Low scoring win over Brazil set up by our brilliant first quarter, and the UK dropping the ball against Austria. This group just opened up in a big way.

Next up we have Austria. Despite their heroics, I think we have a good shot. They put in a huge performance, and despite what some of the might Brits feel, they deserved their win. 100+ more yards total, higher completion percentage, 15 (yes, FIFTEEN) more completions/receptions, but they only won by two field goals. They had no big long distance scores either (longest pass was 36 yards) so Austria just beat them everywhere without needing a WC8 Australia-like missed tackling class. UK won the BPOS lineup, but that's about it.

Still, I think we can get a result. We pretty much have to anyway given the structure of the group stage. I think the key battle will be between their Dline and our Oline and subsequently how harassed our QB will be. Honestly, I have a 20/20 4.5* BPOS Austrian Dlineman with 18 tackling, 17 agility, 17 footwork and so on, and although he makes the squad he's never even played an NT game. That's how good their Dline is. Partially why I gave Easton Johnstone another run today, to see who might be the best fit for OT.

Anyway, let's show them which 'Aus' country rules supreme!

All set for Austria. Let's see what they've got.

Hahhaa, funny you should bring that up actually. I was pondering over it yesterday and again today. It's actually set by default to 45 and that's usually what we run with. I just don't trust FG kicking at all. I remember a little while ago we had a game or two where we were missing 30 odd yarders with the exact same kickers/stats. That's also a pretty awkward distance out and a shit situation if you don't move the chains regardless of what you do. Change it to 45 yarders and you'll still punt at the 29 and so on. 20-35 is just a frustrating place for an offence to break down in this sim given the punting situation.

But you've made a pretty decent case regarding touchbacks and so on. I suppose given this offensive favoured engine it's probably a good idea to sacrifice a small potential yardage advantage for a crack at 3 points with kickers who are pretty much as good as possible. I had confidence in the defence for that game, but as you know too well, we can't overuse it. I just made a snap call yesterday to reduce it to 40 for the game. But yeah, we ran with 45 throughout all of qualification (I think).

Completely simmed. That's just bloody annoying. We had more yards, higher completion percentage, more completions, and then run out of time (thanks to lack of clock control) on the 5 yard line. I mean even though we had a great game statistically (except on the scoreboard it seems) how they reached 60+ percent completions with the WRs they have is incredible. They've got a guy who has been declining in physicals the whole season in their starting lineup...

Unlike the UK, we won our stats against Austria but we still lost. Austria have a lucky star this cycle it seems.

We're set for the UK. Throwing caution to the wind.