Owner's Mode: Houston Texans

[qb8stunner]

Hey ya'll... been reading up on some of these posts and I think it's pretty kewl that ya'll are interested in other people's franchises. Well, I definately treat all my franchises (and that would include one Madden 2004 team {Houston Texans} and two NCAA 2004 teams {Uni. of Houston Cougars and the ficticious Northern Maine Eagles, or NMEU Eagles}) seriously. So, I figured I would bore all of you with my rants and raves about my teams. Well, basically, you have no choice :grin:

I wont post any details tonight, but I'll catch ya'll up asap. But here's the lowdown... I play as realistic as possible, meaning, no fantasty drafts, 15 minute quarters, and strict penalties. Since this is the first year for me to use 15 minutes, whenever I have the ball and the game clock is rolling, I always wait until the play clock reaches 1 before i snap the ball, otherwise, there would be so much offense. I only play 15's on my Madden though; on both NCAA teams i play 12's.

I also alternate the Texans and my two NCAA teams' games, meaning, if the Texans' game is slated for September 22 and my Houston Cougar's play on Spetember 24, then I play Madden first, then NCAA. Basically, I follow the game calandar. That makes it a lot of fun and so realistic. My two NCAA teams are tied closely to Madden because I use the Export Draft Class at the end of every season. Both the college teams are carry overs from the last years version of NCAA. . . yes, I took the time to transfer every detail over. The NMEU Eagles are completely made up and, if I may say, bad*ss.

Ok, finally, at the end of the seasons I copy down and save all my stats.... individual stats for the players on my teams and team stats. In addition, I set up my off season as realistically as possible, including seeing who was a member of the Draft Class Export and posting their overalls on a cheat sheet to help with the NFL draft.

Yeah, you may think I have no life, but realistic football is the best football. I'm already in the second season of all three teams (near the end of the NCAA season and at the midway point of my NFL season.) So, tomorrow I'll post up some additional info about my Madden team. I hope ya'll dont think oddly of this all, but I promise you this stuff gets so fun. Later guys.

[phatboyty]

sounds cool hopes it works for ya

welcome to the site! ill be sure to read your dynasty/franchise!

how much time do you spend playing all the games? it seems like it would take a long time. keep on posting

[qb8stunner]

Hey guys! Thanks for showing interest in my football life, hehe.

As far as time goes, wow, it takes a long time, but amazingly, with school added into the mix, I still have plenty of free time. A typical NCAA season is 12 games with a possible bowl game. My Houston Coogs are in C-USA so we do not have a Conference Championship, and my NMEU Eagles play in the Independent Division so no extrta games there. Madden of course has a maximum of 24 games! And yes... I play all 4 preseason games, as boring as they are. So, fun-fun math... possible 50 games in one season

Well, I try to hit up at least two games a day, so if I keep it up I should be able to get semi-deep into both the Dynasties and Franchise. I keep serious with my NCAA Dynasties cos I transfer all the players and my schools to the next edition. To top it off, I get so lost in the offseason that it normally takes me two-three days. Man, all those late nights by the tv.
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But ok, so, here I go. Here's the downlow on my Houston Texan team. Like I said, I do not play with fantasy drafts so I keep with all the original players. I just tweak the rosters before I start the season. Yeah, I know, all of you probably do not think the Texans are worth it, but trust me, this was like no other Expansion team. Yes, our defense sucked this year but last year they showed how much potential they have; and this year we beat one Super Bowl team and took the other to OT. Watch out for next year!

So, not to go into detail, but my first year (and I play Pro on Madden and All-American on NCAA) I managed to go 9-7 and squeek into the Wild Card, which I lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-31. So I went into the offseason with big plans to refurbish my defense (which in Madden we all know is a laughing case against the pass) and add depth to my O-Line. As far as my NCAA teams did, Houston finished 12-1(8-0) with a C-USA title and a Bowl game win in OT against CSU while NMEU finished 11-2 with a San Francisco Bowl win against Air Force.

My Defensive Coordinator had one more year on his contract, and although my defense finished last in the league, he somehow managed to make the "D" look solid during the last half of the season, so I didn't release him. I resigned my ST coordinator and focused on the draft. I had to study pretty hard cos I had the 23rd pick. So, to make it short, I drafted and signed all 7 picks. From Round 1 to 7, they were: Will Smith, DE (Ohio State); Michael Boulware, OLB (Florida State); Shawntae Spencer, CB (Pittsburgh); Darrell Campbell, DT (Notre Dame); Tyson Clabo, OG (Wake Forest); and these two guys are ficticious and from my NCAA teams, but I needed help at their positions and I knew them from the game, so I went for them: Simeon Christian, OT (Northern Maine); and Jessie Jones, MLB (Houston.)

I released: Marlon McCree, FS (resigned in FA); Troy Evans, MLB (resigned in FA); Chad Stanley, P (resigned in FA); Tony Banks, QB (resigned in FA); Stacey Mack, HB; Derick Armstrong, WR (resigned in FA); Jerry DeLoach, DE (resigned in FA); Steve Foley, OLB; Jimmy McClain, MLB; Jason Simmons, CB; Jabari Holloway, TE; Jimmy Herndon, OT; Michael Keathley, OG; Corey Sears, DE; Terrance Martin, DE; and Darrick Vaughn, CB/KR. The ones I resigned in Free Agency I actually managed to get back at a cheaper asking price. Oh, and every off season I go in with a budget plan, lol. I had $35.42M in Cap Space but I allotted certain max amounts to resigning players, FA, and the drafted players. I wanted to remain $5.00M below the cap, so I had to negotiate big time.

Okay, this is getting crazy long. I didn't do much in FA bu add depth. Beside resigning some that I released, I signed: Benjamin Gay, HB; Joe D. Davenport, TE (great blocking TE); and L.C. Kirkpatrick, DE (a guy who played with my NCAA Houston team who was drafted and released).

I'll post the starters later since this is probably illegally long But quickly, nine weeks into the NFL season the Texans are 6-2 while my NCAA teams are 6-2{3-1} (Houston) and 10-0 (NMEU). Sorry about the length!!!!!!!! Tell me if these are way too long to read and are annoying. The last thing I wanna do is bore any of you!!!!!!! I am making a website for my teams too. Just click on my i.d. name i guess. Take it easy guys!

hey--this is just about right. i have no problem reading your dynasty/franchise! i hope to hear even more!

p.s.-wasnt that smart to sign ben gay...j/k
sorry bad joke ill shut up now.

[qb8stunner]

Haha, I know right! Ben is from around here actually, but I think it is hillarious how they dont have Madden or Michaels saying his last name during the game, much less his FULL name, lol. Better keep an eye on him whenever we play in California J/K

[phatboyty]

it ok about the length and this is prob gonna be the best franchise posted in here

[qb8stunner]

As we say down here in Texas, "Howdy ya'll!" Ok, I'm not country so don't hate. On with the show....

First, I gotta rant about something. No video game ever, and I mean EVER , has frustrated me to the point of sobs like good'ole Madden does. I play on Pro for a reason... because I want it as realistic as possible. But still, just playing on Pro doesn't stop the opposing team to always find that god-like receiver being covered by three guys, who always manages an easy catch and then runs like a friggin' Dodge Viper all the way to the endzone. I guess a 2-play, 70 yard drive for six isn't too bad... if it happens only ONCE. Oh, and then there are the traitors on your team... the guys primarily on offense who, once they see you convert a very difficult third and long, decide to hold a defensive player right in front of the official. So either you convert the even longer third down or you eventually punt, which would then be answered by a 2-play, 70 yard drive by the opposing team. Ugh! The highs and lows of Madden football.

I know I play 15 minute quarters and a high amount of offense is expected in this video game, but I know it is possible to have a realistic games as possible. Like for instance, last season started horribly for me since the Pre-season. I mean horribly as in being the last placed defense in the NFL and depending on my offense to win best in show. So, once the regular season (2002-3) started for me, I expected nothing less from Madden. My defense routinely averaged almost 490 yards against them along with 37 points against per game. I was being killed by the atomic plays, the single plays for gains of 40 or more yards. Now I play keep away and when I have the ball, I run the clock. When you finish a game with the "time of possession" in your favor, maybe 40 minutes to 20, but yet you lose the yards against war... big time... then that is one of the worst downers in a game. But anyway, game 8 last season, my "Battle Red Day" and Fan Appreciation Day, saw the acquisition of a good nickle back on defense in Todd Lyght and the opponent being the winless Panthers. Todd didn't play in that game but my defense experienced a miracle. They only allowed 10 points and 231 yards! I know, I know, it was against the basement Panthers but what happened afterward made me want to play Madden more than my NCAA teams. Every game after that saw an increase in defensive production... I finally started getting more sacks, the opposing offense rarely were allowed more than 320 yards, and those big time plays were no more. :stickdanc This happened over a period of 9 games... so I knew it was possible to play good defense.

So I didn't fire my defensive coordinator... he gave me a turn around. Well, they need to add in the feature of firing a coach or coordinator during the season. Season Two started with a great defensive effort against the Raiders but fell apart from there. Not only did they once again start allowing god-like plays (and I was playing the same type of defensive schemes that made the switch from ugly to pretty last season, mind you) but my defensive coordinator must have been taking my offensive players out to drink every night cos they too started their "who can cause the most penalties" marathon. So yeah, 7 games in and two losses. Not too bad, but they were in a row after going 5-0, and if it weren't for some late game heroics against the Steve McNair-less Titans, it would have been three losses in a row. Yeah, Steve "Air" McNair was injured, but they had nothing to worry about... his ROOKIE backup John Navarre had a career day against me. Damn, he looked like Joe Montana. And what do I get as a reward for beating the 0-6 Titans? I got to play the Indianapolis Colts on their home turf. Now, on to the meat of this post...

I had already played the Colts once before on a Monday Night. That game was one of my best against them. I held them to only 5 points and my defense treated Manning's passes like gold flying through the air. (And by the way, I HATE the Colts) So I went into the game dreading Manning and his host of offensive gods. My worries were true... they were kicking my ***. Wait, can I say *** in this forum? Sorry if I can't. I'll make it cleaner from here on out. Well, every one of Manning's receivers and Tight-Ends were on fire that day. Marcus Pollard ended up being the leading receiver with just about every one else down to the Slot had at least 4 catches. I even went as far as covering some of the guys myself... but once they run off the screen, good luck finding them. It was a rough game and come halftime I was down 12-28 with one huge headache.

Third quarter was basically null, since we both scored 10 points, but 22-38 did not look good going into the fourth quarter in a game where the opposing team actually was controlling the game clock. :goodnight

The football gods are great gods. When you see a game in person or on tv and you see miracles happen or impossible plays going through like it was scripted to happen, then you come to love the game even more. Football is great man. Most of us will never get the chance to step onto a football field and experience some of those great moments, but we still manage with our controllers and tvs... where we're calling the shots.

NCAA has "Greatest Games," Madden should conosider the like also. Down by two scores me defense was flawless and my offense was on a mission. I finally was in control and Madden's gods were, well, grounded. I have never in my video game life experienced a comeback like I had. It was great to those who could experience it. It all started with a J.J. Moses punt return for a TD, his first in his struggling season. But yet, that hardly took but a few seconds off the clock and Manning had the ball back. Up by only 9, they controlled the game... up to my 45 yard line... then they gave it back to me. With time clicking I drove down the field but had to settle for a Kris Brown field goal. The lead was now 6 with only a few minutes to play. Manning took so much time off the clock but couldn't find the luck from before. I had the ball with a little over two minutes and deep in my side of the field. David Carr threw strikes and Domanick Davis found holes (which by the way St. Domanick owns the Colts, having rushed for 140 or more both times I played them). With a little over a minute left I was in the Red Zone. "Singleback Twins Right, Stacked Left." The Colts defense had no one but a linebacker covering my two Tight Ends stacked on the left side. I ran the clock down and took the snap. A field goal couldn't and wouldn't do it, so I had to find the endzone. TE Billy Miller ran an up and out and was running along the goal line with that linebacker on him. Dave Carr threw it up and Billy made the connection... then dove into the endzone. I was up 39-38, having scored 17 straight points in the fourth quarter. But with time remaining, Manning had the ball and I faced the dreaded no-huddle by the computer team. Nothing worked for them and I got the ball back on a fourth down conversion failure. I won the game... and for the first time this season, I loved Madden again. Go Texans.

Offensive and Defensive Gameball: The whole team.
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Houston Texans AT Indianapolis Colts
5-2 43.4PFA 25.6PAA 1WS 4-3 18.9PFA 18.6PAA 1WS
2nd Offense, 31st Defense 16th Offense, 12th Defense
Dave Carr: 19-35 255y 3td 1int 4s 2f...Domanick Davis: 21c 148y;2r-14y
Corey Bradford: 5r-76y......................Andre Johnson: 4r-68y 2td
Billy Miller: 4r-56y 1td.......................Jabar Gaffney: 3r-42y
Marcus Coleman: 8t 2tl 1int 3pd..........Marlon McCree, Eric Brown: 7t
Gary Walker: 6t 2tl 2s.......................Jamie Sharper: 5t
Will Smith: 1t 1s..............................Aaron Glenn: 3t 1tl 1int 24y
Kris Brown: 4-4fg (26,30,48,44)..........J.J. Moses: 3kr 24.3ya; 2pr 33.5ya td

402vs489yards; 146vs86Ryrds; 256vs403Pyards; 15vs23FD; 3vs2TO; 27%vs43% 3DC; 9pen 74yrds; T.O.P. 28:35

[ItalianStallion]

Hate the Colts, eh? Uh oh...

Anyways, you signed Davenport? I live in Indianapolis, and man, he's garbage.

[qb8stunner]

Haha, Davenport is my third stringer. He sucks at catching and the like, but Madden made him far better then Billy Miller and Bennie Joppru at blocking.

qb8stunner: you definetly paint a good picture. I think i'll try that 15 min qtr thing!

[qb8stunner]

Hi from the city of the future AFC South Champions! (Houston)

My last few posts have been pretty long, so I can almost prommise you that from here on out they won't be so "readious," hehe.

I actually managed three games yesterday, thanks in large part to the current Spring Break, but still, I knocked off the weekend of football in NCAA and Madden. So, for starters, here is how my NCAA Dynasties faired: The Northern Maine Eagles (10-0) faced the BYU Cougars (2-6,1-3) and smashed them 80-7. I have two Heisman hopefuls on that team at running back, as a matter of fact, my Senior halfback is the previous year's Heisman winner. He didn't break a 1,000 in rushing, but he did in receiving and was one heck of a kick/punt returner. So he won it by being an All-Purpose player. Geez, he's even one of my top rated cornerbacks. Go figure. My other Heisman candidate is only a Sophomore, Redshirt, and he broke 1,000 the previous season and has already eclipsed the 1,500 yard mark and 25 touchdowns this season. NMEU is definately a running team,and I love it! On the other hand, my University of Houston Cougar dynasty depends more on the passing game. They (6-2,3-1) played Southern Miss (2-6,1-3) in a Conference USA game and won 35-0. My kicker knocked in seven field goals. I love my quarterback on that team, Lake Wolfe, but he can be so inconsistent and the dropped catches that occur all the time in NCAA is so annoying, but at least I won. So Northern Maine is ranked #4 and has a bye week followed by a home game (hopefully in the snow) against ranked Clemson. Houston is now #17 and follows the shutout with their Homecoming game against Army.

Now onto Madden. I couldn't sleep last night so I popped the game right into the system and didn't hit the sack until about 3:30. My Texans just came off of that comeback so I figured I wouldn't get so frustrated and play with some confidence. Now I hate playing against one of my favorite teams, the Chiefs, but of course someone had to win. The Texans were playing at Arrowhead and what ticks me off is that the game has made the Chiefs suck so bad. Priest Holmes should be making more than 6tds a season and why in the heck do the computer teams draft rookie receivers and put them at the top of the depth chart and throw the guys ranked in the 80's down to the slot or even fourth or fifth spots?!?! Oh well. My offense wasn't doing that well and we didn't have a single passing touchdown, but my running game worked to perfection in the cold, rainy game. Also, surprisingly, my defense stepped up and had a stellar performance. Maybe this is the turnaround I needed. I am still gonna run my Defensive Coordinator out of town though, tee-hee. :BlueTeamE

Here we are... next up for the Texans is another away game, this time against the 3-6 Chicago Bears.

Offensive Gameball: Domanick Davis, HB
Defensive Gameball: Marcus Coleman, CB
Houston Texans AT Kansas City Chiefs
6-2 42.9PFA 27.1PAA 2WS 4-4 20.5PFA 18.4PAA 1LS
2nd Offense, 32d Defense 17th Offense, 19th Defense
David Carr: 18-28 224y 1int 2s; 1ff.....Domanick Davis: 31c-159y 1td 1f; 2r-6y
Andre Johnson: 3r-83y......................Billy Miller: 4r-55y
Corey Bradford:3r-34y......................Jabar Gaffney: 2r-27y
Greg Randall: 7pan 2sa......................Steve McKinney: 6pan
Jamie Sharper: 5t 2tl........................Jay Foreman: 5t 1tl
Gary Walker: 1t 1s............................Marcus Coleman: 2t 2int-38y 1td 3pd
Marlon McCree: 3t 1tl 1int 1fr.............Steve Martin: 1t 1ff
Chad Stanley: 5punts-39.0ya.............J.J. Moses: 3kr-41.3ya 1td

379vs263yards; 169vs90Ryrds; 210vs173Pyrds; 18vs8FD; 4vs4TO; 46%vs33% 3DC; 9pen-75yrds; T.O.P. 36:54

what is this line saying "6-2 42.9PFA 27.1PAA 2WS 4-4 20.5PFA 18.4PAA 1LS"