A Colts/Blizzard Journal

[JPK]

Before starting the new season, we would like to report that a few Blizzard legends have retired in recent years. We thank them for their time in Anchorage and congratulate them on great careers.

[JPK]

Preseason notes

-Bernie Serra was not bad, but he was not good either. He'll have to make the most of his carries this season and work hard in the offseason.

-Some shuffling on the offensive line: Oluwasegun Carroll moves to LT, and rookie Tayshaun Matthews appears to be the starter at RT.

-William Morse was used all over the field. Coverage is not his forte, but he can apply pressure from anywhere.

-Eddie Andrews had a good camp and should start at MLB on day one. But if he can't keep up, veteran Rondell Hendrickson is a great insurance policy.

-Lots of experimentation in the defensive backfield. Ben Brown did not have the best camp, but the team is not giving up. Eric Baker appears to have officially switched to defense, as he is wearing #26. He was however used in all 3 phases of play during the preseason.

[JPK]

Opening day depth chart

QB: 8 Lucius Stolte (99/30), 6 Dave Holliday (77/26)
HB: 33 Shawn McNamara (94/29), 34 Bernie Serra (82/21), 28 Jimmy Pittman (78/22)
FB: 41 Corey Jackson (99/29), 46 Deion Norris (89/32), 48 William Green (81/26), 45 Rick Clemons (71/22), 39 Ralph Smith (71/26)
WR: 81 Sheldon Stone (90/24), 16 Rodney Lott (82/27), 84 Charles George (78/29), 80 Ben Mitchell (75/28)
TE: 42 C.J. Reynolds (79/23), 86 Marco Frazier (83/30), 83 Manasses Sweeney (73/23)
LT: 76 Oluwasegun Carroll (93/25)
LG: 67 Angelo Millen (83/23)
C: 74 Jermaine Evans (95/29), 65 Josh Prior (77/22)
RG: 69 Tarik Bryan (91/27), 64 Layton Pounds (77/23)
RT: 78 Tayshaun Matthews (80/22), 75 Ochuko Woolford (75/26)

LE: 96 Terrell Moore (92/29), 95 George Cain (78/30), 73 Donald Richardson (78/21)
DT: 94 Tervaris Stewart (90/25), 91 Akeem Thomas (78/22)
RE: 99 William Morse (79/26), 98 Josh Harris (83/28), 92 Richard Westbrook (74/25)
LOLB: 52 Mack Rodgers (87/23), 50 Tommy Mejia (82/29)
MLB: 56 Eddie Andrews (74/23), 58 Rondell Hendrickson (87/29), 54 Tyrell Shroeder (71/24)
ROLB: 49 Craig Hayden (91/30)
LB/CB: 57 Jamel Watson (92/27)
CB: 31 Markus Hartley (93/30), 22 Raeshon Millen (88/32), 35 Ben Brown (74/22), 26 Eric Baker (71/21), 27 Rashaan Stills (75/27), 32 Jaime Martin (71/26)
FS: 44 Avery Snell (88/29), 36 Daunte Jones (86/29), Darrell Sherry (83/22)
SS: 29 Tra Hunt (89/26), 43 Ralph Casey (80/26), 25 John Palmer (75/21)

K: 2 Derek Wallick (95/27), 3 James Taylor (72/23)
P: 2 Derek Wallick (98/27)
H: 6 Dave Holliday
LS: 95 George Cain
KR: 81 Sheldon Stone, 26 Eric Baker, 35 Ben Brown
PR: 81 Sheldon Stone, 26 Eric Baker, 35 Ben Brown

HC: Austin Jackson (former Blizzard OL)
OC: Merton Myers (former Blizzard C)
DC: Ralph Rivers (former Blizzard DT)
ST: Ethan Harris (former Cowboys WR)

[Ratbu]

Hey bro, no chance of sending the custom art files?

[JPK]

Hey bro, no chance of sending the custom art files?

Sorry I haven't come back to you, I am not sure which files I'm supposed to send. Would it be the CUSTOMART folder found in Program Files? Which contains the stock custom files, as well as .dat files of the teams I've created. Since I don't know how to read .dat, I'm not sure which ones are relevant, so I'd have to send all of them. PM me your e-mail address and I'll send them to you.

[JPK]

Midseason update

The Blizzard offense is not as polished as last year, when Shawn McNamara, Sheldon Stone and C.J. Reynolds all piled up at least 100 yards and a TD in every single game. We do not expect this to happen every season, but this year's team has been relying on Stone much more heavily.

One of the best games in a long time happened in week 9, when the Blizzard hosted the Cowboys. Dallas was only 4-3 but were looking to get momentum to go into the second half of the season. As an indication, here is the Cowboys' depth chart.

QB: 4 David Marshall (96/23), 16 Dwight Fraser (99/35), 15 Tom Myers (74/27)
HB: 40 James Edwards (85/28), 21 Isaiah Kennedy (84/27), 20 Mario Martin (82/31)
FB: 23 Corey Harmon (83/30)
WR: 81 Travis Lopez (90/25), 13 O.J. Joyce (93/35), 87 Joe Nixon (88/34), 17 Kenny Sanders (89/36), 82 Brent Hall, 89 Fernando Robbins (80/29), 85 James Johnson (80/29)
TE: 83 Earl Culberson (97/34), 80 LaBron Joyce (90/25), 88 Pete Garcia (89/25)
LT: 78 Tay Dunkle (97/32), 68 Darrell Bailey (84/22), 79 Cris Antwine (84/31)
LG: 61 Jessie Rowe (95/26), 66 Alfred Caudle (79/28)
C: 64 Casey Goosen (79/28), 62 J.R. Duff (74/31)
RG: 63 Angelo Sloan (93/27), 73 Fred McNamara (73/22)
RT: 75 Shaun Gholston (92/26), 70 C.J. Burrough (75/34)

LE: 93 Jacob Duncan (99/31), 91 Gerald Graham (81/22)
DT: 95 J.J. Norton (90/30), 99 Thomas Hilliard (81/23), 90 Jerry Harlan (82/29)
RE: 92 Roscoe Cain (95/29)
LOLB: 45 Greg Dixon (97/35), 56 Jevan Fairey (89/31), 50 Ryan Mosling (86/25)
MLB: 57 Corey Jacobs (96/33), 58 Darius Foley (85/26)
ROLB: 54 Tyrone Simon (87/24), 51 Warren Homan (86/21)
CB: 46 Nate Carpenter (86/34), 25 Joe Davis (91/34), 42 Deunta Kelly (89/31), 33 Fred Dutton (84/35), 37 Sergio Odom (85/23), 28 Dave Paris (85/24), 35 Bernard Wall (85/22)
FS: 32 Jordon Irving (94/36), 24 James Richardson (77/24)
SS: 26 Barry Dwight (91/29), 47 Jake Givens (87/22), 49 Sylvester Mosling (76/23)

K: 6 Jeffrey Harper (99/35)
P: 5 Moises Randall (99/31)
H: 16 Dwight Fraser
LS: 78 Tay Dunkle
KR: 81 Travis Lopez
PR: 81 Travis Lopez

HC: Adam Rowe (former Raiders QB)
OC: Lonnie Lofton (former QB)
DC: T.Atkinson (former DB)
ST: Orlando Scandrick (former Cowboys DB)


The Blizzard won the coin toss and elected to receive the ball. They marched down the field and showed their aggressiveness when they went for it on 4th down from the opposite 1-yard line. Sheldon Stone caught the TD pass.



The Cowboys tied when Travis Lopez caught a pass from David Marshall and beat Ralph Casey to make it to the endzone.



After Stone scored another TD, this time on 41 yards, Anchorage forced Dallas to punt. Stone only had DE Gerald Graham to beat, but the young lineman rose to the occasion to stop him in his tracks and keep the game within a TD.



After forcing a punt, the Cowboys marched down the field. Backup HB Isaiah Kennedy punched it in to tie the score.



But on the ensuing kickoff, Sheldon Stone found a hole and made it all the way for the 105-yard TD.



The Blizzard got the ball back around midfield, but both starting defensive ends tallied sacks to force the punt.




On the ensuing possession, Marshall connected with veteran O.J. Joyce for the 70-yard TD.



WR Rodney Lott caught a pass deep in Dallas territory, but Greg Dixon forced the fumble. Unfortunately for the visiting team, they fumbled on the next play to give the ball back to Anchorage.



Shawn McNamara, who was having an ordinary day, made it into the endzone to give his team the lead again.



This gave over 2 minutes to the Cowboys to march down the field, and they did just that. David Marshall was unaccounted for and he made it into the endzone untouched to send the game into overtime.



Both teams traded unsuccessful possessions, then Anchorage made it inside the opposing 10-yard line. FB Corey Jackson made it out of the backfield and caught the winning pass. Final score: Cowboys 28, Blizzard 34.




Notes:

-the Cowboys (and many other teams) hold on to aging players who have lost a lot of speed. For the next game against the Cowboys (probably a few seasons from now), I plan to not only boost some players, but also look at the depth chart. Some younger, faster cornerbacks could have possibly changed the outcome.

-though the Blizzard squeaked out the win and stands at 8-0, this raises the question whether they are slowing down, and whether they should experiment with some of their younger players. They experimented in the previous week against the 0-6 Eagles by putting in Ben Brown and Eric Baker as starting cornerbacks. Brown thanked the team by grabbing his first career interception, while Baker was not targeted very often.

[RevanFan]

Boy, it's weird seeing Greg Dixon again. And Fraser on the bench?

[JPK]

Boy, it's weird seeing Greg Dixon again. And Fraser on the bench?

Yeah, QB Marshall came out of nowhere and won the job. It was very weird for me too to see Fraser hold the ball as QB2 on extra points.

[RevanFan]

Boy, it's weird seeing Greg Dixon again. And Fraser on the bench?

Yeah, QB Marshall came out of nowhere and won the job. It was very weird for me too to see Fraser hold the ball as QB2 on extra points.

I always have my punter hold the ball so I don't have to worry about that, haha.

[JPK]

Season 35 recap

Following the near-loss to the Cowboys, the Blizzard decided to go with speed and inexperience at cornerback, making Ben Brown and Eric Baker starters.

Baker was solid, finishing 2nd in DROY voting. He had 35 tackles, 4 interceptions, 1 forced fumble, 4 fumble recoveries and 2 defensive touchdowns. He added 17 receptions for 317 yards and 5 TDs, as well as a kick return TD.




For the second year in a row, MVP honors went to WR Sheldon Stone. With an impressive week 17 game against the Titans (14 receptions for 434 yards, just 16 yards shy of Rashaan McLean's single-game record), he beat his personal records with 103 receptions for 2767 yards and 35 TDs. He was also a force on special teams, amassing 2508 kick return yards and 12 TDs, 596 punt return yards and 5 TDs, and 49 tackles, a forced fumble and a 1-yard fumble recovery for an extra TD. If you've been paying attention, that's 5872 total yards and 53 TDs.



As a secondary target, FB Corey Jackson had his best season so far. He rushed for 102 yards and 5 TDs, but it's through the air that he was especially impressive. catching 60 balls for 911 yards and 21 TDs.



The DPOY award went to Jamel Watson again. This time, he had 90 tackles, 37 sacks, 3 interceptions, 2 forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. Eddie Andrews was the starter at MLB and he compiled 17 sacks and 3 forced fumbles, a performance reminiscent of former starter Phil Bailey. Ben Brown showed he's a great tackler, but might have to work on his hands, as he snatched only 1 interception to go with his 64 tackles.



DE William Morse reacts quickly and grabs the interception.


Ben Brown gets his first career interception.