|
Sorry for the delay on the Bangpow Chronicles. I was going to do one about last week, but the site was hacked and the whole event was kind of FUBAR'd to begin with. Anyway, let me give you a little background to the event at hand. There's a weekly event held at Doc's Sports Retreat in Livonia, MI every Thursday night that's put on by a local Detroit sports radio station, 1270 Sports (1270 am). The event is called "Fantasy Football Thursdays" and is hosted by Mike Valenti and Terry Foster, they are the on air hosts of their show called The Sports Inferno. They have a fantasy roundtable discussion every week while the Madden tournament goes on in another room.
The Madden tournament features anywhere between 8 and 12 people depending on how many people sign up and how many TV's we are able to play on. Usually there's 4 TV's hooked up with either PS2's or Xbox's, and two of those TV's are big dog projection bangers, which is cool. We play on All-Pro with either 1-minute or 2-minute quarters. Gamestop usually brings the systems and they have to leave by 10 pm with the systems, so all the games have to be played by the time they leave. So, they will start the tourney at 1-minute quarters and then switch to 2 minutes later on, if possible. Either way, it's hardly enough time to set up a decent drive and game plan decently. Guy's come from all over the place to participate, the entry is free, and the beer is cold. It sets up a decent evening of fantasy football and Madden.
Last week I was going to try the Michael Vick experiment where I would use the Falcons and actually try to use Vick as a pocket QB and only run him if I really had to. I got through the first round alright against the Lions, but I lost to the Lions in the second round due to a blown defensive call on my part. But last weeks tourney and event got all screwed up due to the fact they couldn't have the roundtable because the bar kept on seating people in the section that they have the discussion in, and we could only play on two TV's because the bar said we couldn't use the other two. Out of 80 TV's there, they only let us use 2! Needless to say, it was a weird night for everyone and CS was hacked earlier in the day, so I wasn't entirely “battle ready” last week. So, the Michael Vick experiment gets a big “Incomplete, TBD”
This week was a different story, though. I had been debating on whether to carry out the Vick experiment this week and I was still undecided as I was picking my team for the first round. I ultimately decided to suit up with the Steelers and try to run the ball with Duce and Bettis to eat up some clock, all the while getting into FG range. Plus, I really wanted to use the 3-4 because Porter is a beast in the game and I wanted the speed of Polamalu to cover the TO's of the world. I wasn't feeling all that confident last night because I fired up Madden the night before at home and had a horrendous game throwing the ball with Robanger. I was hoping not to have that same problem last night.
My first round game was against the Eagles. I won the coin toss and I guess I hit a button too early, because I never got to decide to kick or receive. I ended up receiving, which is against my game plan, and I think I had decent field position around the 20-yard line. I proceed to run the ball with The Bus up the gut and I sprinkle in a few runs with Duce. I complete a pass to Ward for a moderate gain and the chains keep on moving. After running my ball control offense, I was able to get into FG range and kick about a 40 yarder with Reed while leaving about 30 seconds left on the clock. The Eagles get the ball and gain a few yards before time runs out on the half.
I had to kick the ball to start the second half (dammit!). Moats gets a lengthy return and ends up getting to about the Eagles 40-yard line. He starts out with a run to Westbrook, which gets gobbled up rather quickly, and then he starts throwing the ball. Can you guess as to who his main target was? So, I do what I have to do and call a lot of Cover 2 Man and Zone D's, while sprinkling in some typical Steeler Zone Blitz action while manually doubling TO with Polamalu. TO was main target, as I predicted, and he got a lot of balls thrown to him, but only caught one pass. But that one pass barely got him into FG range. So, he tries running the ball with no avail and then tries a pass to Pinkston that gets stopped. On 3 rd Down I brought the Zone Blitz and sacked him to get him out of FG range. With 30 seconds left in the game facing 4 th and Long, he had no choice but to go for it. Needless to say, I knew where that ball was going and promptly swatted the ball away from TO's money grubbing hands to preserve the 3-0 victory over the Eagles.
The next round I had to go against Peyton Manning and the vaunted Colts offense. We were using the default rosters, which means that there was no Corey Simon on the defensive side of the ball. I figured it would be a tough matchup even though the Colts D was like Swiss cheese, so I thought.
I win the coin toss and elect to kick the ball to start the game. He starts at around his 20-yard line and gives the ball to Edge to start the game. He gains a few yards on his first couple of runs. Interestingly enough, he was using a lot of double TE sets and standard two-back, two WR formations. I had the passing lanes pretty well covered and the Steelers DB's actually played well, so there wasn't much to be had for the Colts offense. I ended up stopping his first drive and he had to punt the ball away. I get the ball with decent field position and proceed to hammer the rock with Bettis. He was picking up chunks of yards and moving the chains. I completed passes to Heath Miller, Dan Kreider, and Duce Staley on the drive to get into FG range, but I pulled a typical Bangpow move. Rather than call a safe play and take the FG, I decide to throw the ball to a wide-open Heath Miller in the middle of the field. The read was perfect, the throw was perfect, and the play call was perfect for all but on thing. Heath friggin' Miller decides to slow down and STOP in the middle of the route and the pass gets intercepted and returned for a damn TD! The only good thing was that he missed the PAT, which left the door open a little bit. Plus, that was the last play of the half and I was getting the ball back.
Ike Taylor brought the ball up to about my 30-yard line. I ran with Bettis and Duce for moderate results while eating up a bit of time on the clock. Robanger misfired on a pass to Ward and Cedric “the entertainer” Wilson dropped a pass on a comeback route. I never got into FG range and had to punt the ball. He got the ball back and didn't really do much with it either. He sprinkled in some runs to Edge while trying to chuck a pass or two deep with no results. He ended up having to punt the ball with about 25 seconds left in the game. From there it was pretty obvious what I was going to do and, needless to say, all my guys were covered deep. I ended up losing the game while holding the Colts offense to ZERO points. This loss really pained me. I mean, I hold the Colts D to no points, Manning didn't light it up, and Edge was contained. Yet, I lose the game on some Madden AI crap on a play that was set up perfectly. It really makes my blood boil.
I really believe that if I were to play some of these guys on 5-minute quarters, I would be able to take them down. I haven't really seen any spectacular play out of anyone that makes me say “wow”. The guy I lost to ended up losing in the semis during a close game and his game was decent, nothing that I haven't seen before from playing QC or anything. Everyone that I've played, with the exception of one guy, has played a straight up game of football. Although, the guy who won the tourney the previous two weeks calls a questionable game.*****Correction, the guy that lost in the Finals the previous two weeks, calls a questionable game. The guy who won, calls a decent game***** He likes to use either the Chargers or the Chiefs and run the same play to Gates or Gonzalez every play, all the while using hurry-up offense. I wish I could've played him because I believe I could've stopped that business, but Priest might've presented a whole nother problem, though.
All in all, this weekly tournament isn't a cheese fest and is pretty well policed by the players themselves. Guys get called out when bringing cheese or trying to turn the passing cone off by the other combatants. Most of the people that participate play good, solid football and appreciate it when they face someone else that does the same. The hard part about the short quarters is that one mistake will cost you a game. I've done it three weeks in a row where a stupid play call on my part gets me booted from the tourney. I truly believe that I will be victorious one of these weeks, but it's a matter of patience. I will keep on plugging along and taking my licks and hopefully things will work out.
Although, I already have my team picked for next week. Seeing as how guys like to use teams with those dominant receiving threats that have to be doubled all game, I noticed that one team gets constantly overlooked. Maybe it's because their defense is shoddy, but they have decent DB's. I plan on using this team next Thursday. QC should know exactly what team I am talking about. In case you're having a hard time figuring it out it's the:
Oakland Raiders “Just win, baby”
|
