Franchise Quarterly: 2009 Dolphins (1-3)

In the first day of the release of the new Madden roster including Michael Vick and Brett Favre, I began my annual Miami Dolphins franchise and played the first four games of the season.

Last year when I did this, I ended up with the exact record the real Dolphins had (11-5) in my first season and also dropped my first two games of the season as well.

The slow start last year didn’t last long though as I easily adjusted to the game and started reeling off wins like nothing. I think it may be a little different this year.

The start to the season was tough and it showed as I lost the first three games before finally winning the fourth when I hosted Buffalo.

The first game may have been the worst as Atlanta beat me 31-10 despite Matt Ryan just completing three passes. Michael Turner had no problem carrying the load though and the Falcons scored on two defensive touchdowns as well.

I just couldn’t get anything going with the ground game and the passing game was rusty as well.

The second game of the season was against Indianapolis and Peyton Manning played unstoppable from the start completing 25 of 30 passes for 286 yards and a touchdown.

I did dominate time of possession however so I kept it close and came back in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 23 before falling victim to a time-expiring field goal by Adam Vinatieri to win the game.

Next up was a trip to San Diego where my heart would be broken once again in the final seconds of the game. In the fourth I came back to take a 31-27 lead with 1:56 left in the game.

This was too much time to leave the Chargers who had no trouble marching downfield and scoring off a 1-yard pass from Phillip Rivers to Vincent Jackson.

Despite opening the season 0-3, I still felt confident that these sliders were working well and a lot of the reason for losing fell on my own shoulders with some dumb decisions. It felt very much like last year that I would be able to make a run midseason to end up with a decent record.

Week four was a crazy one with the Buffalo game ending with a 38-35 score favoring my Miami Dolphins. There was an instance for each team where they would score defensive touchdowns on consecutive plays.

For me it was Jason Allen returning two fumbles for touchdowns in the third quarter. This gave me a commanding lead which I almost blew when Buffalo scored on two defensive touchdowns in the fourth.

The win has brought some new confidence to the team and it looks like this season might turn around somewhat after all.

Around the league the Jets and Patriots are leading the division with 3-1 records. I play New York next week.

The Colts are undefeated and the Chiefs are the surprise team of the AFC with a 3-1 record.

Carolina is the only other undefeated team in the league at 3-0. Green Bay, Dallas, Minnesota and New Orleans all follow closely with 3-1 records.

Brett Favre has started all four games for the Vikings throwing for 868 yards, nine touchdowns and six picks.

Mike Vick has yet to see the field in this franchise, not sure but I think he was injured for the first four weeks, he is healthy now.

The stats are a little weird. There haven’t been a lot of rushing touchdowns by the best running backs and the yards are pretty high. Thomas Jones leads the league with 560 yards but has no touchdowns. Brandon Jacobs and Adrian Peterson are second and third in yards but each has only one touchdown as well.

There are five quarterbacks with ratings over 100. Tom Brady is leading the way averaging 345 yards passing per game with 10 touchdowns.

The receiving stats seem pretty realistic, just maybe a few more touchdowns than normal.

The only other thing I have done so far is a bit of scouting with the NCAA draft class. I don’t plan on using this feature much I just figured I’d do it for fun this first season.

Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy are all projected pretty highly but Tim Hiller of Western Michigan is the top QB prospect. It does look like with the new draft logic this year a lot of non-quarterbacks will be going early in the first round this year, including some fullbacks. Not much else to say on this.

Until next time, thank you, my name is Andrew.