I haven't done one of these in awhile.
Welcome back to my Blogger page. If you've seen me post from here, it's all video games from me. Mainly it's been Madden or NCAA Football. And since NCAA Football has been long gone, it's about time I return to Madden.
A couple of years ago, I did a San Diego Chargers franchise on Madden 25. I only got a few games out of it, mainly because I got too lazy. I tried to record myself doing play-by-play but it just wasn't authentic, and it didn't sound as great as I had hoped.
But before I did Madden, I had a Missouri Tigers dynasty in NCAA Football 14. It was a lot of fun, and then I got bored with it halfway through Season 2. I decided to just play the rest of the dynasty without commentating or writing about it. I even won a national championship with Mizzou in Season 3.
Now, thanks to the downtime I have during winter break and my need to actually want to do this again, I've taken it upon myself to do this again with Madden 15. The original plan was to recreate the Chargers franchise and start from scratch.
After months of thinking and evaluating, and with the NFL season nearing its end, I've decided to bring back the blog in hopes of doing another Madden Franchise mode, where I basically write about each game as if it was the real thing. The key in this whole thing is if I have time. If I have time, I can do this. If not, it'll be on the backburner like my other two blogs.
So, with that said, I welcome you to my Oakland Raiders Connected Franchise blog in Madden 15.
THE RRRRAAAAIDERS. As Chris Berman would so eloquently put it.
But yes, it is the silver and black that will be the focus in this Connected Franchise mode. The Raiders were actually one of my top choices when I first started thinking of this back in FREAKING AUGUST.
The reason why I chose the Raiders is because I wanted a challenge. When I picked the Chargers last year, they had pieces already available to contend and dethrone the Denver Broncos in the AFC West. With the Raiders, it's a bit different.
And when I say a bit different, I mean holy shit this Raiders team is garbage good lord.
It's my job to turn this Oakland pile of crap into a video game dynasty. Oakland is going on a youth movement with a mix of veteran leadership. Dennis Allen, unfortunately at least for this year, is part of this youth movement. Depending on how this season goes, just like in real life, Allen will be canned and Raider Nation will rejoice.
This is a new era in Oakland. The Raiders used the No. 5 overall pick in this past April's draft to take Buffalo pass rusher Khalil Mack. While in real life he's had a rough rookie season, in video game land we can turn Mack into the greatest thing in life.
In the second round, the Raiders went with the most Raiders pick imaginable, taking Fresno State quarterback Derek Carr. I had my doubts about Carr during his time in Fresno State, but he's proving that he's more of a system quarterback and can be groomed for the future.
While Carr is a nice building block for this Raiders team, he needs help. Oakland signed veteran running back Maurice Jones-Drew in the offseason to hopefully shore up the lack of production from Darren McFadden.
In terms of everything else offensively, it's one giant question mark. The Raiders signed long-time Packers wide out James Jones to be their No. 1 guy. Along with Jones is a group of young guys like Rod Streater, Andre Holmes and Denarius Moore. One of these guys is going to have to make Carr's life reasonable in his rookie year, along with a solid offensive line led by center Stefen Wisniewski.
Defensively, the Raiders run a 4-3 defense with plenty of talent up front. They snagged Justin Tuck in the offseason to give Oakland a pass-rush presence they hadn't had in awhile, and Lamarr Woodley is on the opposite side. We're going to leave Mack at left outside linebacker for no, but if we're not getting enough pressure on the quarterback, this could call for a switch.
Without a doubt, Oakland's biggest weakness is the secondary. The Raiders took a step last offseason in addressing cornerback by drafting D.J. Hayden from Houston. Right now, he's the nickel back behind Tarell Brown and ... gulp ... Carlos Rogers. Capping off the Oakland secondary are two great safeties in Tyvon Branch and the ageless wonder, Charles Woodson.
There is a lot of talent on this roster. It just needs to be utilized correctly, which is why, as the new owner of the Oakland Raiders, I can confidently say Dennis Allen is on the hot seat. If he does not win at least six or seven games this season, he will be fired.
Dennis, don't screw this up. No pressure.
Here's how this franchise will work: Four 13-minute quarters with accelerated clock set to 15 seconds. I have customized my own slider set, as well, and these games will be played on All-Madden difficulty.
And I haven't decided whether or not to move from Oakland, or will build a new stadium all together. I'll discuss that with my inner circle ... if I actually had one.
So there you have it. Very excited to finally get this started. I think it'll be fun, and it'll be interesting to going back to the old way of doing this. I hope the small number of you enjoy this.
Welcome to the Black Hole.
