Anyway I played against FSU last night and took a lesser team like Tulane to get a feel for the difference between playing with the Green Wave (rated I think in the 70s) and Ohio State. Same settings as the OSU game. As you can see, it was rather ugly.
Whereas the OSU game was a defensive battle in the first half, Weatherford went 26/38 for 352 2 TD and ZERO INTs against me. The Tulane QB (me) -- who is an impact player rated in the mid 80s--completed 59% for 260 yards 1 TD and 2 INTs. The 260 is TAD inflated because I completed a 40 yard Hail Mary with 5 seconds left.
Some more notes:
- This was the first game that the CPU pass rush killed me. Tulane's line vs FSU is a mismatch -- I was sacked 5 times.
- I have not seen a fumble since the OSU USC game test.
- I am a shade concerned about playcalling. Yes, FSU passed for 352 but I cannot recall one pass that was thrown 20 yards downfield. Most was short and intermediate passes and while one pass went for a 60 YD TD, it was due to a safety blitz and FSU called the perfect play -- the WR caught it 10 yards downfield and was off to the races. If any team would try a deep route at least once, you'd think it would be FSU.
- Early in my impressions I said that the QB Quiz was a guessing game,. Well, I didn't notice that you can cycle through "photos" of the play in action. I didn't see the button option. I just saw how the D was initially lined up, which made it pretty tough. Seeing the play unfold -- it's much better this way. I got some practice doing that this game, heh.
- I am still keeping an eye out on open field running by the CPU. The CPU LOVES to make moves in the open field when they aren't needed. The FSU HB could have taken one for a long score but he did a spin move and ran right out of bounds.
- I think if I had played the game on default sliders that I would have picked off at least 3 FSU passes. I think the INT slider is working. I can recall at least three that hit my LB and safety right in the breadbasket, but were dropped.
- Have I mentioned how bad the kick coverage is? I have? Ok. Let's move on.
- I did not sack FSU once. Speed rushing doesn't work when you don't have a speedy DE. :)
- So after a few more games (what is that, 18-20 quarters or so?) my fear has shifted from INTs -- which have not been a problem since those first two games -- to a lack of CPU deep passes, weird open field jukes, poor kick coverage, and a real penchant for going for it on 4th and short at midfield instead of trying a corner punt. If these are the MAIN issues this year -- and considering how damn fun the game is to play, I can live with those flaws (if in fact they are flaws; I need to play more) .
I have not even opened up the recruiting model yet and I'll try to take a look at it this weekend. But right now -- based on the still somewhat small sample size of games -- NCAA is a green light. I have not had this much fun playing NCAA since the 2004 version. Usually by this time we had discovered either the crazy INTs (NCAA 2008), the huge number of dropped passes (NCAA 2005..), terrible secondary AI (NCAA 2007..) -- something that ruins the experience, for me at least. So far, this is a really, really fun game and I cannot WAIT to start our Online Dynasty.
I'll try to post some tonight, but this depends on when I get back and if Dave comes over and we play some boardgames. We were supposed to play Last Night on Earth or maybe another game of Pandemic.
If not, I'll get back into the game.
