I just finished up a game that really points out some of the glaring flaws with NCAA Football 09. I took the Georgia Bulldogs on the road to face Eastern Michigan University. Of course the Dawgs brandished their black jerseys. I picked EMU because my #1 ranked (and 99/99/99 rated) black shirted Dawgs should be able to overwhelm the poor Eagles. Not so much.
Here are some of the highlights and items of note from UGA’s 24-17 victory over EMU:
- Matthew Stafford was 9-9 134 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs. Good for a 261.7 rating. Holy crap! If that happens this year, UGA is deserving of their #1 ranking.
- The EMU QB went 23-30 194 yards, 3 TDs, 2 INTs. That is a 76% completion rate, which is fairly typical for my games.
- Knowshon Moreno had 73 yards on 18 carries, and 1 TD. Fairly decent 4.0/rush.
- Caleb King came in for one play to give Moreno a rest. That is the first time I have noticed the CPU doing substitutions.
- The main EMU HB had 55 yards on 11 carries.
- EMU missed a 52 yard field goal attempt. I have yet to see the CPU make a 50+ yard field goal. I kind of like that because those 50 yarders should be rare.
- The EMU QB fumbled the ball once on a bone crashing tackle, but an o-lineman managed to recover the ball. Fumbles are exceedingly rare.
- I had a couple of INTs, including a “user pick” and a one by the CPU that I returned for a TD.
Notice anything really strange with the EMU QB line? He had 3 TDs, but EMU only scored 17 points. What gives? I looked at the scoring summary, and on the last play of the game, EMU scored a TD as time expired. The TD was credited twice (i.e. listed as two line items – 1 yard TD passes)!
Ouch. Not sure if this bug is a common occurrence, but it seems par for the course with NCAA Football 09. With all that said, the game was still fun. Go figure.
