LordSummerisle64

I think there are some guys in Tecmo who barely played or never played at all. I believe Doug Lloyd, HOU RB, was only listed on the active roster of an NFL team for ONE GAME in his career, a 1991 game while as a member of the LA Raiders. I don't believe he ever actually made it onto the field. Here is the NFL career stat line for Mike Elkins (KC QB): 1 game, 2 attempts, 1 completion, 5 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT in 1989. That's all for Mr. Elkins. I'm sure there are many other examples.

Yup, in one game. Philly would definitely be tough. Try using Waters sometime against a man opponent. You are asking to be scored upon. Another tough one would be Browns. Minnifield is good but pretty much everyone else on that entire defense is worthless outside of Mike Johnson's superior HP.

Last night I decided to use the Patriots in a TPC game and stumbled across what I found to be a strange challenge. The challenge is: Can you get at least one interception with each of the 4 defensive backs? With some teams this obviously shouldn't be THAT hard, like the Bears or Steelers. In fact, I'm sure I've done it with the Steelers at some point. And with some teams like the Colts or Bengals (with their horrid corners) it would be nearly impossible. With most other teams, however, it serves as a pretty good, tough challenge. I was able to get 1 INT from Hurst, Marion, and McSwain, and 2 INTs from Lippett. McSwain was the tough one (the others have reasonable INT numbers) but I think he was in excellent condition since he was in popcorn mode after making the catch. The goal...try to do this with as many teams as possible. Don't do it with Grogan or Bubby as the CPU QB either. For bonus points, try to pull this off against a human opponent. If you try this out, let me know how it goes!

This is by far my favorite of the Tecmo-ized song parodies. It inspired me to play as the Patriots in my most recent TPC game and use Lippett nearly every play. Worked out well!

I have always wondered about this myself. I have no idea why it happens like that but I think I'm pretty sure that the stats are the thing to look at (not the condition) when deciding whether to use a guy or not.

Seeing as "accuracy of passing" is completely worthless and is the only thing that Harbaugh is "better at" I'm gonna have to go with Tomczak. Harbaugh is horrible.

My understanding is that guys will only get jumping interceptions when the QB's pass control is at least three notches below the defender's INT capability. Ex: Bubby Brister has 25 PC in average condition. That means any guy with 44 INT or above has a chance to get a jumping INT against him. One notch above = 31, two = 38, three = 44. They will not always get the INT but will have a chance. If you use a guy like Carrier, Richard Johnson, Haddix, or Fulcher against average or worse QBs, you should be able to rack up quite a number of INTs in this way. The other option of course is just to sit on the X waiting for the ball (i.e. risk a jumping catch). Here, the probabilities get more complicated because now they deal with not only the QB pass control but also the receiver's REC capability. If you are dealing with a crappy QB and a crappy WR you should be able to make the INT in this case fairly often, maybe once every 3 or 4 times or so.

The Chiefs are one of my personal favorite teams to use in Tecmo. That said, I can definitely understand the angle that they are somewhat overrated. The thing with the Chiefs is that they are adequate in just about every aspect of the game but are not superior in any. Let's break it down: QB: DeBerg is average to slightly above average as a starting QB. He's slow so forget about trying to scramble for yardage with him. Elkins is junk. RB: Okoye when in good or excellent condition can be a force. A good defender can definitely stop him because it's not as if he has breakaway speed in average condition. Since he does not have blazing speed and can have trouble turning the corner you are forced to use him for his other attributes which is using his hitting power by busting him up the gut and running over drones. However, his BC is not very good so he's prone to fumbles if you can't get him out of bounds. The other RBs are all fairly slow, can't catch much, and have equally mediocre ball control. WR/TE: Thomas is slow as molasses but can reel in the occasional pass in coverage. Paige is in my opinion the best weapon on the entire offense with good speed and superior REC, but with the lack of a good secondary receiving option, even Paige can mostly be shut down if defended properly. Birden is OK to throw into the TE spot if you need a decent receiving option there but then you lose the HP that the TE's provide. The TE's are mostly junk in the passing game and give what is probably a negligible boost to the run game. DL: This is one of the better front 3 in the game, but none of them regularly make popcorn on the linemen. Neil Smith can be a disruptive force when possessed and Saleamua is above average at the NT but this is not a game-changing kind of unit. LB: DT is obviously one of the better defenders in the game. As goes DT, so goes the Chief defense. But he's in a bad position to provide quality pass coverage against plays where the receivers are stacked on the bottom (think the offset I formation pass2). Snow is fast and can lay the wood, but the other two LB's are somewhere between average and worse. DB: Ross and Lewis are both adequate corners. Their speed is OK and they can pull down the occasional INT. Cherry and Porter are average at best as far as corners go, and they cannot be depended upon in pass coverage. Cherry may pull down some INTs but is susceptible to getting burned by superior receivers, as is Porter. ST: Lowery is excellent. Barker is OK. With Okoye you can occasionally spring a very solid return but this isn't one of the faster return teams around. Plus, as stated before, fumbling is an issue so you better get your dude out of bounds. So as we see, the Chiefs are certainly above average in the sense that they can do everything with some level of proficiency, but they are in no way an elite team. They really are a poor man's Giants. To answer the original question though, I'd say the Bears are the team you could best use to matchup with the 49ers or Oilers. They are the only team outside of the Steelers with the horses in the secondary able to keep up with the receivers. Bears have the deadly running game that can control possession time and spring huge runs when necessary. Giants could be another option with Thunder (Ottis) and Lightning (Meggett) in the backfield and an all-around solid defense. If you are an excellent offensive player, the Steelers could be a nice team since they've got the best defense in the game and can be Chinese water torture on offense, picking off 5 and 6 yards at a time on extremely time-consuming drives that can drive your opponents crazy, particularly because they do not fumble much. I once had an 8 minute game-winning drive with the Steelers on which I converted about 5 fourth down conversions and didn't get more than about 8 yards on any given play. Just don't get down by more than a TD early or else it'll be a looooong day.

I'll throw Billy Joe Tolliver into the mix. His pass control is terrible (31 I believe), and he throws bullets (81 PS) so you can't even rely on him for JJs. This also leaves him quite prone to pass blocks and leaping INTs unless he has an absolutely clear passing lane. You pretty much have to use him in the short passing game (screens and whatnot) or else turn to the Pickle Man (Vlasic) who also sucks but actually has slightly better pass control and more JJ ability should you need to throw into MAN coverage. Certainly there are worse players in the game but in my mind Tolliver's odd combination of attributes makes him one guy that I particularly can't stand using.