So we may be SOL with bringing in a new DT. The lvl 20 ended up going to another team b/c he wanted to be in a pro league. I've sent PMs to all the other decent free agent DTs, but haven't heard back yet.

Kafka (my backup DT), who I was hoping to move to another team to help fund the purchase of a new DT will be ok, though. For a lvl 11 (lvl 12 after the next game) He's solid at strength (61) and agility (49), but will need to get his tackling, vision and confidence up. I was hoping not to have to boost him (given his low current level, he'll lose 2 levels this season by boosting early, making him less effective for next season), but I'm not sure it's avoidable. Though we'll see how he plays in the scrimmages.

The game has just simmed. Watching it now.

It's run

Well, it's a good thing this is pre-season, because there's a lot of weird stuff going on.

Why no field goal attempt from 31 yards? Looks like K strength has been nerfed.

Punts are all over the place - some are 50 yards and others are only 22. Also, what was that unreturned punt about? A fair catch? I'm sure they could have picked up a few yards if they had bothered.

Loads of missed tackles, although the Idols had three times as many as we did. Looks like the run is a lot more viable now.

Passing on goalline in the fourth quarter looks to be a mistake, especially with our pass completion at barely 1/3.

We were pretty unlucky, I think. We had that one terrible unplay which would have been at least a FG for us, and then failed to convert two redzone opportunities at the end.

It may or may not be significant that both interceptions went through (or over) the hands of the receivers.

Our out-leveled WRs were completely dominated by their CBs. Our guys were completely blanketed even when they made catches. That said, it was a very close game against the best team in the league when we had an entire quarter (the 3rd) where we ran WR short on 1st down (0 completions) and FB inside run on 2nd down (not many yards). The difference was their 80+ yard TD when my CB got beat on the catch and then we couldn't catch up to him.

Lessons learned:

1. WR1 lines up against CB2. This should have an effect on how we set the depth chart.

2. I'm not certain that kicking was nerfed. The kick we didn't go for would have been a 48 yarder (you add the 10 yards of the endzone and the 7 yards back that the holder is placed when computing FG yardage), and it's not clear that should be in GY's range.

3. Our scripting was ignored a bit as the game wore on: going for it on 4th and 1 in our own half. . . though we made it, we shouldn't have gone for it; we had a FB rush on 2nd down in the 2nd quarter when it should have been the HB running.

4. Our new TE is quite good.

5. HB running (esp. to the outside) is much better, and should become a bigger part of our game.

6. Our PR teams couldn't block the Idols. That may be just b/c their coverage team is great, though.

7. We passed too much on fourth and short and close to the endzone. Should be more runs in games when the opponents CBs outlevel our WRs.

Anyway, an interesting game and it shows that our team is still plenty good.

One other lesson learned, is that it had been said on the forums that if you only have one player in WR1, then when he gets tired, you move to the general WR spot on the depth chart. Based on the number of plays, that's clearly not true. Part of the reason we may have had a terrible passing game is that our top 2 WRs were exhausted.

The same problem exists for CBs, which is probably why their offense was more effective late in the game.

By the way, GY, the issue with punting in this game is that there are a decent number of shanks for all but the highest level punters. Shanks become more likely at confidence critical moments like inside your own 20. The punter had his best punting game by far (35.5 yd. avg.), but tends to shank punts closer to our endzone b/c his confidence (though 45) is not high enough yet.

Yeah, the big lesson to me was that we should trust our HBs more, and use our FBs more for blocking. Our FBs were breaking tackles and still only getting a yard or two.

Decent perfomance really against a strong team.

Matej,

Once things are set prior to the first game, I think you need to readjust the special teams depth chart to account for who is starting and who isn't. For example, Lotta Fury only had one play (mostly b/c of the CB depth chart issue), but also b/c he didn't seem to be on the field for any of the STs. Maybe that's intentional, but if in the 2nd game with the fixed depth chart he is still not getting plays, we should change that.

Also, Bob Bob Jones didn't get very many plays (he swapped with Steve D'Abril in the depth chart), despite the 80/85 normal setting. I've upped that setting for the next game, but we may want to have him on the KRS depth chart (several of the better pro league teams have outfitted their KRS depth chart almost entirely with o-linemen).

how did hotz get only 25 plays and kafka only 15? that doesnt add up.

Sounds like a bit of a weird one, but we kept it close. (How close?) Considering what our offensive play calling was like, if we managed to even keep it close, that's a victory in my mind.

Did we pass out of the goalline set at all?

It was very close. 14-7 headline score, almost identical passing and rushing yards, 1 interception each, they had 1 fumble and 1 sack (Crush yet again). We almost exclusively passed out near the goalline (although it looks like only one play - not our TD - used the set). Our touchdown was the only rush in the last 10 yards.

Matej,

As GY mentions, we didn't pass out of the goalline set (not even when we scripted the goalline on first down, but it didn't end up getting called much).

ap,

The reason for the fewer number of plays for DTs, is that we tried the 3-4 in the 2nd and 4th quarters. Not bad, not great.

Edit: Gyuri's answered it.

So it now looks like I'm going to be away for longer than just Friday through Sunday, as I'll now be heading to the wilds of Maine from early Monday through late Thursday night.

I'll be able to check in this Sunday night (when I plan to boost most of my guys that I haven't yet boosted), but will be completely out of cell and internet range while in Maine, so will be unable to do any OC duties before the game the Sunday following this coming one.

Obviously not the ideal time with a new season and new tactics, but my GLB obsession has, thankfully, not (yet) hit the point where I'll rearrange my actual life for it.