DeViLzzz

2008 Game 12.
Raiders play at Seattle against a 3-8 Seahawk team that scouting tells us is much better than their record indicates. They defeated the Chargers, who we are in a dogfight for the division with, 38-17 for one of their victories early this season. They come in ranked 6th in the league offensively behind Hasselbeck at QB who is the #2 passer thus far in 2008, and has thrown 19TDs against only 4 interceptions. 
Going in therefore, we are well aware that our new defensive schemes will be tested by fire in the Kingdome.
In the game's opening drive the defending champion Raiders, for the first time in seemingly ages playing with backs to the wall, look impressive. After an illegal block penalty on the kickoff put the ball at their 11 to start things off, the leagues best offense drove 84 yds on a 7 play drive and had a first-and-goal at the Seahawk 5yard line. Hollas dropped back on a play action fake and had a wide open Hester in the end zone but the play was called back on an offensive hold...1st and goal at Seattle's 15. On the next play Seattle's Trufant stepped in front of Raider RB Conner at the 4, and delivered the season's longest pick-6. 7-0 Seattle.
In the end Conner rushed for a season low 23 yds, McFadden added 27 on the ground and 31 receiving for the Raiders.  Hollas went 17-31 for 345 yds for Oakland...but threw 4 interceptions.  On the other side, Seattle's Hasselbeck had a pedestrian game with just 149 passing yards...the Raider D had stepped up and stopped a solid passing attack ...but the Raider O suddenly self destructed with a fumble and 4 interceptions. 
Seattle 17 Oakland 7. Elsewhere, the Broncos lost to the Cowboys, the Chargers defeated the Eagles.  For the first time in more than two seasons, the Raiders are not in first place. 
Seattle 8-4-0.      Oakland 7-5-0.   Denver 7-5-0
4 games to go ..fixed our defense I think...now our vaunted offense suddenly looks weak.

The Raiders returned to the field for their 13th game of 2008. They faced a Jacksonville Jaguars team that was a defending divisional champion, but having a miserable season at 3-9. A close game at the half 15-7 Raiders became a blowout early in the 3rd quarter. The Raiders rolled 46-7 and for at least one game, appear back "on".  With over 500 yards of offense, while holding Brunell and the Jaguars to under 200, and converting half of our third downs, as well as winning the time of possession battle 35:07 to 24:53 everything I had worked on seemed at least momentarily good, with the exception of 3 turnovers...but our defense got 3 back as well.
Elsewhere, San Diego lost their game to Denver...and we have a horse race in the AFC West with three 8-5 teams. We will play the Broncos next game in Oakland, and in three weeks in the season finale in cold Denver. We can control our own playoff picture by simply winning.

So today we go behind the scenes in a way, to look at what happens during the days between the games. In career leagues, especially... the games, however thrilling, are sometimes not the most important aspect.
Here we have a Raider team that is back-to-back Superbowl Champions with an unstoppable offense, and an aggressive big play defense... that was 37-5 including playoffs from 2006-Game 5 of 2008. That team had not only won, but dominated, during that stretch, outscoring opponents by an average score of 35-17.
Now however, in the homestretch of the 2008 season after starting 5-0, there appear to be multiple small leaks in our ship's hull. Any one of these leaks alone would not be anything to worry about before the next draft class, but they all seem to have hit together, and right now, even a Wildcard berth is no guarantee.

I am inclined after a few hours of calming down from our dismal 5 turnover performance, to think that was a fluke... our offense style has for a decade, been just as aggressive as our defense, with a passing attack that is near totally a vertical game... as I went through the playbook in my first season, I removed nearly every pass play that ended with curl backs...preferring to hit my edge receivers in stride, and it seems only natural that eventually that would trade for some INTs for my QBs, who have had excellent seasons overall, but a few poor high-INT games over those seasons...so we will wait on the panic button there.
We do have a glaring hole that usually has been covered by our ability to "strike from anywhere on the field"... we are 30th-dead last- in the league on 3rd down conversions offensively 52/163. I have accepted that usually as a trade-off also, and it has always been there during my tenure. Now may be the time to do something about that...so I go into my coaching profile and alter just a bit on the plays called on 3rd down. We should at least be hitting on 3rd and short more often than our 4/27 current... my aggressive play calling has thrown deep on 19 of those 3rd and 1 or 2 plays...scoring a TD on a 68 yd pass, but 18 incompletes... so I alter my overbearing aggressive play calling by making it much more likely that we will run up the middle on these plays...but still I am mem so I leave a 1 in 5 chance to throw it over 20 yds.
My QB is Don Hollas, who in our NFL as in real, was initially someone to fill a hole in the roster, but in ours he developed much better and has had a great 2007 and half of 2008, throwing for 3860 yds and 27TDs in 2007, and on a pace to beat that in 2008 before his last game. He is aging though, so this will probably be his last star quality season, and I am looking at the draft for a QB, but that is the future. Now? His strength numbers are at 89 this season...from 91 last season...that is barely sufficient for the deep pass offense I run...so I begin looking at his backup, Morrissey has a strength of 97, but DI rating of 82...likely more interecptions, but possibly capable of better performance in a vertical offense. I will run him some in practice this week and see how that looks in game conditions.
Our return man is Hester, and just as he was in the real NFL, he is an exciting player. He was leading the league in Kick and Punt returns last season and is third this season in punt returns, averaging 17.3 with two returns for TD. He can turn a game around as a return man, but is less impressive as a receiver. We are deep at WR with 5 who could start anywhere, and 3 who are either on pace for thousand receiving yard seasons, or could with a great game over the next month. No real changes here.
Our defense strategy plays right now a 2-2-7 man alignment a lot, and a 3-2-6 a lot as well... so I will only suit up the usual 5 LBs and will play one more TE suited up than normal (4) and we will go into the practice week looking at some new possession type offense plays...we have been "Out possessed" 33:20 to 26:40 on average...that will be my target for the hole we fix.
 

Hello people. My name is Sean and I am a huge fan of sports simulation games.  What led me here today was the fact that while testing to see if my internet was working properly or not I clicked on some free to play baseball game that I had saved a link to and well it worked but the game was nowhere to be found and so I did a Google search and eventually came to this site.  Hoping I can have some fun here.  

First sports sim I played was MicroLeague Baseball for the C64.

Anyway I am from Canada and on the border and used to travel to the US a fair bit and saw the Blue Jays play in the old Tiger Stadium and in Comerica Park or whatever it's called. I was supposed to see a Reds game while in Cincy one time but a miserable, old ex of mine believed her friend when she said my son went over the line about something and was just ready to call the trip and so it was over.  It was ridiculous and my son did not cross the line at all when talking to her son.  People .... sometimes ....

My dad, brother and I got to meet Denny McLain, of the World Series Champion '68 Tigers, at a London Tigers minor league game.  Wish that team was still around but things change. They were located in London, Ontario, Canada btw.

Also a fond memory is my son running the bases at Comerica Park as a pretty young kid. Other family at the time was there and they are kind of slow about partaking in certain fun things after a sporting event is over and I have to be the one that urges them on to do something so anyway yeah my son got onto a real MLB field.  What an experience that must have been for him.

Now in regards to real baseball these days the PEDs have soured me on the game but I have been able to watch those short versions of the games on YouTube provided by the MLB and just other regular people.  I have only watched the playoff games though.  I am cheering for the Dodgers a bit as I want my dad to see them win another one and get closer to the Yankees total. LOL!  However I always have had a soft spot in my heart for the Brewers and while I cringe at seeing Ryan Braun out there I cheer for the rest of the team.

As for real life it has been hell for much of it since the age of 12 or so. No more talking about that.

Anyway .. HI!

Are you running this on emulation?  Are you running it with the real OS recommended? Anyway my recommendation is to build a dos box ... older pc ... as I find after watching certain old school gamers on YouTube I am reminded that the best experience you get is on a pc from the time or around the time the game came out.  Now I will give the game a try in the future after downloading it from here if I can and see if I can help you but really what I want to do is play my boxed copy on a 1998 pc.  If you want to watch a good channel on old school gaming watch Phil's Computer Lab on YouTube.

Eh might want to be more clear about the game you are looking for as I have searched for this game and I am coming up with nothing.

Hey Oleg, I've moved your topic to 'Game Discussion' for sports managers. Care to share more with us on your game?