Week 6 Pregame/Game Discussion

[Guest]

I have never seen a QB have a worst stretch of games then Bollywood. I wondered if he is going to completely tank after the season.

Did you see Punxutawney's QB last year? That was the worst I've ever seen.

Phoenix: The San Diego Chargers have some awesome towels you can use.

[Aston]

re:PXT's QB :D

Thread: The Man, the Legend, the Rodney Granger

[Guest]

That's your "play injured players" settings, strick. Crank it way up and he should play. I've always been too scared to crank it up though.

Had a S a season or two ago who had turf toe and I didn't even realize he was getting in on 0 plays while listed as a starter until the season was near over. Really confusing.

yeah had it up to 80 and still not 1 snap had him inactive last week ive turned it up to 99 hopefully hell play

[Guest]

I don't think you can overcome Turf Toe, that one sucks hard.

Finally re-opened the game after watching the last debacle. We've had worse starts (just last year, in fact), but really questioning what this team is made of. Maybe (likely), Austin has just been riding the cohesion and that's falling apart now - very clear decline in production. I think I give him one more shot here in Waco, but might resort to Sante starting with Anchorage.

gl Waco.

[Guest]

I went a whole season playing Parrish with Turf Toe. Until I cranked the injury setting up absurdly high I had all kinds of trouble getting him to stay in the game.

[Aston]

Try to maintain his RB under your best LB he's a monster out of the backfield man!!

Oh man, I didn't even notice the RB at first glance.

QB/RB/WR/WR is a scary combo to defend -- and now that Meadows is back, PXT has that WR/WR duo.

PXT Offense:
I went all the way back to 2024 to look at data and see how McGettigan was doing with the Meadows/Garmon duo at WR, against Double Coverage -- McGettigan wasn't healthy in 2025 and Meadows has not been in 2026. Doubling does not seem like a good idea. McGettigan laughs at double coverages.

Not to mention the TE and RB weapons they have.

PXT O-line:
On the other hand, the PXT line is a big liability. The RT is average at pass blocking and the LT has a big O-burger in that PB bar. Melnick's going to feast on that, we hope, and we'll be blitzing the hell out of James Bussy and Jamie O'Steen on the right side of an OL that is one of the worst in the league in Pressure % Allowed. Turn our SLB Slaten loose, hopefully.

PXT Defense:
It would seem the Phils are doing a great job stopping the run, particularly on the right side of opponents' OLs, which is where we like to do our running. That's going to be a clash of strengths, because we aren't going to change what we do here.

On the other hand, we don't have a lot of respect for their secondary, or the coverage abilities of these LBs. That's something we're going to test early and often. See if Randy can stretch the field.

UTA Personnel Changes:

Hunter Vandersommen had his best season ever in 2025, with 10.27 ypt on 67 targets. But so far, he's batting 30.8% catch rate in 2026, and is heading for the WR5 "Siberia" slot after years of serving as the third WR option in our passing game.

Promoted to WR4 in his place: Chester Haddix, second-year receiver drafted 4.02 in the 2025 draft, and our kick returner. Going to get an early chance to show he can ball in Utah.

[Aston]

Wow, turns out we were wrong to not fear the PXT secondary. Randy got straight out dominated today and we couldn't move the ball at all on offense. Without a 90-yard KR return at the end, we very likely drop this game.

I'm amazed PXT was even in the game at the end, though. We were doing a decent job on Berghendahl (til he busted the 63-yarder loose), and we tricked Robert McGettigan into thinking he was Rodney Granger: 9 completions on 30 attempts, with 5 sacks.

[Guest]

Jumped out to a 17-0 lead on Chicago, but we were stuck in neutral after that. Bernie Jones continues to excel as WR3, but Pat Donaghy had one catch on one target, which fortunately was a 39 yard TD reception.

McBriar fumbled twice losing one, and Duckworth fumbled again losing us the ball. Chicago also had a case of butterfingers, fortunately, and turned over the ball more than we did. We hung on to win 24-17. Both teams fielded ferocious pass rushes. We improve to 5-0 for the first time in my tenure.

I noticed an odd thing: LBs who weren't blitzing were getting QB pressures. While no blitzes were on, Montgomery (who has no pass rushing skills too) got two hurries and a sack. How does that even happen in a 4-3?

Another: Duckworth was sent to 100% for playing time this game yet Rob Wickes still got carries.

FOF AI - You always be messing with me.

[Guest]

I'm going to live blog this one, essentially. Know this ahead of time: I put together a completely unorthodox defensive gameplan in order to try and stop Gainesville's WR duo. I'm not sure it's going to work, but I tried something VERY different.

Right from the start, it's not working. 7-0 Gainesville a couple minutes in. Yay.

Offense did okay. I mixed things up a bit to try and keep the run/pass matches off balance, but QB CJ Jones is a sack machine. Can't do much for that against amazing DEs I'm afraid.

Looks like Ozias changed up his gameplan a bit. I put more run support in on 1st downs than I normally do and he keeps throwing. Ah, gameplan analyzer is failing me. Ugh. On passing plays I called for 100% double teaming on Strickland and Harward, but that's not working as Harward was not double covered while I was in dime. Crap. Another TD from Gainseville.

Offensively I'm the king of the 1yd pass, apparently.

Finally a fumble goes our way! We knock em out consistently, but rarely get them back. A good 3rd down pass, but then nothing form 12 yards out. 3 points. Again.

Well, next series my defense matched up a bit better. Using more Run Normal and Dime payed off with the dice rolls, thankfully. Still, a FG. 17-6 Gainesville.

Halftime without anything interesting.

Finally making some plays on offense in the 3rd quarter. Need to get a TD and cut the lead down. Whew, illegal contact penalty keeps it alive in the red zone. Another penalty from the undisciplined Gails gives me a 2 and 2 at the 15. Let's keep hope alive. I mean, Obama won yesterday, right? Then hope still has a place in this world, even false hope. Yes! 1st down from the 9. Gainesville's pass rush held us to a FG ... again. Down by 8 though.


RB Desmond Kinney usually has his way with us and he continues to do so, even when we're plaing against the run. Well, held them to a FG at least.

God, Salinger is good out of the backfield. Dude can run, but he's a danger in the passing game also. Smartest move I ever made gameplan-wise getting him the ball more through the air. Dammit. Instead of going for it on a 4th down or kicking a field goal, we punted it from 31 yards out. What? Ball down their 12 though ... can't complain I guess. Weird choice regardless.

Oh man, we stopped them hard and then the punt only went 29 yards. We have the ball at Gainseville's 35. Hope, hope, hope. 15 yards pass. Yes, yes, yes. Noooooooooooooooo! Interception in the endzone. I'm willing to call this game at this point. If we can't score on that field position, we're screwed.

Good defensive stand, ball on our own 44. Then we did nothing with the ball, but G-ville has it on their own 10 yard line. Time is against us, but they're punting back at us.

Uh oh, just got a defensive familiar message. We're done for. Special teams might get us back in the game, but that's always a risky proposition ... which is exactly what happened with the ball being downed at our 1 yard line. Crap.

Giefeke comes through on the first play. 15 yards. Good enough ... for now. Next play - very familiar. I'm done for. Turned over on downs. Night folks.

Dammit. 24 yd run for a TD on the first play. Blech. Some passes, interception. We're done for.

We need to score more points. That's what it comes down to.

[Guest]

Jumped I noticed an odd thing: LBs who weren't blitzing were getting QB pressures. While no blitzes were on, Montgomery (who has no pass rushing skills too) got two hurries and a sack. How does that even happen in a 4-3?


FOF AI - You always be messing with me.

IIRC that happens when the other team keep the RB/FB in to block that guy "free" blitzes

[Guest]

IIRC that happens when the other team keep the RB/FB in to block that guy "free" blitzes

Thank you for answering that, Strick, my brain was exploding trying to figure out why it happens and I'm at work until 8pm today so it's no fun! :)

[mike17]

Hey! We didn't suck this week!

[Guest]

6-0 but its all smoke and mirrors, if this were college my strength of schedule would be dead last othe than Yuma i havent played anyone with a winning record. reality check coming in a few weeks when we play Utah,tim for my Bi annual buttwhupping, my goal is to score after the 2 trips to the woodshed last year where i gave up ove 80 points

[Guest]

We cannot do anything right on offense. Hmph.

[Ozias]

Looks like Ozias changed up his gameplan a bit.

Yep, I tried to stay a little more balanced, which seemed to work very well.

I noticed getting DE Vanover back from injury made a huge difference with my pass rush as well, getting to QB Jones 5 times, and holding RB Salinger to 40 yards on the ground.