Madden '04 Monday - Browns at Chiefs

Typically I use this space to discuss some obscure player from Madden 2004, but today I want to use it to showcase a game I just played.  If I do this in the future I may use video or gifs, but for this entry I just used images.  So here goes!

The game, as I said, was (my) Browns at the Chiefs.  The Browns are led by Tim Hasselbeck while the Chiefs QB is David Garrard is this incarnation.  We won the toss and elected to receive:

Here's a general look at how the game looks on most plays, as well as a basic look at my offense (if you embiggen).  The skill players here are Bethel Johnson and Kevin Johnson at WR, Teyo Johnson at TE (So many Johnsons!), Robert Edwards at RB, and R.J. Bowers at FB.  And of course Hasselbeck at QB:

Finally we get to an important play - and this first one was huge.  Hasselbeck just barely got a pass off towards Robert Edwards and was then drilled by the Chiefs.  The ball is just to the right of #97 - so this was almost a sack AND almost a knockdown...

But instead it got to Edwards, who eluded one tackle and stiff armed a second one.  This ended up being like a 25 yard gain:

He's a monster, and a necessary one with Hasselbeck as my QB.  Checkdowns and screens are basically my entire passing game, so if my running backs aren't working then this Browns team doesn't.  Luckily for us, Edwards was rolling today.  Here's him breaking a tackle from #97 on his way to a touchdown run that made it 10-0 (I kicked a FG early in the game):

I had hoped that the 7-0 lead would keep us on top for a while, but then we left their tight end WIDE open on the next drive.  Seriously...here he is standing at our 8 yard line, waiting for a pass.  The end zone is behind him, and every Brown is 7-10 yards away.  10-7 after this catch and run:

I got it back quickly though - on a third and goal from the 1.  No one was open, but the blocking was solid, so I made a little run with Hasselbeck for the QB rushing TD.  These are rare with Hasselbeck, so I celebrated with a little juke as I crossed the line.  17-7:

I then shanked the next kickoff.  Here's a very blurry picture showing how far out of bounds it was:

And here's the ref announcing that the Chiefs would get the ball at the 40 with plenty of time left.

But they did nothing with the possession, and we went into halftime with that same 17-7 score.  Yay Browns!

The Chiefs quickly marched down to pull within a TD right after the half.  It's kind of cool getting to see the stadium numbers here, including time, playclock, and score.  17-10:

I needed to put this game out of reach after staying so close, but I ended up in a quick 3rd and 15 hole on my next drive.  Fortunately my third down back, Ricky Williams (not the famous one), is fast and shifty.  So after barely breaking a tackle, he ended up just passing the first down marker to keep our drive going:

We ended up scoring a FG on that drive, so the Chiefs had to score to keep it close yet again.  This time my defense was up to the challenge, with Kabeer Gbaja-Biamilia almost making a sack...

Only for Dan Klecko (edited into the game because he's listed at DE #99 or something) to finish the sack off later that same play:

At that point, my defense went on fire.  Here's R.W. McQuarters about to pick off a pass intended for Darrell Jackson.  He ran it back to about the 10:

The next play, from the 10, we ran a WR screen to Bethel Johnson (this is a bad pic but he's the white blob just to the left of the 10 near the top of the screen.  He scored EASILY and we went up 27-10:

So I was up 17 (actually 24 after ANOTHER TD), and the Chiefs were basically toast, but to add insult to injury Mike McKenzie forced Garrard to fumble on a QB keeper.  Game, set match:

And so it ended, with the Browns winning 34-10.  Yay good guys!

The player of the game is probably Tim Hasselbeck - almost 300 yards passing on 60% passing with 2 touchdowns, which is great for him:

Edwards and Williams would've been good picks too though.  Williams led most my rushing charge with a crazy 8.9 ypc.  But Edwards caught seven passes and score two total touchdowns so he was pretty huge in this one too:

And that, my readers, was a random game of 2004 Madden!  Next week I'll return to my more familiar random player format.