I really suck lately

Man I cannot win the Rice/Houston rivalry game to save my ass. Last night I made my 3rd run on it, losing a heartbreaker 25-28 to the mighty Cougars.

I'm playing default AA, as I generally tend to lean on the side of winning while I progress my way to winning every rivalry trophy in the game. I enjoy good games, but honestly I don't care to play every single one of these games more than once, unless the battle goes online for whatever reasons. Well this time I managed a 14-7 halftime lead behind some beautiful option-running by QB Joel Armstrong, as I had over 160 yards rushing against a much more formidable Houston DL.

Houston was every bit of the cheese experienced in the East Room online, as every 3rd down was a chuck-it-deep jump ball situation & short yardage situations were HB Directs or HB Off-Tackles...just disgusting stuff (not that I blame them, my defense sucks). Now albeit, I knew they were coming, but a 4-4 mad robber is a bit futile when there's only one in the front 8 that has a rating over 70 or so - it can be a touch rough. Anyway, Armstrong goes down at the end of the 2nd quarter until the 4th, and my backup QB doesn't miss too much a beat thanks to a 76 speed rating - heading the rushing attack that produced 107 yards for FB Andrew Cates and 132 for 'A' back Marcus Rucker. In the end, Houston was running out the clock and the shotgun off-tackle busted a 4-4 blitz to the tune of 53 yards to go up 28-17, but I returned the kick 101 yards with Marcus Battle and converted the 2-point conversion - just couldn't jump on the onsides kick. I shut 'em down using my 3 timeouts, and launched a prayer with just 0:06 left that was completed for a gain of 62 yards...it just fell about 19 yards too short.

In other news you likely don't care about (hey, it's a blog - suck it up...it's not all t'n-a here), I accepted an Alabama team in the LoD League, a league put together of many of the best NCAA players on the net. Kind of neat, invite only and based on straight play, my man Jett put this league together and has put a lot of work into it throughout his first 2 seasons. I'm not exactly looking forward to balling with 'Bama, as last night I had to scrap together a defensive victory in the Iron Bowl to pull out a 28-17 victory. I managed to return 2 defensive TD's this game w/ the latter coming with 0:20 remaining in my own red zone, but that speaks for itself and my inability to move the ball with QB Brodie Croyle & HB Kenneth Darby. Croyle managed to throw 5 picks (although like 3 of 'em were my fault - you get cocky sometimes) and Darby only managed around 70 yards rushing, so I either need to change my playbook up a bit or hit the lab with these guys or something - I'm apparently playing Iowa & Colorado tonight in an effort to make up my games for the first 3 weeks.

I mean, for a B+ team - I ain't seeing it, but by god I'll see what I can do with 'em. This runs my league total up to 2 as I'm back in the fray at DaONE with my Buckeyes, but I plan to launch my own league at Maddenmania starting probably next week as well - I guess 3 should be enough for me.