I have lately been doing poorly on The Frozen Throne Battle.net, and there are several reasons why.  Most times, I end up losing to the better team (I generally play 4v4).  However, yesterday I was defeated by my own teammates.  They must have had new accounts (probably because the old ones were banned) and they deliberately destroyed me.  I have since reported them to Blizzard, so hopefully they'll get banned again.  Anyway, because of this and other terrible performances, I have dropped from 9-3 to 12-11.  I can only hope my luck turns around.

In the first of three Monday night games, I got a severe wake-up call.  Offensively, I did nothing.  I couldn't run, and virtually none of my passes were caught.  I was losing 17-0 at the end of the first.  At halftime, I was down 17-7.

The second half was when things went pear-shaped.  One of my defensive tackles broke his jaw and is out for 3 weeks.  To make matters worse, Dan Marino tore his tricep and is also out for 3 weeks.  Entering the fourth quarter, I was down 20-13, and I knew there was no room for error.  Naturally, that was where I made the most errors.  Tampa Bay broke at least ten tackles over the course of the game, I was caught completely off guard, and I lost 27-20.  Now I have to limp onward with backups for 3 weeks, though my next game is against Atlanta (0-3).  My record is 2-1.  So, to summarize what happened: I sucked.

It was the Saints' first home game of the season, and I thought it would be a pushover.  I was wrong.  Michael Vick was in rare form, throwing 30-yard passes left and right.  The running game also surprised me at times.  Offensively, I was a bit sluggish.  Deuce McAllister had nowhere to run the whole game, and Dan Marino wasn't doing very well either.

Before halftime, I was down 10-7 with 12 seconds left on the Falcons' 20.  I thought I could pull off a big pass and score, but I only made it to the 2.  I took a 14-10 lead in the 3rd quarter, only to be answered by Atlanta.  I tried like no other to get back to the end zone, but it became apparent that I wouldn't make it.  I had no choice but to kick it.  However, I had no timeouts, so I had to throw away a pass which resulted in an Intentional Grounding penalty.  I made the kick with 4 seconds left to send the game into overtime.

Nothing happened on either end until the final seconds, where my kicker (by the way, I named him Cloud Strife; he's probably the best kicker you could self-create) booted a 34-yarder to win 20-17.  My next game is against Tampa Bay.  Hopefully it will be nothing like this game.

I watched the Gatorade 150's yesterday.  Both races were good, and there were surprisingly few crashes.  However, my fantasy team will be a man down on Sunday because Scott Riggs failed to qualify.  *Sigh*  Ah well, all I can say is...BOOGITY BOOGITY BOOGITY!!!

I started the first game of Season 3 yesterday.  I had a bit of a slow start, punting on the first drive and kicking a field goal on the second.  I had an embarrassing 4th-and-2 situation.  Dan Marino did a QB Sneak and promptly fumbled the ball.  Carolina eventually scored.  Marino also threw an interception.  I was down 7-3 at halftime, but I got a key interception in the 4th quarter to take a last-second lead and win 24-17.

Well, after being a GameSpot member for over a year, I have finally posted 500 messages on various boards.  This is a big accomplishment, but then I think: I'm only halfway to 1000.

The Madden Report will be an ongoing series of mine where I tell you about what happened while I played my Madden 2003 franchise (I'm playing as New Orleans).  I just finished the preseason for Year 3, beating the Washington Redskins 38-14.  Dan Marino (yes, I have Dan Marino) passed for over 300 yards.  I only had one fumble the entire game.  My schedule looks okay.  I have a bye on Week 6.

Well, another Super Bowl has come and gone.  Unfortunately, the Seattle Seahawks--my favorite team--went with it.  Of course, living in Pittsburgh, I heard all about it in school.  I give the Steelers credit for joining San Francisco and Dallas as an elite team, but now it's time for other people to have a turn.  The big question I have is this: How long is it going to take Seattle to make a return trip?  It took Philadelphia 24 years to get to Super Bowl XXXIX just to lose again.  It took Pittsburgh 10 years to get to Super Bowl XL.  How long am I going to have to wait?

I have departed from Mythril and made the trip to Eblan Castle.  I looted the place as I was supposed to and barely survived an encounter with Lamia and the two Coeurls.  I wasn't so lucky with the three Mad Ogres.  I imagine I'll come back to them when I'm much stronger.

I just finished two games of WC3.  I won the first, putting my record at 3-0, but everything went wrong in the second game.  So now I'm 3-1, but don't fret.  I have resolved to bounce back from this and go on a nice comfortable winning streak.  Hopefully.