I thought they made a mistake putting Gretchen at lead off, but apparently I was wrong. The first pitch went way over the wall for one of their two runs.
Based on this game Gretchen gets a boost on both team's first pitch, as she caught Pete's deep hit.
This was not fun, which is a shame for the final Worst Football X Team. The worst catching team was fun with how they were so great at power running. The worst kicking team and worst muscle teams were fun with how bad they were. The worst passing, stats, and speed teams were fun, as it required actual work to win The Cereal Bowl with them. This was just a really repetitive team where it felt like the AI was trying to lose.
Dante was LB and QB. Pablo was DT, C, and KR, Luanne was RB. Maria was gunner, and she and Luanne split S. Kenny and Amir were WR and CB. Amir was K. Ronny was benchwarmer again. What kept happening is they kept trying these awful jet sweep and fullback run plays that always resulted in negative yards. On top of it whenever Pablo shed the block their QB constantly just stood there like a deer in the headlights. I wondered if it was just Pablo, so I benched him for the final meaningless game, and it still happened with Dante at DT. It happenned all the time when receivers like Stuart Sullivan were wide open.
3 times they underthrew a hocus pocus for a Kenny interception. On 3rd and long they constantly ran straight down the middle for a loss of 1. It just constantly felt like they were trying to lose.
This was very much a defensive dominant team. Sure if they actually threw it deep we were really vulnerable, but they normally just threw it behind the line over and over.
Offense was a huge problem. Pablo is a horrible Center, and I think he is worse than Ricky. Dante was getting wiped out all season. On top of that there was no go to receiver he could just throw it to. Our red zone offense was horrible, so most our points came from long touchdowns. At least Amir was a great blocking WR, so the outside handoff plays were great. Then they quit CB blitzing me, and Luanne lost several fumbles.
We finally beat the Ostriches, and it felt completely unearned. Stuart was constantly wide open and Drew would just stand there and take the sack. Then they randomly threw to Kenny to lose the game. He was not even covering anybody.
Our first play of the season was a pick 6 to Vicki. We still beat her team badly 3 times. Kenny had 1 hot game with 4 TDs and 4 interceptions.
We went 11-3 in regular season and 1-1 in playoffs. We beat the Monsters again and lost to the Dilllos/49ers. We would have played the Rockets in The Cereal Bowl and probably won. In the lost playoff game they actually played intelligently. Steve wiped out Amir as a receiver and Luanne as a runner. Kenny was a desperate throw. It resulted in a touchdown against Jerry and a game losing interception. The real problem is we lost 7 fumbles (most of them strip sacks) meaning they had a 8-1 turnover margin. The big play was Pablo was going to sack Steve for a safety, but he broke the sack and threw a 40 yard bomb.
Not much time before the new game, but I only have one more worst X Football team to go.
Amir returns from the worst thrower team. He has the same role, but he is also the kicker now. Maria returns from the worst throwing team and weakest team. Ronny returns from the worst catching, stats, and weakest team. Luanne returns from the weakest, worst stats, and worst throwing team. Kenny, Pablo, and Dante are new members.
Good thing we have Pablo, as we will probably need him for muscle mass. Pablo is our center.
Luanne is a giant question mark. Without good blockers she gets crushed. Hopefully Kenny and Amir make good X receivers. Maria has been a huge disappointment, so hopefully she ends that this season. I am fully prepared to bench her if that does not happen.
I am really worried about defense.
I was looking at the list of new episodes, and noticed that. Normally the episodes are more scattered. It makes me wonder if their episode count was four short, so they just grabbed them.
This was a fun season. We went 9-5 and a playoff loss with lots of dramatic games, and we were 6/7ths pocket passers meaning everybody but Danny and Mikey were out of position. To top it off we had really bad special teams, which has been a strength in every single Worst X team except the revised worst stat team (Which still kicked great, they just returned and covered terribly).
Tony actually made a higher percentage of extra points than Ricky did in the weakest team. Granted almost all were barely in. He made no field goals, and part of that was intentional. If he kicked it from 4th and long from the 30 or farther it would be short of the endzone. By kicking them we could down the ball at the 5 for effectively a great punt. Still I would have preferred Angela just make them all.
Our kickoffs and punts were bad, and with how inconsistent my WRs were we punted a lot. We regularly got ten yard net punts, and normally they returned the kickoff to their own 40.
Tony was really bad at recovering onside kicks (yet another way we missed his baby sister), but Drew was thankfully good at recovering them.
On offense Drew and John were really inconsistent. One play they did a great job and the next they missed easy catches and often let the defender catch it. Stephanie is a power back, and this game is made for speed backs. It was really fun when I got her going, but it resulted in many accidental passes and being tackled behind the line. Granted she did sometimes push her way for big gains.
Turnovers were a huge problem, not just interceptions, but fumbles. We gave up multiple defensive touchdowns. It is one reason Tony, not Mikey, was center. He is much better at switching to defense when that happens.
Defense was also really inconsistent. We made a horde of turnovers, and Stephanie broke the interception record. The problem is we also gave up a lot of points. All my players would be great one play and give up big plays the next (except John who was the most consistent). Mikey was the most extreme, as he went back and forth from looking great to terrible.
We lost our playoff game the most fitting way. It was a 14-14 tie, and we drove to the 4. As time expired Tony missed the field goal that was closer than the extra point by kicking it short. They had a defensive power up, and I was worried it was spring loaded, so I was trying to kick too early. After we traded possessions in overtime a pass to John was intercepted, and they immediately kicked a field goal from the 30.
We had some bad things go against us. I am convinced Stephanie, our most athletic player, was having a bad game. They made two hocus pocus touchdowns against us. Jerry dropped one, but he knocked it in the air. Leah Wayne wrestled it away from Stephanie for a touchdown. Both games the Dillos wiped out my wide receivers.
MVP- John He made lots of clutch plays on offense and defense. LVP was Ronny, as he never played.
Next time and final one- worst height team.
15 total turnovers and 11 in the first half. One defensive touchdown vs one offensive touchdown all game. Drew Bledsoe barely got into the endzone to make the two point conversion (I threw it too close). The defensive touchdown was a strip sack right before halftime.
Special shoutout to Stephanie for being responsible for five turnovers. Special thanks to John Elway for making a goal line interception on first and goal.
It says we got 9 turnovers while the individual stats only add up to 8. I think that is because Stephanie fumbled away an interception, and they recovered it (still 4th down).
This was a stressful game by football standards. Nothing ever felt safe.
Even worse, right after Drew dropped the onside kick. At least John scored a hail mary later.
10 total turnovers, not to mention all the fumbles recovered by the offense or the onside kick that bounced off Mikey's foot.
From experience I feel safe saying kick accuracy means basically nothing, so I made the team with the worst kick power. None can make a field goal from outside the 25. That rule will come back to bite me, as it cost us Gretchen. In the tryouts she nailed her first one from the 30 and was dead center. Tony barely beat out Steve Young for the final spot (come one!).
Like all teams I do play like an actual NFL team meaning we kick the ball. Hopefully we are really good on 3rd down.
The real problem is 6/7ths of my team is a pocket passer, and we play every team with a pro except the Saucers and Geckos (probably the easiest two to beat). I really hope Stephanie feels like carrying the team.
Danny Marino returns from the worst stats, speed, and strength team. Drew Bledsoe returns from worst speed team. Ronny returns from worst stats, strength, and catching team. Everybody else is new.
Like the slowest team and physically weakest team everybody had a role (not having Ronny was a major plus). Angela, Annie, and Gretchen played every snap. Angela was kicker, C, and DT. Gretchen was CB and WR. Annie was WR and CB too. Ricky was QB and LB. Amir was S. Luanne was RB and long distance S. Amir and Maria did roleplaying WR work with Maria being a gunner too.
This was a hard season. It felt like they actually knew what my weaknesses were and game planned accordingly. It does not help those horrible throwing numbers actually mean something. It does not help we threw it so slowly, so I could never wait in the pocket for my WRs to get in a better spot.
Ricky and Annie split QB. Ricky got short distance throwing. Annie got long distance throwing and QB sneaks. When Annie was QB Amir went in at blocking WR or Maria at receiving receiver. She basically homed in on Gretchen, so Maria never caught a pass until The Cereal Bowl.
With our passing game Luanne was useless as a receiver, but with blockers she can actually run. I was back to having Gretchen and Angela blocking for her, and she was really hit or miss. Almost everything was big runs or behind the line. Mostly our offense was based on Gretchen. This was her worst season with us, and she had many fumbles and drops. Offense production was mostly based on if she was having a big game or not.
On defense we were surprisingly porous. We started really bad. I then moved Gretchen to CB and Ricky to LB (flipping them), and then I flipped what side Annie and Gretchen had. That mostly fixed our defense. We won our last game heavily, but as you can probably see from the schedule many of our games were rather close. Granted outside of giving up some huge plays our defense was amazing in the the playoffs.
Special Teams were consistent. I thought Annie would be great at recovering onside kicks, but she was terrible. They kept bouncing off her face right to the kicker. I moved Angela there, and she was terrific. Angela never missed a kick until the playoffs.
As you may notice from the stats our passing game was not impressive in the playoffs, and running and defense carried us. Part of it is Gretchen kept making key catches in the red zone but being tackled at the 1. By that point I gave up on passing form the 1 and would just power it in with Annie.
As you likely saw from The Cereal Bowl scoreboard we were losing at half time, and it was close for a long time. The play that changed the game was Angela got a sack on a 3rd down hocus pocus play. From that play onward she was destroying their offense. It was a really fun Cereal Bowl, as it really felt like we might lose.
Ricky won the award for best QB. I have doubts he was even the best QB on the team.
MVP- Before the season I thought it would come down to Gretchen (2x MVP winner) or Annie who has won it for several random teams. Instead Angela got it on her 4th worst team. Her blocking was so crucial on offense, and her work on DT and special teams was constantly great. In the playoffs she was unquestionably our best player. All those fumbles she forced were key to many of our wins.
We played Tony (Rockets) twice. In the regular season Tony was dominant on defense, and he and Angela basically went 50-50. The game winning play was Angela sacking him. In the playoffs Angela just destroyed him.
The opposing pros really felt like pros this time. Danny, Steve, and John were really hard to beat (except after Angela released her inner JJ Watt). Jerry had that really long touchdown against us.
2 More worst X teams to go. Worst kicking team is next, and they do not look good.
You might notice Ricky scored a defensive touchdown. One of the 6 sacks was a strip sack.
It is like the AI actually knows my team's weakness and is game planning accordingly, except the rare game where the Annie to Gretchen combo goes perfectly.
Also Annie sucks at recovering onside kicks.
Time for another one, and this is bound to be harder than the worst catching team. You might notice this team is stacked at WR. Either that really helps or it is wasted abilities.
The good news is Angela and Gretchen are back from the worst stat and catching team. Also Angela from slowest team. These two have been consistent highlights of these worst X teams. On the the dark side Maria, Ricky, and Luanne are back from the worst muscle team (and Luanne from worst stat team). Might be a problem. Annie (awesome) and Amir are new additions.
We play 5 teams with a pro on them (Danny Marino twice) including the Dillos/49ers. So we are not playing Bledsoe (our bane) or Favre. We play Tony in week 3.
I know enough from these worst teams that Angela will be kicker and Gretchen is return man. I hope they keep trying onside kicks, because Annie has the job of recovering them (the computer told me to put Angela there).
On defense we are obviously going with Angela at DT and Annie at CB. After that everything is up for grabs except we know Gretchen will just fill in where needed. I will see if this lineup works. Safe to say Luanne will get some time too.
On offense I spent a lot of practice time before deciding on Ricky at QB beating out Amir. Annie and Angela had success, but I think they are needed at their positions. Annie is our best hail mary receiver, but she also has our strongest arm. That might be a problem. The plan is to run it and nickle and dime the passing game. If Luanne keeps fumbling it she is getting benched and Annie or Gretchen is taking over at RB.
This is the first time a worst X team has two good wide receivers (barring when we play Tony). That is fitting, as Ricky is statistically the 7th worst passer in the game.
Well, that was easy and a great way to rebound from the weakest team. "Bulldozers" was a fitting name, as we power ran all over our opponents. Of the 4 worst X teams this was easily the best. Gretchen is a stud.
In the Cereal Bowl right before halfitme Barry Sanders forced Dimitri to fumble at the goal line and ran it back 100 yards. To start the half Dimitri forced Barry to fumble, and Angela ran it in for a touchdown. I think that is the only time they ever stopped the Dimitri QB sneak.
Dimitri was short yardage QB, and Kimmy was big yardage QB. The other was center. Keisha was running back. Gretchen was ZWR and Angela was XWR. It was interesting playing without a great QB. After I figured that out it was a great offense with a terrific running attack, and Gretchen was catching everything. Even when she dropped it she normally caught it before it hit the ground. If she was double teamed then Angela was a 3rd down conversion machine. Keisha was a dynamic running back unless they had that rare cornerback Angela could not block. With our off throwing the hocus pocueses were not that helpful, so I preferred the running power ups. Mostly it was mixing up Keisha bulldozing her way through defenses and Gretchen taking the top off them.
Did our bad hands matter? I think not and catching is a dump stat. I do not think we dropped it any more than usual. Dimitri dropped some onside kicks, but that always happens. Keisha fumbled a good amount, but Gretchen and Angela were so great at recovering them. On defense I think we intercepted almost all the 50/50 balls.
On defense Kimmy was DL, Angela was LB, Dimitri was S, Gretchen and Keisha were corners. In 3rd and forever Jorge went in at CB with Keisha at LB and Angela at DT. Outside of the one loss a ridiculously stout defense. We were getting sacks and turnovers like crazy. In the playoffs I mastered holding with Angela how Dimitri or Gretchen would intercept it. The 33 points given up are better than they sound, as they had two defensive touchdowns against us.
On special teams Angela was main kicker. She made a field goal from our own 42 (I mis clicked when saying to punt). Keisha in game 2 lost a fumble Barry returned for a touchdown, so Gretchen took over. She had two kick return touchdowns and I do not think she ever fumbles. I feel safe saying Angela is the best kicker in the game. She is so consistent with extra points, and on kickoffs her arches are so high every time. She can also kick it from anywhere. I think kick accuracy is useless, and only kick power matters (that is going to bite me in the worst kicking team).
You may notice we dropped one game by one point. For some reason we could not stop Gretchen's clone. She kept catching it and just running through my players for a touchdown including a 97 yard hail mary to end the game. Angela was playing so great, but then she dropped the game winning touchdown, and it was intercepted at the 3. Considering previous Worst X teams were so reliant on Danny Marino I was okay with him being the one QB to beat us. So we in total went 16-1 and only one win was even close. I would have won if I just kicked the field goal.
The CPU loves putting Pablo and Annie on the same team, and they are normally a huge problem. Not this time. It was so satisfying seeing Gretchen score on the opening kickoff by pushing Pablo aside like a ragdoll.
I was hoping to play Tony's team in the Cereal Bowl, but they were eliminated round 1. Playing the Geckos was easy. They are the worst team with a pro. Barry is amazing, but his teammates suck. They put bigger focus on stopping Keisha in the playoffs hurting her numbers greatly. Interestingly this often meant Angela was uncovered explaining her great Y/C. Gretchen was a receiving machine, so that did not matter.
Angela almost had a lot of touchdowns, but she kept getting tackled at the 1.
MVP- Gretchen. She was so dominant on all three sides of the ball. Keisha made hordes of big plays after the game was won, but Gretchen made them when we needed big plays. I do not care what the stats say, she is just incredible. She can play DT and is a stud at all the other defensive positions. She is just about the best WR in the game, she is a great return man, a great gunner. She can kick 50 yard field goals. She catches the 50/50 balls and can break through. she downfield blocks.
In spite of how easy this was it was a fun season. I enjoyed outmuscling all my opponents. After three physically weak teams in a row this was great.
I got worst passing and worst kicking teams coming up.
Kimmy, Angela, and Dimitri rushed the QB. I do not know who forced it, but one of them got the fumble, Gretchen was the nearest CB, and she scooped it up and got us the two points.
On first and goal at the 15 their Keisha clone tried to run it in and fumbled. Annie (WR) picked it up and fumbled it at the 1. Gretchen picked it up in the endzone and barely outran Pablo all the way back.
Also Angela lead the team in receiving yards this game. That feels more unrealistic than the fumble return.