Pittsburgh Steelers -- A Rookie's learning way to Franchise Mode

[KeepinItTeal]

Blake Bortles for the second longest pass ... wait what? He can't throw the ball that deep ... wait ...

Hits a 69 yard bomb but still averages only 139.0 yds/game. That's so Bortles!

[madden07eurocat]

Blake Bortles for the second longest pass ... wait what? He can't throw the ball that deep ... wait ...

Hits a 69 yard bomb but still averages only 139.0 yds/game. That's so Bortles!

What's not mentioned is that Bortles hit T.J. Yeldon in the backfield and he ran for the 69 yards!

[jose21crisis]

Blake Bortles for the second longest pass ... wait what? He can't throw the ball that deep ... wait ...

Hits a 69 yard bomb but still averages only 139.0 yds/game. That's so Bortles!

What's not mentioned is that Bortles hit T.J. Yeldon in the backfield and he ran for the 69 yards!

Well ...

Code: Select all

RECEIVING                      REC  YDS   AVG LONG   TD DROP  YAC
Allen Robinson                  15  211  14.0   69    2    0   41
Dede Westbrook                   5   89  17.7   67    0    0    9
Allen Hurns                      2   75  37.5   62    0    0   15
Marcedes Lewis                   7   54   7.7   15    1    0   33
Marqise Lee                      6   46   7.6   21    0    1    7
Leonard Fournette                3   19   6.3   13    0    1   23
Chris Ivory                      1    7   7.0    7    0    0    7

He legitemately hit Allen Robinson on a bomb. As unbelievable as it is, that's as Tim Tebow/Blake Bortles as it can possibly get.

[jose21crisis]

All right, last time, we went to Minnesota and managed to shutdown their offense. This is looking far better than what I expected, let's try to do it again. Next up, we travel to Soldier Field at Chicago to face the 0-2 Bears. They aren't as bad as the Browns, but they are somewhat bad.

Something I forgot on my last posts was to set Team Captains, which I'll do now. My standard logic is to set my starting QB, Highest Rated Offensive Player and Highest Rated Defensive player as Team Captains. So in my team, those are:



Ben Roethlisberger, which will probably remain my starter QB for the next season, he's getting old and Landry Jones doesn't look like the replacement I need.



Antonio Brown, who is simply overpowered. He did not participate in the last game a lot due to injury, so I intend to fix his stats today.



James Harrison, the old man. He's still pretty damn good, but will probably retire in this offseason.

Now, time for the game.



So here we are, good weather. My new Team Captains are there. We lost the coin toss, so the Bears get initial possession.



Remember, we aren't going to let your QB have a great time in the pocket, Blitzburgh is coming to get you, and we got Trubisky right there.



They eventually wised up and started using more blockers, which allowed Trubisky more time in the pocket. They definitely want to go deep on us. We don't have the best deep pass protection. So if they want to win this, they'll have to take deep shots.



William Gay, pick that football. Anyway, good pass, but both of them simply couldn't do anything to catch it. They eventually settled for a field goal, which ...



... went right. The accuracy ...

Is time for our O to take the field, which means we are going to do some ground and pounding with Le'Veon Bell



We have some great blocks from the O-Line and Nix, the fullback, is able to get into the secondary and get some blocks.



Not the best blocking job, but, whatever.



Big Ben, throw the ball when I press the button. I swear, when I press the button, he simply doesn't throw it if a defender is too close. Anyway, that sack set us up for a huge deficit, as in ...



Pictured there, is the play art for my long yardage play. Gun-Empty Steeler: Strong Overload. I'm using a custom playbook which is NE playbook, plus some new formations and new names, in the standard playbook that would be Shotgun-Empty Tray Stack. I will upload the newest playbook here if you want to test it. Some new formations in. Anyway, back to the action. See that flag route on the right? The one run by AB? That's my target.



AB is wide open in the flag. Critical mistake by every damn defense in this league. They eventually got fed up with AB.



A good route to the middle of the field, then AB got a big hit straight to the face. He's fine, no injuries. Now, when we face 3rd and short, there is one reasonable play to do.



Fullback handoff. When you have a huge guy that is hard to stop, you give the ball to him.



Pictured here is one of our newer plays, Gun-Spread Y Slot (Shotgun-4WR Spread): Steeler Y-Trail. A goalline fade that only has one target, Antonio Brown. Martavis Bryant jumps higher, but AB has the catching rating to make this work.



Open enough, the catch didn't got contested, they were trying to jar the ball out before he landed. It failed, and that's TD number 1.

Time for the Bears. They decided to start the drive with ...



a PA Pass. You don't do a PA Pass against a blitzer. They aren't fooled by them.



James Harrison sure isn't fooled by them. Eventually Trubisky got wise to our blitzes.



Arthur Moats is coming up from behind, but Trubisky decides to scramble and he is pretty fast.



But sat down before he got to the first down marker, which means that they have to get off the field.



Le'Veon Bell is dangerous both in the backfield and as a receiver. He is often ignored and can be used as a safety valve. Here he was the primary receiver, so I went to him.



I decided to do some play action antics, and my designated play for that is from out Pistol formation, PA Deep Shot. You might imagine what that is suppossed to do. Problem is, the Bears corners are fast enough to keep up with AB and Bryant and weren't fooled by the play action.



This is how bad it got. I decided to be smart, not force anything and throw it underneath.



Eli Rogers making work, he's the safety valve on this play. Have to use him.



Now, this play had a lot of potential. Look at the whole that O-Line opened. Bell got loose.



Thanks Jesse James. I appreciate that penalty. Eventually we hit 3rd down. I decided to use some slants to try and get the first.



This here. Here, we have a Pass Interference on the offense, but we also have a Pass Interference on the defense. I assume both nullify each other. So we punt the ball.



And so ends the first quarter. 7-0 Steelers.



Still no luck against those blitzes. Non at all.



The pressure was too much for Trubisky. He threw a quite innaccurate pass here. Could have been better, lead him too much.



Just want to tell you that the hatin' ass Jags beat the Ravens 23-9. Ok, punt time.



Facepalm ... JuJu .... I might have to user control you for this kind of stuff. Anyway, the Bears got that back.



I can certify that having 2 linebackers coming to get you on a running play never succeds. Never.



Sure thing, he did not go far. They would try a FG, but it would be missed.



This is a risky throw. I'm sending it to JuJu Smith-Schuster. If you F up a play, you better come up big.



Sure thing, My #3 is doing a great job. I'll focus most of my efforts on AB, since I need to put his numbers back up again.



That doesn't mean I'll ignore everyone else. The Tight Ends catching balls are always good. Sure, Jesse James and Vance McDonald aren't Heath Miller (HEEEEATH), but they do fine.



AB, doing great things. This time on the fade.



Great drive, is now a 2 possession game.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/IQWuzwA.jpg[/img

These penalties aren't helping them, not at all.



They started to get a pace going. That receiver is open and would take a while to be tackled. Don't worry, they didn't score.

https://i.imgur.com/UPXMRLO.jpg

Trubisky started to run the football more considering how good my D is against the pass.



2 minutes remaining. On the red zone. You would expect at least a FG, but let's see.



Trubisky, what are you doing? How you throw the ball that way. You might cost your team some points. That was Intentional Grounding. I don't agree with this game's logic of Intentional Grounding.



And blitzed all the way out of the Red Zone and FG range.



that puts an end to this quarter. 14-Nothing Steelers.



There you go, the relevant stats. I'd say, we have the best bend but don't break D in the league. Lots of yards, not too many points, mostly because the kickers suck way too bad, I'll fix that.

On the next post. Will the Bears be able to comeback? We will see.

Now, where I left the playbook ...

[jose21crisis]

All right, last time. We manage to keep the Bears out of the score board, let's see if that changes:



You would imagine that when a QB looks down the field like this, he would be throwing it to one of this receivers downfield.



He's rifling it to Bell, he'll be doing a great job.



By slipping out of a tackle ...



... and giving a man the bussiness with his arm. When Le'Veon Bell has the ball, everyone whould be scared.



At this moment I realized that the linemen aren't correctly aligned in the Pistol formations. I fixed that, if you are testing the file I uploaded, the Linemen will be aligned properly.



Again, look at Bell. he has a huge lane and can shed tackles, which is a reason why we are winning. He will put up about 100 yards today.



And this is the reason why you need to be careful when placing Quick Corners in Man Coverage, if they don't see a defender cutting, that will be a problem. AB demonstrates that. Leave your Quick Corners on Zone coverage, is better for them.



3 guesses as of what kind of play I used here.



Jesse James is wide open in the end zone. And he's a tight end. He's huge, there is no way to miss such a guy.



Even Mike Tomlin is happy.



This ... hah ... my fault. I couldn't swat down the ball and it became a footrace. No endzone yet.



On second down, the Old Man got in there for a sack. You can't stop James Harrison. Don't try to.



This play is one I liked. My Pass Rush was decent, it got stopped but it was pressure. Ryan Shazier is there on Spy Coverage, but he isn't suppossed to act just yet.



Then Trubisky stepped up into the now inexisting pocket, activating Shazier and getting a sack.



About time you got something. So FG Bears. Is still 21-3 though .... maybe they have a chance?



I tried a PA Rollout pass here. 2 Linebackers broke into the backfield.



Big Ben sheds a tackle somehow, someway. That LB didn't wrap up Ben and that can be a problem for them.



Then he throws it to Brown, who makes the catch.



I scored a FG? Dang, I forgot to take a screenshot of it. Welp, there are your scores.



This can be considered a hard FG. 49 yards, wind against us. But Chris Boswell is clutch, he doesn't have the player role, but he should. Maybe he needs more Game Winning FGs, but that's harder to get. He got that FG.



Every receiver is covered, but Trubisky decided to throw the ball to one of them. Running would have been good. I know, they need to comeback.



William Gay .... sigh



Down by 24. 10 mins remain. 4th and 5. They have to go for it.



James Harrison, with the game ending swat. This game is practically over. No way they can comeback now.



I still need to fix AB's stats, so we will keep the drive down the field and keep passing to him. I've passed around 90% of the passes to Brown.



As you might understand, Bell was tired. So here comes James Conner, our backup, rookie, power back.



So, Conner swings to the outside, following Roosevelt Nix. You know following the blockers is important.



Here, this run becomes great. He outruns a LB.



Nix gives a great block.



Gives a man the business.



And is tackled but not before the ball crosses the plane.



AB all day man. He can't be stopped.



This is a graphic representation of why the Bears couldn't score. We play bend but don't break so good, that they only converted 1 out of 10 third downs.



Hmm ... yeah, I get used to my guys failing to pick the ball.



Ok, we drove down the field and this is the last noteworthy play. AB catches the football, nothing too fancy.



Then he gets tackl--



--he sheds the tackle and walks all the way to the end zone.



That's your ball game. Another curbstomp from the suddenly good Pittsburgh Steelers defense.

Alright, time to see how good Ben Roethlisberger was in this game and how I'm looking for the challenge.



Ok, a Rating of 90+ is always good. Also, 9 TD passes in 3 games is also good. Let's hope can keep the INTs low.

Now, I'll check who are the best teams in the league, as well as the usual Player of the Week and League Leaders.



The Bills? Best in the League? Surprising. Also the Cardinals and the Redskins. I do hope the Cards make it all the way. Maybe Larry Fitzgerald can get another shot at a ring.



And your worst team of the league, the Niners.



Here are your NFL Players of the Week. AB can't be stopped.

https://i.imgur.com/O5dNOva.jpg

League Leaders ... who is Sean Mannion? He's Jared Goff's backup. So best QB in the lague as far as QB rating goes is Tom Brady whichi ... hmmm ... is realistic. Not going to lie. Ben Roethlisberger is getting there.



Matt Ryan is the QB with the most yards. Understandable, he has Julio Jones as a receiver. He's a nigh unstoppable receiver too. Be afraid when you face him.



Le'Veon Bell for the most yards AND most yards per game. He is unstoppable.



Chris Hogan is #1, both because he's good and he has Mr. Brady as QB. AB is getting close. Also, where in the hell is Julio Jones?



Good job Alejandro Villanueva, you are the best O-Lineman in the league.



Sean Lee is your top tackling machine in the league.



And Devin McCourty is your top interceptor in the league.



And your top kickers in the league. Boswell needs to kick more FGs, but I like the 100% accuracy. As long as he doesn't go Gary Anderson and misses a Game Clinching FG, then my D decompose, I'll be fine.

All right. Hope you enjoyed and I see you on the next post.

[jose21crisis]

Had the time for another update, so here we go.

We are at Week 4, which means is time for a classic NFL rivalry game. I think Week 4 was almost all rivalry games, but this one is important.



We are at M&T Bank Stadium for a Steelers at Ravens game, which is pretty much how the AFC North is defined. Because the other 2 teams are the Bun... BENGALS. The Bengals, and ... the Browns.



Look at that. You see that Cincinatti W? Against Cleveland. Anyway, we won and decided to kick the ball and get it on the 2nd half.



On the first play of the game I decided to see if Joe Flacco could handle the pressure of the Charleston blitz. Which is the playbooks name for the Cover 3, Engage Eight blitz. They ran the ball for around 5 yards.



Next play, the throw it to ... I think that's Mike Wallace. My defenders just watch. They tried to jar the ball out. No dice on that.



Ryan, careful there. That could be called as facemasking. We don't want to give them a W. Specially not the Ravens.



Joe Flacco is a pretty good scrambler ...



... and my defense is fast enough. I didn't learnt my lesson until later, when I decided to place a QB Spy on Flacco.



Come on, you are on a 2TE Big set, you know you want to run it.



That's right! They are forced to punt on a 4th and 5.



It should be noted that the only serious weapon they have is Terrell Suggs. He isn't Ray Lewis, but he will making some plays now and then. They might lack Lewis and Ed Reed, but this D is good.



I hate when the opponents have access to the Nickel 1-5-5. It is so weird. You can't really read it.



Pouncey ... look ... stop holding man. Stop hating! You are really screwing up our gains.



No problems though, as Le'Veon Bell breaks a nice gain, with some great blocking by Nix.



My problem in the offense is that I try to make something out of nothing. I will scramble and force throws, but I will never press A, AKA throw ball away. That will come back to bite me.



Ben gave us second and inches. He also got hurt. Cue "Oh, crap" moment.



Ok, Landry Jones. Now is your time to prove you are actually good.



But before that, let's do the FB Dive and get that first down. The FB Dive is coming pretty good. Wonder if there is a way to stop it.



The Ravens also have access to the Nickel 1-5-5 Prowl, in which the only O-Lineman is standing. This one I really can't read it at all.



I was looking some Madden NFL 11 Madden Moments gameplay, and Cris Collisnworth said a line that went like "You can't put too much attention to a running back in the flat". I heard and was like "What? Why not?". Collisworth commentary is pretty good IRL, but not on Madden 11. And that line isn't either. James Conner is open in the flat, we got a complete pass.



Ok, he'll be back. I just have to endure a bit more Landry Jones.



First, the strong safety is coming into the box. That cues me that there is coming into a blitz. That leads to problem #2. I have a HB and a TE in the backfield AKA a max protect set which I like to call it. I'll have so many people running around that the blitz will be exploited.



However, my planned WR screen pass got destroyed.



What's this? The day of the backups? Justin Hunter is in the field instead of AB, because he took a huge hit. I'll need him to perform and catch the ball ... otherwise.



Good job Hunter. I might still cut you after this season. But you are performing.



What a nice, long drive we have here. This should end in 7 points. Also, #7 is back on the field.



3rd and inches. You know what time it is. FB Dive!



Unfortunately, the O-Line allowed penetration and the door was slammed shut.



And Roosevelt Nix dropped the football. Not the way to end this drive.



We at least got the pressure on Flacco.



Get a pick! He didn't catch it, which is good. But no one did!

[img]https://i.imgur.com/FAvCIit.jpg[/img

The defenses have been great today. 0-0.



All right, we are back. 1st and Goal with AB, this should be easy.



Fade route to the end zone. And that's a ...



... yep, that's six.



Nice drive. Jesse James took a pass to the flat all the way deeper down the field.



James Harrison coming in, get down Joe Flacco.



Here's the dilemma for a safety. To the right, a receiver in the zone, to the left,a receiver about to enter the zone. If I go to cover 1 of them, the other will get open. Would have been easier if I could read a QB, but ... meh.



Sure thing, he got open.



Dang it, go for the swat, not for the pick.



Why is Ben Watson open in the end zone?



Welp, here we go, tied ballgame.



Good drive by Joe Flacco there. Now give us the ball back.



This is something I realized is pretty good, a WR Screen.



And we got a nice gain there. That's the best thing we would do on the drive. So let's punt the ball.



Bad job at blocking Ben Watson. Too good blocking.



The running game isn't going to work today eather.



Now, time for context. Singleback 4WR set vs. Dime 4-1-6. You might have telegraphed what I'm calling.



Dimeback sack!



Dimeback failed sack now.



We got a Defensive End sack though! Now give us the ball back.



Time to ground and pound all the way to the endzone.



Good thing Le'Veon Bell is hard to tackle.



1st and Goal with Le'Veon Bell, this should be easy.



Hmm ... no hole there.



There is some space there though.



Another one in there.



Shh. Le'Veon Bell doesn't want you celebrating this TD.



Another short drive and we are on top.



Again, a run isn't going to work right now.



2 min warning. This is the reason why the Ravens are not winning. 0/3 for 3rd down conversions.



Joe Flacco also threw a pick.

Nothing more interesting will happen other than a failed reverse and a FG.



17-7 Steelers. This is looking good. As long as we can add to our lead and not let it go. We should be fine.

[jose21crisis]

We managed to get a lead on the Ravens 24-10. Lets see if we can hold.



I haven't had Vance McDonald come out of the bench for a while, so I decided to allow him to get it.



He rewarded us with a nice gain and a truck.



This backfired when I tried to pass to him again and got picked off.



You put too much air on that one Flacco.



The linemen are getting sacks.



James Harrison is also getting some big time sacks.



Yeah, you better run out of there. That's the only safe option.



Nope, not enough for a first. Go ahead, kick a Field Goal.



They nailed it. Good drive, way too good field position.



And, after I triggered a delay of game penalty, the Ravens come out in a Quarter D against the I formation with just 2 WRs. They would end up giving me about 5 yards.



After AB got hit sticked into dropping the ball, he made this catch for 3 yards.



Ben Roethlisberger, throw the ball right man.



The Ravens' next drive can be summed up in this play.



And some of this.



Again, a TE in the flat uncovered.



And now it is a running back in the flat.



We will try the fade route again, but first, let's get this first down. For that we are going to use a play that is not in the real life Steelers playbook.



The QB Sneak.



AB is open in the end zone.



And we got another one of these catches.



Yep, even more TDs for AB.



My drives last so damn long. Is ridicoulous.



Well ... this is getting boring with James Harrison getting so many sacks.



Tackled so close to the first down marker.



It is still a 2 possession game. We need to be careful here.



Look that line, look at that throw on the run. See that touch.



I present you the calm before the storm. You'll see what I mean later on the images.



This is the game clinching run. Le'Veon Bell give Terrell Suggs the shoulder.



Makes a man miss.



Makes another man miss.



And takes it all the way to the crib for a TD.



Now is the Ravens' turn. Man, go for the swat. We don't need a turnover.



If you are going to let the ball hit you in the hands, then you HAVE to make a pick.



This time James Harrison couldn't get in there and Joe Flacco just ran away.



This would have been a great play, but he couldn't reach it.



They are getting closer.



And they found the end zone on a 3 yard run by their HB.



We forced them to take a lot of the clock. That's good as long as we don't commit any mist--



JUJU WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! He fumbled on the kickoff and the Ravens' got a short field.



Instantly taken advantage off, and now the game got close.



Remember when I told you that I don't know what is to throw the ball away? Well, I forced a pass, that got batted down, that got picked off.



My D came up big on the next drives with this sack ...



.. this non-pick ...



... and this tackle, which forced the Ravens' to settle for a FG.



All right, 2 min warning, let's try to take off time off the clock with a HB Screen.



I did not take into account Suggs gettting here and my blockers failing to see him. Which led to a tackle for less.



Then David DeCastro short circuits the whole drive by screwing up here and forcing a 3rd and 26 which we don't convert.



This is some BS right here. This got ruled "In-Bounds", but since we are in the 2 last mins I can't challenge it, and he clearly steps out off bounds with his second foot.



Led him too much.



Same here.



I consider this the clutch moment of my defense. Artie Burns (a Quick Corner) got beat, and Flacco lobbed a pass. Burns got in there and swatted down that pass, in what I consider the game saver.



We finally forced 4th down.



And as expected, they went for it.



They went for a WR Screen, which got shut down. And that's ball game.



This one was intense.



2 picks in one game is bad. The yards on the season are good though.



That's good. I need to spend some money on advertisement. My high ticket prices are driving away some fans, as our attendance is at 64%. I didn't mention that as it is the Owner part of Franchise, but I can post it if you want to see it.



Here are your AFC players of the Week.



As well as your NFC players of the week. Who are also your NFL players of the Week.

[Danchat]

Nice game against the Ravens! I really hate those plays where it's obvious the play on the field was wrong but you can't challenge it... thankfully that doesn't happen to often and that does rarely happen in real life!

I'm enjoying your journal so far, keep up the good work!

[RevanFan]

Nice game against the Ravens! I really hate those plays where it's obvious the play on the field was wrong but you can't challenge it... thankfully that doesn't happen to often and that does rarely happen in real life!

I'm enjoying your journal so far, keep up the good work!

I had a play in my historic Cowboys tournament recently where I WAS allowed to challenge the play, the replay showed it was clearly wrong, and the game said it stood regardless. Now THAT is what pisses me off.

Anyway, I am definitely enjoying this, even if I don't post often. Keep it up!

[jose21crisis]

Nice game against the Ravens! I really hate those plays where it's obvious the play on the field was wrong but you can't challenge it... thankfully that doesn't happen to often and that does rarely happen in real life!

I'm enjoying your journal so far, keep up the good work!

I had a play in my historic Cowboys tournament recently where I WAS allowed to challenge the play, the replay showed it was clearly wrong, and the game said it stood regardless. Now THAT is what pisses me off.

Anyway, I am definitely enjoying this, even if I don't post often. Keep it up!

Thanks for the support. Admitedly, it was during the last 2 mins in the game and I was using the New Rules from Calhoupe's scripts, so I couldn't challenge it. I hoped that the refs would review it on their own and Al Riveron said that the catch was out of bounds. But the challenge never came. We still won, which was nice.