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Week 3, . Local kickoff: 10:00 AM PST in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The Martens (0-2) visit the Pioneers (2-0) in Week 3.
Every team has a head coach and offensive, defensive and special teams coordinators. Each coordinator has a style, and his style decides the range of the team's weekly game plan: how much it runs or passes, its personnel, tempo and play calls on offense, its front, blitzes, coverage and safety looks on defense, and its fourth down, onside, squib and punt return choices on special teams. The coaches set the style; nobody can call a plan outside it.
Offensive styles: Power run (downhill gap runs out of heavy sets, and play action off them); West Coast (a short, timed passing game that stretches the field sideways, and outside zone); Air Raid (spread the field and throw: Mesh, Four Verts and Smash, with draws to keep the rush honest); Spread option (zone reads and counters from the gun, with screens and play action off the run); Balanced (no strong lean: the whole playbook, called by the matchup). Each style calls its favorite plays more often, from 0.7 to 1.5 times its usual share. Defensive coordinators play a 3-4 or a 4-3 front, are blitz-heavy (blitz lean from -0.1 to 0.5) or coverage first (-0.5 to 0.1), and call man or zone and one or two deep safeties, never the other. Special teams styles: aggressive (goes for it more on fourth down near midfield, tries onside kicks earlier, squibs less and returns more punts); balanced (the usual fourth down, onside, squib and return choices); conservative (punts more on fourth down, waits longer for an onside kick, squibs more and fair catches more punts).
No style is better than the others: each one wins about as often as the rest when the rosters are equal. What changes is how the team plays and which matchups suit it.
Every coach also has hidden ratings for play calling, adjustments, development and discipline. Better play callers commit harder to what the matchup calls for, better adjusters react to smaller edges, and better disciplinarians draw fewer flags. They help a little; the players on the field matter far more. Development adds at most 3.2 percent to every training session for the best staff and takes as much for the worst, the same on a plan day and a check-in, so how often you train always matters far more than who coaches you.
A new head coach starts everyone on his team again at 50 on the trust meter, with the reason shown on your player page.
Every offseason the AI teams follow written rules: a head coach with at least two seasons in the job (for the coaches a league starts with, counted from its first season, so no head coach is fired before the second offseason) is fired after 5 wins or fewer, or when his last two seasons together are under .400; a coordinator with at least two seasons is fired when his unit ranks 14th or worse. Coordinators with three or more seasons whose unit ranks in the top 6 can be hired away as head coaches. Coaches retire at 70, and from 64 on some choose to. Every move is in the league news.
Coaches are paid salaries on contracts, shown on the staff page in in-game dollars. They are never real money and cannot be bought or cashed out. The team's books pay them every season, and the buyout of a fired coach counts in the season he was fired (see the owner finances guide).
Forecast for San Francisco: 57 degrees, wind 4 mph blowing across the field.
Good football weather: it should not change much.
Every game is played in the home team's city with weather drawn from that city's normal climate for the month: temperature, rain or snow, and wind. Domes are always indoors. A retractable roof closes for rain or snow, below 50 degrees, above 85, or in wind of 20 mph or more.
The game preview shows the forecast and what it means, and the forecast is exactly what the game gets. The field shows rain, snow and a badge with the temperature and wind, and the recap mentions weather when it mattered.
What it changes: rain and snow make passes, catches and kicks harder and add fumbles and muffed punts, heavy rain or snow more so. Wind above about 10 mph cuts into passes (deep ones most) and punts, and wind above about 8 mph into field goals (long ones most). Snow falls only at 34 degrees or colder, and real cold stiffens kicks and hands.
What it does not change: the wind's direction is shown but does not help either team, and coaches call the same plays in any weather. You cannot change the weather, but a wet or windy forecast is worth weighing when you set game-day instructions. Development league games have weather too; the All-Star game has none.
Clear lean: the Pioneers, by about 15 points. In games like this, the side with this edge wins about 9 times in 10.
A lean from the numbers, not a prediction: any team can win any Sunday. It weighs club strength most, then point differential and the last three games. This league's games show no home field advantage, so playing at home adds nothing.
First place in the Harbor West is at stake: the Pioneers lead, the Martens are 2 games back. As it stands, the Pioneers are in the playoffs as the No. 1 seed. A win would help the Martens, 1 game out of the playoff picture. It is early, but nobody wants to fall behind.
This season, from games that have finished playing out.
From games that have finished playing out. The records book
Before a regular season game, the preview and the Watch page can name players who are within reach of a record in the records book. They use only games that have finished playing out, never the game you are about to watch, so an alert tells you what a player needs and nothing about what happens.
Season record: the player already has at least 50 percent of it, and what he still needs is no more than his average per game times the games his team has left, plus a quarter for one big week. Career record (league book): the same test starting from 80 percent, for players whose whole career is on the books. Single game: his best game so far is at least 80 percent of the record. Tying a record does not break it, so the line counts one more than the tie.
Each team shows at most 3 alerts, the closest first. Computer players and human players are treated the same.
From 2 finished games this season. A situation with fewer than 5 calls is too few to read.
| Situation | Leans | Run | Pass |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st down | Pass 28 of 48 (58%) | 20 | 28 |
| 2nd and short (1 to 3) | Pass 3 of 6 (50%) | 3 | 3 |
| 2nd and medium (4 to 6) | 3 calls, too few to read | 2 | 1 |
| 2nd and long (7 or more) | Pass 20 of 28 (71%) | 8 | 20 |
| 3rd and short (1 to 3) | Pass 3 of 5 (60%) | 2 | 3 |
| 3rd and medium (4 to 6) | Pass 5 of 6 (83%) | 1 | 5 |
| 3rd and long (7 or more) | Pass 14 of 14 (100%) | 0 | 14 |
| 4th down | 4 calls, too few to read | 2 | 2 |
Blitzes on 11% of dropbacks (7 of 66).
From 2 finished games this season. A situation with fewer than 5 calls is too few to read.
| Situation | Leans | Run | Pass |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st down |
These two have not met yet.
| Run 32 of 60 (53%) |
| 32 |
| 28 |
| 2nd and short (1 to 3) | Run 9 of 11 (82%) | 9 | 2 |
|---|
| 2nd and medium (4 to 6) | Run 8 of 13 (62%) | 8 | 5 |
|---|
| 2nd and long (7 or more) | Pass 16 of 23 (70%) | 7 | 16 |
|---|
| 3rd and short (1 to 3) | Pass 5 of 8 (63%) | 3 | 5 |
|---|
| 3rd and medium (4 to 6) | Pass 7 of 8 (88%) | 1 | 7 |
|---|
| 3rd and long (7 or more) | Pass 11 of 11 (100%) | 0 | 11 |
|---|
| 4th down | 3 calls, too few to read | 1 | 2 |
|---|
Blitzes on 49% of dropbacks (27 of 55).
The game preview scouts the other team from its finished league games this season. On offense, how often it runs or passes in each situation: 1st down, 2nd and short, 2nd and medium, 2nd and long, 3rd and short, 3rd and medium, 3rd and long and 4th down. A sack or a scramble counts as a pass call, and a situation with fewer than 5 calls is too few to read.
On defense, how often it sends a blitz when the other team drops back to pass. Then its top three threats, the players who added the most to its chance of winning, with its go-to target and lead back.
It reads only games that have finished playing out. Development league games are left out, since backups play them. If you are in the game, the preview scouts your opponent; otherwise it scouts both teams.
If you are playing in the game, a Your scouting report card adds plain counts of how the other team runs and passes, blitzes, covers, goes for it on fourth down and plays inside the 20, plus the opposing starters across from your position with their overall and one line on what they tend to do against players like you. With fewer than three finished games it says so and shows what there is.