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02-19-2007, 11:46 AM
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#551 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Divisional Playoff
We host Portland here, and have to worry that our narrow wins over them in the regular season reflect that they are a good matchup for us. I don’t have any particular wrinkles in place, we’ll just line ‘em up and see who gets it done. Code:
That box score does not do justice to the first half, where Portland was just killing us. But they kept coming up short on their drives, and given their level of domination through halftime, we were very, very lucky to be down 9-3 rather than something more like 17-3 or 24-3. Sedor looked awful, our running game was nonexistent, and seemingly every pass resulted in a PD by a defender or a dropsie by butterfingers George Ellis (he dropped only 8 passes all season, and managed to let go of three here, plus one more on a play called back due to a penalty). Anyway, in the second half we finally got things rolling – the big pass play to TE Robert Cooper was huge, and actually gave us the lead in a game where we had been completely dominated. And a string of Randall Sosa interceptions put us into position to take command in the game. Our offense didn’t really muster a single sustained drive for a score all day, but in the end, our defense made the big plays that kept things under control. An unreal result – but we move on! LB/DE John Galvan is out for the playoffs, it appears, and RB Craps Copley and CB Lewis Kuehler will both be tough calls for next week’s game, both are listed as questionable. I don’t think we really have a solid alternative but to start them and hope for the best, but against Hell Creek (who won their playoff game despite having a free agent signed just this week starting at QB) we can’t expect to shred that outstanding pass defense we’re going to need every part of the team working well. They already beat us once at CHE already this year, and it’s no stretch to see it happening again. |
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02-21-2007, 01:14 PM
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#552 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Conference Championship: Hell Creek at Chesapeake
So, we are in the conference championship game for our third straight season, facing Hell Creek, who has been in this game a remarkable eight times in the last nine years. Unreal. This year, they got here with a great defensive effort and a pretty solid game from QB Ian Arsenault, who was not employed in football until last week. The Hell Creek secondary is approaching legendary status, but my game plan (especially with RB Craps Copley not in good form) will be to air it out and go right at them. We will run at them as well, but I’m not shying away from their cover men. Incidentally, we are made 1 point underdogs at home in-game. I have no explanation for that, other than some quirk in the game’s power rankings and the like – but admittedly, Hell Creek did beat us at our place earlier this year. We’ll see… Code:
We go to veteran fullback Bill Wunderlich to carry the main running duties for us this year, and did he deliver. On the first drive, he had the ball on every single play, and we punched it right in for the first score. Great game by our offense, which was largely unstoppable, and the defense held their passing game in check the whole time. Hell Creek played well on defense – they actually defensed 9 passes from Sedor, who was on target all day – but we had this one in hand pretty early. We have lingering injury issues and some new ones for the title game to contend with. SS Doug Schwantz is out for the game with a leg injury, and it looks like LB Daryl Ewart will have to play hurt. We’ll line ‘em up again, but we are actually at a low point for our team health for this whole year, with five significant starters either out or playing while questionable. One more game, fellas. |
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02-21-2007, 01:32 PM
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#553 |
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College Starter
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: South Florida
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Only 45K showed up? Talk about fair weather fans.
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02-21-2007, 04:50 PM
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#554 | |
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Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Quote:
That's a shame.  |
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02-22-2007, 11:42 AM
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#555 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Texas
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Great season again QS. Good luck in the Bowl!!
Go Dogs!
__________________
XBox360 GamerTag - Tonyr76 Former HTer |
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02-22-2007, 09:04 PM
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#556 |
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n00b
Join Date: Feb 2007
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I've read this all the way through and this is a great dynasty. Good luck in the championship game!
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02-23-2007, 07:38 AM
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#557 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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If you're interested in following the title game, there's at least a chance that the FOFL will offer "live" game updates in this thread:
http://www.thefobl.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23063 Last year, it proved pretty entertaining. Unfortunately, I htink both owners (FOnzie and I) are likely to be unavailable at game time (noonish ET today) so I'm not certain if there will be the same sort of presentation. In any event - there's the link. |
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02-23-2007, 07:46 AM
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#558 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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The Big Game
Here’s what we are up against in the big game today: Code:
It’s tempting to say this is a running team, but really I think it’s just a solid team that does everything pretty well. Honestly, the whole is more than the sum of its parts – meant as a compliment. Their roster is rated in-game at 40, but they get good production out of pretty much everyone. As I look at their roster, I don’t see any really gaping holes that would suggest we go in with a novelty gameplan, so once again, I suspect we’ll just line ’em up. DT DiStefano, incidentally, was a great grab for them off the free agent market this year. He’s an outstanding player, left uncovered by a sleepwalking team last season, and they landed him with a pretty simple one year deal. He obviously became a serious impact player for them right away – interesting, as they currently field a couple of defensive ends (in the 4-3 front) who are basically run-stoppers first. |
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02-23-2007, 12:32 PM
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#559 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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FOFL Championship: New Jersey v. Chesapeake
We are ready for the big matchup, I’m pretty confident that we ought to be in pretty good shape, as I think we are more talented overall. I am not optimistic that we will be able to run that well on the People, so I’m gameplanning a little heavy toward the pass unless we get a reasonable lead. Nothing too fancy here. Code:
Well, the game starts out as a back-and-forth punt exchange, and is scoreless through the end of the first quarter. But then our offense got its act together, and we started scoring pretty easily. Two scores in the second quarter, and each quarter after that -- and we end up with 42 on the board. It’s the biggest margin in the championship game history. Just in case it wasn’t clear – Brent Sedor was totally unconscious this whole game. Here are his isolated stats: Code:
He had 12 passes hit the ground, but they include 2 drops by George Ellis (of course), 5 thrown on target but blocked away by defenders, and five where he was hurried into throwing a bad pass. By one metric, that basically means he didn’t make a single mistake all day. Add in 88 yards rushing and two TDs on the ground… good lord. MVP indeed. More to come, but for now, hooray for the 2013 FOFL Champions, the Chesapeake Chili Dogs! |
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02-25-2007, 07:18 PM
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#560 |
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Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
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Hooray indeed. Congratulations, Quik!
Not only was Sedor unconscious, but he was unconscious against a defense that was specifically geared to stop him. We focused heavily on defending the pass, and seemingly every time he threw he was throwing into a nickel/dime pass defense. And he still picked us apart. Amazing performance from him. Thanks for the kind words in evaluating my team above - although after this performance I'm not sure we deserved any words that could be spoken in polite company! Best wishes for next season - and here's to hoping Sedor somehow translates into a 37/51 QB in 2k7! |
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02-26-2007, 07:47 AM
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#561 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Contract Situation
As the season came to a close, we worked out a couple of things with player contracts, to tie up the remaining meaningful loose ends heading into next season. As loyal readers already know, we have pretty aggressively tried to work out long term deals with many of our core players, and I have tried to keep many of our quality guys from even sniffing the free agent market. With a couple weeks left in the season, we had a few guys still unsigned for next year, and I didn’t have a clear long term strategy. The biggest outlier was TE Robert Cooper, a pre-season breakout player this year who had an excellent season for us, is an affinity guy, and really would be great to keep around. I’ve never been terribly keen on overpaying tight ends, but he seems like the complete package, and in the penultimate stage, we offered him a new five year deal, which he accepted. So, Cooper is locked up long term, which is excellent. He posted 888 yards and 8 TDs this season, and still got shut out for all-pro honors, which is pretty absurd to me. But his outstanding postseason, especially coming up huge in the Portland game (when our wideouts were letting us down) made this an easier decision – he’s got to stay. We were able to clear work things out with Cooper only one way – by making a cut. The obvious candidate, a heartless as it is, was LT Stanley Tilton. Tilton had been with us for a good solid nine years, but is still looking for big money, and just has never lived up to his pretty lofty scouted skills. He’s got great red bars, but he’s got a career KRB% of only 31.3% - not exactly top shelf stuff. He played this season under the franchise tag, but next year there’s simply no way we can pay him $8m or whatever he wants, so this wasn’t a ridiculous cut. It’s cheap that it works out this way under the cap (in FOF 2004) but we let him go, and free up space to sign a new deal with Cooper and others. In the final stage, we work out extensions with MLB Doug McKenzie and RT Jerry Burns. McKenzie has been stellar for us as a great free agent signing (he was a mid-career breakout, and we struck quickly to lock him up to a good deal right after the “new” guy was revealed. He’s in his 9th season, so the decline could come any time, but we are so pathetic at LB, we really couldn’t afford to let him taste free agency, as we have no Plan B at all. Burns mostly rode the bench this season, but comes into next year as our presumed RT starter, and he ought to be just fine. He has actually posted very solid stats when we have played him (intermittently) and our hope is that next year, reflecting on a season with a relative paucity of stats, he will settle for a salary reduction and help us clear some space. But that leaves us heading into next year with nobody we’ll need to franchise tag. Here’s the salary situation at the end of the 2013 season, FYI: Code:
A few quick notes – DE Lazaro counts as something like $21m in next year’s salary count, as his base salary goes through the roof after this year (we were only counting on him for these two years when we signed him). He will not be with us at anything like that price – he will either (in descending order of likelihood) retire this offseason, be released or traded, or be renegotiated way way down. Most likely, he will be on our books for $2m of dead space next season – but that switch alone puts us something like $6 million below the salary cap next season. If we indeed have $6m or so in space, and have only a handful of fairly affordable restricted free agents to worry about from our own roster – there’s at least some potential that we will be in pretty good shape for next season, cap-wise. I doubt we will be among the cap space leaders (we never are, the league still has teams that come in $30m or more below the cap every year) but we ought to be in position to make a run at one or two role player types, which is probably the best thing for us to be doing anyway. So – cap situation for 2014 looks okay. We’ll lose Lazaro, and whomever else drops from retirement (RB Copley? FB Wunderlich? LB/DE Galvan?) but we ought to be in position to fill the holes we have with a few veterans and our nearly-full complement of draft picks. |
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02-26-2007, 07:47 AM
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#562 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Young Player Update
A few guys who we might be looking to for larger roles in the coming season: DE Kerry Meadows is the last guy standing from my slew of picks trying to get a pass-rushing DE. He got a fair amount of playing time this season, including starts all through the playoffs (where he played pretty well), but is he a guy we can really count on to be a part of a credible pass rush? I don’t know. I like the PR% figure as a good measure of overall pass rushing effectiveness, and his of 4.7 this year is passable, but no more than that. On a team that didn’t blitz very frequently, that’s even more concerning. CB C.J. Daniels also got a good deal of playing time for us this season, at both safety and cornerback. Actually, 7 passes defensed to only 11 catches allowed is a great ratio, and he shows some real promise. If we decide to diversify the secondary scheme down the road especially, he could evolve into a real asset for us. DT Dwight Armagost has been hanging around on this team waiting for a chance to play, and it looks like he’s earning it okay. He played in every game this year, more or less platooning with Johnny White in the DT slot alongside Bryan Lents. White is a pure run stopper, and his 10.9% Tk% reflects that, while Armagost is a more well-rounded player and has some pass rushing skills as well. I would like to keep both guys around into next year, and will hope to see Armagost continue to develop. I don’t think Armagost is a star, but he’s a contributor. We have a big question mark at right guard, as we await word on entrenched starter Marvin Brandon and his serious leg injury. If Brandon is wiped out, then we have two young creeper type players we will work through that slot in Shane Csonka and Drew Wickham. Both seem to have some upward movement, and could easily step into a vacant role with a good offseason. I fear the opportunity will be there. And, though I don’t know where they will fit in, we still have two pretty promising QB prospects on this team. My scout rates Alex Gerhardt at 26/48, and I fully expect to see him stepping into the #2 role for us next season. Then there’s rookie Walt Johnstone, who is clearly creeping toward being something pretty special – scouted now at 10/62. Johnstone was rated 7/45 before the draft, so it’s pretty clear that not only is his arrow pointing up, it’s pointing **way** up. I think my ideal situation will still be to trade him, but I don’t know whether we’ll get someone to come along and really pony up for a guy like this, since he isn’t going to develop rapidly when on my roster. So, we have a few promising guys lying around here and there, but we have some very serious voids on this roster. In our backfield, only lowly Sam Cook is young, and he seems to have very rapidly stopped any upward ratings movement he once had. (I swear he was a creeper, but now I can’t find anything to back that up) So, RB (and possibly FB) is going to be on our list of serious needs. Also, we are getting old at LB – McKenzie and Ewart are very very good, but as 8th and 9th year players, we need something underneath them. Right now, the only young LB on the team is rookie Lorenzo McDowell, who got some token playing time this season, but would need to do a lot of developing to become a player we can use a lot. Looking ahead to next offseason… we will have some work to do, but a few wide open roles waiting to be filled. |
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02-27-2007, 08:00 AM
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#563 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Chesapeake Chili Dogs, 2014 Season
So, we have turned the corner, and are now into the new world of FOF 2007. As expected, a big pivot at this point is the retirement list. And while we don’t have any real surprises, the reality is still going to be pretty significant. First, our backfield. We lose the two primary ball carriers from last year, so we will have work to do there: Craps Copley retires as the Chili Dogs’ career rushing leader, even after only three years as our main-duty back. He certainly benefited from the offensive line and the weapons around him, but still – 3,700 yards in three seasons, on something like 4.4 yards per carry, is very nice. We will be scrambling to find a guy who can be as productive back there for us. Bill Wunderlich played five seasons with our C-Dogs, and we found ways to use him in a pretty wide variety of roles. His most common placement on the depth chart was to be #1 at FB, RB, and TE all at once. So, his usage was a real variable – but when we called on him to play a lot at TE, he delivered with 79 catches for 771 yards in 2010. When we needed a power rusher, he delivered there, too. And when Copley got hurt in the last couple games of the playoffs this season, Wunderlich filled in as our “feature back” and was excellent in his last two games, really going out on top. Now, the other major loss was our pass rush. We lose our two starting defensive ends from last season: Jamel Lazaro was something of a desperation pickup for us in free agency, and he panned out nicely. We got two solid seasons from him after the sudden retirement of Alvin Hall, and Lazaro played well and gave us solid pressure and veteran leadership. John Galvan was our strong-side linebacker for nine seasons, and was a key member of the first C-Dog championship defense. Late in his career, we played him almost exclusively at DE, where he adapted well to a pass-rushing role, setting a career high with 9.5 sacks in 2012. He’s the franchise career leader in tackles, and a three-ring guy for us. On top of those two, we also send off WR Tyrone Hastings, who had been a big part of our “cloud of catchers” we used to overrun secondary coverage schemes from time to time. We acquired Hastings when we decided to rebuild the WR corps a few seasons ago, and while he never became a star player here, he was a valuable asset for three seasons. In addition, we lost an original C-Dog in John Houtz, who was the only one of our original offensive linemen to survive the mid-career purge of several years ago. He remained as a sort of coach on the field for us, helping to keep the young and developing line on the same page together. His leadership will be tough to replace. So, we come into the new season with this salary situation: Code:
So, $14m is a good deal more cap space than I had imagined sitting on here. However, our $14m in cap space is in the low end for the league – there are 12 teams with at least $20 million, and 3 teams with at least $40 million in space. I don’t yet have much idea what to expect on the open FA market, but I am certainly glad that I locked up my potential free agents (TE Cooper, MLB McKenzie) for this season, rather than letting them hang out there. Much more to come, as the next few days will be mostly about the engine transition, and then staff offers and such. We’ll be looking at some of our youngsters a bit more closely, I reckon. |
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02-27-2007, 01:40 PM
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#564 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Front Office Staff to Remain Intact
In stage one of the staff hiring, CHE has locked up our Defensive Player Development Coordinator Monty Byrne to a new contract, so we will be back next year with the same front office staff. With a team on a bit of a roll of late, doesn’t seem like a great time to start tinkering too much. Nothing much to report here – the league is just starting to get going again, so hopefully in the next few days we will start to see some trade blocks and offseason activity. I don’t know how active CHE is likely to be overall, but we have a lot of work to do if we want to try to repair our team chemistry setup, which has been dealt a massive blow by the retirements and changing standards in the new game. |
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03-04-2007, 02:07 PM
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#565 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Offseason Underway
The league will start the free agency process in earnest with FA Stage 2 – to be run on Monday. In preparation for the free agency market, we have launched a few renegotiation offers during the reneg-only stage one. I was delighted to see that WR Burt Pearson accepted a new deal – one which makes him a pretty affordable long-term asset for us. Here are the new components in his contract: Code:
So, we have guaranteed a sizable share of the long term deal, including an extra $9.5m in this year’s extension, but we keep him from having a back-end explosion in his contract at any point. As long as he remains healthy and productive, he’s a centerpiece player for our offense through his prime years, it appears. At $5.2m or less, he ought to remain a serious bargain through 2011, which will be his 9th season in the league. We attempted to work a new deal with RT Jerry Burns, who is almost certain to me manning the RT slot for this season and beyond, but couldn’t get him to sign. I am still fairly optimistic that he will come down from his current salary figure (a vestige of a late extension from last year) but it doesn’t look like it will make a big difference for this season’s cap number, so there’s no real hurry there. In open free agency, there are a couple of running backs in the mix, including RB Rickey Jacob, who posted a very solid season for division rivals Dodge City last year. He and Bar Harbor’s veteran Ross Rosenfels are probably the gems of the RB crop this offseason, but both are probably approaching the outside edge of their productive seasons, and we’d hate to get caught in a long term commitment to either guy. We will likely make a stab at both players, but I don’t see how we would benefit from an expensive contract for either guy, which I suspect might be necessary to land either one. There are, simply put, zero impact pass rushers in free agency. I see a few guys who look like decent enough role players, and we might end up working a deal for a player like that, but I don’t sense that we will be all that aggressively looking to simply sign a solution to our shortage there. We will remain open to a trade to bring aboard an impact veteran player, especially at DE, but I am prepared to go into this season with a pretty young and inexperienced pass rush. Even if we add there during the draft, it seems unlikely we’ll land a guy who really changes the team right away. |
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03-04-2007, 02:11 PM
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#566 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Young QB Finally Finds a New Home
After last year’s draft, we ended up carrying QB Walt Johnstone as our #3 man on the depth chart, where he got only a trifle of playing time (and hit one long bomb in his 3/3 passing state line). As a clear bloomer, his stock rose, and we had him out on the trade block all season. This year, we finally got a bite for his services, and we have sent him to Happy Valley for their 2015 1st round draft pick. Happy Valley is under new and committed ownership for this season, but have not been a major contender in recent years – with 6, 8, and 2 wins in the last three seasons (going backward). So, there’s at least some chance that this draft pick turns into something of note. My best guess is that we’ll end up with a pick something like 1(15)-1(20) or so, which (hopefully) will be a better selection slot than we’d expect from our own 1sst rounder. Candidly, Johnstone was completely bottled up in Chesapeake, where Brent Sedor is playing like an iron man, and Alex Gerhardt is clinching the backup role with his own creeping. So, this probably works out well – I still believe that Johnstone will develop into a better QB than anyone in this year’s entire draft. |
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03-05-2007, 12:45 PM
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#567 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Free Agency Begins
Well, the gate opens, and right away, I expect to get a good sense of whether we have much shot to make meaningful additions this season. I would like very much to lock up one of the handful of very solid free agents right away, here in stage 2. And right off the bat, we have landed a running back. Ross Rosenfels has some wear on the tires, but he’s an obvious upgrade for us at the RB position, which is basically in disrepair at the moment. Last two seasons, he managed about 4.4 yards per carry, which is the neighborhood we’re looking for for our straight-ahead ball carrier option. This looks like a very good fit for us. Rosenfels signs what amounts to a flat two-year year deal, with not very much guaranteed – so if he falls apart or retires before next year, we’ll only eat a modest $700K in cap space next year. That’s a great pickup for this team right now. We also ink a deal with DT Tyrone Winters, who looks like a pretty decent addition for us. He’s a bit more pass rusher than run stopper, but looks pretty passable in both respects, and ought to get decent reserve time at both DT and DE, I’d guess. Another ideal signing – DL is a key need area for us, and he’s great insurance if we fail to make an improvement in the rookie class. His contract is basically a two year veteran minimum with a reneg-or-release third year timebomb. Great stage for us – our two needs just got addressed about as well as was possible to do. Perfect. |
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03-07-2007, 07:01 AM
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#568 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Free Agency Continues
Well, after our initial burst to grab two veteran players, I’m guessing that we might be done with free agency for this year. We still have offers in for a number of players, and it’s possible that we will pick up one or two “safety net” sort of players (guys who might make the team if we have a truly disappointing draft class) but I don’t think it’s likely that we will land anyone whom we expect to really contribute right away. Or, put more plainly, if these guys actually are playing for us – then we’re in worse shape than we’d want to be. Currently, our roster sits at 46 players, with new contracts having been agreed with a few young players. We have locked up QB Alex Gerhardt, TE Harvey Leff, and G Drew Wickham to new deals, and will have each locked up for a couple more seasons ahead. Gerhardt is bucking to assume the #2 QB position on this team, which has been a pretty lonely spot since Sedor arrived. Leff is firmly entrenched as our #2 TE, and is creeping toward a meaningful role. Wickham is among the candidates for time at the RG spot that is completely up for grabs this season, with Marvin Brandon gone. So…. what is our likely path to 53 players? We have 46 signed, and most of these guys are going to make the team. We have 3 RB already on board, in new signee Rosenfels (the presumed workhorse) along with veteran Albert Lombardo and youngster Sam Cook. RFA Harry Small is also on the roster, but unsigned, so he’s in the mix, too. My best guess is that we want to carry a total of five players in the backfield this season, including one or two fullbacks. Most likely, we will shed one of these RBs, make room for a young FB, and go with that group. I have trade-blocked Lombardo, but an 11th year reserve quality guy likely isn’t going to fly off the shelves… so we’ll consider our options after training camp, I reckon. Among my current 46, the only other guys I see who might lose his job would be CB Dixon Webb. He was a breakout URFA we signed and developed, and just as he was earning serious playing time he suffered a major injury, and lost half his ratings. He’s still got passable skills, cohesion plus, and an affinity – but I’m just not that confident putting him out onto the field. So, if we end up pursuing a CB in this year’s draft (which I’m, thinking is increasingly likely, after our top immediate need areas were at least attended in free agency) we might shed Webb to make room for a more promising youngster. We hold 6 draft picks this year (rounds 1,2,3,5,7,7) including “Mr. Irrelevant,” so my guess is that we will see five new players from that group. We’ll most likely look to the 7(32) pick as a guy we bring aboard unsigned for affinity purposes, like we did last year. I also wouldn’t be shocked if we move down from 1(32) -– especially if the best players available are from the lot that I kinda expect to see there – and pick up an extra pick or two in this draft. Anyway – even if we keep all 46 current players, and six rookie draft picks, and sign LB D.J. Dennis from the ranks of free agents – that only just gets us to 53 players. That makes things fairly simple – we’d probably parade in the usual array of post-draft misfits and oddballs, and see if anyone from that lot actually sticks. Most years, we find at least one post-draft signee who seems promising enough to make the team, so I’d expect that to happen this year as well. Hell, looking at our current team, we have some pretty damned good players who we picked up in the post-draft scrap heap… C Winston Turnbull, G Gus Schmit, TE Robert Cooper, G Marvin Brandon, S Jeff McCartney, RT Jerry Burns, DT Dwight Armagost, S Brett Vesser, TE Harvey Leff, and G Drew Wickham among them. So… even on a team playing for right now, we are probably looking toward a few final conflicts between promising youth and veteran experience for our final roster slots. No surprise, but we can probably put off most of those tougher decisions until after training camp, as staying under 70 doesn’t look like a challenge at all, and we seem unlikely to truly exhaust our cap space this season. |
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03-08-2007, 08:27 AM
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#569 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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So, the C-Dogs pass Rush?
Well, with RB Ross Rosenfels aboard and looking like a pretty solid stopgap solution for our worries at RB for this season, I’m now looking (for the third straight offseason, even since DE Alvin Hall retired) at our pass rush as a primary point of concern. Assuming we don’t manage to trade for or draft an impact defensive end, then who exactly will be providing the pass rush for this team this season? Here is the scout’s look at the defensive front for the C-Dogs for the coming year:  Well, trying to make use of the oft-maligned “Roster Attributes” screen here… I’ll beg your forgiveness that this isn’t quite as aesthetically satisfying as seeing red and green bars. Okay, on the D-line, the inside is basically fine. I have Bryan Lents inked in as a full-time starter, and will expect to see run-stopping DE James White probably split time with DT Dwight Armagost at the other DT slot. That seemed to work okay last season, though our run defense wasn’t exactly dominant. On the ends? It looks like DE Kerry Meadows (39 PR Tech, 29 PR Str, 4.7 PR% last year) will step into a full-time starting role – he’s a guy who once had creeping ratings, but I guess he’s done with that. On paper, he is not an impressive player. At this point, it appears that DE Skip Clayton (34/58 PR Tech, 60 PR Str, 5.0 PR% in limited play thus far) is slotted as our other starter. He’s a guy who barely kept his place on the team after being a draft day disappointment (picked well ahead of Meadows), but as of right now, we don’t have a better option to go to. DT Tyrone Winters is a guy who probably now gets into this mix – signed to a FA contract this offseason, he’s got better red bars than the two younger guys (62 PR Tech, 11 PR Str, 4.9 PR% last year in HLC) and I guess deserves a look for serious playing time. At 317 lbs, he can’t switch away from the DT position, but we certainly could play him at DE. So, that’s now a viable option, though it doesn’t really fire me up. Finally, there’s one longshot hope here. SILB D.J. Dennis (currently an unrestricted free agent, but getting no serious interest, it seems) has an awfully impressive PR Tech rating of 98. He might make a natural replacement for John Glavan, an OLB whom we placed at DE the last couple seasons. Problem here is that Dennis weighs only 218 lbs, and right now cannot slide to an OLB slot. So, if we get him re-signed (we have an offer pending), we’ll try to bulk him up in training camp, and then (regrettably, we can’t try this until after camp) move him to the OLB slot. If that works, then we have a guy who might be useful as at least a situational pass rusher from the DE slot. Dennis is a longtime C-Dog with three rings on his hand, who has seemingly been a “bubble” guy for every year he’s been with us. He’s now a great influence (cohesion plus and a mentor), and an excellent special teamer, so he’s worth keeping around. But, of course, switchign him to OLB will mean he suddenly forgets everything he knows about both mentorship and probably special teams as well… alas, such are the limitations we’re up against. If it looks like we can get him to OLB, I think it’s worth that sacrifice, especially since we have another ILB mentor on hand already in Steven Watkins. So, that’s my thinking. We probably will go with a rotation of Meadows, Clayton, and Winters at the DE slots for this year, and we’ll be hoping that perhaps we can get D.J. Dennis into the mix as well. This will not be one of the more highly-rated pass rush groups in the FOFL, but we will try to make do around this weakness as best we can. |
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03-11-2007, 02:17 PM
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#570 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Draft Update
Well, we floated the idea of trading up in round one, but the one player I liked enough to deal for was taken before the teams expressing interest came up, so that fizzled. In the ten picks or so leading up to mine, several of the guys in my draft queue were snapped up, and that fizzled out my thinking that I might be able to deal down and still get one of my handful of players. So, after all that sound and fury (I didn’t try all that hard admittedly) it ends up signifying nothing – and we make our selection right at 1.32. And once again, we are drafting for need, taking a defensive lineman: DL Dwight Reynolds Reynolds had the second best 40-time among the DT class, behind only the superstar guy who went #2 overall. I am hopeful that his pass rushing skills and 285-pound frame make him a good fit for the DE slot, where he will almost certainly be moved rather quickly. Here’s our scout’s impression of him, for what that’s worth:  So, pretty obviously, our hope here is that Reynolds maintains that impressive-looking potential as a pass rusher, and translates to a pass rushing force on the outside. He did not have a sensational workout at the combine, exactly, but he was pretty solid, and I’m hoping that he may end up as an upper-tier pass rusher for us. We could use it, after a tough run with our early draft picks at the position of late. Incidentally, I am also thinking about chemistry with this pick. I like Reynolds anyway, but he happens to fall into the same chemistry grouping as a few other guys on our defensive front – DE Skip Clayton, MLB Doug McKenzie, and LB Daryl Ewart. It’s possible that by next year, we reconfigure the chemistry setup for our defensive front, and end up bringing that lot together with a common bond. Not likely for this season, but indeed maybe next year – and Reynolds could potentially work out well in that mix. We are sitting at 2.32 and 3.32, and will hope to pick up a couple more contributors there. I have a handful of targets in mind of course, and will try to avoid falling in love with too many players there. |
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03-11-2007, 04:33 PM
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#571 |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Jan 2007
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Solid pick for 1.32
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03-13-2007, 08:39 AM
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#572 | |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Quote:
I hope so. It was pretty off-script, as he's not realy the type of player that I'd prefer to draft there, but I think there's enough to support the pass rush skills to make it look like he can work out. If so, he will contribute right away, which would be very good -- as you saw above, our pass-rushing DE situation is pretty bleak. |
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03-13-2007, 08:39 AM
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#573 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Offseason update
Two bits of news here, one FA re-signing, and one more draft pick in the books. First, we worked out a new deal with LB D.J. Dennis, a guy who I described a while back as a perennial bubble survivor. He came aboard as an undrafted rookie back in 2004, and while he has never been a really key player for us, he brought just enough to make the team every year. He’s an excellent special teamer, and now he’s become an ILB mentor, so he has even more value. My hopes going forward are that he can bulk up a bit and slide over to play OLB, where we might be able to better use his situational pass-rushing skills more effectively. But that’s another matter. Now, he figures into my planning a bit more than before. Looking ahead to next year, we will likely see our current D7 position leader, MLB Steven Watkins, retire. It wouldn’t take much to push Dennis into the leadership role, and if he gets there, we could open up a number of affinities – he’d bond well with two of our central players in LBs McKenzie and Ewart, and he’d also get on well with two young defenders in DE Skip Clayton and newly drafted DL Dwight Reynolds. So, there’s another reason to think that Dennis might stick around there as well. It’s conceivable that we clear the way for these affinities to kick in this year, but more likely we’ll hold off a year and work him into the leadership role for 2015. At the end of round two, I had plans to go after another defensive player, but watching two of the guys I liked most get taken a bit ahead of me, I ended up with an unexpected BPA. So, we grabbed a wide receiver who fits the “great combine, dreadful scouting report” mold to a tee:  So, the scouts say he is a total waste of time. Okay, but that combine is pretty seriously good. His 40 time was pedestrian, and he appears to be about as dumb as a bag of hammers… but in the other physical drills, he was very good. Unusually strong for a wideout, very good broad jump, very highly developed – all these tell me that the scout view is just flat-out wrong here. My lingerning fear is that he may wee be a total void in the essential “route-running” skill, which would relegate him to role player status forever, but I expect that in time we will see him sporting some solid basic receiving skills, and who knows what else. Mystery pick, to some degree, but we are through the looking glass, folks – this is 2007! |
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03-14-2007, 07:43 AM
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#574 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Draft Update
And as my pick in the end of round three approaches, my firm resolve not to fall for the draft goggles finally lapses. I can’t decide between a couple of players sitting there as I’m nearly on the clock, and so I decide to swing a deal to get them both. So, we welcome aboard two more new faces to our defensive front, with picks 3.30 and 3.32:  LB Richie Shaw skipped the combine, which probably doesn’t mean a whole lot in and of itself, but he tested out really well in the position drill (ranked behind only three first round selections there, in the only combine element he performed). What does that tell me? I’m not exactly sure, but I do think this guy has a real shot to be a bit better than advertised. Given the pretty modest ratings according to my scout, he probably must be in order to do much more than serve as roster-filler for a couple of years, so we’ll see. He is pretty well-developed, so he ought to be a guy we could throw out onto the field as a reserve soon if we had to. Would have been nice to see some special teams skills here, that certainly would have helped him earn an active roster spot for the rookie season.  DT Devin Kaesviharn is a pretty ordinary-looking defensive tackle, but in the combine he did everything a little bit better than average. His marks in the two things related most closely to run-stopping were his best efforts, too – the 31 reps and 7.52 in the agility drill both were better than one std dev above the average for DTs. To me, that was a pretty good sign. And, speaking of signs, he fits into the chemistry group that I’m planning the future of the D7 group around, so next year he ought to be an affinity guy for us. So – neither guy really leaps off the page, but I have hopes that both guys will prove to be useful role players. And at the end of “day one” of the draft, that’s mostly what I have in mind. I still have my eyes on a few more players, but since we are not picking again until 5.32, we’ll probably miss out on the handful of players I have in my queue, unless I lose my patience once again and jump back into this draft to pick up another guy. |
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03-14-2007, 08:04 AM
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#575 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Another Look at the Roster
Well now that free agency and the draft are winding down (and we have traded for one extra pick so far) I have to start thinking about what our final roster of 53 might look like. I suspect we will end up needing to make a couple somewhat difficult cuts to get to 53 this season, especially if I really decide to clear the way for all these rookies. (At the moment, with draft goggles firmly in place, I can’t see any way not to keep all these brilliant youngsters around) The initial math: - 48 veteran players currently signed and on the roster - 1 more RFA expected to sign before training camp (RB Harry Small) - 7 rookies coming in as draft picks - untold number of post-draft invitees who will get into camp So, before we even hit the post-draft market, we will presumably have 56 players in hand, necessitating three cuts. Well, two cuts – G Marvin Brandon will go onto IR, so that frees up a slot. Two cuts isn’t so bad – let’s see who are the likely candidates: Running Back – assuming new FA signee Ross Rosenfels doesn’t have a complete and total cam meltdown, he is the starter and has a spot locked up. The remaining three guys do not – 11th year man Albert Lombardo is probably the most talented guy we have if he makes it through camp well, but not by much. Youngsters Sam Cook and Harry Small are probably battling for a slot as the #2 or #3 option at RB. Since we look like we will head in with only one FB on the roster, we’ll have to keep three RBs. So, likely one cut here, or we just don’t re-sign Small, and leave him out in the open market as a backup plan if we need him) Defensive Line – with two draft picks headed for DE or DT slots, we now seem a shade crowded along the line, with eight players there. If both rookies look good, then the likeliest cut candidate from the veterans might be new signee DT Tyrone Winters, who seems suited to be a spot pass rusher. My best guess is that we will likely keep all eight guys instead, and not make any cuts here – hoping to make up in quantity what we definitely lack in quality. Linebacker – with one rookie making a total of eight guys (in a 4-3 defense, almost certainly) this seems like a logical slot. I dangled Steven Watkins for a trade to no avail, but I think he’s too good a player (and has too long a history) to just cut. Travis Kuykendall just never stayed healthy even when he was great on paper, and then got felled by a massive injury – he’s now mostly a cohesion add-on. If our youngsters look good enough to use in the #4 and #5 roles for the coming year, we could lose one or both of these veterans. (Dealing or trading both Watkins and Kuykendall would clear the way for the D.J. Dennis group leadership that would uncork some strong affinities for us, too) Very possible to see a cut or trade here, I think. Defensive Back – I had hoped to acquire a young player here, and still may in the late rounds, but we are pretty deep here as is. CB Dixon Webb is the likely cut candidate – once a great creeper on the come, then felled by his own cataclysmic injury, now he looks like a pedestrian #4 or #5 corner talent with a mild affinity. This group has great chemistry and decent talent, but has yet to really become a compelling unit on the field for us, no matter what we do. CB Webb is on the bubble, especially if a youngster comes aboard at CB. We have three late round picks ahead, and another real possibility is that we use the 7.32 pick to grab an affinity guy who won’t really be signed. What else are you going to get with the last pick in the draft, anyway? **shurg** Doesn’t look like a serious trauma clearing the way for the incoming class, but if I like all these rookies and maybe one or two more from after the draft, then things could get a little dicey. WR Oscar Abdul-Malik is with us as an affinity anchor, but doesn’t really add much there. QB Ian Arsenault was signed as a veteran mentor, but it looks like he won’t have anyone to bring along. We have a few more slots to go to if need be, it seems. |
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03-15-2007, 08:40 AM
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#576 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Offseason Update
So, after the last game stage, we have our first four draft picks on the roster, and available for a slightly closer look. Most owners in the league are focusing on the numeric ratings, which is fine – but what I’m really looking for here is some degree of movement between the way these guys’ ratings ranges looked before and currently. Most of all, I’m hoping that DT Reynolds still has a maxed-out range for pass rush technique upon incrementally closer inspection. He does. That’s good news. And, from what I see, it looks like his scale for run defense has inched up maybe about 5 points, which is good also (I’d say during the draft it was centered on about 73, now it’s more like 78… so my best guess is that post-camp he might have a future rating in run defense of about 70, which would be fine by me). I don’t really know what to make of the overall rating my scout assigns him (25/62) – that’s for him at the NT position, and this is a guy with most of his apparent value bundled up in two ratings, run defense and pass rush technique. My hope is that he holds on to something around that 60+ future, even after we slide him over to play DE (which looks like a fairly smooth transition for him, at 285 pounds) and we will have a guy who is not an all-around stud, but who has the skills I desire most for a full-time DE. The rest of our guys don’t tell much of a story. WR Bellevue, with his dreadful scout assessment, surprises us not at all (he’s rated an abysmal 12/16) – but this isn’t the stage where I’d expect some movement from a guy like him. We will hope to see more from Bellevue during training camp, and maybe during the season. (He may be a challenging guy to contemplate for playing time… do we slot him as the reserve split end, ahead of our pretty solid veteran Robert Torpey? Further down the draft, I don’t see much news. LB Richie Shaw might have ticked up a bit in man coverage, but not in the areas I’d most like to see, like run defense. DT Devin Kaesviharn looks about the same, maybe a slight drop in run defense, which (if it continued) might prove disappointing. In round five (after the file, so no direct look at the player yet) we picked up another workout guy, a defensive back who has seemingly no useful skills:  Not quite as much to love here as with WR Bellevue, but we are hoping for the same thing – that his exceptional results in the combine (agility and position drill both at least 1.5 Std dev above the average, and a 40 time among the top tier) belie these crappy scout assessments. If so, he might prove to be a guy better than expected as well. With a late 5th round pick, I feel like looking for breakout candidates more than guys who are sure things to be marginal. We’ll see – little cost to us if he doesn’t pan out. Two more picks in round seven ahead, but we are basically looking intact for training camp ahead. We will no doubt fill up with undrafted rookies, but overall, I think we have the general shape of this team for this year pretty well settled. |
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03-16-2007, 06:56 AM
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#577 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Draft Wrap-up
We are up again with our pick at 7.12, and manage to grab an affinity guy, CB Deion Conzelman.  He’s nothing much to look at, but he did grade out pretty well on the Sol test, and (if we scrounge a bit for something to like) it looks like he has at least **something** in most every relevant skill area, except punt returns. Meh, he’s likely to be a very string affinity, and that’s good enough to make him worth this lousy pick to me. I suppose with that apparent potential at reading defenses and punishing opposing ball carriers, maybe he’s a better fit at safety than at corner – we’ll have a look at that, I guess. At only 184 lbs, might not be an easy move to make. We did work out a new contract for RB Harry Small, so he will come to training camp with us. He has one giant rating – an 81/94 in elusiveness, which isn’t a terrible place to have a good rating, I suppose. His hole rec (23) and power inside (56) don’t make for a heavy-duty inside back, I suppose, but we might get some use from him. He will get a legitimate look – we don’t have great options for the #2 RB job. Also on the contract front, we signed a new extension with CB Herman Padgett, another of the good-enough guys who have been the core of our secondary for the last several seasons. Over the last 4 seasons (61 starts, itself a plus) he has 50 passes defensed and 6 interceptions. My guess is that he’s basically a replacement-caliber player, but he helps us out with chemistry and continuity, and for some reason I just like him. So – we lock him up for six pretty affordable years, where he won’t count more than $3.8m against the cap in any season. In doing so, we wipe out some time bombs that had been at the end of his previous contract, so an advantage here is there is no longer any pivot-point “reneg or cut” season lingering out there. At this point, the players I have with reneg-or-cut seasons down the road are as follows: 2015: QB Harry Ross, RB Albert Lombardo, DE Johnny White, LB Steven Watkins 2016: LB D.J. Dennis, DT Tyrone Winters 2017: LB Daryl Ewart, TE Robert Cooper, LT Horace Kolodzik 2018: CB Lewis Kuehler The guys in the next year or two aren’t serious losses, but all four guys with the bomb in 17-18 are currently key players. Not coincidentally, QB Brent Sedor’s fairly cap-friendly contract stretches through the year 2016, so 2017 is the year we probably have to blow up a good deal of the roster to work out a new deal with him. If there’s a window of opportunity for this team to stay together, then perhaps we are set up for it to last for three more seasons, through 2016. I’m not sure that will truly be the case, aging and injuries might dictate otherwise, but at least in obvious terms, we’re in okay shape through ’16. |
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03-19-2007, 09:02 AM
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#578 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Offseason Update
Draft is completed, and we are heading toward the late free agency stages. After having a look at CB Deion Conzelman (rated 9/19 at RCB by our scout) we decide to slide him over to free safety, and we’ll have a look there. He’s a strong affinity guy, so he probably has a real shot to make the team for us this season, unless we get a few pleasant surprises from the after-draft class. Speaking of post-draft rookies, we will probably take a look at a few rookie fullbacks, in hopes of finding someone who might be worthy of spelling Charles Emerson. I had my eye on a guy in the draft, but he went in round five between our picks. I have made a trade inquiry, but don’t expect to hear back from the team who drafted him until it’s presumably too late to work anything out. (Doing a deal before the picks were actually entered would have been ideal, really) Meanwhile, DE Dwight Reynolds is rated 24/63 by our scout after the switch to DE. So, he didn’t suffer any apparent loss in that move (after the debacle with DE Rex Pint last year, that was something of a worry). So, our main goal is to see him remain at least close to that level after training camp. I don’t think this guy has any potential as a creeper – for him, my hopes are principally that he will turn out to be nearly as good as advertised. We have to hope for creepers with plenty of our other picks, but not for him. |
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03-21-2007, 10:12 AM
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#579 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Late Free Agency
As the late free agency process unfolds, we have predictably picked up a few new faces for a look in training camp. Probably the most intriguing among them is newly-minted WR Irving George. George came aboard as a running back, but I like his skills in the passing game better, and we decided to give him a look at the flanker spot. Anyway – after getting some reps as a true wideout, our scouts peg him as a pretty worthy prospect. Right now, before training camp, George is tagged as 20/54, and his highest rated skills are in the “top four” areas – the primary focus for receiver skills on most teams. He might not be a perfect fit for the Chesapeake offense (his “big play receiving” is not a strong suit) but he does look like he has the potential to be pretty productive. Along with rookie draftee Nolan Bellevue (scout rated 12/16, but combines suggesting potential for growth there) we now might be looking at keeping seven wide receivers this year. Wasn’t really my plan, to be candid. But I have a general sense that we might have some flexibility with the last couple roster slots for this year. In addition, we have brought aboard a few more guys, and are still fishing for a few more. LT Will Mason will get a look at OL, and Trevor Hancock is a coverage-focused linebacker who might have some small shot to eke out a roster spot there, or perhaps even at strong safety. No doubt there will be a few more, but I suspect that at most we’ll see two of these undrafted rookies actually stick. I don’t see anyone out there right now who looks good enough to force a cut of a productive veteran. |
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03-23-2007, 07:39 AM
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#580 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Training Camp Today
So, today the league goes through its first 2007 training camp, where we will all get a new look at our players, young and old. We have something like ten post-draft rookies hanging around (detailed earlier) and six draft picks of consequence, so we have a fair number of guys looking for roster spots. My best guess is that cutting down to about 56 will be pretty easy, but past that will be a bit tough. The possibility that we have big erosion from a couple old linebackers remains, and that we end up rebuilding our team chemistry setup at that position around D.J. Dennis. Dennis himself is bulking up in this offseason, in hopes of a move to the WLB slot where we might be able to use his pass rushing skills more effectively. Regardless – it’s a really big day for the league, and for the C-Dogs. |
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03-24-2007, 10:45 AM
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#581 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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After-Camp Fallout
Well, through training camp, we had the expected dropoff from many of our veterans, and a little bit more. I am not surprised that guys like LB Steven Watkins and Travis Kuykendall both had big drops – they fit the profile, both having seen only spot duty last year. Actually, the fact that Watkins even made it to this season was a surprise in itself. Anyway, one other things got cleared up in training camp – not surprisingly, RB Albert Lombardo doesn’t really have enough left in the tank to claim our #2 role, and unless he’s a clear #2, he’s not of value to us, I don’t believe. So, he’s getting released, and we will look to a trio of young backs to carry the various reserve roles. Ross Rosenfels also took a dip in ratings, as expected, but he is still pretty comfortably our best option. So, I expect to carry Sam Cook, Harry Small, and rookie Henry Yarlagadda into camp – hoping for one of them to break through into the #2 job, but okay if they all have to rotate a bit. My best guess is that these three guys, once their various creeping is done, are roughly the same player in overall talent – they just have different mixes of skills. One bit of relatively good news is that rookie LB Richie Shaw, picked at the end of round three, looks like he’s good enough to become our weak-side starter for this season. I’d probably prefer a more thorough run-stoper, but the decline of my older guys (including Preston Gibbons, who had been our starter at WLB most of last year) basically frees up this role for him, and I expect he can do fine there. He will likely be the least talented player in our starting lineup overall, but he has solid secondary skills – he’s pretty good in coverage, and we hope he has some room to develop further. Training camp gave him a nice bump upwards, so we certainly hope there’s more to come with him. Getting down to 53 was not that tough for us, but looking ahead, I anticipate that we are going to have a few tough decisions with the cutdown to 53. One complicating factor is that I either made a mistake with my chemistry calculations, or else there was a subtle shift during camp – but to turn over the leadership role on our defensive front to LB D.J. Dennis, we’d have to clear out three players (not two) including DE James White. White is a pretty good run defender, and I have every intention of using him in a DT slot this season – so releasing or trading him would be a tougher decision. That complicates things a bit more than they had been, as Watkins and Kuykendall both look a lot easier to let go following rough training camps. White is a tougher call, on that front. I might see if we can get something in exchange for Johnny White in the usually sleepy league trade market, but assuming that doesn’t work out, I expect we will keep him and Steven Watkins both, and probably Kuykendall will be the only veteran release from that trio. Situation unresolved there. |
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03-25-2007, 08:27 AM
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#582 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Minor Trade, Major Implications
Well, after a couple of targeted efforts, we did indeed get the trade we sought for DE Johnny White, and we ship him off to Charleston for their 4th rounder next year. The deal in itself isn’t a major shakeup for us, but it does one thing – it clears the way for a chemistry overhaul along the defensive front. This basically means that we are going to release two veteran linebackers (Watkins and Kuykendall) – and by consequence, it basically means that a couple more young players are going to stick with us this year. It probably means that we will carry four running backs, including all three of the young guys we have been looking at. We will also likely carry seven wide receivers this season, including two rookies. No real problem with either one of those – but there will be a bit of pressure on the remaining players along the defensive front. LB Richie Shaw is now slotted as our starter at the weak side, and we’ll keep old timer Preston Gibbons in the mix as a useful reserve. MLB Lorenzo McDowell, a 6th round pick last year, will also probably get some playing time this season, and get a chance to develop a bit into a useful contributor. Finally, this probably also means that veteran D.J. Dennis will actually step into a contributing role for this season, likely as a reserve OLB, though I’m unlikely to actually make the formal position switch, as the scout says it doesn’t look too promising. So… getting a 4th round pick for White isn’t a major development. The ramifications across the roster are potentially pretty meaningful, though. |
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03-26-2007, 01:14 PM
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#583 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Preseason Pretend Games
Box Scores: Week 2: Chesapeake 31, Toronto 0 Week 3: Chesapeake 34, Shreveport 7 We get through our first two games --- nothing too much to report, but the roster pare-down is underway. I am starting to contemplate chemistry issues more seriously than I had previously, and I think we’re going to be able to get things worked out okay here in Chesapeake. Our final cut-down to 53 is going to be a challenge, but things are taking shape. I can see, for certain, that we have to make a change along the defensive front – but I think Travis Kuykendall might make this team after all. I am looking through the series of afterthought free agent rookies, and if we clear out a guy or two, this could be fairly straightforward. I think TE Leland Odle and RT Will Mason are both going to be fairly easy cuts, and I had been contemplating keeping one or both of them, until I started thinking more seriously. Now, I think I have some clearer thinking about who can be cleared out, and who will have to stay, and where I want us to be when we get to our final 53. As I’m figuring things, it looks like the cutting will be pretty easy down to 55, and we’ll have two difficult moves to make from there. I am thinking that one of the “three amigos” at backup RB will have to go, and that we’ll probably peel off one defensive back from our current stable of 11 guys. The regular season is just around the bend, and we’ll be interested how things come together between now and then. |
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03-27-2007, 08:41 AM
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#584 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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The Last Original Chili Dog
Well, it looks like the time has come. With a couple of retirements, we were left this year with only one player remaining from the original distribution draft – LB Steven Watkins. He was our starting MLB for a number of years, and has since moved into a supporting and leadership role with the club. I was a bit surprised to see him stay on for this season, and by now, loyal readers have figured out the writing is on the wall for him. We are moving in a new direction for our defensive front’s affinity structure, and Watkins will not be on this team to start the new season. We have posted a trade block, and I wouldn’t be shocked if someone picks him up as a mentor and leader – he’s not a complete waste of an active roster slot. But we have to clear room for our new and improved leadership regime along the defensive front, and he just doesn’t work out for us in that respect. So, we will wish him well, we’ll hold a seat for him on our coaching staff when he is officially done as a player, but Steven Watkins has played his last as a Chili Dog. On the team leader board – here’s a quick summary: 102 games started (4th) 622 tackles (2nd) 18 sacks, 35 passes defensed, 14 interceptions Fare well, Swat. Your spot in the Ring of Fame is assured. |
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03-27-2007, 11:23 AM
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#585 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Meaningful Roster Moves
Following my trade block post, Jupiter steps up and quickly sends us our requested 6th round pick for Steven Watkins, and he’s gone as of today’s export. I’ve covered my regret over his departure, but I’m glad we could get something for him. In today’s intermediate preseason stage, we make two veteran acquisitions, both of whom ought to really help our immediate team chemistry situation: LT Marco Conley is a 10th year veteran, a mentor at the tackle position, and is (finally) a guy who can come in and assume the leadership role for our offensive line. With his addition, we move from having zero affinities and one hidden conflict, to having four or five OL affinities, and now a triple-affinity QB (and below-radar affinities with our other two reserve QBs). That’s worth a roster spot, I believe, so we lock him up to a new contract, following his recent release from Mars. DE Christian Brignac is another recent veteran castoff, and another chemistry boon for us. I had been prepared to go with LB D.J. Dennis as our group leader, which would be fine – but Brignac is a stronger leader (personality score of 99) and he will create seven new affinities (including six exceptionally strong ones) for us along the defensive front. Add in the fact that he’s a DE mentor – a benefit for our three other DEs on the roster, all young enough to need mentorship, and this is a complete no-brainer acquisition. With that, here’s a look at our revised “Attitude Advisory” screen – the Chesapeake Chili Dogs have prided ourselves on being a very strong chemistry team for the last several seasons, and suddenly we seem to have recaptured our position there, despite some hiccups along the way. I honestly had thought that the OL was unsalvageable, but my calculation for Conley was incorrect, and he does indeed take the leadership helm here – so that’s just gravy. Code:
We are very pleased with that setup, and have a chance to see three of our rookie selections from this draft come aboard and immediately make a good chemistry contribution, if nothing else. |
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03-29-2007, 12:18 PM
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#586 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Preseason Wraps Up
So, we play out our final two games of the 2014 preseason: Chesapeake 23, Jupiter 3 Chesapeake 33, New Jersey 7 I realize the appropriate amount of weight to land to such things, but we basically couldn’t have looked much better this preseason, really. Tomorrow is the final cutdown day, and we’ll have a few decisions to make on that front. Most of our after-draft rookie signees are going to be released – my best guess is that only RB Henry Yarlagadda, WR Irving George and P Scottie Holmes will survive the purge. And we probably need to release one of our two veteran reserves at LB, but in my mind, it’s pretty much a dead heat between Travis Kuykendall and Preston Gibbons on who stays and who goes. If my calculations are correct, we could keep both of those elder statesmen at LB if we released one of our three young running backs, but I am having a terrible time making up my mind on who among them would be the guy to release. I suspect none have a super-bright future, but each one intrigues me just enough to make me want him around. |
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03-29-2007, 02:11 PM
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#587 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Cut Down Day
Our final decisions really aren’t terribly tough – we end up keeping seven receivers and all four running backs, making those positions a bit crowded. We’re thin at linebacker, candidly, after releasing Preston Gibbons – pushing rookie Richie Shaw into a starting job (well, he already had that) and a guy like 2nd year reserve Lorenzo McDowell onto the field a good deal for this year. Both of our rookie DBs made the team, too – Deion Conzelman will start out inactive, but CB Seth Turner will probably see a little time on the field this year. So – we’re cut down, and we will have a look through the FA dregs, but basically I think we are in place for this season. It looks like we have shaken the rust off of everyone important, and will be looking to start off strong in Dodge City in our opener. |
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03-31-2007, 02:34 PM
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#588 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Roster Notes for the Season
So, as we prepare for opening day on Monday, a couple notes on how we plan to use a few guys: The defensive end position has been speculative all along, and nothing has really changed too much. Kerry Meadows locked up his starting job with a mini-breakout in training camp, and he will see rookie Dwight Reynolds on the other side from him, with Skip Clayton providing reserve duty behind both guys. With the meaningful drop-off in talent here, we really aren’t optimistic that we can generate much pass rush with just our front four, so we will be blitzing more than in the last couple of years. I don’t think Chesapeake is likely to be among the better pass-rushing teams in the league, but our hopes are just that we remain credible in that respect. At wide receiver, I think that we will see George Ellis still listed as the nominal starter at the split end position, but we are going to find ways to put Kent Fields on the field along with anchor starter Burt Pearson. All three guys ought to be seeing plenty of field time, but I am hoping to get Fields roughly as many targets this year as Ellis gets – last year it was 80/54 in favor of Fields, despite Ellis having a pretty shaky “route running” rating. I have rookie Nolan Bellevue slotted as the backup split end, but I don’t foresee him getting a lot of on-field time right away, and even if he does, it’s hard to see him becoming a featured target player right away. So, both positions will be interesting to watch as the season gets underway, but the real focus will be on the bigger picture. We’re at Dodge City for week one, and will need to put our best foot forward to again best our (hated) division rivals. |
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04-02-2007, 08:14 AM
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#589 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Season Opener Today
We are ready for Dodge City, a great place to open our season. They are a perennial playoff threat, gave us all we could handle in the conference title game two seasons ago, and have made some intriguing changes to their team for this year. Dodge City had been a run-first team for a long time, despite having pretty decent talent at QB and, at least lately, receiver. After everything-back Robert Roger finally retired, they managed to pick up a solid free agent RB last year in Rickey Jacob, who stepped into that feature back role quite nicely. This offseason, following Jacob’s one year contract, however – the Vigilantes inexplicably decided against franchise tagging him, and let him walk away for a new contract across the conference divide in Charleston. That, coupled with their acquisition of star receiver Isaac Mansour make things clear – the Vigs are planning to go the air this year. So, we need to treat them a little differently than in past years, where our main focus was stopping things up front. This season, at RB they will apparently be featuring rookie Stephen Baxter, who is a change of pace for them – seemingly more of a “speed” guy than his predecessors were –- Baxter’s top ratings by my scout are in breakaway speed and speed to outside. So, we’ll have to wwtahc on all fronts, but I don’t expect to seem them try to pound the ball 35 times up the gut at us, which was essentially what I booked a few years ago when we faced Robert Roger and company. Overall, this is a solid team – they are tied for 3rd in the “roster ratings” and therefore in the original “power ratings” for the league – meaning that on balance, they figure to be right in the thick of things. We have a nice winning streak against Dodge City going, incidentally – but the games have been close. Indeed, in the last four seasons, we are 9-0 against them, but by a total of 27 points, only a couple of 4-point games in there. Our active win streak against the Vigs goes back to the finale in 2009, though, when the beat us in our last game and dumped us out of the playoffs in the process. We have a long history of tough games with them – but our hopes here are to re-create the feat by the Miami Dolphins, where they forced Buffalo to go 0-for-the-1970s against their division rivals. So far, we’re 9-0 against Dodge City in this decade (I don’t know what exactly we call the 2010-2019 decade) and we’d like to keep that artificially-defined mark intact today, for any number of reasons. We are favored by 5 on the road here, largely off the momentum from our playoff run last season and a slight down year from the Vigs last week, but this is not one we are taking to the bank, exactly. |
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04-02-2007, 12:34 PM
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#590 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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sorry... i'm trying to work on formatting, but "progress" has rendered the old-style simple text completely impossible, so I'm doing my best...
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04-02-2007, 12:44 PM
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#591 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Week 1: Chesapeake at Dodge City
Our hopes are that we can come out from a strong-looking preseason, step right into mid-season form, and put together a serious offensive display here. I don’t really know about the state of our defense overall, but on paper our offense ought to be better than last year, with 9 starters and most key contributors still in place from the record-setting group of the last couple of seasons. I don’t know if our running game is going to be as productive as it was with Craps Copley, but he wasn’t such a rare talent, and Ross Rosenfels ought to handle the main duties fine. We’re hoping to really click and hang a serious one on the road at a good team, to send a message that we aren’t quite done yet. On we go… Week 1, 2014 played in Dodge City, NM 69 degrees, fair, 2 mph wind
Box Score Link Well. What an opener. Wide open track meet. We manage to win this one, but I’m not sure there’s much to be thrilled about – well, I guess the Dodge City offense could prove to be an unstoppable juggernaut all year, and this game won’t be an exception. But we’ll take the win. Incidentally, lost amidst the score-fest is a pretty nice game in his debut from rookie LB Richie Shaw – he made an interception to stop the first DGC drive, and another big tackle on their next – so after they opened up with two long drives on us, we were able to actually take the 7-3 lead before the end of the first quarter. A few big runs from Ross Rosenfels certainly helped the cause – this split of run/pass wasn’t precisely what I had in mind for a close game, but once again – we will tuck away the W and try to go from here. Clean slate of health for everyone – we’ll keep an eye out for tired players. |
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04-02-2007, 01:32 PM
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#592 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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7,767 looks as of this post. Pretty quiet around here through this offseason... maybe games and box scores will liven things up again.
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04-02-2007, 03:22 PM
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#593 |
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n00b
Join Date: Feb 2007
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I'm following. This is a pretty amazing franchise. I love the presentation. Go Sedor and the Dawgs!
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04-02-2007, 05:09 PM
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#594 | |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Quote:
Yeah, I make sure to check this out every day as well. I've taken to following the league as well. Keep up the great work!
__________________
MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo |
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04-04-2007, 01:08 PM
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#595 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Week 2: Toronto (1-0) at Chesapeake (1-0)
We come home, and will hope to hit a stride this week – sure, hanging 41 on the road in the opener was good, but we have to be very worried about the way our pass defense got shredded by Dodge City. We’ll hope to clamp down a bit better this week, and will be aided by a dinged-up QB on that side of the ball. I don’t know what to make of the CHE running game last week – Ross Rosenfels went for an eye-popping 156 yards last week, despite only seeing 14 carries. I don’t envision this team being a power rushing team, but I do think that with Sedor and company powering a pretty intimidating pass attack, we could see defenses backing up and giving us the underneath stuff, including some openings for Rosenfels. This week, we are expecting more of the same, and will send out Rosenfels and Harry Small (solid 9-39 with a TD last week) out there to handle the running duties. On offense, we would like to see some better returns from our complementary receivers. Pearson was fine in the opener, but both Ellis and Fields were disappointing, each guy catching only 2 of 7 passes thrown his way. As I work to get both of those guys playing time, I’d much prefer to see those plays be more productive than that. We expect to see both guys in the mix to get their stride this week. On defense, I really don’t see what adjustments to make, overall. Our DBs managed to bat away 8 passes last week, so it’s not like they were playing like a sieve. I’ll tally things up to good play by the Vigs, and we will hope to see our play improve as we come home and play perhaps a less potent attack this week. The official preview has us favored by 9 in this game – we will be looking for a big win and an improved look from the defense to make the home fans happy here. No craziness in the gameplan this week, just line ‘em up and knock ‘em down. Week 2, 2014 played in Chesapeake, PA 49 degrees, fair, 2 mph wind
Full Box Score online So, we get away with a pretty uninspired first half, give up a freak TD, and are tied at eth break. Then, we show up in the second half and bury them. Okay, not bad. So – we are going to have to look into the tonic that we’re apparently giving our running game. Two games deep, and we’re at a 7 ypc clip as a team. Not gaudy passing stats in either contest, but if we can hang 200+ yards rushing in every game, we’re going to win a lot of them. I am worried that the team does seem to be running in a few situations where I’d probably prefer they pass the ball – so I may need to roll up the sleeves there and see what we can go after. We’re 2-0, we’re healthy, and we’re a game clear in the division already. Good start for the C-Dogs. Now we go on our annual visit to Hell Creek, to face the super secondary that usually gives us fits. Maybe all this up-the-gut stuff will get them to toss eight or nine guys in the box, freeing things up downfield? Didn’t think so. |
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04-06-2007, 01:12 PM
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#596 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Week 3: Chesapeake (2-0) at Hell Creek (0-2)
They are off to a bad start, but Hell Creek is a perennial contender, and not to be taken lightly here. Specifically, they have had the best secondary and pass defense in the league (specific stats aside) for the last several years, led by probably the best cornerback this league has ever seen in Brian Conger. We will go with the same offensive gameplan as we have used the last two weeks, and will hope to once again see some good gains from our straight-ahead running game. I can’t imagine that Ross Rosenfels and company really are as good as they are playing so far, but until someone stops us, we’ll keep with it. Week 3, 2014 played in Hell Creek, MT 56 degrees, fair, 13 mph wind
http://www.thefofl.com/fofl/box2014070704.html]Online Box Score[/url] So, one more in the book, and while it’s a little different look than we had in the first two weeks, once again, we’ll take it. The first observation is – and stop me if you’ve heard this before – we did not come right out and establish ourselves quickly in this game, the scoring summary notwithstanding. Indeed, look at how their first drive ended – (I would advise that any Hell Creek fans look the other way, as this is definitely not pretty): - - - Hell Creek: Weak formation with three wide receivers, strength is left. The defense is in a 43 and 2-deep bump-and-run coverage, expecting the pass. Kuykendall, McKenzie and Shaw are blitzing. 3-1-CHE47 (1Q: 11:11) Lamar Lluellyn ran around right end for 2 yards. Tackled by DE Kerry Meadows. Key block delivered by Eddie Hill. PENALTY: Hell Creek was called for Offensive Holding. Hell Creek: Single-Back formation with four receivers, strength is right. The defense is in a 43 with nickel personnel and 4-deep zone coverage, expecting the pass. McDowell is blitzing. 3-11-HLC43 (1Q: 11:02) Skip Peterson pass completed to WR Todd Rausch for 18 yards. Tackled by CB Lewis Kuehler. The quarterback threw away from the double coverage. PENALTY: Hell Creek was called for Offensive Holding. Hell Creek: Pro formation, strength is right. The defense is in a 43 and 3-deep zone coverage, expecting the pass. McKenzie is blitzing. 3-21-HLC33 (1Q: 10:56) Skip Peterson pass was intended for WR Todd Rausch and was intercepted by S Brett Vesser at the CHE48. The interception was returned 42 yards. Tackled by Todd Rausch. The quarterback threw away from the double coverage. - - - So… it seems like that sequence had the look of the ’72 Olympics basketball game, where our guys just kept getting chance after chance to finally get it right, which we ultimately did. And we then capitalized with a mighty 10-yard drive, but we were outgained in total on the first half, even though we got out to a pretty good lead. Anyway – big picture, I am still not really thrilled with this effort. 295 yards of total offense isn’t awful to concede, but if they had gotten breaks going their way instead of ours early on, they could have easily been ahead 14-0 by the end of the first quarter (their second possession resulted in an interception in our end zone as they were again threatening). The final score is just fine, but we didn’t deserve a 24 point margin here. I did try a new defensive tactic this week, sending a lot of blitzes at them, including a lot of two-man blitzes, something this team hasn’t done in a pretty long time. Not sure if it worked particularly well – we posted 2 sacks, 4 hurries, and 2 blocks, which isn’t an exceptional performance. We yielded under 5 yards per pass play, so that was good, I suppose (though they did great for a while, until we got the game under control later on). WR Burt Pearson was a workhorse today – Sedor went to him on 16 of his 30 pass attempts. He ended up with a pretty good stat line, 8-171 and a TD, but his three drops probably cost us a few chances, too. Water under the bridge in a big win, I suppose. Our backup RB Harry Small, inexplicably, had his number called a lot today – and he really delivered. While Rosenfels was struggling (12-36), Small was tremendous – his 22-131, 1TD effort was a real engine for us to get on track, and he looked sensational. All my offseason talk about having “nobody” behind Rosenfels might have been premature – there are at least some signs that this guy might be good enough to really play for us. More tweaking ahead… I am still recoiling at a few playcalling decisions here and there, and can’t help but look at what I might be able to do to better things. But it’s tough to complain overall. Our biggest challenge will probably be at LB this coming week, as Daryl Ewart is out for 3 weeks with a bum knee, and we really don’t have much depth behind him. I guess Travis Kuykendall stands to be our starter there, but that’s not the most encouraging situation, to be completely candid. |
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04-09-2007, 07:21 AM
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#597 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Week 4: Bye Week Musings
We get our bye week early this year, which is a mild disappointment – we have been clicking fairly well, and are mostly in good health, so we don’t really need it right about now. Anyway, I will take a moment to evaluate a few things around the league. Conference Seeding Watch Obviously it’s too early to have a clear sense, but still – our main focus of the regular season, unless the wheels fall off the wagon here in Chesapeake, will be to slot things for the playoffs. How do things shape up? Code:
The first things that jumps out is that Hell Creek is in serious trouble – they have been a playoff force year after year in this league, and while they still have a pretty formidable roster, an 0-3 start puts them at a grave disadvantage. So, among the teams off to good starts – who is right in the thick of things? Ayr – 3-0 to start this year, but has never had a winning season. Have they put it all together? Does this team just fit the FOF 2007 mold better than the FOF 2004? Maybe a little of both. They are running very effectively – they are #1 in the league with 211 yards a game on the ground – and I think that style of play just clicks better in the newer game than it did before. Plus, their defense is playing very well in the early going. So – a different style of play, but if they can keep up the ground game at a nice clip (team is over 5 yards per carry so far) that can make everything work well for them. State College – They are succeeding so far (3-0) behind pinpoint passing from Benjamin Fuller, the longtime Portland signal caller. Fuller is completing 67% of this passes, and has yet to throw a pick. They have been playing fairly well in other respects, and look like a team ready to follow a “bend but don’t break” philosophy and win by making fewer mistakes than their opponents. Mercury – Also off to a 3-0 start, Mercury is probably even better than their fairly unimpressive stat line would indicate. They are a pass-first offense, and so far are –2 in the turnover ratio – meaning they are overcoming their mistakes to still win games, not a bad sign. QB Ted McKenzie is the key, no surprise, and he’s not the one with the loose grip – so expect them to be among the more effective offenses down the stretch and a factor in the standings through the season. We’ll welcome them to Chesapeake in a few weeks for a big conference game. Washington is 2-1, but they have been torching defenses with their firepower, and I think their defense is settling down after a rough start. As I have mentioned, they are on a trajectory to peak in these next few years, so we expect them to be tough behind QB Terrell Crittenden and his cast of characters – they built around a core similar to ours, only with a star-caliber RB in Randy Locher that we just cannot match. So far, their 35 points per game is strong, and I expect them to be right in the hunt as the season goes on. In our division, things are shaken up a bit. Dodge City figured to be a major contender this year, but following a hard-fought loss to our Chili Digs in the opener, they dropped two uninspired-looking games, and have made a couple trades suggesting they are now looking more toward the future. Portland sits at 2-1, and look like contenders as usual, and South Carolina have enough offense to remain a threat for the distance. It will not be easy to put away the division race, as usual, and I suspect we’ll see at least one wild card come from our group, as is the case every year. I think Chesapeake matches up well with each of the division rivals, but one poorly-timed loss and we’re back to the pack there. Pass Rush Update With the pass rush being a major concern for us this year, let’s have a look at things through three games. Small sample, but we have time to reflect during the bye: Code:
So far, I have to be pretty comfortable with the production from our top three outside rushers – Meadows, Reynolds, and Clayton. Nobody with a lot of individual sack totals, but we are getting hurries and blocked passes, all of which add up. It does seem that our efforts to send the linebackers on more blitzes hasn’t directly led to much pressure from those guys (especially rookie Richie Shaw) but perhaps the blitzes have enabled the defensive ends to be more effective. We’ll keep an eye on these stats as we go on… the other thing that worries me a bit here is that we’re seeing more playing time for rookie Devin Kaesviharn (slotted as the backup to DT Bryan Lents) than for our nominal starter Dwight Armagost – I suspect that having Lents slotted as the guy in our various 3-DL setups is pushing his backup into those situations instead of the other nominal DT starter. I might tweak the depth charts a bit, as I think Armagost is really the more productive player right now. |
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04-09-2007, 12:07 PM
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#598 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Week 4 Update
Well, after profiling the main contenders in the conference during my earlier discussion, it seemed worth posting the results of this week’s games and how the conference hunt has been altered. Hint: it has, a lot. Code:
So, all three previously undefeated teams in action this week got toppled – might have been a good week for us to be sitting out after all. In the big thriller, Washington put away State College when they held off on a late 2-point conversion that would have tied the game, and pulled even in the division race there. And now, Coney Island and Portland need to be in the seeding picture as well, with wins pushing each of them to 3-1 on the year. Good news on balance for the Chili Dogs, as we are now the only team in the conference without a loss. We could still hit a rough patch, but it’s nice to already have that “inside track” to follow. |
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04-11-2007, 11:43 AM
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#599 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Week 5: Myrtle Beach (1-3) at Chesapeake (3-0)
We’re back home, and ready for another big effort. Despite the pretty good start, I have reworked the offensive gameplan pretty thoroughly, after the disheartening revelations that the gameplanning setup doesn’t actually do what it says it does. Hopefully, in time, that will lead to my gameplans yielding more direction in line with what I want, but I am very frustrated by the whole thing at the moment. Maybe at some point I will successfully “crack” the stupid implementation, and come up with a way to get what I want. We are heavy favorites at home this week, and hopefully we’ll click and maintain our recent momentum. Week 5, 2014 played in Chesapeake, PA 54 degrees, rain, 8 mph wind
Box Score Link Okay then. Can’t really complain with the offensive showing – but underneath it, I have to be a bit worried about our defense. 5 yards a rush and almost 9 yards a pass is not what we’re looking for here – turnovers made this game lopsided, not our really dominating them all day long, as it might appear. Sedor threw a lot of long passes this week – more than I really expected, so I may need to have a look at the new gameplan there. But Burt Pearson isn’t complaining – with a career-high 246 yards this week, he remains among the league leaders in receiving. And we’re a game behind most teams, natch. So that’s good. We’ll break down stats and such a little more tomorrow, I hope – but for now, 4-0 is solid, and the offense at least has gotten awfully dependable. We didn’t break down any doors with the running game this week, but were still over 5 yards a carry there. |
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04-13-2007, 11:23 AM
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#600 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Week 5: Chesapeake (4-0) at Portland (4-1)
Pretty clearly, this is the big early-season showdown in our division. With both Dodge City and South Carolina off to stumbling starts, it looks like Portland shapes up as our biggest threat. We will try to post a good road win here, and take command in the division – first things first, shame on us for already talking about conference standings and playoff seedings while there is work to do right here at home. Week 6, 2014 played in Portland, OR 44 degrees, fair, 6 mph wind
Box Score Link Okay, so, it looks like we need to cool off a bit, and worry about the division after all. Honestly, this was a terribly difficult game to watch in Solevision, as time after time I felt like the playcalling was being done by dartboard, rather than gameplan. But hats off to Portland, they made few mistakes in the game, while we melted down in our efforts to get back into it. And now the division looks like it will be an interesting race. We also had a solid body count from this game – with LG Gus Schmit out for at least a week or two, and two cornerbacks sidelined. Without Kuehler and Daniels, we are going to have a pretty shaky secondary lineup for the immediate future, and Kuehler’s injury might be a really serious one. Wonderful. More not-so-good news… the “revised” picture of OG Marvin Brandon is here, and he looks like a pile of shit after his injury last season. Not a surprise – we weren’t expecting anything from him, but it’s been confirmed. Shame. Past that – we just need to try to get our act together again, and get back to what works for us. I’m not sure what that is – it seems that ever since the recent “revelation” about how the gameplan screen calculates things, I have even less control than I felt like I did when I (among many others) was completely wrong about it. So, what to do? |
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