A Win is a Win, A Loss is a Loss

With social distancing, isolation, and no new sports there's not a ton to look forward to nowadays.  Not to say there's nothing; my hands still work and my free one month trial of History Vault has at least 20 days remaining.  ​

One thing I've had to look forward to during lock-down life is this madden league I joined (follow my twitch @oledozo) a couple weeks ago.  We had our first games last weekend.

​After a 37-21 week one win over Pittsburgh I was riding higher than Wiz.  I went 18/20 passing (and one incompletion was a throw away) for 287 yards and 3 TD with Josh Allen; good for a perfect 158.3 QB rating.  AND I had a 100 yard pick-6 with Eric Berry!  Despite giving up 428 yards to Aaron Rodgers (while forcing three INT) I felt great going into my next game. 

I hyped up second game vs the Dolphins for days. I legit practiced for hours while finishing Season 6 of Grace and Frankie.  As a football guy I'm taking this league quite seriously.   I need the ego boost of knowing I'm better at building a team and pushing buttons than 30 random strangers and one friend. 

I'm not going to make any excuses.  My second game was a bigger disappointment than a night at short rib with a perfectionist former waiter.  If you want to see what went down you can watch the game in its entirety here.

Watch Dozo vs Doplhins; HotGarbage Madden League Week 2 from oledozo on www.twitch.tv

After a humiliating defeat it's easy to get rattled.  The key is not letting it snowball (like I did this game after the INT). It's important to learn from your mistakes; something I just started doing about 3 months ago.  Obviously it was embarrassing getting my ass kicked so viciously in front of a crowd of 18 people on the internet, but these are the moments that you remember most at the end the of the season. These are performances that motivate people to be great.  This can either be my "we're on to Cincinnati" moment or the beginning of 2001 Carolina Panthers all over again. It's up to one man and his name is Ole fucking Dozo; one of the top 12,000 Madden players on the planet.  I can't let one bad game in front of a live internet  audience derail this train.  I'm 1-1. Simple as that.  We all know the Patriots never play well in Miami. Clearly I'm going to need to figure out pass defense in this league going forward, but I will go to grave believing if that BS Josh Gordon drop-INT doesn't happen I lose this game within 42 points.

Luckily, I will see Miami again week 17 and I'll be ready.  Hopefully it's not just a playing for pride situation for ya boi. Next game is against the Jets sometime tomorrow or late tonight. As soon as I know, you know I'll tell ya when.

P.S.

I still can't believe I threw 6 interceptions after putting up a perfect passer rating.