Rivals 2011 Dynasty

USC - 21 - Notre Dame - 16

(I am not very good at recaps my memory is F'd and on top of that I am hungover from last night so bear with me)

In South Bend, Indiana, a rivalry game between two top-10 teams lived up to its billing as the Trojans managed to hold on for a close victory over the Irish.

Notre Dame got the ball to start the game and had an excellent drive, I believe a 10 play drive that got them down near the endzone. Dame's offensive coordinator did a great job of taking advantage of holes in USC's secondary, this would be a theme all game. A dropped pass in the endzone gave USC a lucky third down stop and ND settled for the field goal.

USC answered with a long drive of their own, utilizing both RBs and a couple option-keepers to get them in redzone territory. The drive was capped by a 4-yard run by Tyson.

USC gets the ball back a few minutes later only to have it knocked out by a beautiful user tackle by jhawk. Unfortunately, USC gets lucky, again, and right after USC's defensive forces a fumble of their own and gets the ball right back.

No more scoring until the end of the second quarter where USC punched in another 4 yard run this time by Peterson. Dame mounted an incredible 1 minute drive and got down to around the five yard line but was sacked as time expired in the half.

Halftime score 14-3 USC.

USC gets the ball to start the second half and is promptly 3-and-out'd by Dame's D. To be 100% honest I don't quite remember much of the third quarter, nobody scored and I think we exchanged a punt or two.

Notre Dame was driving the ball at the end of the third and starts the fourth quarter with the ball in USC's redzone. After picking up a first and goal from the 2 Dame punches it in with Rodriguez. Score - 14-10 USC with 7 minutes left.

USC gets the ball and looking to eat up clock hits the ground game hard and moves the ball slowly downfield. Thanks to a big fourth-down conversion on 4th and 2 (it would have been a 39 yard field goal and my kicker is a freshman walk on with 53 kick power) USC is again able to punch it into the endzone with Tyson to make it 21-10 with 2:30 remaining.

Dame gets the ball after a decent kick return and once again moves the ball methodically down the field through the air. Only using up a minute of lock in the process. Dame scores on a great pass from Merril to Cutler to make it 21-16. They go for 2 to make it a 3 point game and on the attempt Merril is hit as he throws and the pass is picked off.

Onside kick is no good but for some reason the USC returner ran back a good 7 yards instead of just downing it (yeah I am a freaking loser). USC runs the ball twice for about 3 yards combined and Dame uses two TOs. On third and six USC calls a FB option (again, im an idiot, first time I have ran that play all year tried to too hard to be creative) and loses like 5 or 6 yards on the carry. Dame calls their last TO and USC punts it. With no TOs and about a minute left Dame gets the ball and swiftly picks up a few first downs. USC's defensive coordinator was seen screaming at his guys to pick it up and get some pressure on the QB, which never happened.

Notre Dame crosses into USC territory but with 20 seconds left Merrill goes deep and the pass is picked off by USC. USC kneels the ball to preserve the win.


Great game Hawk I am lucky that the CPU recruited all these now 95+ players before I got here. I got lucky in this game. The dropped pass in the endzone to start the game, also there were a number of times that Dames RB was wide open in the flats and just didn't catch the ball.

USC -

Dustin Moss- 5-9/61/0/0
Matt Tyson - 10carr, 88 yards, 2td
Jon Peterson - 18 carr, 69 yards, 1 td
Junior Wilson - 4carr, 24 yards

Notre Dame -

Kellen Merrill 35-46 - 346 - 1td - 1int
Mike Rodriguez 13carr - 61 yards
Demarcus Thompson 10catches - 124 yards

jhawk886 wrote:

splff3000 wrote:Auburn barely squeaks by Kentucky 20-19.

This game was more indicative of the way I'm playing. Ultimately, 2 missed extra points in the 4th did uk in. I did get a taste of a lil comeback code there in the 4th buts its alright. I held UK to 7 points the whole game but in the 4th their QB turns into Andrew Luck and completes tight pass after pass. My D has been playing tough but I need to get the O down. On at least 3 or 4 plays I was a fraction of a second late getting throwing the ball on plays that would most likely have been TD's. UK and MS St always give me trouble tho. I don't know why, they just do.

Anyway, I was thinking about something. I only have 1 loss and if by some miracle I was able to not lose to the cpu and beat clark I would have the tie breaker over him for the SEC West and there are no more SEC games to be played after that. That would be a big problem for jhawk lol. Sooo, you guys still want to allow me to play clark?

I really don't care. My concern was just that I didn't think it was fair to clark to have to risk making the SEC title game due to you joining mid-season when you haven't played another user. But if he's still cool with playing, then more power to you guys.

I don't think it's fair either, but if he's willing to play, I am definitely more than willing to play. I'll let him and you guys make the final decision, but if I do somehow win, I don't wanna hear nothing later about how I didn't play any users so you guys make sure on what you want to do before week 12.

jhawk886 wrote:Good win jared. I guess I should have just came out in goal line all game since you only threw it 9 times.

I just want to say that it is my goal in all my dynasties to be as least cheesy as possible. I have had user games where I had nobody open and scrambled out just to throw it away instead of going for yards, and I don't even user catch hardly ever (I am NOT saying that scrambling or user catching is cheesy, I am just trying to say how vanilla a player I am and that I really try to play it straight) I am sincerely sorry if my gameplan is considered cheesy here. Honestly my QBs and WRs are the weakest part of my team and on the road I felt very uncomfortable passing it. I remember last year I played you and I think I threw 3 picks, one for a TD. I think in my user game before this, one, against stop, I was picked 3 times as well. I am a running team in all my dynasties, however I admit 9 attempts does seem quite low when I look at the box score.

I tried to mix it up with isos, power os, and options, fb dives, and a read op and draw here or there, and got both my backs involved but honestly the very, very last thing I want to do is piss anybody off here and I would be a huge hypocrite if I did anything considered cheesy so if Urb and hawk want to throw out the results and sim a loss for me I will accept it, again I truly didn't intentionally try to do anything cheap and I am sorry if thats what it was. You are right, I don't use an option playbook but only because I don't know how effective it would be against users.

Either way, you played great and I got lucky. Next year with all these seniors gone I am going to be in trouble until I can get some 5* recruits mature after a couple seasons.

Jaredlib wrote:

jhawk886 wrote:Good win jared. I guess I should have just came out in goal line all game since you only threw it 9 times.

I just want to say that it is my goal in all my dynasties to be as least cheesy as possible. I am sincerely sorry if my gameplan is considered cheesy here. Honestly my QBs and WRs are the weakest part of my team and on the road I felt very uncomfortable passing it. I remember last year I played you and I think I threw 3 picks, one for a TD. I think in my user game before this, one, against stop, I was picked 3 times as well. I am a running team in all my dynasties, however I admit 9 attempts does seem quite low when I look at the box score.

I tried to mix it up with isos, power os, and options, and got both my backs involved but honestly the very, very last thing I want to do is piss anybody off here and I would be a huge hypocrite if I did anything considered cheesy so if Urb and hawk want to throw out the results and sim a loss for me I will accept it, again I truly didn't intentionally try to do anything cheap and I am sorry if thats what it was.

Either way, you played great and I got lucky. Next year with all these seniors gone I am going to be in trouble until I can get some 5* recruits mature after a couple seasons.

Na man, you won. It's all good. I still think I should have won because yeah you did get lucky on quite a few plays. But shit happens. If the game was played at your house I definitely think you would've won that game for sure no matter what because Merrill wouldn't have been as efficient in the passing game.

You won fair and square and I'm not saying you were cheesy or anything, I just try to mix up my playcalling because I personally view that as realistic, but not everybody else has to abide by my "vision". Like splff said, we play to win games, and your gameplan was to do whatever it took to win and you did. Congrats.

See ya next year.

splff3000 wrote:

jhawk886 wrote:
Shit you throw it more than that, and I hate the way you play lol. I could've done the same exact thing last year with Marcus Williams and just utterly destroyed about everybody (with the exception of Joker, that probably still would've been a good game. But without throwing my 3 picks, I may very well have won), but it's just not very realistic. Unless you're a strictly option school, having an 80% run/pass ratio just isn't very realistic. Just my thoughts.

It's not that big of a deal, I'm just pissed because he caught every break that game. I had some Kevin Dyson super bowl shit at the end of the first half. As well as my HB and FB fumbling and him having big runbacks were huge. Jared played a really good, flawless game, and I still outplayed him. It just sucks to lose when that happens.

I don't understand this logic. Not trying to pick on you jhawk, but who knows what's realistic. The reason most teams don't just run the ball all game is because IRL, you can't. You have to throw the ball to mix things up for the defense. If they could, I'm sure every coach in the country would just come out in Power I or whatever and just run it. I remember a few years back when my Oakland Raiders had one of the worst run defenses in NFL history, they had the no.1 pass defense because no one was throwing on them. Not because teams couldn't but why would they throw the ball when they could run at will. The same thing applies here. Should we be throwing the ball just for the sake of realism or are we trying to win games here. My opinion has always been if you don't like it.......stop it. You can't stop the run so he should throw it more? Huh? That makes no sense to me. That's just my opinion tho.

You're right splff. We play to win games. And if something works, we should just keep doing it; it is the other person's (or CPU's) job to stop it. I take this too seriously, I do, I know I do. And I need to remember that it's just a game and we're not necessarily going for a realistic representation or simulation of college football; we're just playing for fun. So, thanks to your insight, from now on I'm not going to care anymore about what I feel is "SIM" or "realistic". Who really gives a shit, it's all about winning. So I'll do whatever works (within the rules) and just keep doing that until you can stop me. My advice to you, take some tips from Joker on how to stop the option. Because once I get an option QB in here, I may become Urban/Breon 2.0.

I just want to point out that I've never been stricktly an option team. I had a quarterback that had speed that was 91 and acceleration over 90. I adapted my team to best fit his skill set, and would have been stupid not to. This year, Driskel is a much more well-rounded quarterback and I hardly run the option. Just ask Clark and Rauloe how different my offense is. It's all about adapting your system to best fit your players.

On a side note, we need to make sure that Jared's user schedule is much harder next season since he's only got 3 user games. Hawk is a pretty good player, but LePayne obviously wasn't. Hova, he tries, but he's not quite up to the top-caliber yet. If Jared's gonna have one fewer user game, he needs to have one of the harder schedules. Either way, congratulations to him, because it looks like he'll definitely be in the championship.

Just the usuals (Clark, Joker) Rauloe and Hova left to play. Should get a quick advance in today.

urbanslegend05 wrote:On a side note, we need to make sure that Jared's user schedule is much harder next season since he's only got 3 user games. Hawk is a pretty good player, but LePayne obviously wasn't. Hova, he tries, but he's not quite up to the top-caliber yet. If Jared's gonna have one fewer user game, he needs to have one of the harder schedules. Either way, congratulations to him, because it looks like he'll definitely be in the championship.

Yeah this makes sense. Until someone joins the pac-10 I do have a bit of an unfair advantage.

With this and my seniors leaving I see a 5 or 6 loss season next year.

Jaredlib wrote:

urbanslegend05 wrote:On a side note, we need to make sure that Jared's user schedule is much harder next season since he's only got 3 user games. Hawk is a pretty good player, but LePayne obviously wasn't. Hova, he tries, but he's not quite up to the top-caliber yet. If Jared's gonna have one fewer user game, he needs to have one of the harder schedules. Either way, congratulations to him, because it looks like he'll definitely be in the championship.

Yeah this makes sense. Until someone joins the pac-10 I do have a bit of an unfair advantage.

With this and my seniors leaving I see a 5 or 6 loss season next year.

Yeah, just doesn't make sense for you to have an easy schedule when you only have 3 user games, and people like Hawk, myself and Clark have 5. I am going to try to find another user before we get this next season started for the PAC 10, and that would definitely help even things out and make scheduling easier.

jhawk886 wrote:

splff3000 wrote:

jhawk886 wrote:
Shit you throw it more than that, and I hate the way you play lol. I could've done the same exact thing last year with Marcus Williams and just utterly destroyed about everybody (with the exception of Joker, that probably still would've been a good game. But without throwing my 3 picks, I may very well have won), but it's just not very realistic. Unless you're a strictly option school, having an 80% run/pass ratio just isn't very realistic. Just my thoughts.

It's not that big of a deal, I'm just pissed because he caught every break that game. I had some Kevin Dyson super bowl shit at the end of the first half. As well as my HB and FB fumbling and him having big runbacks were huge. Jared played a really good, flawless game, and I still outplayed him. It just sucks to lose when that happens.

I don't understand this logic. Not trying to pick on you jhawk, but who knows what's realistic. The reason most teams don't just run the ball all game is because IRL, you can't. You have to throw the ball to mix things up for the defense. If they could, I'm sure every coach in the country would just come out in Power I or whatever and just run it. I remember a few years back when my Oakland Raiders had one of the worst run defenses in NFL history, they had the no.1 pass defense because no one was throwing on them. Not because teams couldn't but why would they throw the ball when they could run at will. The same thing applies here. Should we be throwing the ball just for the sake of realism or are we trying to win games here. My opinion has always been if you don't like it.......stop it. You can't stop the run so he should throw it more? Huh? That makes no sense to me. That's just my opinion tho.

You're right splff. We play to win games. And if something works, we should just keep doing it; it is the other person's (or CPU's) job to stop it. I take this too seriously, I do, I know I do. And I need to remember that it's just a game and we're not necessarily going for a realistic representation or simulation of college football; we're just playing for fun. So, thanks to your insight, from now on I'm not going to care anymore about what I feel is "SIM" or "realistic". Who really gives a shit, it's all about winning. So I'll do whatever works (within the rules) and just keep doing that until you can stop me. My advice to you, take some tips from Joker on how to stop the option. Because once I get an option QB in here, I may become Urban/Breon 2.0.

You can keep your condescending posts man. Why don't you tell me then, how many passes do I have to throw to be realistic or sim? 25? 30? 40? or do I have to throw until you win? Last time I checked there ain't no rule for a minimum amount of passes that have to be thrown per game. Anyway, I don't know why I'm even getting involved. Just know that if I'm playing someone and they can't stop my run, I may run the entire game. Contrary to what you believe, not passing the ball is not unrealistic. There have been, in fact, 5 NFL games with 0 passes thrown therefore it has to be realistic. It has been done in real life!!!!

It's over guys let it go.

That's fine splff. I was agreeing with you. You should do whatever works. Up to this point I have lost some games due to interceptions when I didn't need to throw the ball. I'm just saying that I won't do that anymore. Last year, with my line and Marcus Williams, I probably should have given it to him 50 times a game and never thrown. All I'm saying is, if I ever get a situation like that (which next year I should), that's what I'm going to do. In the past I've passed the ball primarily due to some misguided sense that I needed to, or that I should. From now on, that won't be the case. You'll probably only see me pass if I'm down big, which probably won't ever really happen.

That's all I was saying, I'll be the new Breon and never throw. I wasn't trying to be condescending, I was just explaining my thought process. I love running the ball, in general, it's so easy, and it's a lot less risky. So I was just giving a heads up that starting next year you can expect maybe 5-10 passes a game from me. And since run commit is banned, I challenge anyone to stop me.

Maybe I'll see ya next year man.

I've actually been thinking about bringing back run commit. I never thought it was as big of a deal with this year's game and it seems only logical to stack up against the run when it's 3rd and 1-2. This also makes for a risk/reward situation if a team decides to throw it. It could lead to big plays. Any thoughts fellas?

No

You can just as easily get the same effect by blitzing more.

Run commit has such a bad rep I've never toyed with it even in offline dyns. Correct me if im erin but isn't it considered way overpowered?

jhawk886 wrote:
That's all I was saying, I'll be the new Breon and never throw. I wasn't trying to be condescending, I was just explaining my thought process. I love running the ball, in general, it's so easy, and it's a lot less risky. So I was just giving a heads up that starting next year you can expect maybe 5-10 passes a game from me. And since run commit is banned, I challenge anyone to stop me.

Maybe I'll see ya next year man.

Oh sorry then. It just looked like you were being condescending to me. Damn message boards!! You can never tell sarcasm and what not with just these words lol.

jusblaze09 wrote:No

You can just as easily get the same effect by blitzing more.

You blitz me all you want next year blaze. I promise I'll average over 7 yards a carry and over 300 yards on the ground.

In fact, as long as run commit is still banned, I'll make an open bet for anyone who wants to take me up on it starting next year. For a $20 PSN Gift Card, see if you can hold me under 150 yards rushing and under a 5.0 average for the game.

urbanslegend05 wrote:I've actually been thinking about bringing back run commit. I never thought it was as big of a deal with this year's game and it seems only logical to stack up against the run when it's 3rd and 1-2. This also makes for a risk/reward situation if a team decides to throw it. It could lead to big plays. Any thoughts fellas?

It still is a lil overpowered this season. It's better than last year but the risk/reward isn't great enough yet IMO. For instance when me and that guy 12oz was playing a lil pickup game online one day, he was doing it. Even though I would run to the opposite side of the commit that he called, his guys were still able to make a tackle for a short gain. It covers too much ground against the run. So if you think it's a run you could use it every play and pretty much get either a loss or a short gain. This was the case for all runs except for sweeps and a few options to the opposite side of the commit. It really takes the strategic part of playcalling out of the game. I can call cover 4 then run commit and it's like I just called an all man blitz. You're the commish so whatever you decide is cool, but I think you should really test it out extensively before making that decision.

The thing with run commit is not that it stops the run so good, it's that you can still stop passes with it easily. That's why it shouldn't be used.

and if you think I'm blitzing more than 7, you're crazy. I figured out what I need to do to stop the option (especially out of the wishbone) after my game with stop.

Dear god this was intense lol.

Joker12 wrote:Dear god this was intense lol.

What was?

Nice win Jared, if I had a team similar to yours I'd probably try to avoid throwing as well. Play solid defense and control the clock, solid strategy. Looking like an interesting race to the finish.

Thanks I definitely caught some breaks. I think it would be hilarious if I lose next game to the cpu.

Man I have a lot of seniors next year will be interesting

Jaredlib wrote:Thanks I definitely caught some breaks. I think it would be hilarious if I lose next game to the cpu.

Man I have a lot of seniors next year will be interesting

Na man don't do that. I'll be really pissed if you come to my house and walk away with the win and then go and lose to some shitty CPU team lol.

And yeah, good luck next year because literally like all of your studs are graduating. That'll be me next year with like 8 guys in the 90's who are all seniors. I'll be hurting after that season too. I'm still a few seasons away from being able to reload rather than rebuild.

I can't wait until 2012 comes out and we can have our OD in NCAA and then import our college classes into Madden and have an Online Franchise there too. I'm not sure if Urban is planning on doing that or not but due to all the major upgrades they're making to franchise and online franchise, I know I definitely will. If any of you want to join that next year though, stay away from my Chiefs, they're mine.