How My "Erie Assassins" Are Doing

[R. Rich]

I started a franchise in Madden '05 (xbox) w/ my Erie team. I replaced the Buffalo Bills (sad to say) because I didn't draft any Bills players, plus I wanted to have RICH Stadium as my home stadium, just like in our league. I have all the players I drafted but 3 that weren't on the game (LB Darrel McClover, LB James Harrison, and C/LS Rob Davis). So far, here's how I'm doing:

The Assassins' record currently stands at 9-1.
Our only loss of the year was a 13-10 home loss to the New England Patriots, who we beat in the rematch @ Foxboro by a 20-6 score. The Assassins are the best scoring team in the league and have the 2nd best scoring defense. Our passing game and overall offense is ranked #1 in the league, but our running game surprisingly is ranked dead last in the league! Through 10 games, Julius Jones has approximately 360 yards rushing but has scored 9 TDs. My defense had a string of 4 straight games where they scored @ least one TD, so the D is solid! It ranks #1 in both run defense and overall D and is 13th against the pass. No superstars as of yet there, although CBs Quentin Jammer and Dunta Robinson are both in line for Pro Bowl bids, as are Ts Jonathan Ogden and Bryant McKinnie, TE Ben Troupe, and QB Byron Leftwich, who is the top rated passer in the NFL and leading the voting for MVP. Special teams look pretty good as David Akers has made about 83% of his FGs and has hit on 5 of 7 from 50 yds or more. Bethel Johnson, the hero of the win over NE w/ his 91 yd kick return for a TD, is also in the running for a Pro Bowl bid (2nd in voting).

[The King]

Sounds like you play Madden like me. I am always #1 against the run and about 12th in the pass. I def run the ball better though.

[R. Rich]

We're now up to 11-1 after beating down Seattle and surviving a late charge against Miami. Julius Jones had about 260 yds and 4 TDs in the win over Seattle while Byron Leftwich threw for nearly 400 yds w/ 4 TDs and 1 INT in the win over Miami. That one was a 35-30 win, but Miami turned the ball over on downs after Chambers caught a pass in the end zone, but couldn't come down inbounds w/ both feet. Whew!

[RetroRaiders81]

I play on All-Pro and havent lost a game in a couple seasons. After the seasons over, I'll kick it up to All-Madden.

[R. Rich]

My team finished the regular season @ 15-1 and wrapped up home field throughout the playoffs. I had 9 players voted to the Pro Bowl:

QB Byron Leftwich
RB Julius Jones
WR Kelley Washington
TE Ben Troupe
RT Bryant McKinnie
LE Randy Starks
CB Quentin Jammer
CB Dunta Robinson
KR Bethel Johnson

Leftwich was voted MVP and led the league in passer rating, yds, TDs, and finished 2nd in fewest INTs.

Jones was voted NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, finishing w/ just over 1,200 yds and 24 TDs. Troupe was 2nd in the voting.


The team is now 17-1 going into the Super Bowl vs the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We avenged our only home loss by beating the Patriots 27-3 in the divisional round and then beat arch rival Miami 20-3 for the AFC title.

[ryjam282]

How the heck did the Dolphins make it to the AFC championship???

[R. Rich]

How the heck did the Dolphins make it to the AFC championship???

Well, they did have the emotionally disturbed, pot smoking RB available to them. By the time Madden '05 hit the shelves last year, he hadn't retired, so he's on the game.

Miami was pretty tough in this franchise. I swept the regular season series against them, but the 2nd game was very close. I had a 35-24 lead, then A.J. Feeley came in for an injured Jay Fiedler and led them on a TD drive to cut the lead to 35-30. They went for a 2 pt conversion, but didn't get it. They shut my offense down w/ a 3 and out, then got the ball back. On 4th and goal, Chris Chambers caught a pass in the back of the end zone, but only got one foot inbounds, so they turned it over on downs and I was able to run the clock out to eek out a 35-30 win.

Side note: In that 35-30 win, I gave up my only 100 yd performance of the season to the emotionally disturbed, pot smoking RB, who got most of it on a 67 yd TD run.

[ryjam282]

Have you not done any of the roster updates? I thought they took him out after the first one came out.

[R. Rich]

Have you not done any of the roster updates? I thought they took him out after the first one came out.


I don't do roster updates. In fact, I don't even know how to do roster updates. I do know that it's tough to find roster updates for Xbox.

[ryjam282]

Tough? Really? On PS2, as soon as you connect it to the internet it scans your roster file and if there is a new one avaliable, it asks you if you want to download it. Xbox doesn't do this?

[R. Rich]

Tough? Really? On PS2, as soon as you connect it to the internet it scans your roster file and if there is a new one avaliable, it asks you if you want to download it. Xbox doesn't do this?


I meant it's tough for me to find places where I can get the rankings online. I guess the reason I don't do roster updates is because I don't play my xbox online. When I said I couldn't find the roster info, I meant finding a site that has the numbers that I could manually input them. I just don't see the need to shell out another $65 just to play the same game online. Maybe I'll change my mind some time down the road.