An Awful, Horrible, No-Good Game

Man oh man...

Game 2
Opponent: THE FLORIDA 04
Record: 158-89
Team: Georgia
Better User Name: TheOrangeAndBlueVictorious 04

I threw FOUR interceptions in this game. He threw FIVE. And I still lost. It was a miserable outing for both of us; halfway threw the 3rd quarter I sent him a message: "We are so bad". He replied "yeah".

Nine interceptions between the two of us, just miserable. Two of my picks went for touchdowns; a third gave him the ball on my 15; I also went for it on fourth and handed it over to him inside my twenty. Not even trying to knock him, but I feel like I gave this game away. Final score was 37-35 (I also gave up a safety - DAMN DAMN DAMN).

His defense relied on a single blitz package (like 75% of his plays); it took me most of the game to find the appropriate reads. When playing against a blitz-heavy defense, you've gotta find the uncovered receiver (or the receiver who is technically marked, but whose man is starting out of position). I had the ball for like 4 minutes out of the 20; when I did score, it was super fast, because I beat the blitz downfield.

His offense was almost entirely run out of an ace-slot or shotgun-slot formation. Lots of TE and slot receiver crosses, then some wheel routes later in the game. Obviously not too complex/polished, because he threw a million interceptions, too.

Ugh. I can't say anymore about it.

Game 3
Opponent: TAE33000
Record: 11-6 (I think)
Team: Alabama
Better User Name: Billy Blanks

Don't mean to be making reference to the 24-0 final score here; Billy Blanks just does Tae Bo. Anyway...

As frustrating as the game against The Florida was, this game was as straightforward. His defense opened in a soft cover-2 zone, so I threw a series of short crossing patterns. He switched to a safety blitz, open TE seam for 20 yards. Then some man-blitzes, and I score in the first 90 seconds. I force a punt, then throw a pick (gross), force another punt, then score in largely the same fashion: underneath patterns, followed by a deep seam pattern.

By the start of the second half I was up 24-0, and so I just ran out the clock. Conservative tempo, run run run run run run etc run run run. Etc. His offense lacked progression or complexity; some failed runs early on, then many contested passes. I think I had five or six picks this game; he just didn't seem to have a clear plan on offense.

Biggest leap for me in terms of offense: finding some passing concepts that worked. My old four verticals/corner sets from NCAA 11 and 12 aren't working in 13; the defensive upgrades are too good. So I went back to the practice field, felt out the mesh/drag patterns, levels, seams and verticals, etc, until I found some ideas that worked consistently. Then I took those templates to the playbook editor and found multiple iterations of them out of different formations. Before I snap the ball, I have a good idea where the pass is going; when I snap the ball, I have a clear progression of reads that confirm or change that notion. You can't just call a play and hope someone is open, particularly not against decent competition.

As an update, I'm now ranked 117th. Record is 50 and 18.

And the Gators whooped Tennessee again today. Rightly so.