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Temple 52, Army 36 (Heisman)

I started an offline dynasty using both Temple and Florida, default sliders, Heisman level. I think this is probably the first time I’ve ever scored 52 points with Temple, on Heisman no less. There were a lot of big plays…I had two runs over 60 yards, and two interceptions for touchdowns. I scored 52 points with crossing routes, crossing routes, and more crossing routes. The AI is piss-poor at covering anything over the middle. Of course, the AI tore me up with crossing routes and curls…but they didn’t have as many big plays. I didn’t keep many stats for this game, but one interesting thing to note was that the Army kicker went 3/6 on field goals, with makes from 47, 55, and 55, and misses from about 48, 52, and 55. Basically, when they didn’t score or turn the ball over, they’d take the kickoff to the 35, advance to about the 30, stall, and then attempt the field goal.

UF 73, Hawaii 29 (Hawaii)

In the second game of my Heisman dynasty, I took Florida against Hawaii in their season opener. This gaudy score is to be expected, but I’m surprised that I scored 73 on Heisman. I’ve never had this much success at the Heisman level, ever. (BTW, I’m playing with eight minute quarters.)

This game was all about passing. Here are the passing lines for Florida and Hawaii:

Florida 29-33, 505 yards, 5 TDs, 2 INTs
Hawaii 54-68, 505 yards, 2 TDs, 4 INTs (2 returned for TDs)

Hawaii’s passing attack was impossible to stop until it got near the red zone. When they were successful (between the 20 yard lines), it was a stream of passes to wide open receivers, over and over again. I tried just about every defense I could think of, but nothing consistently worked. However, once they got into the red zone, they would often stall with poor passes into coverage or turnovers.

Playing this game now has me officially worried about the NCAA engine, for two reasons. First, it was yet another example of how bad passing defense is in this game. Secondly, the defensive AI takes some of the worst pursuit angles I’ve ever seen in a football game. Here are a few video examples:

In the first video, it’s a long TD pass from Tebow to Harvin. When Harvin makes the catch, there is a defender coming at Harvin who looks like he is ready to make a big hit on Harvin when he catches the ball. But the instant Harvin catches the ball, the defender’s pursuit angle changes to where he’s now angled to run upfield with Harvin (you may have to watch a few times, this is a subtle change), not to make the hit. Then he changes his angle again, to cut more towards Harvin, and ends up taking himself out of the play and leaving Harvin a clear path to the end zone.

In the next video, the Florida defensive back makes an interception and is off to the races with one man to beat, a lumbering offensive lineman for Hawaii. At first, the lineman is clearly taking an angle to meet the Florida DB at about the 25 yard line and attempt a tackle. Around the 25, I changed my angle slightly more towards the sideline, hoping to get past the lineman and into the end zone. When doing this, the Hawaii lineman then briefly changed his pursuit angle to run parallel with my DB. Instead of meeting my DB at the sideline, this took him out of the play, allowing Florida to score unmolested.

I’m starting to think that a lot of the “wide-open gameplay” being touted in NCAA 09 is simply the product of poor coverage combined with terrible pursuit angles by defensive players.

Will try and get one more game in tonight.