2024 Week 14 Preview

Winners

Fransburg (10-3), Batavia (8-5), Marshfield (12-1), Cleveland (4-9), Linn County (9-4), Bestine (7-6)

Oh man, there are some epic playoff implications this week.

Prediction Record

Week 12: 4-2
Overall: 42-24

Oh man, I got the Chitons game wrong but it was extremely close! The Hawks won by 0.27 points, which is the 5th closest game ever.

2025 Divisions (if they were being made today)

The GIMB have pretty much put themselves out of the reach of the Colliders, thanks to Batavia dropping a couple duds in a row. The placement will be finalized after this week, and is super important for playoff chances next year.

Week 14 Preview

I was off the scene last week as my family took a trip to New York City. We saw a bunch of shows and reacquainted ourselves with cold weather. The only drawback was that I didn’t get to prepare a Thanksgiving feast. Please enjoy the photo dump:

I was away from my computer and television last week, so I feel like I’ve missed 100 years of football. Here’s the playoff picture as I see it:

GOLD: It’s all set, the top 3 teams go to the playoffs, the Dingle Blow-Ins do not. The Oregon Dream Team and Batavia Collides are battling in the final week for the #2 seed and a bye.

SILVER: The Pirates have the division wrapped up and will get the #3 seed. The two teams battling for a playoff spot are the Hawks and Battery. The Battery will make the playoffs if they win this week and the Hawks lose. The Hawks will make the playoffs in any other scenario (they win and the Battery lose, both teams lose, or both teams win.) The Hawks have a one-game division record advantage. The Chitons will go back to the drawing board next year after their $72 gamble on Christian McCaffrey came up snake eyes.

BRONZE: The Lumberjacks are in if they win. The GIMB are in if they win and the Lumberjacks lose. Both teams are likely to be in the Gold Division next year.

Oregon (8-5) @ Batavia (8-5)

It’s a rematch of the Jauan Jennings game that I’m not bitter about. Normally I’d be really invested in the outcome and getting that first round bye, but it really doesn’t matter if my early playoff out is next week or the following week. This year’s team just doesn’t have the juice.

Since the Lions scored 34 points and Amon-Ra and Brian Branch helped out with none of that, the Colliders are playing from behind again. While it’s true that the Dream Team are starting Cooper Rush, it doesn’t even matter. The Colliders will play down to their competition (they almost lost to the Blow-Ins last week.) Look for the Dream Team to sweep the series.

Dingle (1-12) @ Fransburg (10-3)

I’m somewhat fascinated that the (r)EvoLUtion didn’t start Tyreek Hill this week, but other than that there isn’t anything interesting about this game. Fransburg should run away with this one. It’s not like they’re the Colliders out there effing around and almost losing.

North Point (3-10) @ Cleveland (4-9)

The Chitons can play the role of spoilers here as Cleveland needs to win and a Hawks loss. As I’m typing this, Baker Mayfield is dealing, so I’m going to say that Cleveland pulls it off! They just need Jalen Hurts to not have a 30-point game later. Plus, the Hawks decided not to submit a lineup this week so they’ll likely lose.

Holley (4-9) @ Marshfield (12-1)

Holley didn’t submit a lineup so they have 5 players going who are on the bye. It would have been a tall order to beat the Pirates anyway, but now it’s impossible.

Madtown (3-10) @ Tooz Town (9-4)

Speaking of not submitting a lineup, here come your Madtown Marauders. They will feature 3 players on the bye plus an injured Breece Hall. Again, Tooz Town would have likely won anyway, but now it’s almost certain. Remember, Tooz Town needs a win plus a Lumberjacks loss to make it in the playoffs.

Bestine (7-6) @ Linn County (9-4)

The Lumberjacks are in with a win. And while Amon-Ra St. Brown was a non-participant in the Lions’s Thursday victory, Goff, Gibbs, and Montgomery posted nearly 50 points. While the Banthas have put together a pretty respectable season, they don’t have enough in the tank to play the role of spoilers. Look for the Lumberjacks to secure their spot as the Bronze division representative.

In Conclusion

I think I mentioned that my Madden 08 franchise stopped working. I was having a lot of fun playing NCAA 08 and exporting my draft classes to Madden. So, I decided to get NCAA 12 and Madden 12 for the PS3, because that was the last time you could export draft classes. I wanted to make my own college in NCAA 12, but you can only do that on the EA servers through Team Builder, which are no longer online. So I’ve reverted to the Minnesota Golden Gophers. I finished the year 10-3, ranked #9 overall. I had a pretty brutal (and surprising) loss to Illinois at the end of the season. Previously I lost to Michigan in overtime (respectable) and Syracuse in quadruple overtime (49-47). The team wasn’t super good, but I was able to lean on my 83-overall senior running back, who went for 1700 yards and was a 2nd team All-American. Unfortunately I was only able to recruit a bunch of 3-star prospects so overall my team got worse in the offseason!

I’m going to create two prospects a year and make them 85-overalls so that they hopefully progress enough to get drafted in Madden. I heard that there is some wonkiness with Madden 12 importing draft classes. The Heisman winning QB from Ohio State (and a 96 overall) didn’t seem to make it into the draft class.

I made QB Adam Franssen, who went to Virginia Tech, and WR Josh Hammond, who went to Alabama. The next round of players is HB Jason Enright and K Ben Pershey. Let me know if you want your likeness to be part of this next attempt at football simulation.

After completing my first season of NCAA 12 I spent a considerable amount of time setting up Madden. I created 32 teams: 16 teams from the SCUFFLE Immersion to represent the NFC (our current 12 teams plus 4 defunct franchises) and 16 teams from the SCUFFLE Dynasty to represent the AFC. I made every team a cupcake so that drafted rookies could be impactful. I’m also curious to see how the computer teams build their rosters. The only drawback is that every cupcake team was almost identical. For example, every team has a 94-rated kicker. Most teams have WR corps of guys in the 60s, and everyone has an 86-overall LOLB. So many good LOLBs in this league, which is funny to me because in my last franchise on Madden 08 there were only like 2 of them over 90 leaguewide. I’m 8 games into my Colliders franchise and I’m 7-1. I lost to the Battery to open the season (14-3) and then rolled off seven in a row, inluding a bunch of shutouts. Most QBs in the league suck right now, so the draft is going to be pretty cool.

This version of Madden doesn’t have drills to improve your player stats like Madden 08 did, which is unfortunate. I also miss how on Madden 08 your defensive players racked up meaningful tackles. My middle linebacker would regularly reach 100 tackles. It’s looking like I’ll have about 40 tackles on the new Madden (which is similar to how Madden 13 is.) Sadly, the computer will still have 100 tackles so I’ll never have defensive players going to the pro bowl.

Anyway, you can tell by the real estate given to this section that I’m much more excited about my Madden Colliders than my real-life Colliders. Enjoy the games everyone!

© 2024, Josh Hammond. All rights reserved.