yeeehaaaarh 16-0 season! Thanks to all the great coaches who I played this year for making it so hard and rewarding to achieve this, its a rare week when I don't put in 10 hours or so on the AY, I get so much out of it I am really chuffed to achieve this personal best, even in an empty basic league down under I only ever managed to go 15-1 once.
Thanks to you great guys who come here and share your thoughts and ideas with those of us who are less experienced. This is my 3rd season of advanced gameplan and you guys helped teach me how it works (the hard way for the first year!).
To anyone stumbling at the moment don't loose hope anyone can do it! Just have fun, get involved and keep revising your gameplan!

Thanks to the Cardinal for stealing the East from me last year and raising the bar, finishing 13-3 I thought I'd take the div, but that's not good enought with MTP around, so I had to increase the level of my own game and to be good enough to beat the Cards it also meant I was good enough to beat all the others,

thanks for a great regular season guys, the offseason and playoffs are going to be enthralling.

PS for those worried about the eagles, don't! We got increadibly butchered by the cull and pick #24!

when is a loss a good thing....when it leads to the 1st overall draft pick!


disappointing loss (especially giving up an INT on a SC pass!) but now comes the fun part and the retooling of the roster.

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Sam wrote : when is a loss a good thing....when it leads to the 1st overall draft pick!

Sam congrats on your loss!

Got to hate those tipped screen plays Sam.

After everything I can't believe I only got 10th pick. At least the defence started to come together a bit. Still working on my offence.

Oh and congrats Alex!

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Sam congrats on your loss!

Lets hope this doesn't happen again next season as don't intend on drafting anywhere near as high.



 

--Last edited by Sam on 2007-07-22 13:00:54 --

Week in Review
Its fairly safe to say that Indy management will be out looking in earnest for a new coach after this game. 5 scores to none embarassed the Colts on the road, and they drop to finnish the season in last place in the division.
The pats had their way with the Colts defence, running for almost 300 yards. The old Colts gameplan is a relic from ages past and its reliance on BZ to stuff runs is outdated and ill equipped to stop a running attack like that featured in New England.

With only a snowball's chance this week the Jets put on a good show nonetheless with a 38 point win over the Dolphins. A balanced effiecient offence executed well and the defence limited big plays to win this one. New York remain a team firmly on the cusp of greatness. Should again challenge for a wildcard spot next year, but will need to pick up some wins in big games like those against the Bengals, Texans, Titans, Pats, Chargers, Chiefs, Panthers and Packers. If they can go 4-4 in these games they will even stand a chance of taking out the division with around 11 or 12 wins.

The Bengals continue to work on their gameplay, going down this week to the Texans by just one score. These two teams owned the DOD this year, each going 4-2 inside the div, but it was the Texans who won more games outside the div to build the higher win tally. Houston are in form at the right time and will be one of the top 3 favourites for the trophy this year.
The Bengals are the best team to not make the playoffs, and along with the Jets they will be bitterly disapointed not to make it. The difference between these two sides is that the Bengals can beat the top teams, but their inconsistency means they can loose any game too.

A worrying sign for the Titans as they drop a close game to the uncoached Steelers. Scoreless at half time the Titans pilled on the points in the last quater, but couldn't quite cover the margin. Tennessee head into the playoffs, a dangerous match against the mighty Chargers will tell critics whether the Titans are actually as overrated as they appear to be...
Meanwhile Pitt desperately need a coach, anybody will do- but if they want to compete they better get someone g o o d

The AFC's two newest coaches flexed their muscles this week, sizing eachother up for next year. Realistically with two of the AFC's best teams already in this division the margin for error for these teams will be low. The Wild West has an established reputation for creating champions, 2 of the last 3 SB winners have come from there, and the presence of the Chiefs and Chargers should give these new coaches a real baptism of fire.
Ultimately to enter the playoffs next year a wildcard seems the most likely option, and the two games between the Raiders and Broncos next year will be crutial to see which of the two teams can get into third place and make a push for the WC spots.
In only his firs game Coach Risson put up reasonable offensive numbers but an agressive defence gave up 5 TDs. Both these teams will look to build and experiment and start the season on even footing with the Chiefs and Chargers, and hoping to keep it that way as long as possible.

This week's closest game was between biter rivals the chiefs and chargers. San Diego needed this win to get wildcard homefield position, but it was not to be. The Chiefs earned their division title this week by completing the clean sweep of the Chargers, albeit by only 2 points.
Offensive performances were similar for both teams, with each side using a passing form and a 2 RB form for much of the game. Chief's QB Greene had a carreer game with 272 yards at 77% and is showing the maturity needed to lead his team to the SB for the first time this year. The Charger's agression on defence shut down Priest Holmes and the Chief running attack, but was punished in the passing game. Ultimately this game couldnt' get much closer and it shows that the Chargers ARE up there with the best, and will agian be a scary prospect coming to the playoffs through the wildcard as they have done the last 3 seasons.


In the opening minutes of the Eagles-Cards game Troy VIncent returned an interception for 6 points and things kept coming up golden all game for the Eagles. Arizonas' Leinhart had another day at the office, with 300 yards na 3 TDs, all of them to man of the match Boldin, who had over 200 yards recieving, yet the Cards just weren't in this game. A descision to go all out for runstopping hurt the Cards as 2nd year man Ryan Moats, spelling for Westbrook who was being rested for much of the game, rushed for over 19 yards a carry. All told Philly ran for over 250 yards and though drives were stopped by the Cards agression at times several times huge TD runs came in the blink of an eye. Moats and Boldin had the crowd entertained at Sun Devil, Moats with TD scoring runs of 65 and 52 yards, while Boldin seemed to just get every ball thrown to him on offence, and took most of them for good gains.
The cards played catchup well in the second quater to go into the second half down only by 7. When the first play of the second half was a huge TD run by Moats thsi took the wind out of the Cardinal's sails, down 28-14. To their great credit both defences toughened in the 3rd quater, the only other score a long Philly FG by Akers.
In the final quater 2 more FGs by akers, a 40 yarder and another bomb put the game out of reach, and a textbook two minute offence scored again but was too late.
The Cards missout on the playoffs by one game and will begin retooling for another close season in the Division of Precision next year. Meanwhile the undefeated Eagles rest next week as the playoffs get underway with the wildcard games.

Having set up their oportunity well last week with a win over the Packers, Washington made sure of the wildcard qualification this week with a 3 TD win over the Cowboys.
Dallas looked lacklustre in this game, perhaps they were josstling for a good draft spot. The Skins gain 3 form from this match and will travel to Carolina to take on the Panthers in the Wildcard.

The Packers did all they could for their playoff hopes with a win over the Vikings, who will be delighted to have been handed a draft friendly loss this week. Ultimately the Packers fall just milimetres short this year, having given up the division yet again by a very slim margin. Like the Jets in the AFC the cheeseheads are on the cusp of greatness and will probably enter next season as favourites again for the division. The Vikings may be next year's biggest improver, but could also go the other way if other teams step up too.

The Lions rack up a huge win over the Bears to win the division too with a brilliant offence and an attrocious defence. The lions will be hit and miss in the playoffs, with their giveaways in the turnover war and the yards given away by their D being important factors.

The niners manufactured a convenient loss this week against the lowly Rams and will go into the draft with the #1 pick. The Rams meanwhile are desperate for a coach, lest they continue to languish as one of the poorest teams in the league.

An upset of sorts this week as the Panthers at home won over the Falcons by a TD. Upset at loosing the Panther's Den for the first time in recorded history Carolina put up a pride saving win over the Falcons at home this week, but still give up the div title. Both teams have a good chance to go far in teh playoffs, though Carolina will have to go through the wildcard for the first time.

Congratulations on going 16-0, Alex. I'd imagine you'd want to add at least an NFC Championship to that, but even if you don't, an unbeaten regular season is quite some achievement!

thanks Jon, I set myself 2 goals at the start of the season, sweep the Cards and win my first ever advanced playoff game, so I'm halfway there, and if I meet the other criteria I'll be one game away from my first ever SB in any form of the game (except when I was a youngster cocoaching riding on dave's coat tails LOL!)

Alex, ditto to Jon's comments too.

Not that many coaches get to achieve a 16-0 season, especially in a competitive league like AY,so you should be very proud of your season and I hope you go on to win the Superbowl mate!!

First off congrats to Alex on a brilliant achievement, especially in such a tough league! I've managed to go 16-0 before in BP, B and BS, but none of those are as tough as AY, in fact only BS comes close!

As for my Texans, really happy to win the DOD for the second year running, and improve on last years record by 2 games - to be honest I never knew I had it in me! It was a tough game against Tom's Bengals but we just had enough in the tank to keep our winning run going. I've worked my socks off to win 6 straight, put so much more effort into AY than my other leagues (bar AR and A7 in recent weeks) as I knew after I lost to the Titans in week 10 the only way I could hope to win the div was to win out (never could have forseen the Bengals plummet...). Still, can't see me getting to the SB but I'll give it my best shot that's for certain!

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The niners manufactured a convenient loss this week against the lowly Rams and will go into the draft with the #1 pick.

the depressing thing about the loss is that it wasn't planned for. if I had intended to lose to get the #1 pick then wouldn't be worried.

thankfully have the offseason to get the gameplan in some order.

given up something like 25 penalties in the first two games in charge which has killed the momentum (mainly on offence) in both games.  

still, with the arrival of the stud 4*LB on the cards and a strong secondary, hopefully the defence can keep us in games in the short term until the offence comes around.