Milkman41's Tampa Bucs Dynasty (HC 09)

[milkman41]

Week 2 Against the Falcons

Final Score: Bucs 23 - Falcons 17.

The Falcons won the toss and elected to receive. My defense did decently on this drive, as they got most of their yards on a 16-yard run by RB Darren McFadden (first play of the game, gah) and a facemask penalty. The Falcons ended up kicking a field goal after failing to convert a 3rd and 11. 3 – 0 Falcons.
I got the ball back, and we put together a decent drive that sputtered, near the red zone. Twice during this drive my RB turned around and ran backwards, very frustrating, I may have to change my sliders. I had to settle for a field goal. 3 – 3.
Another decent defensive performance on the Falcons’ next drive, they racked up a few yards but I finally managed to stop them on 3rd down. The D was again stout against the run, but is weak against the pass. I get the ball back, and proceed to march downfield, mixing some good passes with decent runs. Josh Johnson in particular is running well, bursting out of the pocket on several pass plays to pick up 10+ yards. I get to 4th and 3, decide to go for it…and fail.
The Falcons get the ball back on the 3, and I decide to call and aggressive blitz. They hand it off to McFadden for an outside run right, but MLB Barrett Ruud comes out of nowhere to hit him hard at the goaline, forcing a fumble that LE Gaines Adams recovers in the end zone. And just like that, its 10 – 3 Bucs.
The Falcons began to march downfield with their unstoppable 2-minute offense, and managed to get a 3rd and 7 at about the 20. Garcia dropped back, passed it right, and SS Chris Horton jumps in front of the defender, and then its off the races as he returns the INT 89 yards for the touchdown. 17 – 3 Bucs.
On the 2nd pass of the next drive, Garcia tries to throw the ball across the middle, and Horton again comes up with an INT, and I managed to kick advance to around the 20 and kick a field goal as time expires. 20 – 3 Bucs going into the half.

I get the ball, but the drive goes nowhere and I’m forced to punt. The Falcons get the ball and start to march upfield, passing fairly effectively but going nowhere on the ground. On 3rd and 12 from around the 20, Garcia again tries to pass right, and, for the third time this game, Chris Horton comes up with the INT! I managed to get to the 50, but Josh Johnson was sacked on 3rd and 4, and so I had to punt.
The Falcons got the ball back, still couldn’t run, but managed to score a TD on a 38-yard pass from Jeff Garcia to Roddy White. 20 – 10 Bucs.
I got the ball back, couldn’t do anything with it, and had to punt it, and so the Falcons started with the ball at their own 1. And proceed to march 99 yards for a touchdown. This is effing ridiculous, not only is Jeff Garcia shredding my Tampa 2, but my D-Line can’t get any pressure, and it’s not because their good enough; I’ve got two stud DEs in Calais Campbell (87 OVR) and Gaines Adams (92 OVR) and decent DTs in Mike Patterson (79 OVR) and Chris Hovan (77 OVR). On every play at least one of them gets knocked to the ground by the Falcons’ O-Line, which is frankly not that good. Extremely frustrating. 20 – 17 Bucs.
I get the ball back and put together a solid drive to eat up the last 3 minutes of the game, including a few nice 3rd and long conversions and nice runs by Josh Johnson. With 1 second left, I kick a field goal. Final score: 23 – 17 Bucs.

I’m pleased that we got the win, but I felt like this was a bit of a sloppy game. The running game apart from Aveion Cason (33 yards on 13 carries) was strong, and was highlighted by Josh Johnson’s 80 yards on only 11 carries. Johnson did decently passing as well, going 9 – 14 for 91 yards and an 82.7 rating. I still need to involve more receivers, as only TEs Alex Smith and Bo Scaife, FB Jacob Hester, and WR Terry Glenn touched the ball. WR Nate Washington had 2 drops and still has not gotten a reception. Defensively, we were strong against the run, limiting HB Darren McFadden to 40 yards on 17 attempts (QB Jeff Gacia added 30 on 4 attempts, :\). However, we once again allowed the QB to pass for big yards, as Garcia managed to get 277 yards and 2 TDs. However, Chris Horton picked him off 3 times, and Barrett Ruud played well, with 11 tackles (3 for loss), 2 deflections, and a key forced fumble. The front four isn’t getting the pressure I need, but I don’t think it’s a personnel problem, rather, I think I need to change my sliders.

[BrnwsBucksFanNC]

Sounds like Horton is on a roll. Even though they were able to move the ball they werent able to capitalize on it. Good job on the win.

I used the Tampa-2 in another chise and I had to same problem...stop the run but got picked apart in the pass...never found a good fix for it until I was able to get all of my d-backs with 90+ zone coverage

[Sanchez_Mareno]

Whats hortons learning like

[milkman41]

Horton's learning is a 73, he's been pretty good for me, he's gotten beat a couple times but he's been mostly solid to great.

I played week 3 against the Bears, and I'll have a detailed recap up once my laptop starts working again.

[milkman41]

My laptop is out of commission for a while, so I don't have a detailed recap on the Bucs - Bears game, but I'll provide a short recap, probably move towards shorter recaps anyways.

Week 3: Bucs 45 - Bears 28

This game, my first with new sliders, was a slugfest, as both teams amassed more than 390 yards of total offense (391 for the Bears, a whopping 549 for the Bucs). The biggest difference came in the running games, as the Bears only had 72 yards on the ground, whereas the Bucs had 223, led by QB Josh Johnson's 131 yards on 11 carries, including a beautiful 63-yard TD run on a QB sneak on 4th and inches, and Aveion Cason's 2 rushing TDs. Cason added 78 yards on 17 attempts, and Johnson went 16 - 27 for 332 yards, 2TD and an INT. The 2 TDs were to WR Terry Glenn, both times for 58 yards, and Glenn finished with 203 yards on 7 receptions.

Defensively, both DEs Gaines Adams and Calais Campbell had a sack, along with 3 TFL for Campbell, SS Chris Horton had a forced fumble that was recoveredby LOLB Ali Highsmith for a TD, and SS/FS Sabby Piscatelli, in for injured starter Tanard Jackson (FS) had an INT. The defense was again stout against the run, but allowed too many passing yards.

Next up is Week 4 against the Packers. FS Tanard Jackson will be back in time to play.

[milkman41]

I just played Week 4 versus the Packers, what a frustrating game, QB Daunte Culpepper was just unstoppable, I need to find a way to shore up my pass D. Anyways, on to the recap:

Week 4: Packers 38 - Bucs 31

The Packers won on a late 80-yard TD pass from QB Daunte Culpepper to WR Donald Driver, on a play where FS Tanard Jackson trying to break up the pass but couldn't, and there was noone behind him to stop Driver from taking it to the house. Very frustrating game, as mentioned above, as Culpepper passed for 309 yards, and HB Ryan Grant added 105 yards on 20 attempts, nearly half of which came on a 50-yard TD run. Otherwise, we stunk defensively. We got no pressure, no INTs, no deflections, nothing. Not a good game for the vaunted Tampa Bay defense...not a proud season, really, we've been giving up a lot of yards through the air.

I was pleased with how we played offensively. The running game was solid, as 4 players had at least 31 yards, led by Earnest Graham's 65 yards on only 3 attempts (he had a 71 yard TD run...and one run in which he went backwards for -9 yards, gah) - QB Josh Johnson had 31 on 6 attempts and a TD, HB Cadillac Williams had 49 on 5 attempts, and Aveion Cason added 63 yards on 14 attempts. I made an effort to be a bit more varied in the passing game, and it showed, as 7 different players caught at least 1 pass, a far cry from earlier games where the passing game was basically limited to WR Terry Glenn and TE Alex Smith. Johnson finished with 144 yards on 11-18 passing, with 1 INT and no TD.

Finally, the special teams played well today. WR Mark Clayton, who became the #1 KR after the deactivation of WR Eddie Drummond, responded well, with 4 returns for 199 yards (avg of 49.7 yards), including a 95-yard TD return.

Up next is a review of the season so far (I'll do one every 4 games or so).

[milkman41]

Season Review: A Quarter of the Way Through

Impressions:

I feel pretty good about how the team has done, especially on offense. Though they haven't learned/mastered half of the plays in the playbook, I still feel like I can go out there and get the job done without being too predictable. I'm thrilled with how the running game has been so far, as RB Aveion Cason has been a very pleasant surprise. QB Josh Johnson is a threat to run every time he drops back, and RBs Cadillac Williams and rookie Marcus Thomas have contributed positively as well. RB Earnest Graham fell out of favor early on, but bounced back this past game, and he'll see increased carries.
I've been pleased with the passing game as well. Johnson hasn't made too many mistakes - he has only 3 INTs, has thrown into coverage 24% of the time, and hasn't thrown into double coverage yet. Though he has sometimes missed the open man underneath, I'm still pleased with how he has done, especially considering that he is a rookie and was drafted more for his running ability than his passing ability. WR Terry Glenn has really stepped, as has TE Alex Smith. My running corps has also chipped in with some key receptions, and I'm pleased with the offense as a whole.

The defense, however, is a different story. Whenever I play against a Cover 2 defense, they're tough to pass on, but fairly easy to run on. With this defense, its the opposite. I've been fairly stout against the run, except for a few longish runs (the longest all season has been Ryan Grant's 50 yard run from last game), but I've been getting shredded through the air by QBs like Daunte Culpepper and Andre Woodson - not exactly the cream of the crop. Hopefully I can start to get a little more pressure and be able to curb this trend.

I might also tweak the sliders some more, although the change to claystone's new sliders has been great - the running game is so much better and more realistic, as is the rest of the game. We'll see.

Season Recap:
Week 1 - Bucs 34 - Saints 29
Week 2 - Bucs 23 - Falcons 17
Week 3 - Bucs 45 - Bears 28
Week 4 - Packers 38 - Bucs 31

Stats:
Passing:
QB Josh Johnson: 51 - 81 (62%), 763 yards, 5 TD, 3 INT, 98.9 QB rating

Rushing:
QB Josh Johnson: 34 attempts, 268 yards (7.8 avg), 2 TD, 0 fumbles
HB Aveion Cason: 59 attempts, 258 yards (4.3 avg), 2 TD, 2 fumbles
HB Cadillac Williams: 18 attempts, 111 yards (6.1 avg), 1 TD, 1 fumble
HB Earnest Graham: 16 attempts, 74 yards (4.6 avg), 1 TD, 0 fumbles
FB Jacob Hester: 9 attempts, 51 yards (5.6 avg), 1 TD, 0 fumbles
HB Marcus Thomas: 6 attempts, 19 yards (3.1 avg), 0 TD, 0 fumbles

Receiving:
TE Alex Smith: 17 receptions, 192 yards, 1 TD, 2 drops
WR Terry Glenn: 14 receptions, 327 yards, 3 TD, 2 drops
FB Jacob Hester: 6 receptions, 68 yards, 0 TD, 1 drop
TE Jacob Tamme: 4 receptions, 45 yards, 1 TD, 0 drops
HB Marcus Thomas: 3 receptions, 44 yards, 0 TD, 0 drops
HB Aveion Cason: 3 receptions, 45 yards, 0 TD, 1 drop
WR Nate Washington: 2 receptions, 32 yards, 0 TD, 3 drops
HB Earnest Graham: 1 reception, 7 yards, 0 TD, 0 drops

Defensive:
MLB Barrett Ruud: 34 Tackles, 8 TFL, 2 deflections, 1 FF
ROLB Derrick Brooks: 20 Tackles, 1 INT, 5 deflections
CB Ronde Barber: 18 Tackles, 1 TFL, 5 deflections
LE Gaines Adams: 17 Tackles, 4 TFL, 3 Sacks, 1 deflection, 1 FR, 1 TD
FS Tanard Jackson: 12 Tackles, 1 deflection
SS Chris Horton: 11 Tackles, 2 TFL, 3 INT, 1 FF, 1 TD
LOLB Cato June: 11 Tackles, 1 TFL
CB Brian Kelly: 11 Tackles, 2 deflections
RE/DT Calais Campbell: 10 Tackles, 4 TFL, 1 Sack
RE Greg White: 6 Tackles
DT Mike Patterson: 4 Tackles, 1 TFL
LOLB Ali Highsmith: 3 Tackles, 1 TFL
CB Patrick Lee: 3 Tackles
MLB Ryan Nece: 3 Tackles
CB Patrick Buchanon: 3 Tackles
DT Chris Hovan: 3 Tackles
SS/FS Sabby Piscitelli: 2 Tackles, 1 INT

Scouting
Since I haven't been getting any pressure from my D-Line, I've been looking at DTs in the draft, since I'm happy with my DEs. I've also looked a bit at offensive tackles, hoping to find a stud RT to form a bookend with LT Sam Baker for years to come, as well as RB. I will also look at WRs, OL in general, more DL, and LB.

Up next will be Week 5 against the Broncos and Jay Cutler...crap.

[Sanchez_Mareno]

You seem to be able to handle running back by commitee well