For years I've always thought it would be cool to do a Redskins franchise in tandem with the NFL season. I'd play my Redskins franchise game and then watch the real life game later that week. Up until now though I've never taken the time to do it. Every week before the real Redskins game, I'll run my franchise game and jot down some notes and post videos about how it turned out. It should be interesting to compare my Redskins season to what's happening in the NFL. Tonight I played my week 1 game against the New York Giants. At first it looked like I was going to blow them out, but then I nearly let the game slip away. But before I get to the details, here is some info on my franchise.

Franchise Settings

- 7 minute quarters
- All Madden difficulty
- Simmed through the preseason




I marched down field on the very first drive of the game and scored from 31 yards out on this screen pass to rookie WR Devin Thomas. I had no trouble moving the ball through the air and on the ground and I felt like it was the perfect way to open my season. This feeling was quickly amplified when Eli Manning threw a pick to Laron Landry on his first pass of the game. I had called a cover 3 defense with Landry playing underneath and Reed Doughty over the top (usually it's the other way), hoping I'd have a chance to jump a route and make a play. After seeing that there wasn't much of a threat in my area I brought Landry down and jumped in front of the intended receiver, resulting in this interception. I wasn't able to score a touchdown on my next drive, but did kick a field goal to go up 10-0.

After a Giants drive quickly stalled, I was able to move the ball down the field once again and score from two yards out with Clinton Portis. At this point it was 17-0 and I was looking to blow out the Super Bowl defending G Men in their home opener. Once again Eli and the Giants were unable to do anything on offense and I capitalized going up 24-0 on a crazy play where Malcolm Kelly turned a 5 yard out pattern into a 43 yard touchdown. As you can see in the video, he wasn't prepared to go down easily. At this point I thought the game was over. Then came Brandon Jacobs. With about 3 minutes left in the half he broke off this 74 yard touchdown run, which I have to admit was a bit embarrassing. To make matters worse, I had a three and out on my following drive and the Giants were able to kick a field goal to end the half. 24-10 didn't sound too bad, but the Giants got the ball to open the second half and another score would turn this into a ball game.

I stopped the Giants to open the half, thinking maybe my opportunity for a blowout was still alive. But the drive was stopped short again and I was forced to attempt a 51 yard field goal that barely made it over the uprights. Still, it could get much worse than a 17 point lead on the road against the Giants.. and it did! The Giants mounted a solid drive and pounded it in on the goalline to cut the lead to 10. Now it really was a ball game.

I desperately needed some offense in the 4th quarter but my rushing attack that had been solid all day was all of the sudden unable to sustain drives. I should have maybe been more aggressive in the passing game but you know what they say about hindsight. Amani Toomer scored on a 3rd and goal pass from the 1 yard line and another 3 and out by my Skins enabled the Giants to kick a field goal and tie the game at 27 with 2:18 left in the game. No problem right? I scored plenty of times in the first half and would just do it again. The Giants had a different idea. On a second down screen pass, Santana Moss put the ball on the ground and the Giants recovered for what certainly could have been the end of the game. But the Giants weren't content with sticking to their effective ground game and Jason Taylor pushed them back to the edge of field goal range with this sack. The Giants attempted a 53 yard field goal on 4th down that was just left of the upright. There was enough time left for me to get myself in field goal range, but I was out of time outs and needed a couple of solid gains. With just enough time to call two more plays, I hit Antwaan Randle El and got out of bounds to kick the game winning field goal with 3 seconds left.


The Stats

Here are some of the most interesting stats from the game. I passed for 216 yards to the Giants 177 and ran for 131 to the Giants 136. Although the stats were similar, a closer look shows that the two offenses were pretty different. Eli Manning was only 13 of 25 with two picks and a touchdown while Jason Campbell threw two TDs and one pick on 18 of 26 passing. Brandon Jacobs bashed me for almost 150 yards, but almost half of that was on his one long touchdown run. Clinton Portis had more of a work horse effort with 99 yards on 23 carries. Both teams spread the ball around to 6 or more targets with tight ends Kevin Boss and Chris Cooley leading the way with 4 receptions each.


Final Thoughts

I have to admit that this game was a lot closer than I'd have liked it to be, but I'm pretty pleased with my ability to recover from the Santana Moss fumble at the end of the game to hold on for the win. If I ever get up 24-0 in a game again this season, I'll make sure not to let up or count on points late in the game just because they came easy in the first half. Week 2 I host the Saints who are also 1-0 fresh off a 27-20 victory against the Bucs. In the mean time I'm hoping the real life Redskins can duplicate my success against the Giants tomorrow night.

Hope you guys enjoy the NFL season kickoff! More franchise to come next week...


-raczilla