November was a blur between Reclaim Open, travel, and work. One of the things that suffered as a result was keeping up with AI Maddeness. Running a fully automated media empire around a season of Madden 2001 is far more manual work than I ever imagined. That said, having an ongoing account of the weekly games and creating a sense of ‘eventness’ as we head into playoff season is starting to pay off. Mid-season is always a slog, but with the playoffs just 5 short weeks away the intensity has started to ratchet up.
Week 12 standings with division and conference records for each team
One of the things I spent a lot of time working on this month is making sure the standings page included accurate division and conference records. Those details have consistently been the Achilles’ heel for ChatGPT when it comes to this project. If I don’t do it weekly and double-check all the work the machine invariably screws up these records. That’s unacceptable given the playoff picture depends on them for determining the broader playoff race—just look at how tight the NFC Central and AFC Central are currently.
Apart from that, I’m still doing a full re-watch of every game and writing out a full play-by-play summary that becomes the base of the weekly AI Sports Zone recap post. And then there’s the numerous GIFs that provide inline game highlights. I find that part of the process a lot of fun, but it’s also a ton of writing and GIF-making—two things the bava is not afraid of.
GIF of Curtis Martin running like a beast for 22 yards in week 12
Playing from behind over the last four weeks has meant I haven’t been able to explore things like video highlights reels, a podcast, re-styling the websites, and playing other games beside the Jets—all casualties of world enough and time. I even put the Gangus Green fan posts on hiatus given they were getting repetitive and I haven’t had the headspace to make them more interesting. I can always say he got sick and went into the hospital for a 5-6 weeks and the only thing keeping him alive was the Jets 10-1 season and Curtis Martin’s historical dominance. It’s my story to write in the end because no one is listening 🙂
Week 10 Recap: Jets’ Perfect Season Crumbles at Home in Overtime Thriller
Speaking of storylines, there are at least two that have emerged that have been fun to play along with. The first was the Jets perfect season. Going into week 10 the Jets were 8-0 and playing an underperforming 3-5 Denver Broncos. I was telling my friend Zach in Portland that I was going to wipe the floor with the Broncos, and I am sure that’s why I lost that one—“that’s your pride fucking with you!” As the game recap recounts, it was a tight one and the Jets pushed it to overtime in the last seconds of regulation, but as was the case all afternoon the Jets had no answer for Ed McCaffrey who had 10 receptions for 212 yards and 3 TDs, while Brian Griese was 18 for 29 with 366 yards and 3 TDs. It was a hard pill for me to swallow, and I’m not gonna lie—it hurt. But it also reminded me that any given Sunday the AI Maddeness dream can crumble for the Jets. I was afraid that after that loss the Jets would lose a step, but in the following weeks in two divisional games against solid opponents in the Colts and Dolphins they played hard and are now sitting pretty atop the AFC East at 10-1. Maybe we needed a little adversity to remind us that once you get cocky, kid, the NFL empire strikes back.
Curtis Martin gets to 2,000 yards in just 12 weeks—faster than any other player in Ai Maddeness history
The other storyline that is an absolute blast is Curtis Martin just dominating the league. There have been conversations around him as MVP since mid-season but as recently as last week he appears to be a shoe-in. In week 12 against the Dolphins he ran for 256 yards and 3 touchdowns which brought him to 2,040 yards on the season, making him the first player in the history of AI Maddeness to make it to 2000+ yards so quickly. In the real NFL O.J. Simpson made it to 2,003 yards in week 14 of the 1973 season, which was the final week of the regular season during that era. That feat still remains the quickest any player has hit or passed 2,000 rushing yards in the regular season of the NFL. Going into Week 13—today’s game!—the narrative immediately turned to Curtis Martin breaking the all-time single season rushing record held by Eric Dickerson. If all goes as planned, Martin should blow by that mark at home against the Chicago Bears who have the worst rushing defense in the league. He needs just 66 yards to surpass the 2,105 yards Dickerson amassed during the 1984 season—a record that has stood for over four decades. It’s history in the making!
Week 13 Preview: Chicago Bears (2–9) at New York Jets (10–1)
And this is when it gets fun because the other narrative element that hasn’t even been mentioned is that his 26 rushing touchdowns is just two away from tying LaDainian Tomlinson’s 28 during the 2006 season. So it’s very possible that Curtis Martin could break both the most rushing yards and touchdowns for a single season in week 13 of the 2000-2001 AI Maddeness season. Pretty intense, no?
IT’S IN THE GAME!!!
