Ignore that gibberish.
I dunno what happened but after only a few small tweaks the penalty situation seems to have either fixed itself or my sample size of four games (with one penalty total) was an aberration. Either way, penalties aren't a problem.
Difficulty IS, though.
Like both Todd and I said last year -- more Todd than me -- there needs to be a difficulty between Pro and All Pro. On Pro I routinely win rather easily. On All Pro I am 0-7. Most games aren't that close. Yes, I am playing with Columbus so I don't expect to dominate but I'd like the games to be competitive. With limited sliders....I'm sort of at a loss here. Practice will help but the AI on All Pro just flat kicks my ass.