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Top 25 for Travis

1. Alabama (9-0), clinched SEC West with win over LSU
2. Texas (9-0), Iowa’s loss means they won’t be passed by any other unbeaten
3. Florida (9-0), Gouge This
4. TCU (9-0), a near 3 TD favorite over Utah
5. Cincinnati (9-0), last game at Pittsburgh may boost them
6. Boise St. (9-0), pretty much locked to this spot
7. Georgia Tech (9-1), squeeked out an OT win
8. Pittsburgh (8-1), nothing fancy just victories
9. LSU (7-2), lose and move up
10. Oregon (7-2), trap game
11. USC (7-2), could still make the Rose Bowl
12. Iowa (9-1), going from National Title to Capital One Bowl in 2 weeks
13. Utah (8-1), outside shot at a BCS at-large with win at TCU
14. Houston (8-1), barely hanging on
15. Miami (7-2), big 2nd half
16. Arizona (6-2), did what they were supposed to against Washington St.
17. Ohio St. (8-2), showdown for the Rose Bowl
18. Oklahoma St. (7-2), nice blowout win
19. Penn St. (8-2), two home blowout losses to the good teams in the Big 10
20. Virginia Tech (6-3), nice rebound against East Carolina
21. South Florida (6-2), earned a bye
22. West Virginia (7-2), big one at Cincinnati
23. Oregon St. (6-3), normal 2nd half surge
24. Stanford (6-3), Toby Gerhard is a Heisman candidate
25. Clemson (6-3), C.J. Spiller is becoming an All-American
I can not really complain with Travis’ top 25 list.  I’d flip Boise and Cinci and drop Houston behind Miami and U of A.

Real World

Arizona played Stanford and came from behind to win 43-38 on a long run by Nic Grigsby on third and forever.  Nick Foles tore it up passing going 40 for 51 with 415 yards and 3 TD’s in an old fashioned Pac 10 shootout.

PS2 World

My beloved Cats had a much easier time with Stanford in PS2′ville.  Nick Foles actually makes his first extended appearance for me in this game as I got fed up with interceptions with Scott.  Had to see if I could change something.  Here are the stats for the game.

#22 UA    45                                vs                                Stanford   14

Total Offence                       405                                                298

Rush Yards                             57                                                   -3

Pass Yards                            348                                                301

Turnovers                                 6                                                       6

Matt Scott       12 for 24   243 yards   1 TD   3 picks                                                                                                                                          Nick Foles    11 for 15   105 yards   2 td 0 picks                                                                                                                                                 Grigsby       13 att 47 yards 1 td                                                                                                                                                                              Gronkowski    10 rec 237 yards 3 TD                                                                                                                                                             Ross 3 INT

The Following week Arizona played UCLA.

Real World

The Wildcats had 5 turnovers and still somehow managed to find a way to win the game.  This would have never happened when I attended U of A.  In a game like this they would have been blitzed.  Luckily Stoops has built a program with depth………………………well UCLA also kinda sucks.

PS2 World

(Here are my notes I took while drunk and playing)

UCLA 26 at Arizona 45

Real horseshit game as far as interceptions are concerned  tipped off receivers hands and insane jumps

Player of game

Gronk had over 240 receiving with 1 td  and fumble return for TD

Major computer catch up game

Finally started Foles and he had an awful game with 2 TD’s and 5 picks  will stick with him at QB as before the game he had better TD to INT ratio than Scott.  2 TD’s to 0 int.  Also higher completion percentage.  UCLA game was just ridiculous for picks.

Now 21^st in Coaches and 14^th in Media Poll,  15^th in BCS,  still no love.   Teams I have beat however are 3^rd/4^th and 6^th/9^th.   I have Number 1 SOS and I still can’t crack top 10.  WTF?

I will do a write up on the game play of 2010.  But here is a quick breakdown.  The game is much more fun when playing a friend.  When playing the computer the computer to try to even things out has its defense make insane interceptions (Everyone has Deion Sanders recovery speed with Jerry Rice hands and Michael Jordan hops, even linebackers!).   It is impossible to hit the seams in cover 2 as somehow the first corner jumps up 70 inches on a pass that does not go at a correct angle from where you are in the pocket so somehow it ends up over the first  corners head.  Sneak peak to the future for an example. At one point with Foles in a game I was 25 for 28 with like 3oo some yards 2 TD’s and 3 picks.  That’s right.  Every pass I threw was caught.  Of the 3 interceptions 2 occured when I went deep when I caught them in a blitz only once to have the Corner somehow out run, after he was beat by 3 to 4 yards, Terrell Turner to the ball and pick it off.  And once a Safety catch and pass Gronkowski and out jump him for it when he started 5 yards behind.  The third was on a screen pass where they had the ball hit off a blockers back into the arms of a charging corner for a pick 6 (third straight pick by the way) for their only Touchdown of the game.   Got to love computer catch up and I’m not even getting into what they do to the O line yet.

Real World and PS2 World

Bye Week,   Oregon beats USC (so thats a match)

Alright.  Enough of the season has passed that we have decided to give our top 25’s.  I’ll post up Senor Burns version first and then I will put mine up with a sentence reasoning for each one.

My list is fluid week to week and I do not weigh a perfect record (I want you great at the end of the year) as heavy as I do eyeball test (how fast and strong you are) and what Vegas would say, does anyone really think Vegas would favor Iowa or Boise over USC?

Top 25 according to Travis

1. Alabama (8-0)
2. Texas (7-0)
3. Florida (7-0)
4. Iowa (8-0)
5. Boise St. (7-0)
6. Cincinnati (7-0)
7. TCU (7-0)
8. USC (6-1)
9. Oregon (6-1)
10. Georgia Tech (7-1)
11. LSU (6-1)
12. Virginia Tech (5-2)
13. Penn St. (7-1)
14. Pittsburgh (7-1)
15. Utah (6-1)
16. Houston (6-1)
17. Oklahoma St. (6-1)
18. West Virginia (6-1)
19. Miami (5-2)
20. Arizona (5-2)
21. South Carolina (6-2)
22. Ohio St. (6-2)
23. Central Michigan (7-1)
24. Notre Dame (5-2)
25. Mississippi (5-2)

Chip’s list:

1. Alabama (Look better than Florida at the moment)

2. Texas (Have started playing better as of late and look better than Florida)

3. Florida (Here by default, Tebow misses Harvin)

4. USC (Their one loss was on the road to former coaches without Barkley, Mays and their #2 receiver, Vegas would favor SC against Florda on a neutral field)

5. Iowa (I’m giving them credit for their record, but Vegas would have them as dogs to some teams below them on a neutral field)

6. Boise State (Well coached, weak conference and beat an Oregon school who had not hit their offensive stride)

7. TCU (Impressed me by waxing BYU)

8.  Cincinnati ( Here due to record and Good win over Oregon State)

9. Oregon (Can jump higher with a good showing against USC, might be playing best ball in country at moment)

10. Georgia Tech (triple option win over VT)

11. Virginia Tech (Close game loss against GT)

12.  LSU (Solid team)

13. Penn St (The favorite team for anyone with an AARP card)

14. Oklahoma State (I doubt they would let Houston pull that off again)

15. Utah (could switch with Pitt)

16. Pitt (See above)

17. Houston (respect for win over OSU but I think it was a fluke, YOU LOST TO UTEP, we will see how OSU fairs against Texas)

18. Miami (Harris will only get better)

19. Arizona (Had Foles started all year I don’t think Iowa wins that game and the offense runs better against UW…………but he didn’t)

20. South Carolina (Lost to Georgia)

21. West Virginia (Could be 20)

22. Ohio State (Pryor always makes them dangerous, now if he was just set free like Mike Vick. P.S. Please beat Iowa and save us from another Big 10 pasting in a title game)

23. Notre Dame (Close losses)

24. Kansas (Their QB is too good to leave them off)

25. Mississippi (Two losses to teams that are just better than them)

Ok time for the start of the much anticipated (by maybe 2 of our 3 readers) follow up to my previous article on unrealistic fan bases due to pervasive video game culture.  Sorry it has taken so long to start posting it up.  I’ve just been really lazy busy working.

So here is my first season with my favorite team, The Arizona Wildcats, and witness evidence my argument why fan bases are delusional.  All games were played in Heisman (usually under the influence of alcohol) because come on if you are playing in Varsity or All American you better step your game up.  The first few games will not be as detailed because I did not decide to do this until I had played 3 games.

Lets start with non conference schedules.

Bye Bye Central Michigan, Northern Arizona and Iowa.  Hello Oklahoma, Florida and Penn State.  My reasoning behind this was simple.  For one it is no fun to kick the computers ass 157 to 0 or whatever it would have been had I played those teams and secondly it helps the SOS and gives me a better shot at making the title game.  This is because just like in real life if you start the season not ranked no matter how good you do it is hard to move up to a top spot if other powers remain undefeated.  So I took on a top team from the Big 12, SEC and Big 10 hoping to give each of their potential conference champs a loss.

Week 1

Real Life

Central Michigan 6   AT     Arizona  19

Arizona starts with a season with a fairly vanilla playbook and beats Central Michigan shutting down their Heisman hopeful QB.  Grigsby goes for over 100 yards on the ground and Scott rushes for another 83. Scott also throws for 202 yards with 0 TD’s and a pick.

PS2 World

#2 (i think) Oklahoma 28    AT     Arizona  38

Bradford was benched midway through the first half after his 4th pick.  Problem was I matched Oklahoma for the most part INT for INT.  I left Matt Scott in the whole game and he ended with 8 interceptions to Oklahoma’s 9.  This was game one and it was learning the minutia of this years version.

What I learned, linebackers in this years version jump higher than the guys in And 1 mix tape videos to intercept passes in zone coverage.  There appears to be almost no way to drop the ball in over a zone when  a receiver settles in one.  Also the computer DB’s all have Deion Sanders recovering speed and will super hit your receiver that has beaten them so that the ball pops up in the air always to be intercepted by the other defender who magically caught up.  The computer enacts this whenever it wants (which in game one was often).

Player of Game on my side was Devon Ross who had 4 INT’s and a TD

Week 2

Real Life

NAU 17  AT    Arizona 34

NAU comes to Tucson to receive its paycheck beating.  Arizona runs a very vanilla playbook and wins by 17.  Grigsby runs for over 200 yards and Travis and I sit in stands wondering about if we can pass the ball.

PS2 World

#1 Florida 36  AT   Arizona 62

Tebow is benched during first half after his 4th interception.  I keep my interceptions down now that I’ve learned that all linebackers have 70 inch vertical leaps in zones.  Florida only keeps it so close because every so often the computer decides to break 6 tackles and go for a 65 yard TD run.

Player of the Game is Matt Scott with a stat line of 29-41  603 yards passing and 6 TD’s

Week 3

Real World

Arizona 17     AT       Iowa     27

Arizona’s offensive ineptitude finally costs them.  Matt Scott is benched in favor for Nick Foles in the 4th quarter and Foles leads them for their only offensive touchdown of the game.

PS2 World

Arizona  49     AT       # 4 (I think) Penn State     24

The computer pulls the classic “make you fumble any time you get close to scoring routine” so the game stayed closer than it should have.

Player of the Game Delashaun Dean    3 receptions for 232 yards and 3 TD’s.

(I’ll continue with the rest later)