Warrior General Games

I'm not even sure how this would work with the current OAI system.

I've noticed a number of games where one team needs two scores inside the two-minute warning. They'll play hurry-up to move the ball down the field, and then use a timeout once they're inside one minute. Of course, they score, kickoff, and the defense only has two timeouts to stop the clock. Game over.

What I'd like the OAI to do is spike the ball in that situation. Yes, it's a loss of down, but that's four-down territory anyway, and the defense can't spike the ball to stop the clock. The basic framework of the input would be:

Score -16 to -9
Timeouts remaining 3
Time remaining 120 seconds
Clock running
Downs 1-3

I do want to avoid spiking the ball on the second possession (should the defense be successful!), but I think the score range covers that scenario. I also recognize that this is a sim without the benefit of onside kicks, which makes keeping the timeouts even more essential.

Am I missing anything? Would this even work?

Problem is the current system, spiking the ball saves *0* time. It's a loss of a down, without any benefit.

Real life - the players would be rushing up to the line to spike, taking maybe 10-12 seconds off the clock.

Bort ball - the players take the same 35-45 seconds after a rush / successful pass to get their lazy asses to the line.

Short version, don't run spikes ... ever.

Catch22

February 9, 2011 Question OC question - Is Spike the Ball option working correctly? From what I have experienced, it doesn't seem to save any time and burns a down. Typically it looks like a does the following: 0:51 2nd & 4.5 OPP 7 HB rush up the middle (4.5 yd gain) [tackle: LB] 0:31 1st & G OPP 2 QB Spikes ball 0:29 2nd & G OPP 2 HB rush [TD] up the middle (2 yd gain) First plays takes like 20 seconds regardless if it Spiked or not on the following play - then the Spike, which only takes 2 secs and loss of down. Maybe I am missing something that it is doing but it doesn't seem to cause a time saving in spiking the ball. Does the length of the previous play affect the amount of clock that is used up? Or other factors? Could you explain them a bit? I would like to know if Spiking the ball helps and how to use it correctly.

Answer Looks like it works to me. First play runs, team gets up to the line of scrimmage and sets itself with 31 seconds left. Center snaps the ball, QB Spikes it, 2 more seconds are run off the clock. I'm not sure what you are expecting it to do... magically remove time off of the clock? I'll run a few tests and see if there is a problem with it and if there is, I'll see about possibly either reducing the time in between plays for Spike. Edit to add: Ran a quick test and posted the following for Bort to look at... --Spike ball logic - a few people have made a good point that there is literally no benefit to spiking the ball. After running a quick test game, I can see their point. ... continues.

Seemingly got swept under the carpet, and never addressed. It's still just as pointless.

Can we pretend we're in a sim where QB spikes work?

(Seriously tho', thanks for the info about the current state of QB spikes. I wasn't aware of the issue.)