Mid Season Report

Mid Season Report

So far through out the season, we have definitely exceeded my expectations. Before the season, I expected our win lose record to be 2 wins and 5 losses but to my surprise, we are the exact opposite at 5 wins and 2 losses. I would take the the record with a grain of salt because ironically, the two games we've lost have been games where we've played on the road and the four games that we've won that on paper we weren't suppose to win were games where the starting quarterback of the opposing team was hurt earlier in the game. Against the Cincinnati Bengals, Andy Dalton got injured and A.J. McCarron came in and played absolutely better than I expected that he would ... unfortunately, that would be the story for the rest of the games where back up quarterbacks stepped in for the starting quarterbacks.  

Statistics 

So far this season... 

• Derek Carr has performed well in some games but mostly inconsistent. Some games he'll have a QBR (quarterback rating) over a hundred and not throw any interception the next game he'll throw 4 touchdowns and have a great QBR  then we'll go on the road to Minnesota and post an average QBR and throw an interception. Because of our weak defense, we need him to be a lot more consistent and keep putting on great performances especially on road games. 
• Threw for a total of 1,284 passing yards
• Has 13 Touchdown passes and 6 interceptions 
• Has a terrible 59 completion Percentage 
• Averages 7.4 Passing yards per attempt and 183.4 yards per game
• Has a great 92.6 total QBR 
• I don't really have any real solution to make Derek Carr a more efficient passer because our receivers aren't quick to get open and we don't have a lot of time to throw the ball so most of his passes are a lot of times rushed and of course inaccurate.
• Our team is last in the league in total passing yards but that is okay because we're winning and winning is everything 

• Our leading rusher is Kenjon Barner who has had 125 rush attempts and rushed for 609 yards. 
• We signed Kenjon Barner after our week one game. Before we signed him, our starting running back David Wilson who went down with a broken collarbone. Since Kenjon has been on the team, he has had games where he hasn't had much success rushing the ball but none the less, his been great. 
• Barner has averaged 101.5 yards a game and 4.9 yards a carry

• Rookie Running Back Deron Pickett has been great in the red zone. 
• He has averaged 3.8 yards a carry and rushed for 3 Touchdowns 

• Our defense has been very bipolar 
• The Good
• Our defensive line has recorded a league leading 30 sacks 
• Our defense leads the league in fumble recoveries with 10 
• We have NOT allowed the most rushing yards in the league 
• 883 rushing yards
• The Terrible
• We've allowed the most passing yards in the league 
• 2,459 passing yards

MID-SEASON TEAM MVP: Kenjon Barner 

As I said earlier Kenjon Barner has been amazing without him we would have a losing record. Enough said.

Division Race 

As I said before the season started, we have a tough division and winning it will be difficult. At the top of the division, we have the undefeated Denver Broncos who we will face for the first time this season in week 12. In second place, we have the Kansas City Chiefs with their win/loss record at 6-1 with one loss coming against the aforementioned Denver Broncos and the other coming against the Pittsburgh Steelers who we lost to in week one. In week 11 the Chiefs will go head to head against the Broncos again. But this time, they'll be playing at their home stadium Arrowhead Stadium so the game shouldn't be as hard for them. If the Chiefs beat the Broncos, then they'll have the tie breaker against them which means that if they ended up with the same record at the end of the season, then they'll win the division (or be second place depending on or ranking).We face the Chiefs in week 10. At last place we have the 0 and 7 San Diego Chargers who are pretty much irrelevant in the division race at this point. Though, I am worried about them when we face them in week 13 because its an away game for us, we haven't won at all on the road, and they came close to beating us when we faced them in week 7.

Injuries

To start the season we did have a plethora of injuries, but thankfully, we were able to take players and plug them into those positions. For example, when David Wilson, got hurt Kenjon Barner filled his role. When our first round pick Left Tackle Kirk Lane got hurt, we plugged in Levi Brown and he performed well. On the injury list we have QB Jake Locker who has recovered from his injury but earlier in the season I placed him on the injured reserved (IR) because I needed the roster spot. Next, we have LG Travelle Wharton. Travelle got hurt a while ago and we really do not need him anymore so his on he IR along with Locker and will be there till the end of the season. Finally, our kick returner Trindon Holliday is hurt. Holliday's injury definitely hurts us on the special team side of the ball because he is the difference between starting off on our oppenents twenty yard line and starting off at the 50 yard line. When we start at the 50 yard line all we need to do is get twenty yards to guarantee us at least three points as oppose to having to gain 50 yards just to get into field goal range. Holliday will return during the first week of the playoff (wildcard week) but that is long away and until then, we have to do with rookie wide receiver Sergio Black as our kick returner and hope he can give us a spark on special teams.

Past and Future Draft 

For this years draft we have 5 draft picks: one first , two fourths, a 5th, and a 6th. So far, from last years draft, we only have four players that are currently starting for us. I've been pleased with 3 round draft pick RT Owamagbe Ogbonna's development this season. On the other side of the line, defensive lineman Edivaldo McKinney has been okay. I moved him to Defensive tackle because he was better there and depending on his development, he could possibly keep the second defensive tackle spot going into next season. He has 12 tackles, 3 tackles for loss and 3 sacks. In the second round of last years draft we drafted Cornerback Derek Burnnett, This season, Burnnett has been our slot corner and hasn't been the best but his young so I'm confident that he'll get better.

 In the first round, I plan on drafting a center so that I can move Gabe Jackson, who is currently starting at center, back over to left guard.

Upcoming Schedule 

Our remaining schedule for the team is going to be interesting because most of the games are against division opponents so we need a lot of luck so we can win this division and make a playoff run.

Regular Season Weeks 4-8

WEEK FOUR

Cincinnati Bengals
(1-2) 

Oakland Raiders
(2-1)

VS

Pregame Notes:

• The Cincinnati Bengals Have...
• An above average QB in Andy Dalton 
• Two great Running backs in Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard 
• 3 great top receivers in A.J. Green, Mohamed Sanu. and rookie Bryant Patterson 
• A pretty good offensive line 
• The weak spot is at the center position
• One of the best Defensive Tackles in the NFL in Geno Atkins 
• A weak secondary (players that play the corner back and safety position) 

Final Score: Cin 34 - 41 Oak 

Game Takeaways:

• Defense
• We had a bad overall performance 
• allowed over 400 yards
• 338 yards passing 
• Kept Giovani Bernard and Jeremy Hill under a hundred yards 
• They ran the ball a total of 23 times 
• We had a hard time stopping TE (Tight End) Tyler Eifert
• Recorded 10 receptions for 146 yards and a touchdown
• Defensive Tackle Henry Melton had a good game 
• Recorded 2 sacks  

• Offense 
• We had a good overall performance 
• Got 377 yards 
• 153 rushing 
• 224 passing 
• Derek played amazing 
• Recorded a 135.0 QBR (quarterback rating) 
• Threw for 250 yards 
• Threw 2 touchdowns 
• Completed 61 percent of passes 
• averaged 12 yards per pass attempt 
• Kenjon Barner also played great 
• Got 152 yards on 19 rushing attempts 
• Averaged 8 yards a carry
• Longest rush was 60 yards 
• Team 
• Despite having a great time rushing the ball, we lost the possession battle by allowing the Bengals to have their offense on the field for 32 minutes and 39 seconds compared to our 19 minutes and 21 seconds 
• This is bad because the longer their offense is on the field the more of defense gets tired and the more our defense gets tired, the more our not so good backups play which gives the Bengals offense to gain over 400 yards like the did today 

PLAYER OF THE GAME (POTG): 

The player of the game goes to Kenjon Barner for his great rushing performance.

WEEK FIVE 

Oakland Raiders
(3-1)

Week five is our bye week. In the NFL, a bye week is a (for lack of better phrases) an off week for the NFL players and coaches. But since I'm playing a video game, I don't have an off week. This bye week came at the right time because we had a myriad of players coming off injuries. Some of these players include our great rookie Left Tackle Kirk Lane, our 6th round draft pick Sergio Black and our free agent signing David Wilson. 

Our next game will be against the Minnesota Vikings. Before I took on this project, I had a Connected Franchise with the Minnesota Vikings. And they aren't completely similar but their are some uncanny similarities. Like us, the Vikings have 2 seconds year players that will be the cornerstones of their franchise for years to come. Ironically enough, they all play the same position. The Vikings have Anthony Barr who plays Left Outside Linebacker (like Khalil Mack). Also, they have Teddy Bridgewater who plays quarterback (JUST LIKE DEREK CARR!!). Along with those two players, the Vikings have a rookie offensive guard,in John Dalton, that they could build their interior offensive line around (similar to our right guard Gabe Jackson). If you didn't think that was weird enough, they have a 20 year old starting rookie Left Tackle called Travis Lane (I don't know this for a fact but I am convinced that he is the brother of our 21 year old starting rookie Left Tackle Kirk Lane). One more blaring Similarity is that they have two good corners in Xavier Rhodes and Captain Munnerlyn. A couple of difference is that they have one of the best running backs in the NFL in Adrian Peterson. 

WEEK SIX 

Oakland Raiders
(3-1)

Minnesota Vikings
(4-1)

VS 

KICKOFF!!

This week we are on the road at TCF Bank stadium to face the Minnesota Vikings. As I said earlier, the Vikings have the best running back in the NFL, Adrian Peterson, and our task for today is to keep him under 100 yards. Unfortunately for us, we couldn't even keep him under 200 yards. This Vikings team had one plan and they executed it to perfection. The Vikings game plan was to run the ball down the teeth of our defense and then when they felt like it they would throw the ball without a problem because there was always a threat of them running the ball. The benefit of having such a good running game is that you open up the play action. If you have an effective running game, the play action, late in the game, become your best friend. The play action is basically a Quarterback faking that he would hand the ball off to the running back, then either throwing the ball down the field or throw a quick pass to a tight end or the slot receiver cutting across the field, depending on the play call. 

Final Score: Oak 27 - 52 Minn

Game Takeaways

• Defense
• Overall Terrible Performance
• Allowed almost 300 yards rushing 
• Adrian Peterson ran for over 200 Yards 
• Teddy Bridgewater Completed 80 percent of his passes 
• Completed 12 of passes 
• They had more rushing yards than our whole offense gained yards 
• As a team, they got 297 yards

• Offense
• Derek Carr had a below average game
• Passed for 230 Yards
• Threw a Touchdown and an interception
• Had a 76.3 Quarterback Rating 
• Completed 56 Percent of his passes
• Kenjon Barner didn't perform well 
• Had a total of 62 yards 
• Averaged 3.4 yards a carry
• Jeremy Maclin had the best receiving performance of both teams 
• Caught 6 Passes for 90 yards 

• Team
• Terrible performance on both sides of the ball. This was a blowout at halftime when the score was 28-6. Then it went to 38-6 at the end of the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, our offense finally decided that they had a game to play and they started scoring some points as we scored 21 points in the quarter. 

POTG: Due to the fact that nobody perfomed well, there isn't a player of the game 

WEEK SEVEN

San Diego Chargers
(0-5)

Oakland Raiders
(3-2)

                VS 

Today we play against the San Diego Chargers who haven't won a single game this season and also this is a home game for us so we have the odds in our favor. The significance of this game is that we have our rookie Wide Receiver Glenn Gaitor and our Half Back David Wilson returning from injury. As you may remember, earlier this season, Wilson was my starting running back till he got hurt. When he got hurt, I signed Kenjon Barner to take his place and I like the performances that Barner has had. In week 3 against the Cleveland Browns, he rushed for 125 yards averaging 4.6 yards a carry then the following week against the Cincinnati Bengals, he rushed for 152 yards averaging 8 yards a carry. With all those good performance in mind I was pretty conflicted on who to start. So I decided that I would stay with the hot hand and keep Barner as my starter. As a matter of fact, Wilson didn't even play in this game. 

The Chargers have a pretty solid 11 year veteran starting Quarter Back in Philip Rivers. 

At running back the Chargers have a lot of depth as a matter of fact, their 4th string running back is good enough to become our starting running back. 

The Wide Receiver that we'll have to worry about is Kennan Allen. But I trust our corner Prince Amukamara to keep him under a hundred receiving yards.

The Chargers have 2 great tackles in Left Tackle Branden Albert and Right Tackle D'Brickshaw Ferguson. But their interior offensive lineman are that good. 

The Chargers have a pretty weak defensive line headlined by rookie Left End Malik Chaney. The Chargers Linebackers are pretty average with the weak spot being at Right Outside Linebacker Jerry Attaochu. 

The defensive backs for the Chargers are pretty good at free safety, they have one of the best Free safeties in the league in Eric Weddle. They also have two great corners Brandon Flowers and Jason Verrett. 

Lucky for us, they are missing a lot of their starters. They are missing: RB Ryan Mathews, MLB Donald Butler, ROLB Melvin Ingram, DT Paul Soliai, WR Danario Alexander 

KICKOFF!! - Thursday Night 8:20 PM at  Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. 

This game was pretty weird in the sense that it was closer than I expected it to be. I expected us to decimate the Chargers considering that most of their key players were hurt while the majority of our guys are healthy. 

At halftime the score was tied at 10. Then in the beginning of the fourth quarter, the score was 17-13. In the fourth quarter, we managed to extend the score to 30-13. In the last two minutes, the Chargers drove down the field and scored a touchdown to make the score 20-30. Then proceed to successfully recover an onside kick. After they recovered the onside kick they drove the field to score another touchdown as time expired to make the score 27-30

FINAL SCORE: SD 27 - 30 OAK 

POTG: This weeks player of the game is MLB Chris Borland 

-Borland recorded 13 tackles, 3 sacks and 4 Tackles for Loss (TFL).

GAME TAKEAWAYS 

• Defense

• Our defense allowed the Chargers offense to gain 447 yards
• 115 yards passing 
• 332 Yards rushing 
• We got a lot of pressure on the Quarterback 
• Recorded 9 sacks 
• MLB Chris Borland recorded 3
• RE Ryan Davis recorded 3 
• DT Henry Melton Recorded 2 
• Rookie DT Tavarus Steward recorded 1
• Danny Woodhead rushed for over a hundred yards 
• Averaged 6.7 yards a carry
• Fumbled once 

• Offense 

• Our offensive line did a good job protecting Derek Carr
• Only got sacked once
• Rookie RT Owamagbe Ogbonna got 2 pancakes (when an offensive lineman runs over a defender)
• Derek Carr had another below average game
• Threw for 176 yards 
• Threw 2 Touchdowns and 2 Interceptions 
• Recorded a 68.1 QBR  
• Completed 56 percent of his passes
• Completed 17 of 30 attempted passes
• Kenjon Barner Rushed for over a hundred yards again 
• Average 6.2 yards a carry 
• Fumbled once 
• David Wilson did not play 

• Team

• We can't keep allowing quarterbacks to throw all over us like they did
• Derek Carr needs to get improve his performances 
• We got 3 turnovers
• We were dominated in the time of possesion battle once again
• They had ball for 27 minutes and 36 seconds
• we had ball for 24 minutes and 24 seconds

Regular Season Weeks 2-3

WEEK TWO

Lions
(1-0)

Raiders
(0-1)

VS

Pre Game Notes: 

Coming into this game, the Detroit Lions are leaps and bounds better than us on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. On offense, they have an above average Quarterback in Matthew Stafford along with him, they have two All-Pro receivers in Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate. Calvin Johnson is 6'5" so I'll try my luck and put my best corner Prince Amukamara on him and hope that he can shut him down. On the defensive side of the ball, the Lions have a GREAT defensive line headlined by Ndamukong Suh, Nick Fairley, and my favorite Ezekiel Ansah. Along with the outstanding defensive line, they have a pretty good line backing core with Deandre Levy and Stephen Tulloch. In the secondary, the Lions are pretty average in the secondary so if our offensive line can give Derek Carr time in the pocket we could probably make some throws down field and give our receivers a chance to make some plays. 

Kickoff!

As soon as the game started I thought that we were destined to lose when Mathew Stafford threw a 80 yard pass to Robert Meachem for a TOUCHDOWN. Meachem would finish the game with 5 receptions for 128 yards. 

The first quarter ended with the score 10-3. But in the second quarter, our offensive was able to score 3 touchdowns with the help of Derek Carr and Wide Receiver Jeremy Maclin. Maclin had a pretty good day, catching 8 passes for 98 yards and of course 2 touchdowns. 

We go into the fourth quarter all tied up at 27 a piece. Fortunately for us, our defense was able to keep the Lions from scoring and allow us take time off the clock and kick a game winning field goal to give us our first victory on the year. 

Final Score: DET 27 - 30 OAK

Game Takeaways: 

• Our defense
•  Excluding the fourth quarter, our defense didn't play good at all. 
• We allowed 437 yards from their offense.
• Stafford threw for 367 yards.
• We did a good job keeping Calvin Johnson from having a monster game. 
• He had two receptions for 24 yards. 
• We did good job stopping the run. 
• They had 58 yards rushing and averaged 3.1 yards a carry
• Our Rookie Corner Back Priest Maclin got an interception 
• Our offense
• We did good rushing the ball 
• Deron Pickett got 56 yards on 12 attempts averaging 4.7 yards a carry. 
• Derek Carr had an average game.
• He completed 57 percent of his passes
• Had 2 Touchdowns 
• Had a 92.1 Quarterback Rating
• We had four opportunities in the red zone (inside the 20 yard line) but we failed to score a touchdown 3 times and had to kick a field goal.
• We won the possession battle by keeping the ball longer than they did.
• We had the ball for 30 minutes and 13 seconds compared to their 21 minutes and 47 seconds. 

Regular Season Game Week 1

(0-0)

(0-0)

WEEK ONE! 

 VS

In our week one match up, we have to face the Pittsburgh Steelers who have a pretty mediocre team. They have a good quarterback in Ben Roethlisberger but an excellent running back in Le'veon Bell. On the offensive line they are okay but our defensive line is okay too so our chances of not allowing Bell to run allover our defense. Apart from Bell, we'll need to worry about the Steelers wide receivers, more specifically, Antonio Brown. The reason Antonio Brown that makes is so great is that he catches everything that is thrown his way and also he is fast. Now when you have a player who can not only blow through coverage and catch any pass thrown to him ... your in for a long afternoon. 

Game Summary: 

My strategy for this game was to RUN! RUN! RUN! Unfortunately, our defense didn't manage to keep the Steelers offense off the field but our strategy proved to momentarily work because by the 2nd quarter we had the lead 20-17. Sadly, in the second quarter, our starting running back, David Wilson, broke his collarbone and wasn't able to return to the game. From that moment, our run game wasn't as effective as it was so we were forced to start throwing the ball and that hurt would hurt us later in the game. Going into the 4th quarter, we had a 30-17 lead. Now when you have such a huge lead, you want to start to take time off the clock by running the ball right through the teeth of the defense. But to no surprise, we weren't able to do that, so threw the ball a whole lot more than I would've liked for him to. Due to the lack of running game,the Steelers were able to  outscore us in the fourth quarter 24-3. Weirdly enough, we had 2 opportunities to either win or tie the game but Derek Carr threw two separate interceptions that gave them the ball back and negated any opportunity we had of winning the game. 

Final Score: Oak 33 - 41 Pitt 

Things We Need to Improve On:

• Passing - Though we ran the ball the majority of the time we were on offense and he threw a touchdown, Derek Carr didn't really have a good game because when we needed to throw the ball Derek wasn't able to deliver. 
• Pass Defense - Our pass defense wasn't great because we allowed Big Ben to throw for 358 Yards and 3 touchdowns on our defense but i mostly contribute this to our young and inexperienced defensive backs. 

The Off-Season

As I said before, this team is practically empty. As in we only have a 20 players when we need at least 53 by the start of the regular season.

FREE AGENCY:

To start free agency I targeted every top tier free agent at all the positions we needed. Unfortunately, not everyone accepted the contracts I offered them so I wasn't able to fill all the positions I wanted. 

The top free agent that I signed was Corner Back Prince Amukamara to a five year contract worth a total of 54.5 Million Dollars. At the moment, his 26 years old which means that his contract should end when his around the age of 30 or 31 and that good because that when his skills start to deteriorate.

Next, I signed I signed 28 year old Defensive Tackle Henry Melton to a 4 year deal worth a total of 22 Million Dollars. 

To just get a free safety, I signed 27 year old Kendrick Lewis. I don't expect Kendrick to be a starter his whole stent her because I hope to draft a better guys in future years. 

To fill our  needs at Wide Receiver, I signed 25 year old Jarrett Boykin who caught 80 passes for 841 yards and 8 Touchdown so we hope that we get that type of production for him. 

My plan was to draft a couple of offensive lineman in the draft, so just in case my drafted offensive lineman didn't pan out, I signed Veteran Tackle Tyson Clabo to a 2 year deal worth 3.44 Million dollars. 

THE DRAFT: 

I had the 10th overall pick, so I was conflicted on whether to go with a Tackle or a Corner Back. So I talked about the conflict with my mentor, Keron Smith,and we ultimately decided to draft a Tackle. I made this decision because, in my division, I have to face the Denver Broncos, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the San Diego Chargers who all have great defensive lines. Also, I scouted a Corner back that I thought was good and was projected to be drafted in the sixth round. 

Draft picks:

1st Round - Left Tackle - Kirk Lane - 88 Overall

2nd Round - Corner Back - Derek Burnett - 73 Overall

3rd Round - Right Tackle - Owamagbe Ogbonna - 73 Overall

4th Round - Left End - Edivaldo McKinney - 68 Overall 

5th Round - Corner Back - Priest Maclin - 78 Overall

6th Round - Wide Receiver - Sergia Black - 64 Overall 

7th Round - Kicker - Justin Perkins - 61 Overall 

Overall Thoughts: 

Overall, I am pleased with the drat, in the sense that I have found 2 players that are key to a championship win in our future in Kirk Lane and Priest Maclin but we'll see how they develop as the season progresses.

A Major Screw Up (that Leads to...) A New Beginning

Knowing that my team was just awful and wouldn't win that much, I decided that I would spare my time and simulate the rest of the season. At the end of the season, all was good until I got the news that I had been FIRED by The Tampa Bay Buccaneers after going 2 and 14. Fortunately for me, the ultimate goal of my project is to rebuild a bad team and win the Super bowl with them so to my luck, I was offered a Job by arguably the second worse team in the NFL, the Oakland Raiders. Another instance that fell in my favor is its the Raiders not only have the 9th overall pick (which is a minor downgrade from the Bucks 1st overall pick) by they have 95 MILLION DOLLARS in cap space which is important because they barely have anyone on their roster so i'll need to figure put how to allocate my money and what position are most important to me for the type of scheme i'm trying to run.

Contract Details: 

I signed a 3 year contract for 5.05 Million Dollars. 

TEAM NEEDS:

EVERYTHING!  

THIS ROSTER IS EMPTIER THAN A EMPTY! WE HAVE NO DEPTH AND AT MOST POSITIONS... NO PLAYERS!

Week 3

(1-1)

(0-2)

GAME 3

VS

In our 3rd game of the season we look to bounce back from our two loses as we go to Georgia Dome to face the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons attributes are that they have a great quarterback, Great receivers, terrible offensive line, and a pathetic defensive. Though there defense is a bad as ours, they have a great young corner in Desmond Trufant who will be faced with the challenge of facing our stud number one receiver, Mike Evans. 

Important Note:

From now on, I'm not going to spend too much time talking about the games because I am trying to lose 14 games so that I can get the first overall pick, then draft my desired player and build from that. 

Final  Score: 

The game ends with us losing 32-34. I would've given myself an opportunity to win the game when they had the ball on their side of the field with 3 minutes left. But fortunately, I didn't wasn't paying much attention and I didn't call timeouts when I needed to so they held the ball till the end of the game.

Regular Season Game 2

(0-1)

(0-1)

Game 2 

VS

                                                                                                                                                                

In game 2 of the regular season, we face a team in the Sam Bradford led St. Louis Rams who in a lot of ways are similar to the Carolina Panthers. Like the Carolina Panthers, the Rams have a great defense and a pretty mediocre offense. So our offensive line without Logan Mankins vs Their Phenomenal Defensive line is a key match up to worry about.

On the first offensive drive for the Rams, they quickly take the ball down the field and score a touchdown rushing the ball with Zach Stacy. 

On our first offensive drive, we were doing pretty good until our tight end Luke Stocker dropped a pass on 3rd down that would've given us a 1st down and put us pass the 50 yard line.

During the Game, our defense kept allowing the Rams offense to take the ball down the field but only for them to kick a field goal because we played great redzone defense. I promise you, in the first three quarters, if we consistently played defense the way we do when they get in the redzone, we'll be a superbowl contender in NO TIME. On the other hand, our redzone offense was TERRIBLE! When we got in the redzone, we played like a division 10 college football team, and I'm pretty sure that there is no division 10 but if they started one, they should add our offense to the league. The sad part about this is that we have Mike Evans who is built for redzone situations where all I need to do is just throw it up and he'll make some type of play. But our problems at the quarterback position continued to show. 

After the first quarter, I saw that Tyler Wilson wasn't having a good game as he completed 6 out of his 14 attempted passes so I made a gutsy call and decided to bench him for our 3rd string Rookie quarterback in Seth Lobato. When Lobato Came in, he wasn't but he was definitely better than Wilson. I would take most of the blame Lobato not being as efficient as he could potentially been because I kept throwing the ball down the field even when we didn't need to so that affected his completion percentage and QBR, but he was pretty average... nothing special. 

Rushing the ball, Everyone was pretty good, but Bobby Rainey on the other hand was ATROCIOUS!

He ran the ball four times to only gain ONE YARD!! While averaging .3 YARDS A CARY! I cant even blame the offensive line for this because Doug Martin got over a hundred yards on 21 carries while our FULL BACK Jorvorkskie Lane and 3rd string Half Back Charles Sims got 9 yards on 2 attempts. 

Honestly, with the current QB situation we have I need to run the ball a whole lot more and I cant accomplish that with Bobby Rainey running the way he did this game.

On the receiving side of the ball, Mike Evans had himself another Fantastic game catching 11 balls for 127 yards. I know its early in the season but this kid has lived up to the hype and can surpass the high expectations I already have for him. He, Doug Martin, and (when he gets back) Mike Glennon would carry this team for years to come. 

Our offensive line was alright and that's about it for them.

On defense, Lavonte David lead the team with 9 total tackles. Johnathan Banks (yes, the cornerback who is suppose to be down the field covering receivers) somehow always found himself in the backfield sacking the quarterback as he led the team with 2 sacks. 

Im sorry for making this sort of an after thought but the game ended in overtime, as the Rams Drove down the field to score the game winning touchdown.

FINAL SCORE: 32-26

Regular Season Week 1

VS

Prior to our week one game against the Carolina Panthers I made a couple of moves that would better help our team in the future. 

The First move I made was that I traded our veteran Wide Receiver Vincent Jackson to the Kansas City Chiefs for a 3rd round pick. The reason I made this trade was because the Chiefs will have to beat two great teams in the Denver Broncos and the San Diego Chargers to win their division, let alone make it to the playoffs. So I'm hoping that they will fall to the middle of the round therefore giving me the opportunity to draft a solid player for the team. Also, I thought this trade would be logical because it would get my younger receivers time to play and gain more experience so when the inevitable Super Bowl run happens they'll be ready.

The next move I made was that I sent our 27 Defensive End, Micheal Johnson to the Chicago Bears for a 3rd round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. The reason I made this transaction was pretty much the same reason I made the Jackson transaction but with trading Johnson, I was able to free up $8 Million in cap room. 

Game 1 Summary:

In week 1 we had a tough task ahead of us as we had to face the Cam Newton led Carolina panthers. Though it was a home game, we were still a very vulnerable team because Newton is a great dual-threat Quarterback. Being a dual-threat QB means that you are great at both passing and running the ball. This skill puts a great amount of stress on the defense because if you not only have to cover their great rookie Wide Receiver in Kelvin Benjamin, we also have to decide if we want to spy a line backer or a lineman to make sure that her doesn't escape from the pocket. 

So the game starts with the Panthers getting the ball first. They quickly drive down the field and are in prime position to score a touchdown until Newton overthrows a his receiver in the flats and is picked off by our young Strong Safety Bradley McDougald. 

Out comes the rookie QB Mike Glennon out for his first start in the NFL, hopefully its a great one. On our first drive our offense marches down the field and gets in field goal range but our kicker Patrick Murray misses a field goal that would've put us ahead by 3. 

Now the Panthers have the ball with great feild position and great offense ready to strike. The Panthers imediately march down the field and Cam Newton throws a TOUCHDOWN pass to Tight End Greg Olson. 

When we got the ball back we went three and out and the panthers once again marched down the field to score to make the score 14 to 0. After getting the ball back, we quickly got down the field a were about to score till Mike Evans fumbled a catch which let gave the Panthers the ball back. A couple drives later Newton throws another interception to the young Free Safety John Boyett who gets a 39 yard return and we get a good return out of it. We couldn't score a touchdown so we kicked a field goal. 

Fast Forward to the 4th quarter, we our down 28 to 12 and the panthers have the ball and the march down the field and kicked a field goal which gave them a 31 to 13 lead. So we got the ball back and went down the field and everything was going well till Mike Glennon went down with an injury with 3 minutes left in the 4th Quarter. Moments later we would find out that he had in fact dislocated his elbow and he'll be out for the next four weeks. Because of the injury, our backup QB Tyler Wilson came in finished the drive off with a touchdown pass. 

Anyway, we lost the game 31-23. 

Game One Standouts:

Though his stats may not say so, Mike Glennon in his first start was a stand out. Mike Glennon finished with 297 yards and completing 56 percent of his 44 attempted passes and ended up with an interception and a 68.0 QB rating. 

The next stand out was Mike Evans. I came into the season with high hopes for Evans. But apart from the fumble Mike had a great first game as he caught 8 balls for 107 yards and averaging 13.4 yards per catch. In the future I wouldn't expect Evans to consistently have these numbers because Glennon is down so I will just expect us to run the ball more. 

John Boyett had himself a PHENOMENAL game as he led the team in tackles and got an interception. 

Though allowing Cam Newton to rush for 65 yards, our defensive line only allowed 58 rushing yards to the panthers running backs.

When Glennon went down with the injury, I was worried if Tyler Wilson would be able to come in and do good job in relief. Wilson went completed 4 of his 4 attempted passes for 44 yards and a touchdown while posting a 152 QBR. Though its just a small sample size of what he can do, I am confident in Wilsons ability to hold down the QB position till Glennon is able to return. 

Wall of Mediocrity: week one edition

Welcome to the wall of mediocrity, this is the place where I shine a light on players, or a group of players that didn't play like a bum but didn't play like a pro bowler either.

Our first inductee is the offensive line, while they only allowed 2 sacks agains a stout Carolina defensive line, they also didn't provide a lot of rushing lanes for our backs to run through. As a matter of fact, I contribute Mike Glennons poor QBR to the fact that we were always in 3rd down and long situations where we were forced to throw the ball. 

Week Post Game:

After the game, I decided that I would start "Tanking". Tanking is when a team purposely loses in hopes of getting a high draft pick the following year. The reason I made this decision was because Glennon went is out with an injury so therefore we our most likely going to lose our first 4 games and in a division with teams like the Falcons, Saints, and Panthers it wot be easy to catch up with them after dropping so many games early on. 

To begin this tanking process, I decided to trade Logan Mankins to the New York Jets for a 4th round draft pick. The Jets play in a division with the Tom Brady led New England Patriots, the Miami Dolphins and The Buffalo Bills who have a great defense. Plus, the Jets have issues at the Quarterback position, so I am expecting that fourth round pick to be in the top 10. And besides, Logan Mankins is 32 years old and just takes up cap room that we'll need this off-season to get Free Agents so Itraded him now while he was wanted because in the off-season, he'll be 33 years old and less skillful and those are the worst two combinations a team wants in an offensive lineman,

Epic Fail!

While I was preparing for the regular season I made a lot of moves that would better my team for the future that I could spend days upon days talking about but i realized that I made a mistake earlier. My mistake was that I decided to relocate the team next season. The thing is, if I ended up winning the Super Bowl with the relocation team, it technically practically make what I'm trying to do because it would be winning the Super Bowl with the another team in another city. So I am going to re-start the franchise and  I'll try to make the moves that i did and my next post will be about the first four weeks of the REGULAR season. I won't be playing the regular season because I already know what I have in my team.

Preseason WK 1

So this week I went through the preseason and made some notable adjustments to the team based on their performances in the games.

 PS Week 1 

VS

Signings:

As noted in an earlier post, one of the teams most questionable positions is at Quarterback. So to fill this void I went out to free agency and signed former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Josh Freeman for $1.55 Million and Second year Quarterback Tyler Wilson for $920 Thousand. 

To fix our lack of depth and talent and depth on the offensive line, I signed 2 guards in Chris Snee for $2.6 Million and Jason Pinkson for $680 Thousand. After that, I signed Tackle Red Frage. 

Finally I signed Wide Receiver Trindon Holliday for $730 Thousand and Line Backer Pat Anger for $1.83 Million. Honestly I really didn't need to sign Holliday but he is FAST! So that means that he'll be tremendous in special teams. The reason I signed Pat anger was because he was a player that gave the roster depth. I might end up cutting him down the road though. 

Game 1 Standouts:

A stand out for the first game on the offensive side of the ball is Mike Glennon. Glennon played only the first quarter and completed 3 out of his 3 attempted passes for 49 yards and a 118.7 Quarterback Rating. Along with Glennon, I was also impressed with Tyler Wilson as Completed 60% of his 33 passes for 161 yards and a 72.9 QB Rating. 

Receiving the ball, Brandon Myers Led the team in Receptions with 6 and averaging 8.8 yards per catch. 

Game 1 Disappointments:

As expected, The main disappointment of  week one would be our defense. With the starters only playing the first quarter, they allowed the Jacksonville GAINED 662 YARDS OFFENSIVELY!! That performance is the epitome of terrible defense! I mean, I expected us to be bad but not as bad to allow the CHAD HENNE led JAGUARS! This goes back to my point that we need depth so i'll be seriously addressing that in the upcoming offseason.  

Another Dissapointment was Josh Freeman. When I signed Josh, I had high hopes that he could maybe challenge Mike Glennon for the starting job. But his performance quickly changed my mind because if he keeps playing the way he is I will cut him in a heartbeat because his roster spot could be easily given to a position player. The problem with Josh was that he completed 38 Percent of his passes in 13 Attempts. The main reason he was so bad was because I was trying to throw down the field with deep passes and he was very inaccurate and that is a huge red flag (no pun intended) because my plan with this team is to let throw deep passes to Mike Evans since his so big. 

Lastly the offensive line was as expected, concerning because they gave up 5 sacks and our quarterbacks were constantly under pressure. Though Doug Martin averaged 15 yards a carry, they didn't hold their blocks long enough for our back to find holes to run through. The reason Martin got 3 yards was because he managed to get a 63 yard run. 

Things I Failed To Mention:

Last week, I failed to mention that I will be taking over the team in Connected Connected Franchise mode as an owner. But after realizing some faults in the mode, I decided that i will be taking over the team as a coach. 

Decision Time

MY 20 TIME DECISION 

For my 20 Time i have decided that I'll take the worst team in the NFL, The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, to the Super Bowl in Madden 15.

In "real life" The Bucs went 2-14 and have the first pick in the NFL Draft this season. However I probably wont be blessed with that opportunity depending on how well my team plays.

DIFFICULTY:

To get the most realistic statistics I will be playing on custom sliders that I got from Operation Sports. I personally tested the sliders in 12 games and I've been pleased with the statistics.

THE ROSTER:

To no surprise, this team doesn't really have any strengths or depth at any key position but there are are a couple of players that will play a vital role to the eventual Super Bowl run. 

The immediate standout on offense is the rookie wide receiver Mike Evans. Evans is 6'5" and weighs 231 pounds and will be used as a deep threat due to his size and power. 

On the opposite side of the ball, we have a couple of  young players that are good but we don't have any depth so in the case they go down with an injury our defense would struggle,if they arent already, due to lack of quality backups.

Our key defensive players are Defensive Tackle Gerald McCoy, Outside Linebacker Lavonte David, Corner Back Alterraun Verner and Danny Lananah. 

POSITIONS THAT NEED WORK:

Quarterback: We only have two so I plan to be starting Mike Glennon and have Josh McCown as my backup. Depending on how well Glennon develops during the season, I plan to upgrade this position either through the draft or through Free Agency. 

Wide Reciever: Though we have  Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson, Jackson is getting old and his production will start to decline after this season so I'll need to build some depth by getting a lot of slot receiver.  

Project Execution:

This project shall be executed by playing 4 games a week and watching Madden 15 Connected Careers Videos on YouTube