I'm a little later today due to a bit of computer trouble. In short, my PC shit itself. I had to borrow domesticated_primate's spare laptop to be able to keep up with the blitz for this super important weekend. Needless to say, it has been a bad day.
Speaking of bad days, the big news that I am sure everyone is already aware of is the Portland Niners loss to the Vilnius Velociraptors. The game has already created a stir in the forums, forcing Niners owner JTsNiners to shut down the talk from his players. I had mentioned in yesterday's posts that a solid gameplan is the key against a tough opponent, but Vilnius already knew that. They saw a weakness when watching the replays of Niners games, and they took serious advantage of it. I can only address the controversial Raptors game plan one way: It is not glitching or cheating to choose to run the ball almost exclusively. Yes, they ran the same play alot. They relied on their offensive line to be able to consistently open up that hole and let their man through, and it worked. Take a look at the pancake differential - 16 from Vilnius, 2 from Portland. Hard to stop the run when you're lying on your back. Sixteen pancakes isn't a great number by any means, but when you look at it in the terms of what the line did to help the running game, that difference says a lot. Also, the Raptors' running game doesn't account for the three consecutive possessions that ended in field goals for Portland. If any one of those drives had ended in seven points instead of three, the game could have been completely different.
The other controversy that has been somewhat overlooked in light of the Raptors' gameplanning was the decision by the AI to run the ball on the final play of the game, when the Niners were down by one point but within long field goal range. There are two ways this can occur, either by glitch or by having the AI set wrong. Last season, the Secretville Offtopics beat the Bratislava Butchers by a single point when on fourth down and half a yard at the Offtopics 11 yard line, the AI chose to throw an eight yard pass instead of either kicking the field goal, or, for god's sake, running the damn ball. Domesticated_primate and AustinGAZ went over the AI with a fine toothed comb but could find nothing to account for the decision. It was a glitch. Only the Niners' OC knows which it was this time. Personally, I look at that loss by glitch, and get mad, but I know that you should never be in that situation in the first place. Take the Ravens' loss to the Steelers back in December, when replay overturned the ruling of no touchdown at the end of game. I can look at it and be mad at the ref, which I am, but the ref didn't let the Steelers drive the length of the field to get in that position, the Ravens did. The glitch didn't put us behind needing to score to win, we did.
Anyway, believe it or not there were some other games played today, so here's a look at what happened:
Alpha Conference:
Stalingrad shutout the Blaze to keep Saratov looking at an 8-8 finish. With Vorkuta and Tallinn still ahead for the Blaze, it looks like that's all they can hope for. Stalingrad's next game will be a big one, as they host a very pissed off Portland Niners team.
Warsaw Gods of War have pretty much eliminated the Warsaw Stampede from playoff contention. The GoW will likely close out the season with only one loss, and first place due to having defeated the only other 11-1 team in the conference, Stalingrad.
Tallinn posted a big win against the once mighty but now fallen Pecs of Steel. The lingering effects of several doses of Kryptonite kept the Pecs from getting much going on the ground, while the Nightmare was able to find success running the ball. The Pecs should still squeak into the playoffs with the number seven seed, as the P-burg Players will fall to three more opponents before the end of the season. The Players had a tough time getting points in their win against the 4-8 Piranhas, and have some difficult teams ahead of them.
Vorkuta kicked the Kardinals while they were down, delivering a shutout to go with Skopje's tenth loss. Vorkuta still has some tough games to play, but should be able to hold steady in the middle of the playoff pack.
Yugoslavian Roid Pushers shut out the Bayside Tigers. Yawn. The Shrinky-dinks feel better about themselves after beating up on a bunch of helpless kittens.
Sioux City shut out the Rebels. Double Yawn.
Zeta Conference:
Bratislava put themselves back into the number one seed with a 143-3 win over the CPU War-pipers. The number one seed will be decided for certain on Monday.
Secretville didn't have to worry much about Berlin. Instead of glitching in favor of the Crusaders, God decided to strike down my computer instead. God hates me.
Dresden continues to find success running the football, and their defense held the Syndicate to only two field goals. They will have to play well against Italy to have any hope of breaking into the top four spots and getting themselves a home game for the first round.
Warsaw had no problems against the Gargoyles, but with tough games against Bratislava and Italy upcoming, they will have to fight to maintain the fourth seed. It will likely come down to the final game of the season, against the Guardians. Italy shut the Flames down completely, but have Dresden and Warsaw looking to knock them out to secure their own futures.
The Chiefs also shut out their opponent, Southeast. They will be watching the Secretville-Bratislava game closely, as they will face the Offtopics in Week 15. South City will need the Butchers to win in order to have a chance at the number 2 seed themselves.
Nizhny beat Sicilia. Triple yawn. Chernobyl beat Dayton. I think I fell asleep in my chair.
There's the wrap-up, I should be back tomorrow with the big Week 13 preview, barring any more disasters, like getting hit by a crashing helicopter, lightning striking the laptop, or the state of Ohio declaring martial law. I'm off to try to piece together a working laptop out of a couple of broken ones, or scrap together a new PC, depending upon what parts I can find that actually still work and are compatible with one another. Not what I intended for my day off
.
Speaking of bad days, the big news that I am sure everyone is already aware of is the Portland Niners loss to the Vilnius Velociraptors. The game has already created a stir in the forums, forcing Niners owner JTsNiners to shut down the talk from his players. I had mentioned in yesterday's posts that a solid gameplan is the key against a tough opponent, but Vilnius already knew that. They saw a weakness when watching the replays of Niners games, and they took serious advantage of it. I can only address the controversial Raptors game plan one way: It is not glitching or cheating to choose to run the ball almost exclusively. Yes, they ran the same play alot. They relied on their offensive line to be able to consistently open up that hole and let their man through, and it worked. Take a look at the pancake differential - 16 from Vilnius, 2 from Portland. Hard to stop the run when you're lying on your back. Sixteen pancakes isn't a great number by any means, but when you look at it in the terms of what the line did to help the running game, that difference says a lot. Also, the Raptors' running game doesn't account for the three consecutive possessions that ended in field goals for Portland. If any one of those drives had ended in seven points instead of three, the game could have been completely different.
The other controversy that has been somewhat overlooked in light of the Raptors' gameplanning was the decision by the AI to run the ball on the final play of the game, when the Niners were down by one point but within long field goal range. There are two ways this can occur, either by glitch or by having the AI set wrong. Last season, the Secretville Offtopics beat the Bratislava Butchers by a single point when on fourth down and half a yard at the Offtopics 11 yard line, the AI chose to throw an eight yard pass instead of either kicking the field goal, or, for god's sake, running the damn ball. Domesticated_primate and AustinGAZ went over the AI with a fine toothed comb but could find nothing to account for the decision. It was a glitch. Only the Niners' OC knows which it was this time. Personally, I look at that loss by glitch, and get mad, but I know that you should never be in that situation in the first place. Take the Ravens' loss to the Steelers back in December, when replay overturned the ruling of no touchdown at the end of game. I can look at it and be mad at the ref, which I am, but the ref didn't let the Steelers drive the length of the field to get in that position, the Ravens did. The glitch didn't put us behind needing to score to win, we did.
Anyway, believe it or not there were some other games played today, so here's a look at what happened:
Alpha Conference:
Stalingrad shutout the Blaze to keep Saratov looking at an 8-8 finish. With Vorkuta and Tallinn still ahead for the Blaze, it looks like that's all they can hope for. Stalingrad's next game will be a big one, as they host a very pissed off Portland Niners team.
Warsaw Gods of War have pretty much eliminated the Warsaw Stampede from playoff contention. The GoW will likely close out the season with only one loss, and first place due to having defeated the only other 11-1 team in the conference, Stalingrad.
Tallinn posted a big win against the once mighty but now fallen Pecs of Steel. The lingering effects of several doses of Kryptonite kept the Pecs from getting much going on the ground, while the Nightmare was able to find success running the ball. The Pecs should still squeak into the playoffs with the number seven seed, as the P-burg Players will fall to three more opponents before the end of the season. The Players had a tough time getting points in their win against the 4-8 Piranhas, and have some difficult teams ahead of them.
Vorkuta kicked the Kardinals while they were down, delivering a shutout to go with Skopje's tenth loss. Vorkuta still has some tough games to play, but should be able to hold steady in the middle of the playoff pack.
Yugoslavian Roid Pushers shut out the Bayside Tigers. Yawn. The Shrinky-dinks feel better about themselves after beating up on a bunch of helpless kittens.
Sioux City shut out the Rebels. Double Yawn.
Zeta Conference:
Bratislava put themselves back into the number one seed with a 143-3 win over the CPU War-pipers. The number one seed will be decided for certain on Monday.
Secretville didn't have to worry much about Berlin. Instead of glitching in favor of the Crusaders, God decided to strike down my computer instead. God hates me.
Dresden continues to find success running the football, and their defense held the Syndicate to only two field goals. They will have to play well against Italy to have any hope of breaking into the top four spots and getting themselves a home game for the first round.
Warsaw had no problems against the Gargoyles, but with tough games against Bratislava and Italy upcoming, they will have to fight to maintain the fourth seed. It will likely come down to the final game of the season, against the Guardians. Italy shut the Flames down completely, but have Dresden and Warsaw looking to knock them out to secure their own futures.
The Chiefs also shut out their opponent, Southeast. They will be watching the Secretville-Bratislava game closely, as they will face the Offtopics in Week 15. South City will need the Butchers to win in order to have a chance at the number 2 seed themselves.
Nizhny beat Sicilia. Triple yawn. Chernobyl beat Dayton. I think I fell asleep in my chair.
There's the wrap-up, I should be back tomorrow with the big Week 13 preview, barring any more disasters, like getting hit by a crashing helicopter, lightning striking the laptop, or the state of Ohio declaring martial law. I'm off to try to piece together a working laptop out of a couple of broken ones, or scrap together a new PC, depending upon what parts I can find that actually still work and are compatible with one another. Not what I intended for my day off
.
Can't let these game reviews / projections fall to random acts of god. 
