Nope, because I wait until my challenges 're-load' and it still gray's out about 1/2 the teams on my list, even if they're in other divisions.

I guess it could possibly be because I have two squads and they somehow act parasitic? But the Vipers squad I wanted to play is in the Dolphins league and neither of mine are.

I thought Cox said during these showdowns all players on your roster are available? That has not been the case

Because challenges are largely designed for the off-season.

And in the off-season all of your players WILL be available, regardless of injury status.

But when the Sandbox season is being played, your challenge lineup will mirror your regular season lineup, which DOES take availability into consideration.

DJ got so ****ing lucky!

Fugly ass game.

Can't help but wonder had Russ played I probably win that game instead of Matt Cassel disguised as Free Agent. Fun fact in all the games we've played they've all been 1 score games largest deficit was that playoff game you won by 8

If you're talking about our game, yes.

So I bitched about the simulations in the message board and I now can't leave messages anymore.

Is this a China or Russia run group, lol.

Ryan Tannehill's turned into a real piece of shit on me.

Then again, that probably should've been expected. He's still doing okay in the league play but he's good for a couple turnovers/gm right now in challenge play.

Thumb down my post, will ya, Lew?

Talk shit, get hit booooyeeeeeee

Benton started out 0-5 while starting FA quarterback (fun times there); 4-0 since.

Oh ok, nerd.

It's so annoying my team is so good in the regular stuff but in the challenges they're completely different. I shouldn't be losing or not able to score against you DJ

Ben Worthlessberger never disappoints. Last game he had 4 INT & 4 fumbles losing 2. 6 turnovers. :eek:

In 2 league games (losses), 4 and 5 turnovers. He has a really bad knack of fumbling the snap or fumbling (tossing it) during a sack. :D

Lord I hate that damn 'milk the clock' offense.

Up 31-0 on Carson City at the end of the first half, my offense decides to run out the clock in the 2nd half, next thing I know with 10 minutes still left in the game it's 38-33 and we end up hanging on for dear life.

Thank God we got that 41 yards on 19 carries out of Damien Harris when Dak Prescott threw for 400 yards passing and had a perfect passer rating on the day. Really a smart decision to take the ball out of his hands for the 2nd half.

And man, that Cleveland squad is no joke. They just handed me one of the few true thumpings I've ever taken in this game. 40-25 and honestly the game wasn't really that close. I scored a garbage time touchdown to even make the final outcome look respectable and it was 30-6 before I put my first touchdown on the board late in the 3rd quarter.

Yeah, their rating is the only >1700 so far.

A line of Trent Williams, Laken Tomlinson, Mitch Morse, Trey Smith, and Garrett Bolles gave up 6 sacks come on

Probably Bolles fault. :hmmm:

Definitely the weak link

Who's the QB?

Stafford

Knocked off that damn Denver powerhouse. Took 4 interceptions to do it but he also had 2 punt return touchdowns so I won’t apologize.

After starting 0-5 without Dak, Benton has gone 16-3 since his return and joined the 1700 club.

Columbia is having Tannehill problems still.

Russ comes back along with Braden Smith and throws 5 TDs. Tough to beat this team when Russ plays like that

Matt Ryan has fumbled seven times in the last three years in the NFL but fumbled five times in one game for me.....seems legit

free agent kicks 70 yards. No return. Touchback
4th Q 1:00 1st and 10 Sugar Land 25 Myles Gaskin rushes for 1 yard.
4th Q 0:39 2nd and 9 Sugar Land 26 Myles Gaskin rushes for 6 yards. time out Sugar Land
4th Q 0:31 3rd and 3 Sugar Land 32 Justin Herbert passes complete to Myles Gaskin for a gain of 9 yards.
4th Q 0:17 1st and 10 Sugar Land 41 Justin Herbert spikes the ball to kill the clock.
4th Q 0:15 2nd and 10 Sugar Land 41 Myles Gaskin rushes for 4 yards.

How do we stop this from happening? I'm down by 5 with a minute left and run the ball?

I would think that would trigger the hurry up offense, and you should have that (the hurry up offense) set to 100% pass on all your formations.

Thank you not sure why I've never noticed that before. Wow I'm dumb

Just beat the best overall team Cleveland

I just kicked your top teams ASS and it wasn't even close.
12 sacks, 8 turnovers...ouch.
Thought Dak was the 2nd coming of PMII? LOL.

Here comes the excuses, lol.

Like said, "my team sucks"

The team I spent the least amount of time on is doing alright. VV is struggling.
Whatever D changes I make with CCA usually results in mega sacks. I use them for VV but it never produces the same results like prior years?



lewdog, you're next bitch!

31-3. I'd say you just got your ass kicked by a team that sucks, bitch!
Htf does that happen, lol.

You're just lucky I didn't unload my D on you. I wasn't expecting 5 sacks but I'll take it, ha!

Wow, you beat a team lead by Taylor Heinicke and without Hopkins and a defense that sucks more dick than Billay. I checked it in weeks ago. My team is un-coachable and talentless.

Honest question, when you stand straight, can you even see your dick?

Really a shame Russ was injured it appears Columbia isn't that good this year

Some days the bear eats you.

And yeah, that’s beat down. Not sure what what happened there.

Some of you guys are working with loaded rosters. I have no idea why some of you aren't better at this.

They are not.

I got through a couple seasons w/ Tannehill/Fitzgerald but quarterback is really killing me this year. It shows up most obviously in large numbers during challenge play.

When things are going well, he's fine. But if the game is nip/tuck you can count on the guy taking a brutal sack or committing a massive turnover. He's been a big damn problem.

If I can get a little breathing room it may be time to see what kind of ground/pound game this squad can manage. The defense is still strong, but unfortunately it's a defense built to support an offense that's scoring and converting on 3rd downs.

Tannehill ain't doing either well enough.

You're funny.

Lemme know when u get your shit together. I'll see if my sucky team can hang.

Excuses, excuses, lol.

PS, come up with better humor. I don't stand anymore, lol.
Maybe you should have seen that before the season and planned better, lol. O, I forget, you give up, lol.

.500 squad that's managed to go 3-1 against the #1 ranked squad in the sport.

I mean there's clearly SOMETHING you've figured out against me. I have a theory, but it hardly matters. I can't very well rip my gameplan apart to deal with an occasional challenge match from you while it's been quite effective against everyone else.

Eh - guess it'll be what it be. Somehow you've got Dak turning the ball over on every other drop back.

It's nice to defeat the talkers, lol.

I most likely won't amount to shit but these few wins are sweet, lol.
My 5 minutes...

No doubt.

Nothing was ever more fun that knocking Clay around until he bitched out and quit.

But as I've said - my 2 squads are the 1 and 2 ranked teams by ELO. I'm doing something right. For whatever reason, they just don't do it against you.

Styles make fights and you just have something of a weird ass southpaw approach, I guess...

Lol Lew got his ass kicked by Carson City. I beat those scrubs 47-10

In fairness to my lagging Columbia squad - they're the #1 scoring team in the league with the #2 scoring defense. And they're sitting 8-2. And they can run the football at 5.5 yards per carry, I'm just being a little pigheaded with the play calling. 2nd in the league in sacks, 4th in pressure rate w/ the DL, 3rd in passer rating against. On the OL side we have the best protection in the league and I just not got my starting RT back.

It's hardly a bad squad. It's just struggling with INTs. Tannehill's just not as sharp as he was last year. And for some odd reason I'm struggling like crazy to get Pitts involved in the offense. Not sure why - but the guy's just not getting the ball.

He's out there 70% of the time but just isn't getting the targets and isn't getting downfield like Jonnu last year.

The team isn't bad enough to justify significant changes. It's not good enough to be confident that they won't step on their dicks in the post-season. Again.

An interesting spot to find myself here.

Seeing you have to adjust to my offensive style brings a tear to my eye. The Billygoats welcome back alley brawls

I’ll be honest, I don’t pay attention enough to other players in the NFL to really evaluate talent, especially young talent. Plus the Sim hates mediocre QBs and that’s what I’m working with.

I swear all my challenge games are just turnovers and missed field goals

Sacks! Don't forget sacks!

The production that DJ is getting out a Tannehill is just crazy. 44/8.

DJ, you must be some kind of savant.

Tannehill is 2nd in MVP voting behind Johnathan Taylor

HUGE win over a very good team without my #1 WR

Lord - Benton had a 16 game challenge win streak? That's a nice little weekend.

I don't even hardly challenge with them anymore, though I really should to hopefully prevent falling on my face in the post-season again.

22-2 w/ my two squads in league play and somehow I suspect both of them will lose early in the post-season because Dak has always shit the bed in the post-season and Tannehill absolutely refuses to stop throwing key interceptions.

If you want to know how I adjusted my sliders gameplay to have Phyllis Rivers take a mediocre team to the Super Bowl, PM me.

I'll take any help I can get

Meh, gotcha all beat.

CCA lost 8 of their last 11 over the weekend, lol.

Plus I'm in first for the most games tied, ha.

Someone challenge my Sparks team in Raiders1 league. Been changing up sliders

Tomorrow with my non league team.

I'm playing you this Sunday.

well help me get dialed in before our game haha

Tampa, your gameplans are never consistent so I always have issues with you, lol. Either that or it's the simulations.




It's crazy how different my CCA team plays in league vs Challenge.
That team averages 5 sacks a game in 71 games played in Challenge.
It had a 19 sack game against Newport earlier today, lol.

Having most of my starters back has helped VV tremendously. Plus a few other changes...


----------

Anyone else keep track of gameplans against certain teams? Or do I have too much time on my hands, lol.

I screwed up and forgot about us.
I forgot to put your name on my "to Challenge" list, lol.
I'll hit you first thing tomorrow.

Kingswood was @ the SS message board bitching about getting sacked but not mentioning my name.
It pissed me off since I put a lot of work into getting at the qb. When I'm active I always led the league in sacks.
My successful plans don't work for both of teams.

Then Umberto was chirping too so I went at both of them with my teams, lol.


You're welcome for getting them off your ass DJ, lol.

cdcox, don't be dialing me down either!
I work for it, lol!

I think you have the best Sandbox team around.

DJ, you caught me.

I set my plans up for tomorrow to play a team forgetting I could still be challenged. No excuse, it's just a wacky gameplan specific for that team. But thanks, looks like I need to tinker it some more.
He throttled me with zero pass attempts and 406 yds from Lamar, lol.

We're 3-3. How bout tomorrow @ noon to break the tie, lol?
I'm 2-1 challenging you, you're 1-2 @ me. I'll let you challenge me.

Good luck!

PS. Perhaps leave someone in the backfield to help block, lol.


You're too kind.

There's a few that are still spanking me but I hope that changes from the "filmwork" we've been studying, lol.


You're just having an off year. You were a top dog last and years past.

Are the Billy Goats Titties team? If so I absolutely destroyed him lol

Yeah - you're just a weird matchup for me.

I run into the same problem you ran into - I don't want to re-set my matchups to face you then end up getting challenged and not have them set back.

But sure, I'll take another spin tomorrow (don't think I should have any limits on challenges by then).

I keep getting within 1 damn win of breaking that 19K ELO barrier and then stumbling.

Who cares the challenge is dumb didn't I neat you in our league?

Lol idk man just talking shit

I'm willing to fight over this sandbox shit

Well name a time and place let's go

I'll take on the winner!

I can whip all your asses UFC style...o nm, forgot, lol. Carry on.

even disabled i bet you could beat my overweight, out of shape ass

I suspect you are about to plunger rape Columbia.

I went out and picked on some 90 lb weaklings with them just to try to break their losing skid. Got a few Ws but all by about a score and all against truly lousy opponents.

Not sure what their deal is right now but challenge play does seem to go in waves. I'm missing a WR and a LB, IIRC, but nothing that should have this kind of impact.

I stand corrected; Columbia takes down Vancouver and Benton takes down the mighty Carson City Aces...

What I can't figure out is how I can just keep challenging (and being challenged by) teams in the top 10, usually top 5, and despite being a combined seventy games over .500, my squads can't create any space over some team like Houston that's played the same number of games as Benton and has won 19 fewer of them. Dafuq? Columbia is 20 games over .500 and I just now picked a few rummies to beat, otherwise they get the same quality of opponent as Benton.

And I'm BEHIND teams that are below .500?

I don't think Benton's ELO rating changed at all after than win over Carson City. Hell, I almost think yours went up.

It's really confusing.

Imo, we're ranked by what teams we're challenging or challenging us?
I had to lol when VV was 12 games below .500 and top teams were challenging, ha.
VV has a losing record but was up to 5th yesterday.

I normally go after the top teams but the gap to you closes and it's the same couple teams to choose from. I imagine they get tired of me challenging them?



Now when CCA fell on its face I challenged other similar record teams since the top teams were kicking my ass, lol.

There's a few good teams I play well. But some mediocre always kicking my butt, lol.



Little advice to all. Houston Wardogs only runs his qb, Lamar. No other rb carries and he NEVER passes.
I lost 2 to him and then blitzed his ass to win one.
Same with the Kingswoods team that has Taysom Hill.
He'll throw it a couple times and couple hand offs but qb is having 30+ carries.

so, how many challenges do you get per day? I thought it was only one and the site kept messing up. I ended up playing three games and two of them were against the same team.

I think we might get 3 now? I have no idea. Seems kinda random.

I think that's the Detroit Vipers. Yeah, both those guys spam run you to death.

And that's the one thing I've never been able to change much. I've tried putting in heavy run blitzes, I've tried changing my starting LBs, I've tried even shutting off my Nickel or Dime sets.

And it never seems to make much of a difference on the YPA against me. Sometimes I can keep them in the 4s, sometimes they pop me for 7+. And there seems to be little rhyme or reason to it.

So I just threw my hands up and decided '**** it, I'll just try to score a lot and put you in passing situations in the 2nd half - good luck...'

Because those teams SHOULD be easy to gameplan for. And for whatever reason, any changes I make don't really seem to matter much.

How the **** do you only run your QB? I didn't know you could do specific plays like that

Yeah, beats me, lol.

Houston ran Lamar 42 times for 460 yards the 1st time we played, lol. Score didn't reflect but time of possession kills me.

I have Taysom on the bench. I'd like to know myself, lol.


______

And DJs nuts, your boxes are ALWAYS clear. I couldn't challenge you with either team if I wanted lately?

You didn't show at noon so I changed my plans to generic for anyone challenging.
I see what you did, lol.

5-wide, run 90+% of the time.

It's the only way to do it. I thought CD had actually prevented that in version 1.0 but I guess not.

Folks would set their offensive strategy to only line up in a 5-wide, zero-RB formation and then run 100% of the time out of that formation. The game doesn't run reverses (which is what I thought their fix was), it runs QB draws. They were spamming the shit out of it.

And at the time I had Percy Harvin who I WANTED to run the ball with but couldn't. I was trying to up my run rates in 4 and 5 wide sets to get Harvin some handoffs and it just wouldn't do it.

I'm starting to wonder if you become unavailable for challenges after you use your challenge, but that wouldn't make sense either because I've had days where I end up getting 6+ challenges in a single day (that's how Benton has played like 130 games now).

Are you making sure you're challenging out of the right team? I think maybe Vancouver and Benton are both in Raiders 1 so we can't challenge each other with those teams because you can't challenge teams in the same league as you.

Sorry 'bout being late - sick twin. Had him this morning and then went back to the office after my wife tagged in after lunch so I didn't get to the site until 3ish.

I was at one a day and seen nuts talking about multiple daily challenges and all of a sudden I was at 3.
I "think" it increases after you've played a certain amount of games?

Na, today I saved one CCA challenge cause wasn't sure what was up with us. I seen we played so I took the Commandos down instead...finally, lol.
Plus the minute I logged on with CCA you were clear

I've been battling Umberto & Kingswood this week. I knock 'em down from you and they come right back, lol.

Umberto is usually a pretty easy out for me.

Kingswood has Indianapolis, right? I seem to struggle with them a bit. But for Benton even 'struggle' is relative - it's still at/near .500 with them.

I've noticed that your QB (Grapes?) does a good job of avoiding sacks for some reason. I get plenty of pressure against you, typically in the 30-40% range - but my sack totals don't reflect it.

And don't get me started on Jordan ****ing Poyer who will rack up 90 sacks in a league year if you run that defense in league play. Jesus. What a pain in the ass.

But if either of my QBs are getting the ball out quick, we still tend to move the ball pretty well in between Poyer sacks.

I increased it to 3 per day a couple weeks ago.