Most Outrageous NCAA/Madden Stories

[mm boost]

NCAA 11, playing Ohio State in the National Championship with my Virginia Tech Hokies. We had been wrecking house all season heading into the big game, but so had Ohio State, so I knew it would be a slug fest. A slug fest was an understatement.

The game had went back and forth all night, a chess match in which Ohio State had an unbelievably strong offensive attack. Late in the game in the 4th quarter, we were down 9 points with about 3:40ish remaining. We put together a methodical drive to score a touchdown, and crawl within 2 points. Confident that we could find a way to get a stop and kick a fg to win the game, I kicked it deep. This backfired as their returner fielded it at the goal line, jetted straight up the center of the field and went 100 yards untouched to put them back up 9 points. I was so pissed. So with a completely winded offense, I was going to have to head back on the field, attempt to score fast, and then either get a stop or go for the onsides.

With my entire offense winded, we took to the field looking to add a touchdown, to put the game back in striking distance. With everyone winded, back up receivers subbing in, it took 2 fourth down conversions just to get to midfield. With our offense struggling just to get a few yards a pop, the clock wound down on me and I knew I was pretty much destined to lose the game. I had to use a time out to get some of the players some rest and give my self a chance. The clock ticked down under 2 minutes and I knew my only chance was either a quick fg and an onsides kick, or a touchdown and an onsides kick. A big sack on 3rd down knocked us out of fg range with around 1:16 left in the game. To make matters worse, my starting qb got injured and in came my back up quarterback JuJu Clayton. I used another time out to try and figure out my plan of attack especially with a new qb. It was 4th and 23, I was at the 42 yard line and with a freshman kicker. My only hope was a huge pass. So we came out 5 wide, 3 to the wide side on the right, 2 to the left, weak side. On the right, I had a combination of a slant, streak, and out route, and on the left I had a smash route called to my slot. With the receivers fatigued, linemen in the red, and a back up quarterback, I just knew I was doomed. In the slot, I had my star special teams player Greg Arnold, but was 5'6" and about 170. He was known for punt and kick returns, not catching balls over the middle. With this in mind, I went with the play even though I knew I didn't have much of a chance.

At the hike of the ball, I scanned to my right, they had man coverage locked on with no one open. I quickly scan to my left, and notice that Arnold nailed his smash route, forcing the safety to step up, allowing him to slip behind the safety with about 2 steps on him, headed towards the sideline. I unload a bomb down the field, forgetting that I am working with a back-up qb that was never proven and didn't have the accuracy I was used to. Clayton severly under throws the pass, allowing the safety to catch back up to arnold, leaps over top of my receiver, and intercepts the pass at the 5 yard line. Ensue INSTANT cussing and throwing of controller.

In this moment of pissed-off-ness, I looked up at the screen and was left in shock. As the safety caught the pass, instead of just running out of bounds or going down, he turns around and attempts to return the interception. Arnold grabs him by the waist, holding him up, eventhough he wasn't strong enough to take him down. This pushes him back towards the goal line, as one of my large receivers comes flying over and unloads on the safety at the goal line, spearing him into the endzone, resulting in a safety!!!! In some miraculous turn of events, the ball was intercepted virtually ending the game, but my relentless receivers makes up for the bad play, and forces the safety, making it a 7 point game, and giving us another chance at tying the game up and heading into over time.

I picked my controller back up, and as I do, I see that my QB Tyrod Taylor has been cleared from the injury and gives me the option to return to the game. I gladly accept. So we field the punt, make it to around the 30 yard line. On the first play, with some momentum behind us, that same slot receiver greg arnold broke down the seam on a go route, Taylor unloaded an absolute bomb over top of the safety's reach, lands in Arnold's bread basket, and he jets to the endzone to tie the game up!

On the ensuing kickoff, Ohio State fields the ball, attempts to make something happen, but after a big sack, they let the clock melt and we head into over time. Ohio state gets the flip first, and they blast me all the way down to the goal line. A false start doomed them on the next play, and they ran it 3 times in a row trying to protect the ball, and we get lucky and force a fg. As potent as Ohio State's offense had been, I knew that my only chance was to hope for a turnover of some sort, or either go for a td because there was no way I was stopping them.

I get the ball on my possession, and try to be smart about my play calling, not being too risky, and trying to get to the goal line. We do just that. we get down to the 2 yard line, and I knew that we had this in the bag. After a first down run was stuffed, a second down sweep was called to the right. The end blitzed off the edge, hit my running back, forcing a fumble. Luckily tyrod taylor picked the ball up, and ran it back to the 3 yard line. On 3rd down, I called Shot Gun spread, 2 receivers to each side with hb to my right, and on a crossing route, Taylor unloads the pass and it is caught for the touchdown!!!! Wait, no, there's a penalty, holding on the offense. Again, cussing ensues. We are backed up to the 13, 3rd and 13, and I began sweating. I decided to run a similar play call than the one before, but this time, man coverage locked my receivers down, and a nearly intercepted ball fell incomplete, leaving me at 4th and 13. In perhaps the gutsiest, stupidest move that I have ever done in my years of playing this game, i decided to go against tradition and go for the fg to tie the game, forcing another OT. Oh no, I decided that I was going to go for the win. Their offense was killing me. I had so much luck in this game that kept me alive. Why not stick with the hot hand? I can end the game now, and win my first national championship.

So I called a time out to think out my strategy. I remembered on my last 2 play calls, the CPU defense had zero pass rush. They dropped the linebackers back in man coverage, with just a 4 man rush. In what might be called the craziest call in history of gaming, I decided to call and HB Draw. At the line, again, they had the man coverage locked on, and what looked like double coverage on the outside because the safeties slid over. The only person left was the middle linebacker against my HB. At the hike of the ball, I see the LB drop into coverage, Tyrod hands the ball off to my tail back, and he busts through the line into the second level. The LB approaches, I push forward on the truck stick to dip the shoulder, and run completely over top of the linebacker. As I am going forward over the linebacker, one of the safety's converge, running in full speed, laying into the gut of my tail back. My momentum carries me forward, bulldozing over the safety, and dragging us both into the endzone for 6 and to win the national championship by 3! A surprise HB draw goes for 13 on 4th down to win the championship. I couldn't believe that it actually worked!

One of the craziest finishes that I've ever had on any game. I have a few more I may share later, but this one sticks out to me and I will never forget.

[mattrd39]

That is a crazy finish mm. Wow.

[15ccall]

3 Stories (All on Heisman/custom sliders/5 minute games)
1 - In NCAA 12 I had a 35-0 lead over Florida with BYU going into the 4th Quarter as on OC. The first play was a kickoff to them which they returned for a TD on the sim, next play my sim fumbled a kickoff. This crap happened until it was 35-35 before I even touched the ball. It was awful luck but I couldnt help laughing at the same time. I ended up winning in OT.

2 - Being NM, I was playing Rice and was down 41-10 going into the fourth on NCAA 12. I used the cheap hail mary play and ended up winning 73-44.

3 - Using BYU as a HC in 2014, I was in the Rose Bowl vs Oregon State, Michigan was in the Champ., I stole the BIG10's spot. I was down 14-3 with 20 seconds left without the ball. They punted it, and I returned if for a TD, went for 2 and didnt get it, 14-9 with like ten seconds. The onside kick i recovered and promptly scored a 65 yard hail mary to go up with no time left. The extra point however got blocked and taken back somehow, I don't know why I didn't just kneel it. I lost 16-15 in the weirdest way ever.

[DweltElephant0]

So here's a fun little story:

I'm playing NCAA 14 in my Dynasty with Wake Forest (keep in mind that this is on Heisman difficulty, 6:00 quarters). It's my second year at the Demon Deacon head coach, and we're currently sitting at #11 in the polls with a 3-1 (1-0 ACC) record. The game that was next on my slate was at home against Syracuse. Now, I'd yet to lose a game at home, Syracuse was only 1-4 (0-2 ACC), I had the best offense in the nation, the best run defense, and a solid-ish pass defense. So I figure this is going to be a blowout.

I was slightly mistaken.

We put the ball in the endzone first on a pass from my outstanding true freshman QB to my All-American senior WR. Then Syracuse came right back and scored. the game ended up going back and forth for pretty much the entire game. Neither one of us could play any defense what so ever. We get to late in the game, and it's tied at 35-all. There's about 3:00 left, and I'm driving. I get down inside the redzone, then the Cuse brought up a 4th down. The reasonable side of me said "Kick the FG". However, two games prior I had lost to Michigan State because,with a tied game late in the 4th, I'd kicked a field goal, then they scored a touchdown to win. Plus, I could not stop the Orange offense.

So I went against better judgement and went for it. i ended up converting, and in turn scored a touchdown. I wish I could say we held Syracuse and won the game, but I can't.

Syracuse marched right down the field and scored, and I got the ball back with a little more than a minute to go and three timeouts. All I had to do was get the ball into field goal range. I put together a solid drive, but with under :10 to go in the game, I was sacked and knocked out of field goal range. I threw it up to the endzone on the final play of the game, but it was to no avail and the Orange picked it off and forced OT.

Syracuse won the toss and sent their defense onto the field. I knew I had to be careful, as my QB had thrown five INTs already, but three of them were just freak plays by the defense, so I'd left him in. I mvoed the ball carefully, and ended up scoring a touchdown. Then Syracuse took the ball and scored, tying it up at 49.

Second OT: Syracuse comes out and, for the first time all day, stalls on offense. We were able to hold them to a field goal. Now I didn't want to throw pick and blow the game, so I decided to run the ball with my Walker-winning RB. We ended up kicking a field goal.

We came back onto the field for the third overtime, and on a third and long, I threw an INT. I slammed my controller and let out a string of less than appropriate words. I knew I'd blown it. Syracuse came out to run the ball to set up the game-winning field goal, but...wait...they came out in trips wide...and they're throwing the ball! They tried to throw it to the endzone on a streak, and my corner somehow got between the ball and the WR and picked it off. There was some excited screaming involved at this point, and Syracuse retook possession of the ball for OT number 4. They'd end up kicking a field goal, and we would as well. Heading into OT numero 5, it was 55-all. Yeah.

I played conservatively on offense, and ended up scoring on a curl route. Alas, I was unable to convert the 2-pt conversion. Now I had to stop the Cuse from scoring, or converting the 2-pointer, and I'd only stopped them a few times all day. They came out running the ball, and we got it to third and ten. They threw it up...incomplete. Fourth down. One play to decide the game. Syracuse came out in a four-wide shotgun set with a back to the QB's left, and I ran a man coverage play out of the nickel. The ball was snapped. My secondary was able to keep the receivers covered long enough for my All-America defensive end to bust through the O-line and sack the Orange QB, ending the game in a 61-55 quintuple overtime victory for us.

I've played many a game in NCAA 14, but none quite as breathrobbing as that one.

[DeltaTiger]

I had three stories that involved my created team, the Chesapeake State Blue Wave, in NCAA 10.

1) The first story involved my team facing Bowling Green in a conference game. After Bowling Green struck first with an 88 yard touchdown pass to start the game, my team fumbled near their goal line. After they scored off their next drive, my quarterback botched an option pitch, which led to another touchdown by Bowling Green, making the score 20-0 after the missed extra point.

After they scored on a long field goal, I finally got on the board with a field goal of my own to make it 23-3. Unfortunately, they managed to tack on another field goal before the half to make it 26-3 at the half.

After a long return by my running back to start the second half, my quarterback delivered a touchdown pass to his receiver to make the score 26-10. On the next BG drive, my safety picked off a pass from the backup quarterback and took it to the house to make the score 26-17. Following a field goal by BG, my kicker made a tough 44 yard field goal as the 3rd quarter ended to make the score 29-20.

Following another field goal by BG to make it 32-20, my quarterback threw it again to his favorite target for another touchdown to make it 32-27 with under 5 minutes left. Following a pick on the next drive, my quarterback found his man again to take the lead with 2:30 left in the game. After BG drove down the field, they attempted to win the game with a long field goal, only for it to go far right leading to an improbable 33-32 come from behind victory.

2) The second game occurred a couple of weeks later at Ohio. After starting the game by kicking two field goals to lead 6-0, Ohio took the lead after their running back, who ran for 168 yards and 3 touchdowns, ran in from 25 yards. After being forced to punt, my safety forced a fumble after delivering a hard hit to the receiver after catching a pass from the quarterback. One of my cornerbacks then scooped up the ball and ran it back 72 yards to retake the lead 13-7. Before the half, Ohio managed to retake the lead after their quarterback threw a 25 yard pass to one of his receivers to make it 14-13.

After a slow third quarter which saw my team retake the lead after a field goal to make it 16-14, Ohio answered with a field goal of their own in the fourth to make it 17-16. After a failed attempt to go for it on fourth down inside their territory, their running back ran right through my defense, capping it off with a 2 yard run to make the score 24-16 with 1:12 left in the game.

Upon getting the ball back, my team drove down the field. After getting a touchdown called back due to holding, my quarterback connected with another receiver to tie the score up at 24 apiece following a successful two-point conversion with 21 seconds left. After forcing overtime, Ohio decided to go first after I lost the coin toss (why, I will never know). After their running back scored on a 10 yard run, I was able to block the extra point, leaving me a change to win the game.

After a couple of bad plays and an incomplete pass, it was do or die time. With it being 4th and 15 from the thirty, my quarterback connected with the fourth receiver behind the line of scrimmage. After somehow avoiding a potential game-ending tackle, he manages to get into the endzone. After kicking the extra point, I managed to escape with a 31-30 victory. To date, that was the only time that I have ever blocked an extra point or kick.

3) The third game occurred at Temple, with the division title on the line. After taking a 14-0 lead early in the game, Temple scores 21 straight points to take the lead late in the fourth quarter. Down seven with less than 3 minutes in the game, we drove down the field, getting the ball down to their 8 yard line. On 4th and 1, our fullback plowed ahead for two yards to keep the drive going. A few plays later, our halfback scored from the one unopposed with 11 seconds left to tie the game at 21 to force overtime.

In overtime, the Owls made the only mistake of the game for either team. After electing to go first in overtime (despite me losing the coin toss), they manged to get the first down. The very next play, the quarterback attempted an option pitch to his running back. The safety that caused the fumble in the Ohio game stepped in front of the pitch and picked it off before getting tackled by the quarterback. On our possession in overtime, we kept it on the ground, leading to a three yard run by the backup running back to win the game and the division.