ESPN NFL 2K5 DSP/Blog League Week One!

[Bill_Abner]

OK we're rady to start the league, so good luck and I hope everyone has a good time.

The deadline for Week One is 9/12 so be sure to set up your game.

League Owners: the league website is at:

http://leagues.espnvideogames.com/myleagues.php

The league webpage is very slick and has a message board, news posts, stat tracking, etc.

Dan wrote up a brief week one, tongue in cheek, breakdown:

Cincinnati @ San Francisco
This one looks to be an interesting game as frequent comment poster and Republican Shamrock 11 brings his Bengals to town against Scasmflop and his 49ers.

If Shamrock can play this game like he posts comments on our blog, I feel bad for Scasmflop.

Pick: Cincy by 4.

Chicago @ Detroit
It's perennial newsgroup poster Jhawkr and the Lions vs Brando70 and the Bears.

If there's anything about my predictions, you know they are often wrong, but what the hell, might as well pick the guy I know vs the guy I don't.

Pick: Lions by 10

Cleveland @ Buffalo
This game features Bill in his very first or second time online with ESPN. Normally I would absolutely pick against the newbie, but since it's Bill and he has authority to delete, I'm going to pick The Abner and the Browns over Buffalo and laurenskye.

Pick: Browns by 3

Tampa Bay @ Denver
It's MixDJ1 vs SeanMac in a thrilling battle of people who haven't updated their profile! Since I got nothing here people, I'll do it as if it were the real world.

Pick: Denver by 7

Arizona @ Seattle
Glen Haag's Cardinals take on Fshguy. Glen was a last second replacement for the 'guy who was supposed to take Arizona' so we'll have pity on him.

Pick: Arizona by 2

NY Giants @ San Diego
Sorry, there's no way I can pick a guy who has a picture of anything Rams related. Remember, I'm a Pats fan. Sorry, XXXIV .

Pick: Chargers by 3

Kansas City @ Tennessee
Another hard pick looking at the profiles. Tealboy (TEN) is apparently a Jeff Gordon fan, and how are you supposed to pick that?

Pick: KC by 7

Green Bay @ Indianapolis
Manning at home with that crowd, who could you pick? Definitely not Indy, as they can't run it in on the Pats from the 1 in four downs. That and anyone who has Rick James as their name and profile pic gets my vote.

Pick: Green Bay by 5

Atlanta @ Dallas
Well, should I really mess with Texas? Even though it's the home of Bush. No, I'm a wuss.

Pick: Dallas by 2


New England @ Miami
Under most gambling guidelines, I can't pick this game, because I'm in it.

Pick: None due to federal regulations.


Jacksonville @ Philadelphia
This should be an interesting game -- two guys frequently in the newsgroups. I think both are yankee fans too. Gotta go with the real teams in that case.

Pick: PHI by 3


St. Louis @ NY Jets
Can't pick the Jets team under any circumstances, and even though it's the Rams, whom I said I didn't like, I'll pick them over the Jets any day. Kinda like picking a sock puppet over Bush in my book.

Pick: STL by 6


Pittsburgh @ Carolina
Tough game to call. Looks like we got a die hard PIT fan against the Panthers. Could be anyone's game. And I'm a wuss so I'm copping out.

Pick: Draw


Houston @ Oakland
This should be a good game, much better than it looks on paper. We have Bdoughty, a former or current (I forget) Operation Sports guy against Optimi5tic. Gotta go with the OS guy, for loyalty sake. Unless of course he loses.

Pick: Houston by 3


Minnesota @ Baltimore
If there's ever been a guy more excited than pb4201 to play in this league, I haven't met him. I think that enthusiasm will carry over to this game.

Pick: BAL by 7


New Orleans @ Washington
Gotta pick against the Skins, just becuase they are near Baltimore.

Pick: NO by 3

I'll keep track of my predicitons throughout. Keep in mind, I have no idea how most anyone plays online, so it's tough to pick this week.

Good luck everyone.

[Sudz]

can we play out of order?

[Bill_Abner]

What do you mean? I think you have to play your week 1 opponent if thats what you mean. I think so, anyway. Hip I posted the WASH email address on the message board.

[Sudz]

thanks!

[XXXIV]

NY Giants @ San Diego
Sorry, there's no way I can pick a guy who has a picture of anything Rams related. Remember, I'm a Pats fan. Sorry, XXXIV .

Pick: Chargers by 3

I am almost good at this game..........

How minutes long are our qtrs?

[Teal]

"Kansas City @ Tennessee
Another hard pick looking at the profiles. Tealboy (TEN) is apparently a Jeff Gordon fan, and how are you supposed to pick that?

Pick: KC by 7 "




Yeah, imagine that...an Alabama redneck who isn't a Junior fan...

[Bill_Abner]

NY Giants @ San Diego
Sorry, there's no way I can pick a guy who has a picture of anything Rams related. Remember, I'm a Pats fan. Sorry, XXXIV .

Pick: Chargers by 3

I am almost good at this game..........

How minutes long are our qtrs?

I think Dan set it to 6

[Bill_Abner]

Nice start DB

[Sudz]

where is washington?

[dbdynsty25]

Nice start DB

Thank you sir. Man that league site is the sh*t...all the stats and everything. Gotta love the way ESPN implemented it.

[Bill_Abner]

Dam said something about lag. Was it bad?

[dbdynsty25]

Dam said something about lag. Was it bad?

What you didn't read my recap or headline, lol? Yeah it was pretty bad but it wasn't unplayable. I wonder if having to send plays and recap stuff to the ESPN server causes some of that. Cuz hell, when I looked at the site it tells you every single play result that was run. I can only imagine that's what is causing it but we'll see with more people getting some games in.

[Bill_Abner]

Holy cow did you see the Ravens/Vikings game? Lewis had 291 yards and scored the first time he touched the ball. Ouch.

[dbdynsty25]

So much for Ricky leading the league in rushing...that was short lived.

[Danimal]

Holy cow did you see the Ravens/Vikings game? Lewis had 291 yards and scored the first time he touched the ball. Ouch.

I was in 2 other leagues, in both of those Lewis has multiple 300+ yard rushing games. I've never actually looked at his ratings in game, but they have to be seriously out of whack.

[Bill_Abner]

After seeing what Fred Taylor did to my Browns...playing Lewis is going to be a blast..

[Sudz]

what is up with people not wanting to play? washington will not respond!

[Bill_Abner]

I dunno. My only guess is that it's a holiday weekend and some people may not be around. I cant get a hold of Laurenskye to save my life so we'll have to wait and see. We have til 12 AM Sunday to play. If people dont play its no biggie, we can find more players.

[Brando70]

Ouch, I'm picked at -10 versus the Lions! My team is fired up and ready to prove the prognosticators wrong this afternoon.

BTW, this is an ubelievable set up with the league page stuff. I'm pretty much ready to forgive Sega for their lousy offline franchise AI.

[Bill_Abner]

Brando, shoot me an email address so I can add you to the mail list.

[Badgun]

Yeah, I've sent RobVarak a pm but have yet to hear from him. I'm sitting around doing nothing today and would love to get our game in. Herein lies the problem with leagues.

[Sudz]

I dunno. My only guess is that it's a holiday weekend and some people may not be around. I cant get a hold of Laurenskye to save my life so we'll have to wait and see. We have til 12 AM Sunday to play. If people dont play its no biggie, we can find more players.

i don't want to get the boot just because somebody else won't play!

[Bill_Abner]

I dunno. My only guess is that it's a holiday weekend and some people may not be around. I cant get a hold of Laurenskye to save my life so we'll have to wait and see. We have til 12 AM Sunday to play. If people dont play its no biggie, we can find more players.

i don't want to get the boot just because somebody else won't play!

You won't.

[Bill_Abner]

Yeow Brando. That looked like a defensive struggle from hell.

[bdoughty]

Wow I guess I should have practiced a game or two with the Texans just to see how bad they are. I forsee 0-16 in my future unless I can get a RB I have actualy heard of. Between this and taking Columbus in the NHL I will slowly become the loveable loser.

One thing during the game that could be a potential problem is the scrambling QB's (especially used as it was in this case, a QB sweep holding the R trigger from the snap). I don't mind having to account for it when you are playing Vick or McNabb (though it should be limited somewhat - I have played people who use it every other play) but I do have an issue when you scramble with Gannon not even considering the pass. I was down 21-0 late in the 4th quarter at the 20 and the opponent held R trigger down and took off 20 yards for a TD. Honestly at that point in the game a QB scramble is the last thing I am think of.

I use the R trigger to get outside the pocket but since I am using "slow white QB in Carr" I do not take advantage of the scramble. Even with the open space I had to run on many occasions I let Carr throw yet another incompletion instead.

Just a minor gripe, other then that one play the opponent who I don't know played straight up. I would loved to have said something to the player but he had his headset off the whole game.