior lineman. The other two were drafted in the 5th round by us, and picked up as a minsal free agent. So – we have gotten a lot of mileage out of low-investment lineman over the years.

We try again to hit the bell with C Willie McGregor, who we hope may pan out to be a clone of our longtime starter, 9th year C Winston Turnbull. Turnbull was (for much of his career) a maxed-out run blocker, and McGregor is maxed out there as well, even after the interview (where many of those blue ranges that start out 70-100 can fade to something like 70-85). This may make the position battle at C a bit of a challenge, as McGregor now becomes the 4th C on the roster – if we keep three, we’ll have a battle between mentor and affinity between the two veterans ahead of him and behind Turnbull.

With that, we are done with the draft. I still have a handful of guys in my draft utility, but I don’t see anything approaching a clear path to our roster of 53 for anyone left, so I don’t mind sitting it out. If we grab a few guys after the draft for a look it won’t be a major investment to discard if they don’t stick.

QuikSand · 08-29-2007, 08:54 AM

Position Battle: Defensive Back

With the post-draft free agency market roaring on… I already think we have all 53 players who are going to make our roster on board at this point. We may sign a few scrapheap types to toss out there in preseason, but overall I don’t expect any impact signings.

I’m now looking at some of the team’s position battles… and there are a couple that seem intriguing to me. Defensive back is one, as we picked up a top rookie at CB, and already have a pretty stocked group of players we are definitely keeping. So, here are the guys we intend to keep for sure:

CB Herman Padgett and Lewis Kuehler – are returning starters, both solid. Kuehler will probably start suffering a serious skill erosion, but I think he is worth retaining as either our RCB starter, or a top backup, regardless (plus, we’d suffer a bad cap hit if we traded or cut him). So, both of these guys are locks.

CB Quentin Gailey and Emmanuel White – first round picks last year and this year, respectively – hopefully, these are our two anchor corners for the future. Unless White suffers a massive camp meltdown, these guys make the team, period.

CB C.J. Daniels – late 4th round pick from 2012, he has developed (creeper) into a very solid and effective player for us. 10 passes defensed in each of the last two years is strong – he has skill in all three coverages, and has a strong affinity for us. Outstanding cheap depth.

S Doug Schwantz and Jeff McCartney – longtime starters at safety for us, both are effective. Schwantz is a zone coverage star and a big hitter, who posted 16 PDs last year. McCartney has a reputation for the big play, and has become one of my very favorites as well, plus he’s an affinity guy. Both are locked in to start, and should have several good years ahead of them.

S Brett Vesser – another former undrafted free agent, who crept to being a starting-caliber guy for us. very good in run support (60) and zone defense (80) he’s a guy we can comfortably slot as a starting S, nickel or dime back, or even as an OLB in a pass-heavy setup. Also a strong affinity for us. Again, outstanding cheap depth.

Deion Hueffed – yeah, here’s the thing. Hueffed is a converted wide receiver who brings no real playable skills to the table as a safety, but he’s making the team, period, end of story. This is because he is now the cornerstone to our affinity situation, and his 84 personality makes our affinities all strong. Witness:

Code:

Chesapeake Chili Dogs Roster, Attitude Advisory
   
  Player                #   Pos   Start Noted Playing Time    Chemistry  
Padgett, Herman         31  LCB   LCB   MN    Content         Strong Affinity         
Daniels, C.J.           28  LCB               Content         Exceptional Affinity    
$$White, Emmanuel       33  LCB               Content           
Kuehler, Lewis          27  RCB   RCB         Content           
Tellez, Leland          34  RCB               Content         Strong Affinity         
Gailey, Quentin         32  RCB               Content           
Schwantz, Doug          29  SS                Content           
Vesser, Brett           23  SS    SS          Content         Exceptional Affinity    
McCartney, Jeff         21  FS    FS          Content         Exceptional Affinity    
Hueffed, Deion          41  FS                Content         Secondary Leader        
Taber, Dennis           30  FS                Content           
Conzelman, Deion        24  FS                Content         Exceptional Affinity

So… I’m perfectly happy with all these guys, and candidly that makes nine guys at DB who already have roster spots. We could cover every single need we have for this season in the secondary with just these 8 playable guys, with no real need to carry anyone else at all. However, we do have a few more guys who are at least making bids to stick – and these are the guys in the position battle:

For some reason, Leland Tellez has stuck on this roster for a pretty long time – he was a draft semi-bust for Dodge City, and we picked him up for his affinity. But he has been with us a long time, and now adds some cohesion benefits as well, for whatever that’s worth. He is resigned super-cheaply, and is a guy we could trot out there if needed.

Dennis Taber is a guy we signed super-cheap, and seems to me to be worth more than minsal. Decent skills to be at least a reserve at either CB or safety – I don’t know why this guy wasn’t snagged by someone else, really. If we weren’t hip-deep in DBs, I’d be excited to keep him as my #6 or #7 DB at this price. As it is, he’s a bubble guy. (Anyone reading this – he can be had cheaply, drop a line)

And finally, there’s Deion Conzelman. Ratings look like junk, of course, but as you have probably gathered – he’s a creeper too. And a strong affinity to boot. I have real trouble seeing my team jettisoning a guy who adds something with chemistry already, and whose ratings are still on the rise. By jumping only 1 point in each relevant stage, though, I suspect he’s not really heading very far upward – and I’ll be left with the curiousity about how much better he is than his always-modest “bars.” Conundrum player for me.

I don’t know for sure, but my best guess is that one, or possibly two, of these three guys can make the team this year. With 8 playable guys ahead of them, it’s not likely that anyone here is going to see the field very much – so that probably gives the edge to Conzelman, who at least chips in with his strong affinity. But we could end up making room for another DB, especially if I end up feeling that the main contribution we’ll get from S Vesser migth be in adding to a fairly thin LB corps (especially if we manage to effect a trade there).

Anyway… one of the dilemmas we’ll untangle down the road a bit. As we break for the URFA stages, this is what we are thinking about instead, by and large.

QuikSand · 08-30-2007, 03:55 PM

Post Camp Update

With the players coming out of training camp, we now have a better look at what we’ll be working with this year.

One thing quickly – it’s actually a damned good thing we went ahead with a top pick at CB this year, as we suffered a major dropoff from 11th year starter CB Lewis Kuehler, who has suddenly become a pretty mediocre backup-caliber guy. If I thought I had time to ease in my young guys at CB< I was definitely wrong. Right now, 2nd year man Quentin Gailey is probably the starter at RCB, and I’d say that on talent alone, rookie Emmanuel White probably deserves to start ahead of my other longtime starter Herman Padgett. Good to have this depth, but troubling to see this rapid dissolution of our veteran talent.

Anyway – on to the good news. We had a remarkable 22 players make a gain in training camp this year, which seems like a very high number. CB Emmanuel White has a +1, which is excellent for a top-rated player like him – he now projects to be the 4th best CB in the whole league (though admittedly his topped-out return ratings probably contribute to that). I’m very pleased there.

RB Jumbo Kinney looks like the real thing, a +5 camp swing makes him a lock to be in our RB rotation this year, and he may well end up with the most carries of everyone. We’ll have to use a committee on account of his dumb endurance, but I have no problem getting a (likely) quality RB in round three.

G Mark Noyeaux looks like a bust, no gains in training camp, so he probably won’t be our future anything, contrary to original hopes. Likely a cut before the season starts – no affinity, no creeping, we have no room for you.

C Willie McGregor is what he had hoped for, a long term keeper at C and possible replacement for Winston Turnbull one day. And FB Bert Berube looks good enough to start, despite losing a good deal in camp as expected. We also grabbed DT Shaun Buchanan after training camp, who now (with a +3 camp) looks like he will make the team somehow, and have an intriguing converted Hawaiian QB in Skip Ogu who now will compete for a RB/PR/KR roster slot.

An intriguing +7 mid-career jump from QB Jim Baker puts him right into the mix for us at QB, while an unexpected –6 drop from Alex Gerhardt drops him from sure #2 to bubble fodder. FA pickup Donald Boroniec didn’t make any gains, and likely won’t make the final cut either.

Other movements here and there, but we have a lot of young players on the improve here, which is encouraging.

QuikSand · 09-04-2007, 09:38 AM

First Cut Down Day

Getting down to 60 for preseason isn’t all that tough to do, in theory. Anyone in jeopardy of a cut here couldn’t possibly have been on the serious list for 53, right?

My new favorite player, RB Skip Ogu, makes this round of cuts – but honestly, I just don’t see how this guy can make this team in the end. If we needed the return skills, I could justify it – but I don’t see how we can cut a more productive RB to keep him, and keeping 4 RBs – even on a team using a committee approach driven by lousy endurance ratings – doesn’t make any sense to me. I’m disappointed, but I don’t see him sticking in the end.

Anyway… I’m already looking ahead to some of our final position battles. QB2/3 is still up in the air… the RB/FB slots are still a competition… and I think we are probably going to have to let go of one decent DL and at least one DB before it’s all said and done, too.

Anyway – on to the preseason games!

QuikSand · 09-04-2007, 09:48 AM

re-posting an item I contributed to a "Team preview" thread at the FOFL forums...

[/u]Chesapeake Team Preview[/u]

Offseason

We had a more active offseason than I would have forecasted, but by and large for the better. I really felt that last season we were a title contender, but instead se struggled to a 9-7 finish and a slot as the dreaded "#7 seed." We return nearly everyone of on-field import from last year's team (though we had to do a good deal of chemistry rebuilding) and made a couple beefy veteran addiitons to try to help things out in the trenches. Then, in the draft we made a two-part deal to work our way up to pick 1.3 to land a top CB, which we felt was a top need for this team long term.

Offense

Chesapeake should once again have one of the league's top offenses - Brent Sedor remains as good as anyone behind center, and WR Burt Pearson has established himself as one of the league's most reliable targets. The supporting cast in the passing game is very solid, and the air game ought to be fine, as usual. The running game will again be a committee effort, with rookie Jumbo Kinney more or less replacing the spot of retired veteran Ross Rosenfels. Free agent signee RT Donovan Webster adds an impact player to an already-strong group, and gives us outstanding depth on the line.

If CHE isn't among the league's top three teams in points and yards this year, we'll be underperforming.

Defense

Our recipe recently has been to put together a dominating offense with an average defense. Shouldn't be much different here. Lots of guys here that I *like* but probably not top-shelf talent overall. We're trying to get better against the pass, and that involves a shift of talent -- we're seeing the old guard replaced at slots like MLB and both CB starters, with promising new talent. Hopefully second year MLB Matt Sheldon, second year CB Quentin Gailey, and rookie CB Emmanuel White will quickly step into their roles, and help us keep at least on pace with the middle of the pack. If things break well, we might find ourselves a little tougher to pass on right away, and well on our way toward making a big step up there long term.

If CHE is outside the bottom half in the league against the pass this year, we'll be pretty happy.

Specials

Punter and kicker are fine. WR George "That Guy" Ellis remains our main weapon in the return game, though rookie CB Emmanuel White has tantalizing skills there, if we're willing to let him risk injury.

Predictions

Last year we misfired and ended up 9-7. I think that had we played that season ten times, we wouldn't have had another season that bad. I don't know for certain that we are a better team right now than we were a year ago... but I think we are.

We ought to be about 12-4 team this year, a dominating team on offense that puts some games away early, and hopefully improving on defense as the season goes along so we're coming together nicely as we wait for teams to play for the right to visit us in the postseason.

QuikSand · 09-07-2007, 12:24 PM

Pretend Preseason Games Underway!

Week 2: Chesapeake 41, Norman 8

Week 3: Chesapeake 34, Happy Valley 3

I don’t draw a lot from preseason results – we’re just trying to get guys healthy and ready to play. We’ll cycle in more guys in the next pair of games, and will get a look at a few more guys that way. Most of our starters ought to have shaken their rust here.

Week 4: Chesapeake 28, French 3

Week 5: Chesapeake 31, Mars 17

No need to get too giddy from the four impressive scoreboard snapshots. That doesn’t mean much, I understand that.

So, it’s cutdown day, and after thinking it over, I have decided that I want to hold on to my undrafted rookie DT Shaun Buchanah, who had a nice 3-point creep in training camp. I got a reasonable offer for him, but I’m not convinced that with the pick I’d be getting for him, that I’d be likely to draft a guy with better promise. So, I’ll keep Buchanan and that probably kills off any hope of retaining RB Skip Ogu for this year. I’m disappointed, but not shocked, that I didn’t get any nibbles for any of my other trade danglings of late.

Down to 53 tomorrow means we will be making the painful cuts – and I suspect that QB Mitch Ackerman will be on that list, as he is only slightly better than my other two backups, but a lot older. We’ll sort things out among the fringe guys at DB and elsewhere, and will beheading in to the season next week.

QuikSand · 09-10-2007, 07:54 AM

Flyin Hawai'ian Makes the Cut

With out final roster decision, I ended up split among three players to make the final two roster spots on this team. S Deion Conzelman, who seems to be gradually creeping toward being a marginally useful player, was battling for the least slot at DB. WR Nolan Bellevue, also on a slow creep of his own, was trying to force us to carry him as WR4. And rookie Skip Ogu, with his intriguing mix of gadget skills, battling to get us to keep a fourth RB and utility special teams guy.

In the end, I chose to release Bellevue. Then I re-thought it, and decided to play it smart, and released Ogu. And then, I re=submitted the file, and released Conzelman. And it's done.

Skip Ogu will start the season on the inactive list, but in time I do expect to see him activated, and probably on the field as a special teams gunner and possibly return man. I think he is our 3rd best at both pun and kickoff returns, so he could become a regular there with an injury ahead of him, or my sense that having starters in those roles is too dangerous.

QuikSand · 09-10-2007, 11:37 AM

Week 1: South Carolina at Chesaepeake

A quality test right away – SCA is a returning playoff team with crazy talent at the skill positions, possibly the best offensive talent in the FOFL. Will be a tough one right out of the gate, and a divisional game right away at that.

Live Commentary

Opening drive looks sick – they just march on us. We make them settle for a FG, but it seemed really easy for them to score. We respond by pounding Harry Small at them, and head in for a pretty easy TD of our own. Hope you took the over.

A three and out? Wow. A Sedor pick in our territory? One play drive for the go-ahead TD for them? Oh, okay, got it. We respond with a solid drive again – our ground game is overpowering them in the early going, which does bode well. But again – the OVER is looking like the big winner here.

As the first quarter wraps up, Emmanuel White delivers with a pick, setting up a TD for us, to put us ahead 21-10 in the early 2nd quarter. We swap picks in CHE territory late in the quarter – the defenses don’t seem interested in playing fundamental football, rather just coming up with the big play, I guess.

Late second quarter, SCA is driving, and rookie CB White goes down with an injury. Oh, shit. We drive to the SCA 3 when we fumble, they tear off a long run before halftime, but it seems they run out of time to collect on it. So, a wash there.

In the second half, SCA drives to score a TD and get back within 8. We finish our first two possessions with missed FGs, and are far from putting these guys away in any event. Both teams are over 300 yards in total offense at this point, midway through the third quarter. Presumably, more fireworks to come.

After a SCA kick, we trade punts and get into the 4th quarter holding on to a 28-23 lead. Suddenly the defenses are playing well – we cannot run any more, and they bottle us up again to force a punt. We force them to punt as well, and the crazy momentum seems to have halted. A fumble by Sedor at midfield gives the Crossfire a great chance to push ahead, and they cash in a couple first downs. but we force a key 3rd and 11 from our 36 – HUGE play for the C-Dogs defense here. Quentin Gailey comes up with a monster pick, and gets us the ball back near midfield.

Rookie Jumbo Kinney has another good run (he has been effective today) and puts us into scoring position – a FG would give us an 8 point lead, a TD would make it a serious hurdle. We chew down the clock, and finish off the drive with a short TD pass to Kinney, and that ought to seal this one. The final thjreat from SCA results in another pick by Gailey, and we get the hard-earned win.

http://www.thefofl.com/fofl/box2016052907.html]Online Box Score[/url]

Week 1, 2016

played in Chesapeake, PA

81 degrees, fair, 8 mph wind

South Carolina Crossfire	10	3	10	0	-	23
Chesapeake Chili Dogs	14	14	0	7	-	35

Scoring Summary

1Q: 07:09 SCA - Albert Clemons 38 field goal

1Q: 04:40 CHE - Harry Small 13 run (Cornell Rose extra point)

1Q: 02:25 SCA - Chris Sanders 23 pass from Dixon Zhao (Albert Clemons extra point)

1Q: 00:54 CHE - Kent Fields 16 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

2Q: 13:42 CHE - George Ellis 2 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

2Q: 06:27 CHE - Robert Cooper 16 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

2Q: 01:28 SCA - Albert Clemons 28 field goal

3Q: 09:42 SCA - Bernie Tanner 9 pass from Dixon Zhao (Albert Clemons extra point)

3Q: 02:49 SCA - Albert Clemons 36 field goal

4Q: 02:13 CHE - Jumbo Kinney 1 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

Team Statistics	SCA	CHE
Record	0-1	1-0
First Downs	21	20
- by Rushing	6	5
- by Passing	14	15
- by Penalty	1	0
Total Net Yards	425	404
- Offensive Plays	71	63
- Yards per Play	5.99	6.41
Net Rushing Yards	212	181
- Rushing Attempts	26	33
- Yards per Rush	8.15	5.48
Net Passing Yards	213	223
- Att./Comp./Intrcpt	42 - 21 - 4	28 - 17 - 2
- Gross Passing Yards	233	238
- Sacks/Yards Lost	3/20	2/15
- Yards per Pass Play	4.73	7.43
Fumbles/Lost	0/0	2/2
3rd Down Conversions	7/16	7/13
- Avg. YtG on 3rd Down	6.8	7.0
4th Down Conversions	0/0	0/0
Penalties/Yards	7/55	6/50
Punt Returns/Yards	1/0	2/11
Kick Returns/Yards	4/73	6/188
Interception Ret./Yards	2/30	4/19
2pt Conversions	0/0	0/0
Red Zone Visits	3	7
- Red Zone TDs/FGs	1/2	5/0
Avg. Drive Start	OWN 34	OWN 35
Time of Possession	31:26	28:34

Drive Charts

South Carolina Crossfire
Quar	Began	Poss	From	Plays	Yards	Result
1	15:00	7:56	OWN 20	15	59	Field Goal
1	4:34	1:33	OWN 32	3	1	Punt
1	2:25	0:16	OPP 23	1	23	Touchdown
1	0:49	0:27	OWN 20	2	-10	Interception
2	13:37	2:05	OWN 22	3	-2	Punt
2	10:00	0:08	OPP 16	1	0	Interception
2	6:19	1:05	OWN 27	3	1	Punt
2	4:15	2:54	OPP 48	10	37	Field Goal
2	0:33	0:33	OWN 3	1	84	Half
3	11:18	1:46	OWN 41	6	59	Touchdown
3	6:29	3:47	OWN 28	7	53	Field Goal
3	1:04	2:18	OWN 4	5	10	Punt
4	11:45	1:28	OWN 29	3	9	Punt
4	8:44	2:22	OPP 47	6	11	Interception
4	2:07	1:49	OWN 18	7	55	Interception

Chesapeake Chili Dogs
Quar	Began	Poss	From	Plays	Yards	Result
1	7:04	2:30	OWN 40	5	60	Touchdown
1	3:01	0:36	OWN 12	2	8	Interception
1	2:09	1:20	OWN 38	3	62	Touchdown
1	0:22	1:45	OPP 17	6	17	Touchdown
2	11:32	1:32	OWN 25	3	1	Interception
2	9:52	3:33	OWN 20	7	80	Touchdown
2	5:14	0:59	OWN 6	3	-2	Punt
2	1:21	0:48	OPP 42	3	39	Fumble
3	15:00	3:42	OWN 47	6	19	Missed FG
3	9:32	3:03	OWN 47	5	32	Missed FG
3	2:42	1:38	OWN 37	3	3	Punt
4	13:46	2:01	OWN 33	3	1	Punt
4	10:17	1:33	OWN 25	3	22	Fumble
4	6:22	4:15	OWN 41	9	59	Touchdown
4	0:18	0:18	OWN 20	2	-2	Game

Game MVP: Quentin Gailey, Chesapeake Chili Dogs

Anyway – it’s a solid win for us, one we needed at home in the division. We will have some adjustments to make, but overall we can be pleased with this one.

Looks like CB Emmanuel White is fine, but we will be without CB Herman Padgett for a few weeks.

Have to like the stat line for rookie RB Jumbo Kinney – 11 carries for 83 yards, plus the short game-sealing TD catch late.

QuikSand · 09-12-2007, 02:25 PM

Week 2: Chesapeake (1-0) at Shreveport (1-0)

We still have not forgiven Shreveport for their misdeed from several years ago – they (in week two, as well, it’s easy to recall) managed to upend what would have been the league’s first perfect season with a bizarre win over our C-Dogs.

We do not forget. We seek to punish them. Never mind that hardly anyone involved with that game is still involved in Shreveport following successive sweeping front office and onfield purges. Not our worry here.

Week 2, 2016

played in Shreveport, LA

82 degrees, fair, calm

Chesapeake Chili Dogs	14	21	7	0	-	42
Shreveport Hurricanes	0	7	2	7	-	16

Scoring Summary

1Q: 13:04 CHE - Harvey Leff 30 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

1Q: 02:09 CHE - Jeff McCartney 81 interception return (Cornell Rose extra point)

2Q: 13:21 SHR - Morris Morrison 2 pass from Roman Keyes (Keith Strickland extra point)

2Q: 07:25 CHE - Jumbo Kinney 16 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

2Q: 04:34 CHE - Jamie Leverette 4 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

2Q: 00:18 CHE - Jamie Leverette 18 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

3Q: 09:27 CHE - Kent Fields 20 pass from Alex Gerhardt (Cornell Rose extra point)

3Q: 02:23 SHR - Safety, blocked punt covered in end zone

4Q: 03:53 SHR - Cris Brandon 58 fumble return (Keith Strickland extra point)

Team Statistics	CHE	SHR
Record	2-0	1-1
First Downs	22	12
- by Rushing	3	4
- by Passing	16	6
- by Penalty	3	2
Total Net Yards	351	197
- Offensive Plays	70	59
- Yards per Play	5.01	3.34
Net Rushing Yards	136	110
- Rushing Attempts	41	27
- Yards per Rush	3.32	4.07
Net Passing Yards	215	87
- Att./Comp./Intrcpt	27 - 17 - 0	31 - 8 - 2
- Gross Passing Yards	225	94
- Sacks/Yards Lost	2/10	1/7
- Yards per Pass Play	7.41	2.72
Fumbles/Lost	2/1	1/0
3rd Down Conversions	9/17	3/14
- Avg. YtG on 3rd Down	6.4	6.9
4th Down Conversions	0/0	0/0
Penalties/Yards	5/44	7/57
Punt Returns/Yards	6/41	4/28
Kick Returns/Yards	3/107	6/134
Interception Ret./Yards	2/96	0/0
2pt Conversions	0/0	0/0
Red Zone Visits	3	1
- Red Zone TDs/FGs	3/0	1/0
Avg. Drive Start	OWN 31	OWN 30
Time of Possession	34:46	25:14

Online Box Score

We took our foot off the gas shortly after halftime, so I’m not worried about some really lackluster offensive numbers from that point on. The game was in hand by halftime, as we really clicked in the second quarter to grab hold. Good effort all around, really – the defense played very, very well this week.

We have another secondary injury, with S Doug Schwantz out for a couple of weeks. I’m glad we have good depth there, and this likely means we will see some of Skip Ogu on the field next week, at least in the return game, where I think I’ll pull CB White off duty for fear of weakness in the DB group depth.

Subby · 09-12-2007, 04:23 PM

There were some real strong defensive efforts in FOFL this week - I wonder if some folks aren't starting to "get it" on that side of the ball.

One thing that I would like to see FOF MythBusters cover is the second half flip switch code. Single half dominations like this one - anecdotally - seem to happen pretty regularly.

TheDanbom · 09-14-2007, 01:36 PM

Free Skip Ogu!

QuikSand · 09-14-2007, 03:37 PM

Week 3: Myrtle beach (1-1) at Chesapeake (2-0)

We are off to a red hot start, and get to play at home here as big favorites. I hope the offense gets rolling – maybe we can see a first big game from star WR Burt Pearson, who has been pretty subdued thus far as we have spread things around an awful lot. Regardless, we hope to execute and post another strong showing this week.

Week 3, 2016

played in Chesapeake, PA

62 degrees, rain, 14 mph wind

Myrtle Beach Magicians	3	7	0	3	-	13
Chesapeake Chili Dogs	7	3	14	10	-	34

Scoring Summary

1Q: 09:00 MBR - Albert Goloboy 48 field goal

1Q: 05:18 CHE - Jamie Leverette 23 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

2Q: 10:36 MBR - Tommie Schwartz 59 punt return (Albert Goloboy extra point)

2Q: 00:24 CHE - Cornell Rose 21 field goal

3Q: 12:41 CHE - Jamie Leverette 18 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

3Q: 02:08 CHE - Jumbo Kinney 16 run (Cornell Rose extra point)

4Q: 11:50 MBR - Albert Goloboy 20 field goal

4Q: 06:36 CHE - Jamie Leverette 4 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

4Q: 02:38 CHE - Cornell Rose 36 field goal

Team Statistics	MBR	CHE
Record	1-2	3-0
First Downs	16	17
- by Rushing	5	4
- by Passing	11	12
- by Penalty	0	1
Total Net Yards	264	286
- Offensive Plays	68	59
- Yards per Play	3.88	4.85
Net Rushing Yards	88	80
- Rushing Attempts	21	34
- Yards per Rush	4.19	2.35
Net Passing Yards	176	206
- Att./Comp./Intrcpt	45 - 21 - 1	22 - 15 - 0
- Gross Passing Yards	183	225
- Sacks/Yards Lost	2/7	3/19
- Yards per Pass Play	3.74	8.24
Fumbles/Lost	1/1	1/1
3rd Down Conversions	5/15	5/13
- Avg. YtG on 3rd Down	7.7	7.5
4th Down Conversions	1/3	0/0
Penalties/Yards	8/51	3/25
Punt Returns/Yards	3/66	2/19
Kick Returns/Yards	3/63	4/134
Interception Ret./Yards	0/0	1/29
2pt Conversions	0/0	0/0
Red Zone Visits	1	6
- Red Zone TDs/FGs	0/1	3/2
Avg. Drive Start	OWN 20	OWN 48
Time of Possession	28:34	31:26

Online Box Score

Not a thrilling nor overpowering victory, but we looked pretty good, especially on defense. MRB opened up with a solid drive for a FG, but we stayed out of trouble the whole day, and their only TD came on a punt return. BIG ups to the secondary, who posted 10 passes defensed on the day (a few were on “familiar” plays which seem tainted) in the sort of effort that we simply are not used to seeing from this team. Feels like a quick dividend from a major recent investment in the CB position.

Once again, we go into the “fetal position offense” late in the game, and end up with a significant depression of our offensive stats as a result, at least in part. But I can’t blame that for Harry Small’s dreadful stat line – 15 carries for 16 yards. Rookie Jumbo Kinney posted 48 yards and a TD on his 15 carries, and is angling for a starting role with his solid game once again. WR Jamie Leverette continues to impress, with 3 TDs this week, once again playing a greater role in the offense than our supposed star Burt Pearson. In time, Burt will get his, I’m sure.

QuikSand · 09-14-2007, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDanbom

Free Skip Ogu!

He was active for the Myrtle Beach game, and I had him slotted (along with WR Ellis) in both the KR abd PR jobs, but I don't think he made any dent in the box score. Stay tuned -- maybe we'll get him in as our primary PR/KR guy soon.

Really - if Harry Small is just going to be a 1ypc guy, Skip could certainly do that well for us himself, right?

QuikSand · 09-17-2007, 08:06 PM

Week 4: Norwich (3-0) at Chesapeake (3-0)

We’re at home, in a game that we ought to win, despite the early records – I am very pleased with the way we are playing right now, and am hopeful that we will see another good showing this week on both sides of the ball.

Week 4, 2016

played in Chesapeake, PA

50 degrees, fair, 7 mph wind

Norwich Quagmire	0	3	0	0	-	3
Chesapeake Chili Dogs	0	7	14	3	-	24

Scoring Summary

2Q: 07:56 CHE - Burt Pearson 12 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

2Q: 02:57 NRW - Grady Winslett 42 field goal

3Q: 10:58 CHE - Harry Small 9 run (Cornell Rose extra point)

3Q: 00:44 CHE - Kent Fields 3 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

4Q: 03:24 CHE - Cornell Rose 35 field goal

Team Statistics	NRW	CHE
Record	3-1	4-0
First Downs	18	18
- by Rushing	8	8
- by Passing	9	10
- by Penalty	1	0
Total Net Yards	250	347
- Offensive Plays	75	61
- Yards per Play	3.33	5.69
Net Rushing Yards	79	153
- Rushing Attempts	22	37
- Yards per Rush	3.59	4.14
Net Passing Yards	171	194
- Att./Comp./Intrcpt	53 - 23 - 3	24 - 15 - 2
- Gross Passing Yards	171	194
- Sacks/Yards Lost	0/0	0/0
- Yards per Pass Play	3.23	8.08
Fumbles/Lost	0/0	0/0
3rd Down Conversions	7/16	5/12
- Avg. YtG on 3rd Down	6.0	7.8
4th Down Conversions	0/2	0/0
Penalties/Yards	5/31	5/60
Punt Returns/Yards	1/8	3/35
Kick Returns/Yards	4/75	1/32
Interception Ret./Yards	2/0	3/51
2pt Conversions	0/0	0/0
Red Zone Visits	0	6
- Red Zone TDs/FGs	0/0	3/1
Avg. Drive Start	OWN 25	OWN 37
Time of Possession	27:56	32:04

Online Box Score

A pretty solid effort, as we put it away in the second half after basically getting outplayed in the first. Nothing really spectacular from anyone on the offense, and so the player of the game honors go to rookie CB Emmanuel White for his 4 tackles and a key interception.

We are running the ball an awful lot (including, once again, a few late series of completely hopeless runs while we are in lockdown mode) and while that might not translate into big yardage, it does seem to keep the game in control. We have the talent to put up big numbers in an aerial game if we need to (and I’m sure we will) but it’s rather nice to rip off 150+ yards on the ground and feel like we can handle the game even without a big acrobatic effort.

Our pass defense was just brilliant this game, and through four games we have to be thrilled. We’ve given up only 55 points in four games, and while that’s a pace that we likely cannot maintain, it is great to see us being able to wrap up games against creditable opponents with either side of the ball.

We’re in good health, as we look ahead to a divisional game against Portland, who is off to a sluggish start as they had publicly predicted (they are bringing along a new young QB, and suffering some growing pains there).

QuikSand · 09-21-2007, 12:29 PM

Week 6: Chesapeake (5-0) at Ayr (2-2)

I tinker a bit with the gameplan on offense for this week, hoping to see a little more of the air game. Nothing drastic, but I hope it shows up a bit – regardless, we need to play well to get a road win.

After each team marches for a TD on its opening drive, we calm down, cash in a turnover to take the lead, and have the game well in hand by the half, once again. Great game for WR Burt Pearson, finally breaking through after a fairly quiet early season thus far.

Week 6, 2016

played in Ayr, MI

55 degrees, fair, calm

Chesapeake Chili Dogs	14	14	10	6	-	44
Ayr Bravehearts	7	0	3	7	-	17

Scoring Summary

1Q: 12:16 AYR - Shaun Buckley 7 pass from Ben Krcik (Joel Griffith extra point)

1Q: 08:14 CHE - Jumbo Kinney 1 run (Cornell Rose extra point)

1Q: 01:53 CHE - Burt Pearson 2 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

2Q: 06:05 CHE - Brent Sedor 6 run (Cornell Rose extra point)

2Q: 00:46 CHE - Jumbo Kinney 1 run (Cornell Rose extra point)

3Q: 13:45 AYR - Joel Griffith 31 field goal

3Q: 13:07 CHE - Burt Pearson 73 pass from Brent Sedor (Cornell Rose extra point)

3Q: 10:22 CHE - Cornell Rose 43 field goal

4Q: 13:01 AYR - Lamar Soileau 3 run (Joel Griffith extra point)

4Q: 07:03 CHE - Cornell Rose 33 field goal

4Q: 00:23 CHE - Cornell Rose 21 field goal

Team Statistics	CHE	AYR
Record	6-0	2-3
First Downs	26	18
- by Rushing	11	6
- by Passing	15	11
- by Penalty	0	1
Total Net Yards	471	314
- Offensive Plays	65	55
- Yards per Play	7.25	5.71
Net Rushing Yards	155	67
- Rushing Attempts	33	16
- Yards per Rush	4.70	4.19
Net Passing Yards	316	247
- Att./Comp./Intrcpt	31 - 18 - 0	35 - 21 - 3
- Gross Passing Yards	321	268
- Sacks/Yards Lost	1/5	4/21
- Yards per Pass Play	9.88	6.33
Fumbles/Lost	2/1	2/1
3rd Down Conversions	5/12	1/9
- Avg. YtG on 3rd Down	7.9	12.9
4th Down Conversions	0/0	0/0
Penalties/Yards	5/30	5/38
Punt Returns/Yards	0/0	2/0
Kick Returns/Yards	2/52	6/110
Interception Ret./Yards	3/69	0/0
2pt Conversions	0/0	0/0
Red Zone Visits	6	3
- Red Zone TDs/FGs	4/2	2/1
Avg. Drive Start	OWN 34	OWN 27
Time of Possession	35:21	24:39

Online Box Score

So, just as this team seems to be completely clicking on every possible cylinder, we will face our first serious adversity. For some reason I don’t follow, Brent Sedor stayed in the game the whole way, and with three minutes left (up by 24 points) he gets hurt – he’s listed as being out for 6 weeks.

The “battle” for the backup QB job this offseason was a little bit interesting, as my longtime nominal backup Alex Gerhardt had an unexpected drop during training camp, and my journeyman “third guy” Jim baker had an unexpected boom. So, by the bars, here are the two guys who will be #1/#2 in the depth chart for us for a while:

I’m okay with either one running our offense, by the numbers – I signed Baker because he was a great skills fit for us, and Gerhardt remains a pretty legitimate option. Gerhardt will get the call this week – his first start in his six seasons on the team, as Sedor has never really been hurt before.

QuikSand · 09-24-2007, 11:50 AM

Week 7: Calverton (2-3) at Chesapeake (6-0)

So, in our first game without Sedor, I basically have in our base offense – not some run-heavy please-don’t-screw-things-up thing in order to play not to lose. I have to assume that Alex Gerhardt, despite being a 6^th year guy, will play mostly like an untested rookie. But he has pretty good skills to run our offense, and I expect we have enough around him to remain a pretty effective offense.

Live commentary

In the opening CAL possession, we overcome two dumb penalties to force a 4^th and1 – and Calverton goes for it at their own 33. MLB Lorenzo McDowell comes up with a key tackle on a completed pass to stop them, and we take over deep in their territory. We convert our 3^rd down for a breakaway TD catch from gerhardt to TE Robert Cooper, and gather a nice early edge.

So, in the early going, we have a decided slant in our offensive yardage—117 yards passing to 1 yard rushing. But we have a 14-3 lead, so it’s hard to complain too much. From there, we go on with our usual script for this year – we are opportunistic, solid on defense, and always a threat to march for a score. We are again ground down late by a lot of “familiars” from the defense, but once again it doesn’t really matter as the game is well in hand. Nothing about the box score would give an indication that we didn’t have Sedor there for us – Gerhardt even scrambled for a couple of first downs, en route to his first even Player of the Game honors.

Week 7, 2016

played in Chesapeake, PA

44 degrees, fair, 5 mph wind

Calverton Caledonians	3	0	0	0	-	3
Chesapeake Chili Dogs	7	10	7	7	-	31

Scoring Summary

1Q: 11:28 CHE - Robert Cooper 34 pass from Alex Gerhardt (Cornell Rose extra point)

1Q: 03:32 CAL - Terrance Halvorson 24 field goal

2Q: 13:07 CHE - Jumbo Kinney 2 run (Cornell Rose extra point)

2Q: 00:24 CHE - Cornell Rose 47 field goal

3Q: 10:41 CHE - Jumbo Kinney 3 pass from Alex Gerhardt (Cornell Rose extra point)

4Q: 08:00 CHE - Burt Pearson 4 pass from Alex Gerhardt (Cornell Rose extra point)

Team Statistics	CAL	CHE
Record	2-4	7-0
First Downs	14	23
- by Rushing	1	6
- by Passing	12	17
- by Penalty	1	0
Total Net Yards	223	398
- Offensive Plays	58	65
- Yards per Play	3.84	6.12
Net Rushing Yards	44	85
- Rushing Attempts	19	27
- Yards per Rush	2.32	3.15
Net Passing Yards	179	313
- Att./Comp./Intrcpt	35 - 23 - 1	38 - 22 - 0
- Gross Passing Yards	202	313
- Sacks/Yards Lost	4/23	0/0
- Yards per Pass Play	4.59	8.24
Fumbles/Lost	1/0	3/0
3rd Down Conversions	5/13	10/16
- Avg. YtG on 3rd Down	7.5	7.4
4th Down Conversions	0/1	0/0
Penalties/Yards	4/29	8/58
Punt Returns/Yards	3/18	1/5
Kick Returns/Yards	3/59	0/0
Interception Ret./Yards	0/0	1/17
2pt Conversions	0/0	0/0
Red Zone Visits	1	4
- Red Zone TDs/FGs	0/1	3/1
Avg. Drive Start	OWN 22	OWN 28
Time of Possession	28:46	31:14

Online Box Score

So, a very solid effort on both sides of the ball, and we’re very pleased with the outcome.

Week off, then to South Carolina, who lost to Dodge City this week. The Vigs are also undefeated, and things remain very hot for our division race, I think, between us. South Carolina can still make a move, but they need to catch both teams now, which won’t be easy. Our hated rivals Dodge City are probably the best offense in the league, I’d guess. We get them in week 11, and Sedor’s availability for that game is unclear.

QuikSand · 09-28-2007, 12:04 PM

Week 9: Chesapeake (7-0) at South Carolina (5-2)

We expect choppy waters here – road game against a solid opponent with a strong offense. I haven’t really changed up the offense much, as the whole thinking with Alex Gerhardt was that he could run the whole CHE offense. So, he’ll get the chance to do so again – hope he puts up a game like his first one a couple weeks back.

Oh, and some more serious overachievement from our defense – that would be nice, too. Fellas? Q? How about a defensive TD this week?

Live Commentary:

Opening drive is disappointing – they move easily against us, and only a penalty forces them to settle for a FG. We look sharp too, and post an early 7-3 lead. We then trade punts, so there’s some evidence of defense being played, at least.

With the defenses on both sides suddenly taking command, we get our big play from that side with a fumble near midfield, and get a good shot to add to our lead. We commit a stupid unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to seemingly screw it up – but then a long pass to Jamie Leverette gives us the easy topper for the TD and a 14-3 lead before the half. The respond with a solid TD drive – our only recourse is to smack QB Dixon Zhao in the mouth, but he is not injured badly enough to have to leave the game, unfortunately.

Gerhardt looks very poised in leading us for a late drive, and again it’s a connection to Leverette that gets us out of a jam, and (like all season) it’s rookie RB Jumbo Kinney in the endzone. 21-10 good guys at the half – game is not out of reach by any stretch, but this is going well so far.

After a trade of punts to open the second half, Gerhardt gets us into the endzone again for this third TD pass, hitting George Ellis following two more key connections with Leverette. He is having a crazy good day for us here – 18/21 on the day so far for 275 and 3 TDs.

Of course – just after typing that, gerhardt is picked deep in our territory, setting up a quick TD for South Carolina and getting them back within 10 after the two-pointer. Our running offense is completely bottled up today, so we can’t really count on a ground game to eat the clock from here – but in the effort, we fumble the ball away and give SCA another short field. But, we force a punt, and dodge the bullet. Next play – 80 yard strike to Burt Pearson, and we grab control of the game again.

From that point, both teams move the ball, but the conclusion isn’t really in doubt, as we have it wrapped up. Gerhardt had that one blunder, but otherwise was absolutely brilliant – 24 of 30 for 462 and 5 TDs.

Week 9, 2016

played in South Carolina, WA

48 degrees, rain, 12 mph wind

Chesapeake Chili Dogs	7	14	21	10	-	52
South Carolina Crossfire	3	7	11	6	-	27

Scoring Summary

1Q: 09:38 SCA - Albert Clemons 42 field goal

1Q: 04:53 CHE - Bert Berube 3 pass from Alex Gerhardt (Cornell Rose extra point)

2Q: 07:23 CHE - Kent Fields 2 pass from Alex Gerhardt (Cornell Rose extra point)

2Q: 05:15 SCA - Bernie Tanner 21 pass from Dixon Zhao (Albert Clemons extra point)

2Q: 00:35 CHE - Jumbo Kinney 6 run (Cornell Rose extra point)

3Q: 08:58 CHE - Kent Fields 31 pass from Alex Gerhardt (Cornell Rose extra point)

3Q: 06:44 SCA - Benjamin Winters 8 pass from Dixon Zhao (Dixon Zhao pass to Grady Milliken for conversion)

3Q: 04:33 CHE - Burt Pearson 85 pass from Alex Gerhardt (Cornell Rose extra point)

3Q: 01:55 SCA - Albert Clemons 30 field goal

3Q: 00:39 CHE - Robert Cooper 27 pass from Alex Gerhardt (Cornell Rose extra point)

4Q: 09:14 CHE - Cornell Rose 44 field goal

4Q: 06:31 SCA - Michael Long 35 pass from Dixon Zhao (Dixon Zhao pass for conversion failed)

4Q: 02:58 CHE - Jumbo Kinney 4 run (Cornell Rose extra point)

Team Statistics	CHE	SCA
Record	8-0	5-3
First Downs	23	18
- by Rushing	4	5
- by Passing	19	13
- by Penalty	0	0
Total Net Yards	502	382
- Offensive Plays	60	67
- Yards per Play	8.37	5.70
Net Rushing Yards	53	114
- Rushing Attempts	28	23
- Yards per Rush	1.89	4.96
Net Passing Yards	449	268
- Att./Comp./Intrcpt	30 - 24 - 1	42 - 18 - 0
- Gross Passing Yards	462	277
- Sacks/Yards Lost	2/13	2/9
- Yards per Pass Play	14.03	6.09
Fumbles/Lost	1/1	2/2
3rd Down Conversions	7/12	4/14
- Avg. YtG on 3rd Down	9.1	8.3
4th Down Conversions	0/0	1/2
Penalties/Yards	10/85	6/40
Punt Returns/Yards	2/13	2/10
Kick Returns/Yards	5/137	5/127
Interception Ret./Yards	0/0	1/0
2pt Conversions	0/0	2/1
Red Zone Visits	5	2
- Red Zone TDs/FGs	4/1	1/1
Avg. Drive Start	OWN 38	OWN 32
Time of Possession	30:46	29:14

Online Box Score

So, the passing game was just fabulous, and it covered up for another disappointing effort from the running game. Next week, Jumbo Kinney moves into the starting job, and we’ll try to shake things up a bit there.

WR Jamie Leverette continues his alarmingly productive season, slotted basically as our #4 receiver, nominally just the backup to SE George Ellis. Today he comes up with 4 targets, 4 catches, 4 first downs, and 96 yards. On the season (8 games) he’s had only 33 targets (though that is more than Ellis, incidentally) but he has cashed them in for a strong 10.85 yards per target – best on the team except for Burt Pearson’s stellar 11.83, and the small sample size of TE Harvey Leff, who is 11/12 for 11.58. Regardless – Leverette has been very effective, and whatever is getting him into the game more than I’d expect, I surely don’t mind it. I plan to do a more detailed look at the halfway stats for the season – but he has been a very pleasant surprise.

TheDanbom · 09-28-2007, 01:00 PM

Gerhardt's lighting it up, is there a QB controversy? Also, cut Small, he sucks.

08-01-2007, 01:15 PM	#653
VPI97 Hokie, Hokie, Hokie, Hi Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Kennesaw, GA	Is there a way I can nominate that for post of the year? I don't mean it in a bad way, QS (no one is reveling in your loss)...it's just that there's so much there that kinda sums up my game log reading experience, as well. __________________ CT & Jivin - "Surprisingly Entertaining"

08-26-2007, 09:13 AM	#682
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Draft continues… In round four, we once again approach our pick with two guys we really like, and once again the top one of our two gets nabbed earlier in the round, and we end up with the #2 guy on our list. (No offense to either guy intended) So, we end up missing out on the guy I thought would have been a great fit for us at FB for this season, and instead select an interior lineman, LG Mark Noyeaux. Noyeaux weighs 329, and with the same level of experience at LT as LG, I’m hoping to move him over to that slot, and audition him to be the next “left tackle of the future” for us. After we dealt away our mid-round pick from last year who we had hoped to grow into that role, Noyeaux would be fine if he could creep into it as well. He’s more road-grader than typical blind-side protector, but we’d take a nice developing young talent for the OL at pretty much any slot. We have two more picks coming up, in round six. Looking over my roster right now, I think that I have 52 players who are basically holding roster slots, and several more who are essentially battling for the fringe. My current thinking is that RB Hayakawa, QBs Baker and Boroniec, and a few of our lower-end DBs are basically battling for their jobs for this season. Signing two “keepers” in the FA market, and then adding an affinity-only guy at DB, has added a little more pressure on the down-to-53 decisions than I had anticipated. In looking at these last two draft picks we're now wondering who they'd beat out to even make the team. Last edited by QuikSand : 08-26-2007 at 09:14 AM.

08-29-2007, 08:54 AM	#684
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Position Battle: Defensive Back With the post-draft free agency market roaring on… I already think we have all 53 players who are going to make our roster on board at this point. We may sign a few scrapheap types to toss out there in preseason, but overall I don’t expect any impact signings. I’m now looking at some of the team’s position battles… and there are a couple that seem intriguing to me. Defensive back is one, as we picked up a top rookie at CB, and already have a pretty stocked group of players we are definitely keeping. So, here are the guys we intend to keep for sure: CB Herman Padgett and Lewis Kuehler – are returning starters, both solid. Kuehler will probably start suffering a serious skill erosion, but I think he is worth retaining as either our RCB starter, or a top backup, regardless (plus, we’d suffer a bad cap hit if we traded or cut him). So, both of these guys are locks. CB Quentin Gailey and Emmanuel White – first round picks last year and this year, respectively – hopefully, these are our two anchor corners for the future. Unless White suffers a massive camp meltdown, these guys make the team, period. CB C.J. Daniels – late 4th round pick from 2012, he has developed (creeper) into a very solid and effective player for us. 10 passes defensed in each of the last two years is strong – he has skill in all three coverages, and has a strong affinity for us. Outstanding cheap depth. S Doug Schwantz and Jeff McCartney – longtime starters at safety for us, both are effective. Schwantz is a zone coverage star and a big hitter, who posted 16 PDs last year. McCartney has a reputation for the big play, and has become one of my very favorites as well, plus he’s an affinity guy. Both are locked in to start, and should have several good years ahead of them. S Brett Vesser – another former undrafted free agent, who crept to being a starting-caliber guy for us. very good in run support (60) and zone defense (80) he’s a guy we can comfortably slot as a starting S, nickel or dime back, or even as an OLB in a pass-heavy setup. Also a strong affinity for us. Again, outstanding cheap depth. Deion Hueffed – yeah, here’s the thing. Hueffed is a converted wide receiver who brings no real playable skills to the table as a safety, but he’s making the team, period, end of story. This is because he is now the cornerstone to our affinity situation, and his 84 personality makes our affinities all strong. Witness: Code: Chesapeake Chili Dogs Roster, Attitude Advisory Player # Pos Start Noted Playing Time Chemistry Padgett, Herman 31 LCB LCB MN Content Strong Affinity Daniels, C.J. 28 LCB Content Exceptional Affinity $$White, Emmanuel 33 LCB Content Kuehler, Lewis 27 RCB RCB Content Tellez, Leland 34 RCB Content Strong Affinity Gailey, Quentin 32 RCB Content Schwantz, Doug 29 SS Content Vesser, Brett 23 SS SS Content Exceptional Affinity McCartney, Jeff 21 FS FS Content Exceptional Affinity Hueffed, Deion 41 FS Content Secondary Leader Taber, Dennis 30 FS Content Conzelman, Deion 24 FS Content Exceptional Affinity So… I’m perfectly happy with all these guys, and candidly that makes nine guys at DB who already have roster spots. We could cover every single need we have for this season in the secondary with just these 8 playable guys, with no real need to carry anyone else at all. However, we do have a few more guys who are at least making bids to stick – and these are the guys in the position battle: For some reason, Leland Tellez has stuck on this roster for a pretty long time – he was a draft semi-bust for Dodge City, and we picked him up for his affinity. But he has been with us a long time, and now adds some cohesion benefits as well, for whatever that’s worth. He is resigned super-cheaply, and is a guy we could trot out there if needed. Dennis Taber is a guy we signed super-cheap, and seems to me to be worth more than minsal. Decent skills to be at least a reserve at either CB or safety – I don’t know why this guy wasn’t snagged by someone else, really. If we weren’t hip-deep in DBs, I’d be excited to keep him as my #6 or #7 DB at this price. As it is, he’s a bubble guy. (Anyone reading this – he can be had cheaply, drop a line) And finally, there’s Deion Conzelman. Ratings look like junk, of course, but as you have probably gathered – he’s a creeper too. And a strong affinity to boot. I have real trouble seeing my team jettisoning a guy who adds something with chemistry already, and whose ratings are still on the rise. By jumping only 1 point in each relevant stage, though, I suspect he’s not really heading very far upward – and I’ll be left with the curiousity about how much better he is than his always-modest “bars.” Conundrum player for me. I don’t know for sure, but my best guess is that one, or possibly two, of these three guys can make the team this year. With 8 playable guys ahead of them, it’s not likely that anyone here is going to see the field very much – so that probably gives the edge to Conzelman, who at least chips in with his strong affinity. But we could end up making room for another DB, especially if I end up feeling that the main contribution we’ll get from S Vesser migth be in adding to a fairly thin LB corps (especially if we manage to effect a trade there). Anyway… one of the dilemmas we’ll untangle down the road a bit. As we break for the URFA stages, this is what we are thinking about instead, by and large.

09-12-2007, 04:23 PM	#692
Subby lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: sans pants	There were some real strong defensive efforts in FOFL this week - I wonder if some folks aren't starting to "get it" on that side of the ball. One thing that I would like to see FOF MythBusters cover is the second half flip switch code. Single half dominations like this one - anecdotally - seem to happen pretty regularly. __________________ Superman was flying around and saw Wonder Woman getting a tan in the nude on her balcony. Superman said I going to hit that real fast. So he flys down toward Wonder Woman to hit it and their is a loud scream. The Invincible Man scream what just hit me in the ass!!!!! I do shit, I take pictures, I write about it: chrisshue.com

08-01-2007, 12:01 PM	#652
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Week 17: Dodge City at Chesapeake Little to say here. We win here, and we earn a wild card. We lose, and we’re out. Playoff game, essentially. And it’s Dodge City and Isaac Mansour – lovely. We’ll see if we can hold him to fewer than 200 yards this week. That has been a real struggle for us. sigh Fitting start – we get a sack for force a punt, but then we promptly fumble away the punt return. Only saving grace is that they don’t go HOUSE with it, I suppose. They only cash in a FG from the short field, which at least speaks well of our defense in the early going. It could be worse. We drive deep into DGC territory and then hand them the ball, and they march and stuff it right up our asses to take the 10-0 lead. This is great fun. We do manage to regroup, and engineer a great drive to get Pearson into the endzone, so perhaps not all hope is lost yet. It’s still troubling to see their QB Bill Sampson go 11-for-12 in the early going – this could easily end up as another track meet game between these two games. In short order, it’s 17-7. We get to celebrate, I guess (they say we did in the game report) when we settle for a long FG after missing on a bomb from 2nd and short, and then failing to pick up the 3rd and 2. Alas. Surely it could have been much worse. We are very lucky to only yield a FG on their next possession – as we come up with a rare 3rd down stop. This game has a terrible feel to it – but maybe that’s just the whole season adding up in the back of my mind. They lead 20-10, but it feels like we have absolutely no hope of stopping them – unless, of course, the game opts to flip the switch on them. That’s what we saw against Mars last week, when suddenly our run D was a brick wall in the second half after giving up eleven yards a rush in the first (of course, we still blew the game… duh). Honestly – I am wiring this in real time. My sense of dread really did come before the big screwing. Sedor pops a second interception to CB Billy Joe Scanlon (former Chit – at least one of our guys is going somewhere this year), and they immediately cash it in for the long TD pass before halftime. Awesome. Of course, now that I am bitching so much – we get the tease, as we strike for a late TD and get back within 10 points by the half. I still predict gut-wrenching failure here – maybe a blowout loss would have been too kind? Perhaps we need to be close so the eventual crushing blow seems even more brutal? Stay tuned. We open the second half with an 18-yard FG, which never feels that good. It obviously could have been a fumble to the HOUSE for them, so I can’t complain that much. We stop them, but they punt to our 1 yard line – this smells like trouble. We get a first down on a penalty, but the first “familiar” defense rears its head, and that might spell and end to our offense’s effectiveness soon. The laundry is all over the field on this “drive” and we end up punting after seeing a big play to Pearson called back. I guess I did something wrong with my coaching staff or something. Who the fuck can say? They fumble the punt, but their “ground balls” stat (a la lacrosse) is just better than ours, so they don’t suffer for it. We actually come up with another stop – as we have turned the unstoppable DGC pass machine into a more human group, it seems – they are actually having a few passes fall incomplete. That’s new. If we an get the offense moving, we are only a TD down – despite my doom-and-gloom bluster. See… I’m falling for it again. I’m thinking we might win. Heh. We drive for a field goal, to pull within 4 points, at 27-23, early in the 4th quarter. And the fucking circus comes to town – we give up a 40 yard pass play right away, and then we get a pick that we take HOUSE 85 yards. This puts us ahead by 3 points – setting up a climactic conclusion of potentially epic proportions. There’s still plenty of time for two or three more absurd and heartbreaking things to happen – so hold on to your hats, gang. We are aided by a “familiar,” one legitimate pressure, and then a stupid too-short pass on 3rd and 10 to force a three-and-out. Hardly a heroic effort, but we will certainly take it. They punt to our 2 yard line. Lovely. We gat a couple of first downs to get out of our own goalpost’s shadow – but fizzle there and have to punt. DGC gets it at their 16, with 5:41 left on the clock. Another stop here would be huge. Silly talk – they connect on two third downs, and get to our 45 with under 3 minutes left. Two dropped passes get us to 3rd and 10 – that’s not our defense at work, that’s just bad dice rolling, I reckon. We get a pressure to force 4th and 10 – will they go for it from our 45? With 2:19 left, I think thay have to punt and hope for a stop (or a freak play, that’s always on the table). They go for it – and get precisely the needed 10 yards. Perfect. “And that is a first down.” Pressure. Mansour. Thompson for six. Dodge City takes the lead. Awesome. Just to twist the blade a bit – they miss the PAT, and it’s a 33-30 edge, with a little more than a minute left. How perfect is that? Kick return gets us all the way to our 45 – great start. We get a 14 yard pass to a hobo off the street suited up to play WR, and are under a minute to play. A nice incomplete play coupled with a holding call – very timely, that – takes 13 more seconds and pushes us back ten yards. Just what we were looking for. Pearson drops an apparently catchable long pass – good to see here. Making that play would have just made too much sense for us. We connect instead on a very effective 10 yard pass on 2nd and 20, with the clock ticking away. 16 seconds left, and it looks like we need a few yards to get within reasonable kicking range. Of course – that ASSUMES that the game might actually make a reasonable decision, or even follow my instructions, in the waning moments. And we know that’s no lock. But just for kicks, I’ll play along and pretend like getting 5-10 yards here gives us a shot to tie the game. What the heck. We instead go for the long bomb. That’s encouraging. Honestly – you just cannot make this stuff up. So, we tee up a 58 yard FG attempt… is there a way for the ball to just sit on the goalpost for 27 minutes before falling short here? That would be the ideal way to make this as painful as possible, but still cement away the loss that I have known as coming all along. Stay tuned… “He didn’t get all of that one and it falls short.” Great season everyone, now go hit the links!

08-01-2007, 01:51 PM	#655
Anthony Banned Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Astoria, NY, USA	wow, QS cursing makes me horny.

08-01-2007, 02:37 PM	#656
Kodos Resident Alien Join Date: Jun 2001	I'd say your disillusionment with FOF2007 seems about ready to boil over.

08-09-2007, 10:09 AM	#657
TheDanbom n00b Join Date: Aug 2007	Great read, keep up the good work. Tough luck this season.

08-10-2007, 09:11 AM	#658
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md

08-10-2007, 10:08 AM	#660
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	I didn't - I poached it from the FOFL title game thread. cuervo72, owner of Bar Harbor, is the graphics genius and deserves the credit.

08-11-2007, 01:55 PM	#663
JMO Mascot Join Date: Nov 2006	Please continue!! I have abandoned my own dynasty effort so i understand some of the work goes in. I really enjoy your dynasty and would like to keep rooting for your team in future seasons. This team has alot left in it and I'm sure there are alot of people out there wondering how they will do next year. In fact I'd love to be able to look in on the league. maybe something to be included in future FOF games.

08-11-2007, 08:15 PM	#664
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Thanks for the encouragement... we've just ticked over into the new season, and I'm already bubbling over with ideas on what to do this offseason. I do enjoy the sense of "accountability" that writing a public dynasty thread gives me -- so I think I'll keep writing, even if only for selfish reasons. But I do appreciate the positive feedback... makes it feel a little more worthwhile when it does (sometimes) feel like a chore, rather than a joy.

08-11-2007, 09:11 PM	#665
Daimyo College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Berkeley	FWIW, I read (and enjoy) this regularly.

08-12-2007, 03:04 AM	#667
MartinD High School Varsity Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: East Lothian, Scotland	Just adding my opinion - I would be disappointed if you decided to stop the dynasty thread (although it's perfectly understandable, given the season that you've just had!), as it's very good read, and it's interesting to get a feel for what you're thinking when you make decisions. It is your choice whether or not to continue (and I know that keeping a dynasty thread going can be very tough), but I suspect that there are quite a few regular readers out there who would miss your regular updates. Martin

08-12-2007, 09:40 PM	#669
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Thanks, guys. Next few days, I'll come up with some offseason-appropriate stuff to write about.

08-13-2007, 10:20 AM	#670
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Chesapeake Chili Dogs, 2016 With the new season underway, it’s an opportunity to shake off the dreadful 2015 outcome, and try to retain optimism that we remain a top team in this league. The first step is trying to avoid getting crushed by injuries… my biggest worries on this front are, more or less in order or concern: MLB Doug McKenzie LT Horace Kolodzik CB Lewis Kuehler FB Charles Emerson …and then a number of chemistry guys, any of whom could bolt for lack of playing time. And as we raise the curtain… here’s the actual list of CHE retirements: S Jon Upshaw Chesapeake Chili Dogs retired FB Charles Emerson Chesapeake Chili Dogs retired RB Ross Rosenfels Chesapeake Chili Dogs retired DE Christian Brignac Chesapeake Chili Dogs retired So… we lose FB Emerson, who had been a favorite and a great affinity guy, we lose RB Rosenfels (who we hadn’t even re-signed anyway) and we lose two good chemistry leaders for us. We ought to be okay getting through, though I will definitely have either a challenge or an opportunity ahead with the newly formed chemistry voids.

08-13-2007, 10:21 AM	#671
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Roster Speculation, early 2016 As we wade through the staff hiring phases… I don’t think CHE has anything to worry about there. We are the most profitable franchise in the FOFL by a pretty wide margin, so I expect that we will be able to retain our desired staff. So, I don’t expect any surprises there. Instead, I’m trying to think about the CHE roster for the year ahead. As it stands, we have 44 players under contract, and by my current count, four more who are restricted free agents whom I intend to sign while they are exclusively ours. Add in our one unrestricted free agent (CB Leland Tellez) as a possible, to get to 49 players we essentially think we’re heading forward with. I don’t think that every single one of these 49 players have a roster slot completely locked up, though. My current count is at 44 – meaning that barring a trade-away, or a complete ratings collapse – we have nine roster slots essentially up for grabs this year. That’s not too bad. I have made a trade block thread already – and have included a few solid veterans on that list. Most notable there is LB Doug McKenzie – a longtime starter for us. It’s not that I am desperate to rid the team of McKenzie – not by any stretch. But he remains a very solid player, but his presence at MLB is forcing us to jam up playing time for guys like Matt Sheldon, last year’s 2nd round pick, and a guy we think has tremendous upside. Plus, we have several younger LBs who are similarly meriting playing time – so if we could deal away a veteran and get something of value for him, I think it would serve us pretty well. Not a “dump” by any means, as McKenzie has been an excellent player for us… but right now, getting a solid draft pick might be better for the team’s longer term plans. Anyway, right now, the key holes in my roster are more or less as follows: FB (we’re completely empty there right now) RB (I don’t know what to make of Harry Small, basically the incumbent) DL (we have five guys we like, but no meaningful depth) CB (thinking longer term, as our starters are 11th and 9th year guys) C (again, I like my starter, but our two guys are 11th and 9th year) Of course, I’m open to investing most anywhere, and in reality I ought to be looking at things like performance as much as my own happiness with the scouted ratings – but all things considered, this is a pretty complete team, despite the mediocre showing last season. We hold draft pick 1.19, and then picks in the 3rd, 4th, 6th rounds, plus an extra 6th rounder. Only five draft picks this year, so we definitely have room to be adding a veteran free agent or two. I am, however, not at all impressed with the quality of the players that I see in free agency this year – so maybe we’ll end up with a one-year rent-a-player here or there, but unlikely to see any major impact players landing our way. Plus, we’re on the low end up available cap space with only about $10m (yeah, I know) so I don’t expect to be a major player there anyway. Okay, enough ramblings for now… some work ahead, but unless we try to make a deal for one or more established players, I don’t see us being a major mover this offseason.

08-14-2007, 08:47 AM	#672
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Chemistry at a Crossroads Well, one thing that remains to be seen for the Chili Dogs is whether we will continue to invest as much as we have in team chemistry. Longtime readers know that I have made this a focus with this team – even carrying a few extra players in most years who serve basically no other purpose. This offseason looks like a crossroads for that pursuit. We lost three of these affinity keystone players this year – including our long-time secondary leader Jon Upshaw, around whom we had a number of solid affinities. As I look at the defensive front, I don’t see any easy way to build a strong complement of affinities now that Christian Brignac is gone – indeed, it will be tough to avoid having conflicts going into the season. And with FB Emerson gone, we have a void at the RB/FB group as well. At the receivers group, we have George Ellis as our leader, but like last year we have nothing positive built around him. So… it’s possible that we replace one or two of these guys with proper fits. But I recognize that doing so – carrying three or four players who have no other purpose than generating good chemistry – comes at a cost. That means there are three or four more potentially promising young players we have to cut in order to make room for guys who add only by indirect benefit. I have found it worthwhile in the past – but this year, it’s a bit of an unknown quantity. I spent a bit of time looking for a “magic bullet” for our defesnive front (the largest group, and the one best suited for multiple matches) – but I don’t think there’s a single guy out there in free agency who helps us much. So, I might end up trying to land a suitable leader for our DB group, and let things go by the wayside elsewhere. Anyway… I’ll make mention of this as the offseason continues. But we certainly could lose our status as the team with the strongest affinities in the FOFL.

08-15-2007, 08:30 AM	#675
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Offseason Update Well, as expected, we were able to retain our front office staff. Six other teams put in bids on our scout, Ralph Soutsos, but we had the biggest bottom line last season and were able to retain him. This is the incremental advantage to managing the money well, which apparently we either have done, or have lucked into. Either way, it’s all good – he’s an excellent scout, and he’s rather young, too. With that, we’re looking forward to the beginning of free agency and the revelation of the draft class. We have to select one player to go to Europe this year, and I think we have choices to make here: CB Quentin Gailey (drafted at 1.17) is rated 40/55 now, but was a +2 in training camp, so he probably (and hopefully) has more to grow. It looks like he stands to see plenty of playing time this year, and will be mentored by Herman Padgett, so I’m not sure if we’d gain a lot extra from the trip. LT Jake Tate (drafted 4.24) is rated 34/51, but I don’t think he’s likely to see a lot of time on the playing field this season. After a good camp last year, he is likely our future at LT, but right now he is solidly behind starter Horace Kolodzik. WLB Winfred Wilkins (drafted 4.27) is rated 25/45 and has decent skills – but I’m uncertain about his upside – probably won’t have a clear sense until after this year’s training camp. So, investing in him might not be the wisest move here, even though by the bars, he looks fairly promising. SLB Alex Wilcox (drafted 4.31) is rated 19/36 but is a definite creeper. Depending on what happens with the veterans on our trade block, he could end up starting for us this year – in which case he would presumably benefit a good deal from the Europe experience. If he indeed has another 10-20 points of potential beyond that 36, then he’d be the perfect candidate. I’m leaning toward sending him. WR Jamie Leverette (drafted 5.15) is rated 19/24 and is also creeping. I’m not certain whether he has enough eventual upside to invest too much in – I still don’t have a great intuitive sense of what to do with players like him who have apparently lousy skills but are clearly hiding something. The plan for him is to make him the #4 option at WR for this year (unless we make a major move at that position) and let him contribute from the margin. So… LB Wilcox probably makes the most sense, and we will hope to see continued gains from him in the pivotal development stages ahead. My list of young players who fit into my long term plans with this club is growing pretty nicely – of the five guys mentioned above, I’m pretty sure that four of them will develop into starting-quality players. And that doesn’t include MLB Matt Sheldon, who is already fully developed at 77/77 and inked into a full-time role for us in the coming year (he led the team in tackles last year while being moved all over the place). On top of the players mentioned above, I think we have a couple of free agent signees from last year’s after-draft who are going to stick as well – RT Cole Glover looks like a creeper and might be the next guy in the storied tradition of undrafted rookie linemen who go on to really contribute here in Chesapeake. Plus, our kicker Cornell Rose looks like a long-term keeper as well, and he came to us on a 1yr undrafted rookie FA contract as well.

08-19-2007, 11:08 AM	#677
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Free Agency Underway So, the draft class has been revealed, and the offseason free agent market has kicked off. For me, these first few stages of free agency, and the associated draft speculation is about as fun as any part of an FOF season. Chesapeake, as usual, is not hip-deep in cap space (like much of this league is), but we will (also as usual) try to make up for that by being aggressive if there are players that we really covet. So… we land three players right out of the gate, and once again I have to be really pleased with the first splash. We get one of the handful of “impact” free agents, a guy who will give us some real options with our starting lineup – and we add in two guys who are likely to help one way or another. RT Donovan Webster is a 5th year offensive tackle with a perfect 100 rating for run blocking, and rated 65/65 overall by my scout. He is, oddly enough, basically a slightly better and slightly younger version of our current starting RT Jerry Burns (my scout rated him 76 in run blocking, and 52/52 overall… but as a long-term creeper I suspect he’s better than he appears). To land Webster, we needed up be pretty aggressive with the contract offer – so we gave him a $4m signing bonus and a $20m deal over two years. However, the salary is loaded up in year two – his cap hit for us this year is $4m, and we’ll deal with the $14m in base salary next year when it comes. Given that I am perfectly happy with Jerry Burns continuing to start for us at RT this year and beyond, we have liberty to do any number of things here – three obvious things are now on the table, I guess: -Start Webster this year, and cut/trade him next year, and use the “reserve” time for Burns as a vehicle to reneg him into a longer term, lower-salary contract. -Start Burns this year, and use the “reserve” time to induce Webster to reneg to a longer term, lower-salary contract starting next year, essentially eyeing Webster as our future starter. -Deal one of these guys now – likely Webster, who would probably command more on the open market. With the receiving team getting a chance to immediately work out a long term deal with him (or to wait a year if they preferred), someone would be making a long term addition with the solid 5th year player here. In addition, we also landed RB Shaun Hayakawa. He fits the same mold as a number of running backs we have picked up (to be candid) in their twilight over the years. Hayakawa was a former #1 overall draft pick, and has posted nearly 9,000 rushing yards – but he is pretty clearly in decline. however – if we don’t land a promising RB in this year’s draft, I could see him getting into the mix for us, along with Harry Small (recently re-signed for another RFA contract) and Russell Becker. Hayakawa is, interestingly enough, almost a mirror image of Harry Small in his ratings array (at least at this point in his career). Where Small has a great rating in elusiveness, and little else that’s noteworthy, Hayakawa looks good in getting to the outside and the “home run” play. In a more controlled environment, we might be able to use these offsetting skills fairly well – in FOF, probably not so much. We’ll see. It is, in usual CHE style, a low-risk contract, with very little guaranteed, so even if we have to cut him, we’ll come out unscarred. (Nobody made a serious offer to him, so don’t start weeping for those who lost out in the bidding to my mostly-smoke contract) For those who may have missed these guys over the years, here are a few of the running backs who are notable on the all-time league-leaders list, and who tagged on at least a season or two with the Chili Dogs before hanging up the cleats for good: Chadwick Morimasa – 6,984 yards in 6 seasons (last 2 with CHE) Bill Briner – 8,752 yards in 8 seasons (last 2 with CHE) Craps Copley – 6,794 yards in 11 seasons (last 4 with CHE) Ross Rosenfels – 11,692 yards in 9 seasons (last 2 with CHE) So… we’ll see if Shaun Hayakawa can do likewise, and put up a couple seasons here with the Chesapeake offense to finish out his career. It seems that of late, we get pretty respectable results from nearly any RB we toss behind this line, so he could end up being pretty productive. Finally, we landed longtime QB figure Ian Arsenault, whom we have in mind for a possible role this year. He, too, is basically a contingent contract – signed for a few years with virtually no cap footprint nor guaranteed money. I do like him, but it’s tough to imagine him seeing meaningful playing time on this team at QB. Stay tuned there. More weeks to come, and my best guess is that some of the teams sitting on $30-60 million in cap space will finally either wake or wisen up and will flex their muscles here, leaving teams like Chesapeake basically on the outside with the remaining top free agents. But, I have been wrong about this sort of thing before, to be sure.

08-20-2007, 02:00 PM	#678
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Another Impact Free Agent Chooses Chesapeake Well, my suspicions about the FA market heating up were largely correct, but we did manage to get one player to come to Chesapeake, even in the face of some other competitive offers. DE Roderick Burgess is a 10th year player, and his strong suit is stopping the run (my scout pegs him at 83 there). He’s a pretty solid all around player, at a position where we were thin – so I think he can really help us. I don’t yet know how to work him into a rotation, but I’m okay basically making him a situational substitute in run-stopping situations at both DE and DT. The second year of his contract is a doozy (reneg or release, for certain) so this year will be a decision – either we use him heavily and probably let him walk next year, or we use him sparingly this season in an effort to lock him into a longer deal afterwards. In either case, this deal puts us pretty close to the salary cap (the hit this year is $6m), so we will be working to clear out still more space. And we still have several irons in the FA fires.

08-21-2007, 08:01 AM	#679
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Two-Part Trade Sees Chili Dogs Selecting a Top-Three Talent Well, Chesapeaks has already been the biggest impact team in free agency this offseason (despite my suggestions to the contrary earlier), and now we are the biggest wave-maker in the draft as well. With picks 1.1 and 1.2 going QB and RB, we coveted the top CB in the draft, and eventually worked out a pair of trades to deal from 1.19 all the way up to 1.3 to land him. Here are the two deals, in total: White Rock receives: 1.19 2017 CHE 2nd LT Jake Tate Chesapeake receives: 1.5 …this costs us draft capital, and also the “left tackle of the future” we had landed in last year’s draft. However, especially with the signing of OT Webster, we have liberty to make a move like this at OT, even if we might one day need to move RT Burns over to play at LT. And, just to whittle away any uncertainly remaining, we move up two more notched to get the pick sitting on the board: Madison receives: 1.5 2017 CHE 3rd 2018 CHE 2nd 2018 CHE 4th Chesapeake receives: 1.3 …so, we get it done. We have not made a trade of this magnitude in years – really since the big deal for the pick we used to land Brent Sedor. What’s the target? Here’s the man we have in mind: So, he scouts as a nearly complete CB in pretty much every way, and he graded out at or very near the top of the combine in every area. Absent a random bust (which I know can happen) this guy is basically a lock to be the most skilled corner this franchise has ever fielded. We have a CB mentor in Padgett, and can bring him along as needed – but in our division, I just felt like this was an impact player we really needed to land, and guys like this just don’t find their way down to the second half of the first round. Had to make a move, and we did.

08-24-2007, 05:50 AM	#680
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Draft Underway in Earnest Not a lot of action at the Chesapeake war room – we’re sitting tight until our picks in rounds 3 and 4, though we do have a target list. I’m personally out of town and largely offline, so my ability to mix things up and start trading away all of next year’s draft (as usual) is limited, which is probably good. If we luck out and get two of the handful of guys we really like at picks 3.17 and 4.15, I will be quite pleasantly surprised. I expect we will be okay with a couple of marginal players here… we only have one starting job open right now (at FB) and that’s not really a top priority. We have one nice note to report from free agency – we have successfully moved FA acquisition Deion Hueffed from WR to FS, where he actually looks like something a shade better than a lump of coal – he still has some KR skills, and a little bit of coverage and secondary ability. The main reason for the move, of course, is his ability to play a chemistry role – basically we’ll have him take over for retired DB leader Jon Upshaw, and we now have four exceptional and three strong affinities built around Hueffed. So, as I’m looking ahead to the final roster, I’m seeing this being a slot worth dedicating. The defensive front looks like another story entirely – it’s a mess, and there’s no easy way out, it seems.

08-25-2007, 06:22 AM	#681
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Free Agency and Draft Continue… So, another stage of free agency gone, and we landed a couple more players we’ll mention. FB Victor McSwainhas bounced around a couple of years, but signs with us and becomes our presumptive starter at FB. I don’t ask for very much from the FB position, to be fair – a little blocking and hopefully some blitz pickup. I’m not looking for much in ball carrying and even less in “route running” (a.k.a. target stealing) from my fullback. I pursued a couple more well-rounded guys, but he’s my current “good enough” guy that I co go ahead with if need be. Drafting at a position like FB is pretty cool, too – because unless you really really really want a top guy, it’s hard to be too disappointed. I’m looking at a few guys in this draft as possible FB targets – the top guy went just ahead of our 3rd round pick – but there’s nobody who would break my heart by being picked ahead of us. Look for a FB to come off the board in round six for us, most likely. We also landed another marginal guy in S Dennis Taber. He’s a 4th year guy who looks to me like he can play a little… my guess is that he will contend for a spot as our #7 or 8 option at DB. I’m surprised that he’s sitting here for minsal at this point… he looks like a decent enough depth chart guy for plenty of teams to me. No risk contract, of course. And finally, our round three pick came up, and we decided to roll the dice on a no-combine running back that my scout liked after the interview. Seems worth the risk – I had planned to go RB at 1.19 before working out the mechanics of our trade-up for CB White, and ended up being a bit disappointed seeing the quality of RBs who presumably would have been there for us at 1.19 had we stood pat. Anyway – we ink Jumbo Kinney here, making him the highest-drafted RB in Chili Dogs history (which isn’t saying much). He skipped the combine, but did grade out as the smartest running back in the draft (a standout score of 35 on the test, and a strong 81 rating in intelligence) – and has some reasonably impressive skills, including great-looking blitz pickup. If he creeps, great – but even if not, we might get something out of him regardless. Solid flier at an obvious need position, I think.

08-27-2007, 12:27 AM	#683
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Final Draft Picks Triggered With our last two draft picks, Chesapeake makes a couple more pretty easy-to-read moves. With the vacancy at FB, we finally take a prospect there as we pick up Bert Berube in the mid-6th round. Berube had a shaky combine, but is really just a “bars” pick for us – as his skill profile shows some ability in the limited things that I want from a FB. He also actually interviewed well, which made him a pretty appealing pick. He’s a stealth affinity for us (personality likely making it too low to register in-game) but I’m now thinking that he will basically be battling FB McSwain for one roster slot, and McSwain is the group leader with whom he has an affinity… so that may be out the window anyhow). We have had great fortune with our offensive line, which I still rate as one of the better units in the league. As we start the season, we have four of three OL starters who came from the after-draft free agent ranks, along with our top reserve interior lineman. The other two were drafted in the 5th round by us, and picked up as a minsal free agent. So – we have gotten a lot of mileage out of low-investment lineman over the years. We try again to hit the bell with C Willie McGregor, who we hope may pan out to be a clone of our longtime starter, 9th year C Winston Turnbull. Turnbull was (for much of his career) a maxed-out run blocker, and McGregor is maxed out there as well, even after the interview (where many of those blue ranges that start out 70-100 can fade to something like 70-85). This may make the position battle at C a bit of a challenge, as McGregor now becomes the 4th C on the roster – if we keep three, we’ll have a battle between mentor and affinity between the two veterans ahead of him and behind Turnbull. With that, we are done with the draft. I still have a handful of guys in my draft utility, but I don’t see anything approaching a clear path to our roster of 53 for anyone left, so I don’t mind sitting it out. If we grab a few guys after the draft for a look it won’t be a major investment to discard if they don’t stick.

08-30-2007, 03:55 PM	#685
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Post Camp Update With the players coming out of training camp, we now have a better look at what we’ll be working with this year. One thing quickly – it’s actually a damned good thing we went ahead with a top pick at CB this year, as we suffered a major dropoff from 11th year starter CB Lewis Kuehler, who has suddenly become a pretty mediocre backup-caliber guy. If I thought I had time to ease in my young guys at CB< I was definitely wrong. Right now, 2nd year man Quentin Gailey is probably the starter at RCB, and I’d say that on talent alone, rookie Emmanuel White probably deserves to start ahead of my other longtime starter Herman Padgett. Good to have this depth, but troubling to see this rapid dissolution of our veteran talent. Anyway – on to the good news. We had a remarkable 22 players make a gain in training camp this year, which seems like a very high number. CB Emmanuel White has a +1, which is excellent for a top-rated player like him – he now projects to be the 4th best CB in the whole league (though admittedly his topped-out return ratings probably contribute to that). I’m very pleased there. RB Jumbo Kinney looks like the real thing, a +5 camp swing makes him a lock to be in our RB rotation this year, and he may well end up with the most carries of everyone. We’ll have to use a committee on account of his dumb endurance, but I have no problem getting a (likely) quality RB in round three. G Mark Noyeaux looks like a bust, no gains in training camp, so he probably won’t be our future anything, contrary to original hopes. Likely a cut before the season starts – no affinity, no creeping, we have no room for you. C Willie McGregor is what he had hoped for, a long term keeper at C and possible replacement for Winston Turnbull one day. And FB Bert Berube looks good enough to start, despite losing a good deal in camp as expected. We also grabbed DT Shaun Buchanan after training camp, who now (with a +3 camp) looks like he will make the team somehow, and have an intriguing converted Hawaiian QB in Skip Ogu who now will compete for a RB/PR/KR roster slot. An intriguing +7 mid-career jump from QB Jim Baker puts him right into the mix for us at QB, while an unexpected –6 drop from Alex Gerhardt drops him from sure #2 to bubble fodder. FA pickup Donald Boroniec didn’t make any gains, and likely won’t make the final cut either. Other movements here and there, but we have a lot of young players on the improve here, which is encouraging.

09-04-2007, 09:38 AM	#686
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	First Cut Down Day Getting down to 60 for preseason isn’t all that tough to do, in theory. Anyone in jeopardy of a cut here couldn’t possibly have been on the serious list for 53, right? My new favorite player, RB Skip Ogu, makes this round of cuts – but honestly, I just don’t see how this guy can make this team in the end. If we needed the return skills, I could justify it – but I don’t see how we can cut a more productive RB to keep him, and keeping 4 RBs – even on a team using a committee approach driven by lousy endurance ratings – doesn’t make any sense to me. I’m disappointed, but I don’t see him sticking in the end. Anyway… I’m already looking ahead to some of our final position battles. QB2/3 is still up in the air… the RB/FB slots are still a competition… and I think we are probably going to have to let go of one decent DL and at least one DB before it’s all said and done, too. Anyway – on to the preseason games!

09-04-2007, 09:48 AM	#687
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	re-posting an item I contributed to a "Team preview" thread at the FOFL forums... [/u]Chesapeake Team Preview[/u] Offseason We had a more active offseason than I would have forecasted, but by and large for the better. I really felt that last season we were a title contender, but instead se struggled to a 9-7 finish and a slot as the dreaded "#7 seed." We return nearly everyone of on-field import from last year's team (though we had to do a good deal of chemistry rebuilding) and made a couple beefy veteran addiitons to try to help things out in the trenches. Then, in the draft we made a two-part deal to work our way up to pick 1.3 to land a top CB, which we felt was a top need for this team long term. Offense Chesapeake should once again have one of the league's top offenses - Brent Sedor remains as good as anyone behind center, and WR Burt Pearson has established himself as one of the league's most reliable targets. The supporting cast in the passing game is very solid, and the air game ought to be fine, as usual. The running game will again be a committee effort, with rookie Jumbo Kinney more or less replacing the spot of retired veteran Ross Rosenfels. Free agent signee RT Donovan Webster adds an impact player to an already-strong group, and gives us outstanding depth on the line. If CHE isn't among the league's top three teams in points and yards this year, we'll be underperforming. Defense Our recipe recently has been to put together a dominating offense with an average defense. Shouldn't be much different here. Lots of guys here that I like but probably not top-shelf talent overall. We're trying to get better against the pass, and that involves a shift of talent -- we're seeing the old guard replaced at slots like MLB and both CB starters, with promising new talent. Hopefully second year MLB Matt Sheldon, second year CB Quentin Gailey, and rookie CB Emmanuel White will quickly step into their roles, and help us keep at least on pace with the middle of the pack. If things break well, we might find ourselves a little tougher to pass on right away, and well on our way toward making a big step up there long term. If CHE is outside the bottom half in the league against the pass this year, we'll be pretty happy. Specials Punter and kicker are fine. WR George "That Guy" Ellis remains our main weapon in the return game, though rookie CB Emmanuel White has tantalizing skills there, if we're willing to let him risk injury. Predictions Last year we misfired and ended up 9-7. I think that had we played that season ten times, we wouldn't have had another season that bad. I don't know for certain that we are a better team right now than we were a year ago... but I think we are. We ought to be about 12-4 team this year, a dominating team on offense that puts some games away early, and hopefully improving on defense as the season goes along so we're coming together nicely as we wait for teams to play for the right to visit us in the postseason.

09-07-2007, 12:24 PM	#688
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Pretend Preseason Games Underway! Week 2: Chesapeake 41, Norman 8 Week 3: Chesapeake 34, Happy Valley 3 I don’t draw a lot from preseason results – we’re just trying to get guys healthy and ready to play. We’ll cycle in more guys in the next pair of games, and will get a look at a few more guys that way. Most of our starters ought to have shaken their rust here. Week 4: Chesapeake 28, French 3 Week 5: Chesapeake 31, Mars 17 No need to get too giddy from the four impressive scoreboard snapshots. That doesn’t mean much, I understand that. So, it’s cutdown day, and after thinking it over, I have decided that I want to hold on to my undrafted rookie DT Shaun Buchanah, who had a nice 3-point creep in training camp. I got a reasonable offer for him, but I’m not convinced that with the pick I’d be getting for him, that I’d be likely to draft a guy with better promise. So, I’ll keep Buchanan and that probably kills off any hope of retaining RB Skip Ogu for this year. I’m disappointed, but not shocked, that I didn’t get any nibbles for any of my other trade danglings of late. Down to 53 tomorrow means we will be making the painful cuts – and I suspect that QB Mitch Ackerman will be on that list, as he is only slightly better than my other two backups, but a lot older. We’ll sort things out among the fringe guys at DB and elsewhere, and will beheading in to the season next week.

09-10-2007, 07:54 AM	#689
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Flyin Hawai'ian Makes the Cut With out final roster decision, I ended up split among three players to make the final two roster spots on this team. S Deion Conzelman, who seems to be gradually creeping toward being a marginally useful player, was battling for the least slot at DB. WR Nolan Bellevue, also on a slow creep of his own, was trying to force us to carry him as WR4. And rookie Skip Ogu, with his intriguing mix of gadget skills, battling to get us to keep a fourth RB and utility special teams guy. In the end, I chose to release Bellevue. Then I re-thought it, and decided to play it smart, and released Ogu. And then, I re=submitted the file, and released Conzelman. And it's done. Skip Ogu will start the season on the inactive list, but in time I do expect to see him activated, and probably on the field as a special teams gunner and possibly return man. I think he is our 3rd best at both pun and kickoff returns, so he could become a regular there with an injury ahead of him, or my sense that having starters in those roles is too dangerous.

09-14-2007, 01:36 PM	#693
TheDanbom n00b Join Date: Aug 2007	Free Skip Ogu!

09-28-2007, 01:00 PM	#700
TheDanbom n00b Join Date: Aug 2007	Gerhardt's lighting it up, is there a QB controversy? Also, cut Small, he sucks.

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