Welcome to my first regular season Strat-O-Matic Simulation! If you didn't see how the test run went in the preseason, you can see how everything works  here.

I'm just going to go ahead and show off the box score and the game summary. Maybe at some point I could upload some in-game updates or something else to jazz things up?



(other stats - Penalties: SF 6, MIN 11)

- Game Summary - 

1st Quarter
SF punt.
SF DE Thomas tackles HB Cook in endzone, safety (SF 2-0).
SF punt (partially blocked).
MIN punt.
[MIN LB Kendricks departs with injury, ruled out.]
SF 4 yard TD pass Garoppolo to HB Bredia (SF 9-0).

2nd Quarter
MIN 2 yard TD run HB Cook (SF 9-7).
[SF C Richburg departs with injury, ruled out.]
SF Garoppolo intercepted by FS Smith.
MIN K Carlson 53 yard FG is good (MIN 10-9).
SF punt.
MIN punt.
SF 55 yard TD pass Garoppolo to Garcon (extra two is good on pass to Kittle, SF 17-10).
MIN Cousins intercepted by CB Witherspoon, returned for TD (SF 24-10).
MIN punt.
SF 31 yard TD pass Garoppolo to Garcon (SF 31-10).

3rd Quarter
MIN punt.
[SF HB Breida departs with injury, questionable to return.]
SF K Gould 41 yard FG is good (SF 34-10).
MIN Cousins intercepted by FS Colbert.
SF punt.
MIN Cousins intercepted by CB Sherman, ball is fumbled back to Vikings on return.
MIN Cousins 40 yard TD pass to WR Zylstra (extra two is good on pass to Rudolph, SF 34-18).
SF Garoppolo intercepted by CB Waynes.
MIN Cousins intercepted by DT Mitchell.

4th Quarter
SF K Gould 32 yard FG is blocked by CB Hill.
MIN 47 yard TD run HB Cook (extra two is no good, SF 34-24).
SF punt.
MIN 7 yard TD pass Cousins to HB Cook (SF 34-31).
SF runs out clock.


-My thoughts-

Boy... what a total disaster. Sure, if you just looked at the score, you'd say things didn't go terribly, but they really did. Kirk Cousins was a total travesty through the first three quarters of football until finally looking like himself in the 4th quarter. I was really hoping I would get a normal-ish Strat-O-Matic Football game, but today was a day for total insanity, horrible luck, and bizarre moments.

First off, a safety in Strat-O-Football? Seriously? I've played at least 150 games and I don't recall ever having a safety. The 49ers were able to down the ball at the 1 yard line, and I tried to call the safest plays I could for the Vikings, but Cook ended up catching a pass for a 2 yard loss, resulting in the safety.

After that, the game proceeded rather normally until everything broke loose in the late 2nd quarter. Garoppolo attempted two deep passes in the quarter and went 2 for 2 with 86 yards and 2 TDs, and Cousins went 0 for 3 with a pick 6 to Witherspoon, which was a very lucky roll for the Niners. Not to mention the penalties were absolutely brutal for the Vikings - 5 holding penalties, with 4 of them just so happening on 3rd down! A 40 yard TD to Thielen was erased, Zylstra's first career catch for 35 yards was erased, plus two catches for Diggs never happened either. All 4 for first downs too. That killed the offense early.

Of course, Cousins had to toss 3 interceptions in the 3rd quarter, including a knockaway by a SF D-lineman that was caught by the nose tackle, Earl Mitchell. Because of course it did! Thankfully the defense finally stepped up and shut down Garoppolo, but it was too late. Alfred Morris was just decent enough to get some key first downs.

Holton Hill's blocked field goal made this one a game again, and Dalvin Cook did his absolute best even though I had to mostly call passing plays. He scored the 47 yard TD with 7:32 on the clock, and the next TD pass to Cook happened with 2:04 left and 2 timeouts. Unfortunately, the 49ers had Morris run up the middle several times and he got 2 first downs, ending the game there.

I think Strat-O-Matic did a fine job representing a crazy Vikings loss, because you all know they are capable of this. Here's hoping we don't see anything like this for the real game tomorrow.

I hope you guys enjoyed this Strat-O-Matic Simulation and I'll be back sometime in the future for another, but I don't plan on doing this every week. Maybe Week 5?

One more note. To make things more exciting, perhaps we could get some input from y'all at Purple Pain. Would anyone be interested at drawing up a drive for the offense to follow? Similarly to how many offensive coordinators have first drives of games completely rehearsed, perhaps you guys would like to give a gameplan for a single drive in a Strat-O-Matic game? Give me a shout if you're interested.