Sim Bugs

[Ben C.]

It took me a minute to understand the "faith in special teams" part, but here goes...

Down 28 to 21, you kick the field goal to make it 28 to 24.

After the field goal, you kick the onside kick, recover it, go down and THEN score the go-ahead TD to make it 31 to 28 with no time remaining.

Benefit is that under this approach you wouldn't allow the other team to have a chance to move down the field for the winning field goal in regulation (with 1:33 remaining it's entirely possible you'd end up losing anyway with a field goal at the last second). You also prevent it from going into overtime to have the same thing happen.

Risk is exactly what happened - you failed to get the onside kick and then lost anyway.

The way I see it is that you had a slim chance of winning if you tied it up but left them plenty of time to score. You had a slim chance of winning if you kick the FG and go for the onside kick. Your "coach" chose one method and lost.

[sportznut]

It took me a minute to understand the "faith in special teams" part, but here goes...

Down 28 to 21, you kick the field goal to make it 28 to 24.

After the field goal, you kick the onside kick, recover it, go down and THEN score the go-ahead TD to make it 31 to 28 with no time remaining.

Benefit is that under this approach you wouldn't allow the other team to have a chance to move down the field for the winning field goal in regulation (with 1:33 remaining it's entirely possible you'd end up losing anyway with a field goal at the last second). You also prevent it from going into overtime to have the same thing happen.

Risk is exactly what happened - you failed to get the onside kick and then lost anyway.

The way I see it is that you had a slim chance of winning if you tied it up but left them plenty of time to score. You had a slim chance of winning if you kick the FG and go for the onside kick. Your "coach" chose one method and lost.

Well, if you ask me that kind of logic is dumb. I have been watching the NFL for a very long time and NEVER have I seen a HC go for a FG in that situation.

Could I have still lost? Sure, but that's not the point at all.

Every single time I should've gone for the tying TD.

[Ben C.]

I never said it was smart logic. I just tried to come up with some sort of logic where it would make sense.

Also, let's not forget that some of the best coaches in the NFL do make some decisions based on strange logic. Here are two that come to mind.

- Belichek's decision earlier this year to go for fourth down, fail and give Peyton Manning the ball near the endzone with plenty of time to score the winning TD
- Holmgren's decision to let Denver score the go ahead TD in the Super Bowl in order to leave "plenty of time" on the clock for Favre to tie the game.

[Goodell]

Also, let's not forget that some of the best coaches in the NFL do make some decisions based on strange logic.

Exactly. And this being a GM-based personnel game more than a coaching game, that would be my recommendation for looking at the results and why we don't re-sim games. Sometimes odd things happen.

That's a bit of a cop-out for me, though, because the game simulation does need to be improved overall to a point hopefully someday that there are no obviously bad judgement or mistakes made at all. It would be ideal and important to get there (and will probably need people's help in outlining all the different scenarios and decision-making rules to get there) but even with human beings and more complex decisions you get some odd choices too debated on talk radio (or blatent referee mistakes teams have to just live with as unfair as it is) that as a GM you have no control over on game day looking down from your skybox, but in the big picture you should see better results on the whole if you build a better team even if a couple calls or odd decisions come up along the way.

But we'll try to put more effort into improved decision-making next season, and will definitely need some group participation in tackling all the thousands of different scenarios and factors that need to be applied beyond just the basics now.

[dinkatoid]

TOUCHDOWN Indianapolis!!... Going for the 2-point conversion... They fail to convert! Indianapolis 13 to Denver 9

I am not sure if this is a bug, but why was it going for the 2 point conversion there? If they had converted, it would have been 15-9. That is still only 6 points, so a TD and kick would have still won it for the broncos. It would not have mattered if I was up by 5 or 6, it is the same effect really - a TD takes the lead, FG isnt enough. Just seemed like a strange time to go for it.

[TylerW]

Darren Sproles returns the ball 0 yards.
6:08 | 1 and 10 @ 3 (3)... Darren Sproles runs for 2 yards (6-27yds | 4.5 ave:3).
5:37 | 2 and 8 @ 5 (5)... Philip Rivers (25-for-33 206 yds | 76%:75) passes complete to Antonio Gates for 5 yards.
5:06 | 3 and 3 @ 10 (10)... Philip Rivers (26-for-34 211 yds | 76%:75) passes complete to Buster Davis for 5 yards.
4:35 | 1 and 10 @ 15 (15)... Michael Bush runs for 1 yards (11-26yds | 2.4 ave:2).
3:58 | 2 and 9 @ 16 (16)... Philip Rivers (27-for-35 222 yds | 77%:75) passes complete to Darren Sproles for 11 yards.
3:26 | 1 and 10 @ 27 (27)... Incomplete pass.
3:19 | 2 and 10 @ 27 (27)... Philip Rivers (28-for-37 228 yds | 76%:75) passes complete to Dwayne Bowe for 6 yards.
2:48 | 3 and 4 @ 33 (33)... Philip Rivers (29-for-38 238 yds | 76%:75) passes complete to Buster Davis for 10 yards.
2:22 | 1 and 10 @ 43 (43)... Incomplete pass.
2:17 | 2 and 10 @ 43 (43)... Philip Rivers (30-for-40 239 yds | 75%:75) passes complete to Darren Sproles for 1 yards.
1:39 | 3 and 9 @ 44 (44)... Philip Rivers (31-for-41 248 yds | 76%:75) passes complete to LaDainian Tomlinson for 9 yards. TIMEOUT San Diego (2 left)
1:29 | 1 and 10 @ 47 (53)... Philip Rivers (32-for-42 257 yds | 76%:75) passes complete to Darren Sproles for 9 yards. TIMEOUT San Diego (1 left)
1:21 | 2 and 1 @ 38 (62)... Philip Rivers (33-for-43 266 yds | 77%:75) passes complete to LaDainian Tomlinson for 9 yards. TIMEOUT San Diego (0 left)
1:14 | 1 and 10 @ 29 (71)... Philip Rivers (34-for-44 276 yds | 77%:75) passes complete to Darren Sproles for 10 yards.
1:05 | 1 and 10 @ 19 (81)... Michael Bush runs for 1 yards (12-27yds | 2.3 ave:2).
0:30 | 2 and 9 @ 18 (82)... Philip Rivers (35-for-45 287 yds | 78%:75) passes complete to LaDainian Tomlinson for 11 yards.
0:20 | 1 and 7 @ 7 (93)... Philip Rivers (36-for-46 291 yds | 78%:75) passes complete to Darren Sproles for 4 yards.
0:14 | 2 and 3 @ 3 (97)... Darren Sproles runs for 2 yards (7-29yds | 4.1 ave:3).
0:00 | 3 and 1 @ 1 (99)...

why in the world didnt i kick a FG to win it in a tie game as time? went into OT cuz of this and ended up losing.

If you say well they ran it and couldnt get the FG team out there in time, then why in the world was i even running it knowing I was out of TO and just needed a FG to win?

[Goodell]

I saw that as well. Not sure. I don't recall seeing that before. Will hopefully have more time this off-season to refine it.

[TylerW]

I saw that as well. Not sure. I don't recall seeing that before. Will hopefully have more time this off-season to refine it.

ok just bringing that up cuz hopefully in the playoffs if something were to happen like that it wouldnt end like that cuz i know depending on the Tbreakers it cost me the 3rd seed in the playoffs.

[Goodell]

I saw that as well. Not sure. I don't recall seeing that before. Will hopefully have more time this off-season to refine it.

ok just bringing that up cuz hopefully in the playoffs if something were to happen like that it wouldnt end like that cuz i know depending on the Tbreakers it cost me the 3rd seed in the playoffs.

Yeah, I hope so too. Don't want to jack around too much with the programming now (and don't have time anyway now to get too deep into it) because sometimes doing something will mess up something else and really needs a lot of testing when changes made.

I've watched real football games where a ref's blatent mistake clearly reversed the otherwise victory at the end of a game and all sorts of strange things can happen with teams botching time management like Texas nearly letting time run out against Nebraska before seconds got put back on that would have cost a national championship hopes. I'm not saying it's right or that it shouldn't be fixed or that we shouldn't strive for improvements to the results, but for now as in real life sometime odd things happen on the field that are just part of the game that a GM way up in the owner's box can't do anything about but watch and hope he put the best team on the field overall in the long haul.