HUT!!! Newsletter of Gameplan League NFLAZ

Week 7 saw the Buffalo Bills take action after a poor start to the season by dismissing coach McNicholl and replacing him with GAMEPLAN veteran Richard Appleby. 'Apple' has a history of Superbowl wins so the Bills will be hoping on him guiding them back to the glory of a few seasons back.

Week 7 saw the teams back in conference action and for the AFC two games and their results changed the complexion of the Central and Western divisions.
The Jets got over all mauling in Green Bay with a visit to the west coast as they beat up on the Raiders 35-10. Numbers wise Oakland matched their superior opponents especially offensively, but four turnovers will never help your cause for a win as the Jets coasted in the second half after posting 28 in the first.
'Apple' saw his new charges for the first time on a long road trip to Seattle seeing his side score 28 points but the Bills defence let the team down conceding 34 with Kitna having his best day of the season by throwing 4 TD's & 212 yards in a 34-28 Seattle win.
New England surprised the AFC by winning the battle of the field goals on Cincinnati three to two to keep the Bengals winless and give the Patriots slim hope of post season as they try to keep pace with MD and NJ.
Miami continue their impressive run with a road win in Cleveland by a 42-11 margin. Marino is fast becoming known as a lethal weapon around the AFC, this week throwing for 341 yards and 4 touchdowns, big series of games for MD in weeks 8,9 & 10.
Denver's defence falls apart again, although this time it was only in the 4th quarter! The Oilers blitz Denver with 35 4th quarter points to win 59-21, Denver now lost 3 straight all against teams from the last season's post season. Oilers move to 6-1 one game ahead of the Steelers.
The Chargers do themselves and Houston a favour by beating Pittsburgh in San Diego 24-17. The Chargers have fought back to top the West after Denver's three game slide and this win gave Houston a one game lead over Pitt in the Central. SDC's defence came up big with 4 turnovers and won the game with a 4th quarter touchdown.
The Saints knocked the Giants back down to earth after their win over the Chargers in week 6 by beating NY 17-7 in New Orleans with an excellent showing from Jeff Blake. The Giants defence had no answer to him, as neither did the Giants offence to the defence scheme of coach Swindells posting just 175 yards and 9 first downs.
Arizona continued their march to the playoffs with a road win in Atlanta coming out victorious 37-7 in the dome. Graham threw only 6 incompletions all day but what stood out was that the AC rushing game posted more yards than the passing game, can anyone remember when that happened last?
The Cowboys have started to click and they defeated a tough Minnesota team in the Metrodome 27-20. Both quarterbacks put up good numbers in the game in the face of strong pass rushes from both teams. After getting on a roll the Pokes now face Arizona twice and sandwiched between that St Louis - tough schedule. Vikings look one or two big plays from a win, they will shock someone real soon.

Washington can say their matched the Bears for one QTR, then the hot team of the NFC pulled away to post their seventh straight win, winning 24-7. The Bears' defence showed their teeth this week, 5 turnovers, 5 sacks and a return TD.
The Packers backed up their impressive week 6 win over the Jets with another big win over the Rams in St Louis. Two final quarter touchdowns and a stand by the Packers' defence not allowing a TD in the final 15 gave Green Bay a 35-28 win to stop two games behind the Central leaders Chicago.
The Champs get back on track after two straight defeats to now the share the NFC West lead with NS and SR together going into the crucial week 8-10 phase of the season. It was back to what the 49ers do best, a strong sound running game, coupled with a stingy defence that allowed just nine first downs and 145 yards.

OFFENSE OF THE WEEK
GREEN BAY PACKERS (WILLIAM SMITH)
23 first downs, 451 total yards and a 6.2 rush AVG.

Mentions to Miami, San Francisco & Minnesota.

DEFENSE OF THE WEEK
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS (DAVE HARRIS)
Allowed 145 yards, 9 first downs, forced 2 turnovers, totalled 4 sacks and flagged a QB benching.

Mentions to New Orleans, New England & Cincinnati.

COACH OF THE WEEK
MIKE SIM (HOUSTON OILERS)
Went on the road a posted a massive win over then AFC west leaders Denver 59-21.

Mentions to Chris Ward & William Smith.

COACHES RAMBLINGS….
MIKE SIM (HOUSTON Oilers)
Well I couldn't let our game go without any comment at all - I'm sure you were expecting something so I hope I won't disappoint you! What can I say, I felt we deserved the win based on our first half efforts - apart from that great drive you had that went 94 yds spanning Q1 and 2, we really dominated, time of possession and executed pretty good. My gameplan was to give McNair
the chance to throw when the D wasn't keying him and it worked reasonably well. On D I wanted to stop you getting 4+ yds on 1st down, feeling it was better to give you 10 than 4 (providing you didn't get 10 every time). It was a bit of a shock when you took the lead in Q3, another good drive, exploiting my over fondness for strong rush D to the max. What happened from 36:49 to 60:00 is one of life's great mysteries. I was planning for a close, tense finish but thanks to my kicker, nailing you deep each time and giving up nothing on 1st down, I was able to get you into trouble over and over. The scores were surprising, but I guess if you are going to give me the ball inside your 20 with time it wasn't so surprising. A couple of key plays - Q3 43:54 when we made a 4th and 1, shortly after failing on another - McNair was the man on those 2 key 4th downs, both leading to scores, while your 4th downs didn't really have much chance being longer on the whole. To sum up, I felt it was a good game and the 4th Q was pretty unfair to DB. I was pretty pleased to have played 2 good teams on the road and played well both times. I was very pleased with the effort in SF the week before, as I felt we really played well there, at least partly making up for the poor showing we made in the Superbowl. It was even more pleasing when you see just how good the SF D is in this week's games.
I came to a decision after getting our butts whipped by Pittsburgh to return to emphasising the O, which is the unit I have more luck with. Sadly the D has leaked a few points after a great start but you can't have it both ways and our O was really struggling. This year's Oilers look a lot more like past incarnations now.
The AFC is shaping up nicely this time round, with the new coaches adding greatly to the league. It's great to see 3 teams fighting it out in the West. I do think the Seahawks are getting better quickly, perhaps in with a shout of getting into the West race if the Broncos and Chargers take strips out of each other. That said, it was an amazing performance, reminiscent of the Chargers at their best as they turned over Pittsburgh, something I haven't managed in too long. I re-read the Oiler-Charger game after seeing Chris was peeved to lose it.... definitely could have gone San Diego's way, as we both had drives that stalled inside the opponents 5 yd line. Denver have had some tough games, so they aren't to be written off just yet. I can't understand the Raiders; they get the yardage, the 1st downs and don't seem to get close in games, tough right now for James.
In the East Miami looks pretty lively, especially on D, while NY has moved toward being a strong O side, partly at the expense of the D (much like HO, except we were never any good at D). I don't like to comment on teams in the Central, except to say I'm already looking forward to the week 16 game with the Steelers.
I can't really comment on the NFC but I think the gap will close between the conferences when the newer AFC coaches get time to shape their teams more.
TREVOR HALCROW (ST LOUIS Rams)
Two consecutive losses, to top tier teams (Steelers & Packers), see me plummet to third place (on points) in the divisional standings. Those two losses, by 7 points each, added to the loss to the Bears (by 3), shows we're getting there. Changes to the defensive gameplan are settling in and should give a better showing against the Falcons this week. This game should be a bit of a rest after the last 2 weeks. Should reach mid-season tied for top ((unless the Saints & 49ers manage a tie), so I've got to be pleased with that. To get to the post season, it looks like I'll have to win the division and although my run in looks slightly better than the others; it still could rest on the last game of the season.
PETER SWINDELLS (NEW ORLEANS Saints)
Cor blimey we've got a winning record again, although the size of the task grows somewhat as we enter the tough part
of the schedule. The 49'ers may not be the force that they were last year but they must still be strong favourites to win the divisional title whatever Trevor may claim over in L.A.
Returning to our win over the Giants, like the Chargers before us we also managed to gain a statistical advantage, but struggled to make the most of it as the running game floundered (again). I hope however that we managed to avenge for Chris in some small part his week 6 defeat against the Giants. While in the AFC can I also welcome Richard to the AZ' - have you come to win this league as well? The conference has been well and truly strengthened.
RICHARD APPLEBY (BUFFALO Bills)
I saw your mag at endzone1 and recognized the majority of players and thought lets go and knock heads again. I've gone on to win 9 superbowls since we last met, how about you? As regards the Bills...truly.... truly awful, the players are in the wrong positions the training.well...suffice to say it will take me the rest of the season to get it right just in time for the draft!!!! I shall be moving quite a few players around and waiving 5 and then train with the lp's, don't expect miracles this season, I will try to be competitive but with the mess I have inherited it will take time but maybe next year (after a good draft) I will at least kick the NFC boys asses that you can count on! there may be a surprise coach entering the AFC central towards the end of the season, which will only add weight to the NFC butt kicking squad, more news soon.....

Newsletter for Week 10

I'm off on my travels again in a few weeks, this time taking in New York, Cape Cod and Boston over a 17-day trip. This means I can send off the week 9 issue of HUT but I need a victim..no volunteer :) to do the week 10 issue of HUT. Anyone interested please get in contact before the HUT deadline of 21st July so I can put it in the newsletter - cheers.

GAMEPLAN WEB LINKS

http://uk.oocities.com/dwgharris/
Dave Harris' web site dedicated to NFLAZ

http://www.endzone1.co.uk/
Dave Marsdin's web site dedicated to Gameplan Leagues

These websites listed above hold a copy of HUT usually the weekend before the AZ deadline.

http://www.oocities.org/nflaz/
Mark Hall's website dedicated to AZ

Thanks to all who wrote this week, Mike, Apple, Trevor and Peter.