Air Force tight end Cade Waguespack makes a diving touchdown catch.
Kadin Remsberg dives into the end zone for one of his three touchdowns.
SHOWING NO LOVE
Air Force contains future first-round pick,
beats Utah State in B-Dawg’s home debut
COLORADO SPRINGS — When you have a mid-major defense, to put it kindly, it can be a scary proposition to face a quarterback who has been tabbed to be the heir apparent to Aaron Rodgers.
An Air Force defense that gave up 38 points to a middling Western Michigan team in the 2018 season opener had to face Utah State quarterback Jordan Love in B-Dawg’s home debut as the Falcons’ coach.
In real life, Love was a first-round draft pick of the Green Bay Packers, a shot across the bow to Mr. Rodgers that his days at Lambeau Field could be numbered.
In the virtual realm, at least for one game, he was surprisingly pedestrian.
Love went 21-for-28 for 208 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in Utah State’s 31-19 loss to Air Force.
Grant Donaldson and Lakota Wills each had an interception for the Falcons, who had five interceptions and three pick-sixes the previous week. B-Dawg, who started this dynasty with default Heisman sliders, lowered the interception sliders for user and CPU from 50 to 25 before the game. With two more interceptions in this game, B-Dawg will lower it to 10 before next week’s game at Boy-Z State.
“To be honest with you, I’d never heard of Jordan Love when I actually played this game,” said B-Dawg, who played the game on Jan. 25, 2019. “Maybe that’s a good thing, because I might have panicked and overcoached my defense if I knew we were facing a future first-round draft pick. He just seemed like another anomymous Mountain West Conference player to us today.”
Love is a sophomore in the 2018 season with ratings of 83 OVR, 77 SPD, 86 THP and 83 THA.
Remsberg gets it done on the ground
B-Dawg has made no secret of his desire to use halfback Kadin Remsberg, he of the 95 SPD, as a mismatch in the passing game.
Against Utah State, Remsberg did some damage in a more traditional sense for a running back.
The speedster caught only one pass for 17 yards, converting a third-and-13 to set up a field goal. He ran 27 times for 101 yards and three touchdowns. The three touchdowns came in succession in the second half after Utah State built a 13-10 halftime lead.
A 3-yard run by Remsberg gave Air Force the lead for good, 17-13, with 3:08 left in the third quarter. After a Donaldson interception gave Air Force the ball at Utah State’s 15-yard line, Remsberg scored on a 4-yard run with 2:14 to go in the third.
He added an 8-yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 31-13 with 6:31 left in the game.
“Those are short touchdown runs, but we were held without a touchdown twice in this game when we had the ball inside the 5-yard line, so we don’t take them for granted,” B-Dawg said. “It looks like it will be hard for us to get someone over 4 or 5 yards a carry regularly, but you have to remember I’ve barely touched this game in three years and made the leap to Heisman.”
Ball control, clock control
One reason for Air Force’s success in containing Love and Co. was not allowing them to have the ball too often.
Air Force had the ball for 23 minutes, 41 seconds, while Utah State had it for only 12:19. Air Force ran 77 plays, while Utah State ran 52.
“If we can play keep-away, we will certainly look like a better defensive team than we really are,” B-Dawg said.
Utah State Aggies at Air Force Falcons
Sept. 8, 2018
1ST
2ND
3RD
4TH
SCORE
Utah State Aggies (0-2)
7
6
0
6
19
Air Force Falcons (2-0)
7
3
14
7
31
Team Stats Comparison
USU
AFA
Total Offense
269
333
Rushing Yards
61
139
Passing Yards
208
194
First Downs
12
20
Punt Return Yards
17
15
Kick Return Yards
152
122
Total Yards
438
470
Turnovers
2
0
3rd Down Conversion
2-11
9-18
4th Down Conversion
3-3
3-3
2-Point Conversion
0-1
0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals
2-2-0
6-3-1
Penalties
2-20
1-10
Possession Time
12:19
23:41
Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER
USU
AFA
6:38
(AFA) Waguespack 37 pass from Hammond (Koehnke kick)
Alexander Mattison of Boy-Z State flexes after scoring on a 97-yard run.
Brett Rypien was 15-for-18 for 291 yards and three touchdowns for Boy-Z State.
SINGING THE BLUES
Air Force not ready for the big stage,
bumbles and stumbles on Smurf Turf
BOY-Z, Idaho — Boy-Z State is the closest thing to a college football powerhouse in the Mountain West Conference, having won a major bowl game and toppled perennial powers over the years.
The Broncos lived up to their billing in B-Dawg’s first trip to the glorious Smurf Turf in this dynasty.
In a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score indicated, Air Force showed it isn’t ready for the big stage in a 59-30 loss to Boy-Z State on the Smurf Turf on Sept. 15, 2018.
The Broncos jumped out to a 31-0 lead before the Falcons knew what hit them. The Falcons didn’t get on the scoreboard until getting a field goal with 48 seconds left in the first half. Boy-Z State had a 45-3 lead before Air Force scored three touchdowns against the Broncos’ backups with its own second string.
The Falcons were completely rattled. They dropped nine passes, with wide receiver Ronald Cleveland dropping four passes while catching only three passes. One drop was on fourth-and-four and another was in the end zone.
“I expect some hands of stone, considering I’m trying to pass with Air Force’s talent,” Air Force coach B-Dawg said. “But there’s no excuse for this. These guys are supposed to be Division I athletes, too.”
It could have been even uglier, as Boy-Z State had 12 deflections, many of which would’ve been interceptions had B-Dawg not lowered the interception slider.
“One of the big selling points for me to come to Air Force was getting a chance to play on the Smurf Turf every other year,” B-Dawg said. “After today, I wouldn’t shed a tear if I never see this awful place again. Yeah, I called it an awful place!”
User controlled
There’s a reason why B-Dawg doesn’t manually control his defenders. That reason was painfully evident on Boy-Z State’s first two touchdowns.
On the first score, Brett Rypien heaved a pass to John Bates down the left side. B-Dawg grabbed free safety Jeremy Fejedelem in an attempt to break up the pass, but his defender completely froze, making it a walk-in 47-yard touchdown pass for Bates.
On Boy-Z State’s next drive, B-Dawg tried to dive with a defender after Khalil Shakir caught a pass. The defender totally whiffed, allowing Shakir to stroll into the end zone with a 61-yard touchdown.
Calling off the hounds
Since the CPU doesn’t mass-sub in blowout games, B-Dawg had to temporarily take over Boy-Z State to get the Broncos’ backups in the game against his backups once the score reached 45-3.
That helped backup running back Nolan Eriksen score a touchdown and backup quarterback Arion Worthman to throw a 41-yard touchdown pass to Geraud Sanders in the final minutes to salvage a bit of pride for the Falcons.
Donald Hammond heaved an 84-yard touchdown pass to speedy running back Kadin Remsberg against Boy-Z State’s backups, but backup running back Robert Mahone scored on a 54-yard run on the first play by the Broncos’ second-string offense.
Mahone had 87 yards on six carries and backup quartereback Chase Cord was 7-for-8 for 79 yards. Rypien was in robo-QB mode as Boy-Z State’s starter, going 15-for-18 for 291 yards and three touchdowns. Alexander Mattison ran 14 times for 165 yards and two touchdowns, one of them being a 97-yard jaunt when an all-out blitz failed.
Air Force Falcons at Boise State Broncos
Sept. 15, 2018
1ST
2ND
3RD
4TH
SCORE
Air Force Falcons (2-1)
0
3
14
13
30
Boise State Broncos (2-1)
17
14
21
7
59
Team Stats Comparison
AFA
BSU
Total Offense
489
640
Rushing Yards
24-41
28-270
Passing Yards
448
370
First Downs
23
19
Punt Return Yards
13
0
Kick Return Yards
253
160
Total Yards
755
800
Turnovers
2
0
3rd Down Conversion
10-17
5-8
4th Down Conversion
1-2
0-0
2-Point Conversion
0-0
0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals
3-2-1
5-4-1
Penalties
0-0
1-5
Possession Time
21:03
14:57
Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER
AFA
BSU
7:14
(BSU) J. Bates 47 pass from B. Rypien (H. Hoggarth kick)
0
7
5:49
(BSU) K. Shakir 61 pass from B. Rypien (H. Hoggarth kick)
0
14
3:33
(BSU) H. Hoggarth 28 field goal
0
17
SECOND QUARTER
AFA
BSU
8:48
(BSU) A. Mattison 97 run (H. Hoggarth kick)
0
24
3:55
(BSU) A. Richardson 2 pass from B. Rypien (H. Hoggarth kick)
0
31
:48
(AFA) J. Koehnke 27 field goal
3
31
THIRD QUARTER
AFA
BSU
7:34
(BSU) A. Mattison 1 run (H. Hoggarth kick)
3
38
4:21
(BSU) B. Rypien 1 run (H. Hoggarth kick)
3
45
3:37
(AFA) K. Remsberg 84 pass from D. Hammond (J. Koehnke kick)
10
45
3:21
(BSU) R. Mahone 54 run (H. Hoggarth kick)
10
52
1:24
(AFA) K. Remsberg 2 run (J. Koehnke kick)
17
52
FOURTH QUARTER
AFA
BSU
8:38
(BSU) C. Cord 9 run (H. Hoggarth kick)
17
59
4:51
(AFA) N. Eriksen 2 run (kick failed)
23
59
1:17
(AFA) G. Sanders 41 pass from A. Worthman (J. Koehnke kick)
You know the drill! Dynasty reporters like myself can be anal about having the first chunk of the report flow smoothly before becoming a mix of interaction and reports.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Miles Perry
Very excited to follow along in this. Welcome back!
Thank you! I'm excited to have people actually read my little obsession.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bailey4mvp
The great one returns. Excited to see you back and running man.
You have given me the itch to return as well.
Good luck with this.
Glad I can help create that itch. I've come over here now and then just lurking and wanting to get back in the game. So, here I am.
Quote:
Originally Posted by djp73
nice to start off with a couple wins before the (not at all surprising) loss at Boise.
I might have been disappointed if we beat Boy-Z State right out of the gate, but I wasn't exactly doing handstands being down 45-3 with starters against starters. We obviously have a ton of work to do if we're going to be competitive against good teams. We should get our share of dubs against programs of our ilk (I say this like I don't know what's been happening in my dynasty, which is in Year 4).
Nico Evans seals Wyoming’s victory with a 15-yard touchdown run with 52 seconds left.
Wyoming’s Tyree Mayfield caught four passes for 119 yards and two touchdowns.
CHUCK AND DUCK!
New-look Air Force heaves 61 passes
in 34-24 loss to more efficient Wyoming
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Forget everything you thought you knew about Air Force football.
These are definitely NOT yo' daddy’s Falcons.
Like all of the military academies, Air Force has a reputation for running the football almost exclusively. When elite talent isn’t exactly excited about making a military commitment, it’s hard to open it up with a high-flying downfield game.
In a 34-24 loss to Wyoming on Sept. 22, 2018, Air Force went completely out of character by chucking the rock 61 times while running it 32 times.
Compare that to the real-life Falcons, who averaged 12 pass attempts and 64 runs in the 2017 season. In one game, B-Dawg amassed nearly half of the 143 total passes the real Air Force team threw in 2017.
“I’m not a passing coach and I’m not a running coach,” B-Dawg said. “I’m a coach who does whatever is necessary to win football games. If I could run 70 fullback dives and win a game, I'd be happy as a clam. When it became painfully obvious we couldn’t run the ball, it was time to air it out.”
Air Force wasn’t particularly effective throwing the ball, either. Donald Hammond couldn’t even hit 50 percent of his passes, going 30-for-61 for 340 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Wyoming quarterback Sean Chambers, a 73 OVR true freshman, was much more efficient, throwing for nearly as many yards (315) and more touchdowns (two) in only 29 pass attempts. He completed 19 of those passes.
“You can’t compare a CPU quarterback to a manually controlled quarterback,” B-Dawg said. “The CPU knows what you called and can see everything on the field. The user doesn’t know the defense’s call and has limited vision, like a real quarterback.”
It didn’t help Hammond that Air Force had 13 dropped passes, six by running back Kadin Remsberg.
Shaking off the rust
B-Dawg had a ready-made excuse for losing this game.
In a dynasty that he played at a glacial pace for most of the first season, the largest gap between games was between Air Force’s last game and this one. After losing to Boy-Z State in real time on Feb. 8, 2019, this game was played on Dec. 31, 2019.
“Boy-Z State scared me away from the sticks,” B-Dawg said. “I wasn’t really feeling this dynasty. I thought about restarting with a team that excited me more, but one day I just decided to fire up the PS3 and continue with Air Force. You don’t get into much of a rhythm playing once every 10 or 11 months.”
Predictably, it took Air Force time to get its bearings. Wyoming led 27-10 early in the fourth quarter before the Falcons scored two touchdowns to get within 27-24 with 1:05 left in the game.
Rocket Ismail Jr. got Wyoming’s second recovery of an onside kick and running back Nico Evans did the rest. He ran 21 yards to the 15-yard line on the first play and scored on a 15-yard run on the next play to put the game away with 52 seconds remaining.
Wyoming Cowboys at Air Force Falcons
Sept. 22, 2018
1ST
2ND
3RD
4TH
SCORE
Wyoming Cowboys (2-1)
7
3
10
14
34
Air Force Falcons (2-2)
0
3
7
14
24
Team Stats Comparison
WYO
AFA
Total Offense
411
457
Rushing Yards
23-96
32-117
Passing Yards
315
340
First Downs
14
25
Punt Return Yards
10
3
Kick Return Yards
78
132
Total Yards
499
592
Turnovers
0
1
3rd Down Conversion
3-10
8-20
4th Down Conversion
0-0
5-7
2-Point Conversion
0-0
0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals
3-2-1
3-2-1
Penalties
0-0
0-0
Possession Time
16:16
22:40
Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER
WYO
AFA
6:40
(WYO) T. Mayfield 56 pass from S. Chambers (C. Rothe kick)
7
0
SECOND QUARTER
WYO
AFA
:32
(WYO) C. Rothe 27 field goal
10
0
:02
(AFA) J. Koehnke 22 field goal
10
3
THIRD QUARTER
WYO
AFA
7:47
(WYO) C. Rothe 42 field goal
13
3
2:36
(WYO) X. Valladay 8 run (C. Rothe kick)
20
3
:46
(AFA) D. Hammond 20 run (J. Koehnke kick)
20
10
FOURTH QUARTER
WYO
AFA
7:00
(WYO) T. Mayfield 25 pass from S. Chambers (C. Rothe kick)
27
10
4:10
(AFA) K. Remsberg 17 pass from D. Hammond (J. Koehnke kick)