4-2-5 Split Field Coverage Pt.2

Cover 2-Blue is a Split Field coverage, that is mostly employed by 4-2-5 teams vs Singleback sets. Not to say that you couldn't use a play like 2 “ROBBER” vs a Singleback look, but it stresses the Awayside linebacker.

As Oneback has already explained. The front calls are completely separate from the coverage so this is adaptable from the 4-2-5, to the Nickel package.

They hyphenated call means that the secondary will be playing two different types of coverage to their respective halves of the field. The read side, or the side of the passing strength is playing 2, which is the Robber coverage. The Away side is playing BLUE coverage.

Cover 2 is basically The ROBBER coverage cut in half.  This is the side that You’ll have the FS reading the #2

Blue is a combo coverage using the CB and the WS on the away side #2. The Corner has the Curl/Flat while the WS has anything deep and the Mike comes over to help for the intermediate routes.

So basically this s a double ROBBER play, thats great against Singleback/Pro/2x2 Spread passing.

Building this play is easy and only takes a few adjustments:

Play: 4-2-5 Cover 4
Make sure the side that you declare as the strength the readside LBr is in the Hook Zone. This is the side that you’ll be usering the FS.

Adjustments:

• Awayside CB in to a Flat Zone

4-2-5 Split Field Coverage Pt.1

Oneback has already explained how to use the "ROBBER" scheme to perfection. What I want to show you is how to adapt this to 2x2 sets and 3x1 sets and introduce you to SPLIT FIELD COVERAGE, a schemes that TCU and other 4-2-5 teams use.

TCU teaches their secondary to divide their formations down the middle of the field and after you do that to each side there’s only 3 Formations that the offense can give you.

FORMATIONS

• Pro - TE and WR to one side
• Twins - Two  WRs to one side
• Trips variations 

(with the addition of Quads that adds a new wrinkle which I’ll get to in a separate post)

4-2-5 Cover 3 will be your base play just as Oneback stated in his Robber description. The Read side, will of course, be the Trips side. Vs any 3x1 formation you want to shift your LB over towards the trips side to wall off the first thing that comes inside. You’ll also want to Shift the coverage to the Trips side. This gives you close variation to Quarter/Quarter/Half Coverage.  You’ll also want to take that read side SS and put him a Buzz zone to handle everything outside the hash and it keeps him in place to handle run support.

In this coverage I personally user the FS and run the same Robber Rules with him and try to handle anything that threatens the inside. The SS in the Buzz zone handles anything that goes to the outside of the hash leaving the C to continue his dropback to handle anything deep. With the FS you, seriously, have to follow the ROBBER rules or the Middle is open. Remember that if the inner most reciever runs a shallow the responsibilty for him is passed off to the LBers in hook zones, and you have to gain depth with the FS and look for the backside post.

Weakness:
Screens

Summary
Base Play: 4-2-5 Cover 3
Adjustments:

• Shift LBs and Coverage toward the Trips side.
• Hot Route the Trips side safety to Buzz Zone.
• Align FS over the inside most threat

Proper Alignment is very important vs trips sets.

(H/t to Brophyfootball.blogspot and RunCODHit.blogspot for inspiring this and the next series of updates)

How To Play "ROBBER" Coverage

Thanks to Oneback over at Utopia, I didn't know anything about Robber Coverage until he explained to me how to run it, I've had a massive hard-on for the coverage every since. Be it Cover 1 Robber, 2 Deep Robber or the Hook Zone in a Cover 3 play. This has revolutionized the way I play defense.

Pre-snap the free safety will align to the passing strength of the formation, if #2 is a tight end he will align on the outside shoulder and eight yards deep, if #2 is a wide receiver he will align on the outside shoulder of the offensive tackle and eight yards deep.

After the snap he will read the quarterback for run/pass key, once he reads pass he will focus on #2s route.

If #2 runs a vertical route you will have him in man-to-man coverage to the inside, depending on the route of #1 the free safety may have outside help by the cornerback.

If #2 runs an arrow or quick out route the free safety must widen with #2 while keying #1.

The free safety must get underneath #1 and be alert for a pass to rob the pass.

If at the snap of the ball #2 runs a shallow cross the free safety must open to #1 gaining depth and width.

Be alert to a backside post route by the backside #1 or a seam by the backside #2.

If there is no backside deep threat, rob strong side #1.

If #2 runs a deep out key #1.

Alert post or deep outside route by #1, play underneath #1 with corner over the top to rob the pass.

If #2 runs a dig route in real life the free safety would jump the route to the inside and attempt to intercept the pass. However, due to the fact linebackers in coverage have the ability to sense routes being run behind them I typically fall back into deep middle coverage.

Look to the strong side #1 to ensure he is not running a post route then look to the backside for a deep threat.

With a #2 dig route the free safety will typically play inside of the deep threat to either side with the corner to the outside.

The ability to play effective robber coverage will force the offense to throw deep to the outside or underneath as the defense will take away the easier throws over the middle that most offenses look to complete.

TCU's Tite Short Smoke 0 Blitz

Formation: 425 Under (if the ball is on the left hash)

425 Over (if on the right hash)

Base Play: Crash Gold

This is a awesome pressure play to use when the ball is on the hash, a good change up play since most 4-2-5 like to use zones because of deficiencies with man coverage. If you're familiar with my philosophy on how to use the 4-2-5, I dont use the base plays vs Trips 4 and 5 wide unless I chose to dail up some type of blitz. If you call this play, and your opponent audibles into a Trips play, its a pretty good idea to have Nickle Strong Cover 1 "Robber' in your audibles.

Play Setup:

Again, this is a hash blitz. The "Tite" Call is telling you to set your 3 tech DT away from the TE, hence, the Under/Over formations. The Over Formation gives you a 1 Tech Nose Guard and a 3 Tech DT, while the Under is the exact opposite. The "Short Smoke" Call, tells your SS/OLB that he's blitzing from the boundary.

Optional Adjustments:

- Back off coverage so to not get beat by the deep bomb

- Set the blitzing ILB to Spy as this helps against the inside run and doesnt leave a huge cutback lane that can open if you leave him set to blitz.

Bear Front Defenses

While many of you are aware of the Bear Front defenses in you defensive playbooks, the majority don't use it because of your lack of understanding of the scheme behind it.Every defensive package should have some sort of Bear Front in its package it is set up. The 4-2-5 and 3-3-5 have a version based off the 46 (pronounced “forty-six” not “Four-Six)Defense that was designed in the early 1980s by Buddy Ryan with the Chicago Bears. Most folks know that – and hence, the nickname, “Bear” Defense. It was the defense of the dominant 1985 Bears team. This is also the front used in Arizona’s “Desert Swarm defense back in the day and the same defense that Army is using today (A mixture of the 3-4 and 3-3-5).

The defense has its basis in the old 5-2 Double Eagle front and is easy to stem in and out of from your base defenses. It is an 8-man, run-stopping front that works well with man coverages and with Cover 3.


Alignment



The alignment of the Bear Defense revolves around the 3-0-3 alignment in the middle. This means we have a Defensive Lineman aligned on the outside shoulder of each of the Guards, and a head up Nose Guard. The biggest advantage of this front is its almost impossible to create double teams, especially on your Nose Guard.

The weak side Defensive End stays in a 5-Technique. On the strong side, one Linebacker/SS is going to walk up on the inside foot of the Tight End while another Linebacker or Safety is going to walk up on the outside foot of the Tight End. Whoever is doing this is going to be based on the Defensive playbook, so don’t get caught up in the letters.

Run Fits

There’s no better front for stopping the run than the Bear. The 3-0-3 techniques are great for stuffing runs up the middle and forces your opponent to take runs to the outside. This, by design, the contain players on the perimeter will make or break if this defense works for you or not. If they don't keep a proper contain on the perimeter you’re going to be open to the outside run play all day, so you definately have to be careful with your play selection.

There are all sorts of Run fits in these playbooks. Cover 1 Plug from the 46 Bear, Storm Read from the 3-3-5 Bear, and the MLB Blitz from the 4-2-5 Bear.

Coverages

As mentioned, the coverage for the Bear Front Defense is mostly going to be Cover 0, Cover 1 or Cover 3 – which should be the case with any 8-man front defense, unless you’re running the 3-3-5 Bear version which is the only Bear Front that offers a Cover 2 “Robber” (which you already know Im a fan of) in the Spy 2 Blitz play and my personal opinion is that it should be in every bear front scheme. )That’s going to be the basic look.

You can get creative with your coverages in any defensive front, but the reality is, you are limited in coverages with the 46 Defense. Bear defense coverages are pretty well limited to Cover 0, Cover 1, and Cover 3.

Cover 1

The primary Bear Defense coverage is the Cover 1, with man coverage and one safety helping over the top. This allows a 4 to 5 man rush on the QB.

4-2-5 offers 3 versions of Cover 1. One that I like to play with is QB contain. Sometimes I decide to make adjustments to this play (IE Canceling out the contain) but I usually get a good amount of pressure with it on verses a user that knows how to use the option playbooks.

CB Fire 1 is a great play to use on passing downs when the ball is on the hash. I personally like to send corner blitzes on from the boundary (short) side of the field. Many people think they are useless plays and twice as many never expect them.

Cover 0

The next coverage for the Bear Defense is a Cover 0, Man Coverage with no help over top and a 6 man rush. All 6 players lined up on the line will rush, with the Free Safety taking the Tight End or the Halfback. If you've shown a lot of Zone plays from the Bear, try mixing in some Cover 0

4-2-5 plays:
MLB Blitz and Strong Safety Fire

3-3-5 plays:
Monster Green, Fire Green and Middle Plug

Cover 3

Finally, the Cover 3 is the natural fit for zone coverage in the Bear Defense.

The Free Safety and the two Corners handle the deep 1/3′s, which is pretty standard in Cover 3.

You have the option of making this a 4 under, 3 deep coverage with a 4 man rush or a 3 under, 3 deep coverage more closely associated with Fire Zone blitzes and 5 man pressure. How you want to create the 3 under, 3 deep (or any zone coverage out of the Bear Defense) is going to depend on your personnel. You may not have an End who can drop off, so you’d need to adapt.

Thoughts on Coverages
The Bear Defense is an attack-style defense. It is for causing havoc in the backfield. Man coverage is best for quick throws, because your guys are playing closer to the receivers.

If you’re going to run the Bear Defense, you need to be forcing quick throws with heavy pressure from the guys on the defensive front.

Strengthening Your Bear Front

I suggest building a stronger line for something like this by Formation Subbing. Making sure that your largest and best tackle is at Nose and, depending on what base defense your using, that your 3tech players are Tackles too. I also experimented with adding a 4-4 and 3-5-3 personnel to these packages in these playbook and had pretty good results. The fact that the Bear coverage scheme is mostly Man coverage, the only plays you have to be careful of is Cover 2 Man when using the same formation subs.

(H/t to DrB at http://www.shakinthesouthland.com/ and Coach Joe Danienl at http://www.football-defense.com/)

Spread Offense Manual from 09

Been going through this recently. Very well thought out and the principles still hold true...

Spread Option Manual v 1.1

Employing TCU's Bullets Thunder 0 Cop Blitz

I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the 4-2-5/4-4 defense, defenses in general. I recently ran across a post over at Blitzolgy about TCU’s Bullets Thunder 0 Cop Concept. Oneback has already described in his guide the basic calls TCU uses on defense out of their 4-2-5:

BULLETS - linebackers (Mike / Sam) blitzes
SMOKES - Safeties (Strong/Weak) edge blitzes
DOGS - Safeties & linebacker blitzes



The Bullets call, that involves the blitzing of both inside LBs through they're respective gaps, A of the Sam backer and B for the Mac backer. You can also send them into different gaps if you see fit. I.E.: The call “BULLETS A” would call for the Linebackers to blitz their respective “A” Gaps.



The next call is Thunder which tells the the Safety to the TE side that he’ll be blitzing from the outside. The next part of the call is 0 Cop. 0 is for the coverage, meaning all out man coverage with no safety help and the Cop Tag is a call used to tell the DE that he’ll have the TE in man to man coveage. TCU has very athletic DEs that allow them to be this creative on their blitzes. If you dont have athletic DEs I suggest using the LB Pass Rush package.




You can create this concept out of a number of looks from the 4-2-5, 4-3 and 4-4. I like to use for this concept out of Nickel Strong - Under Smoke.

Its been a long time.

I'll have some new stuff coming in the next couple of days. A large one dealing with Cover 1 "ROBBER" out of a number of different formations. BEST COVERAGE IN FOOTBALL.


Stay tuned,
Tez

Gap Control from the 3-3-5

With the reintroduction of Formation Subs into the next installment of the NCAA football series. I’ve been recently intrigued with the 3-5-3 defense. Its been the only thing I’ve been researching lately, seeing how I’ve exhausted every outlet trying to find something on the 4-4 “G” defense.

The 3-5 (or 3-3 Stack) is like the 3-4 on steroids. It gives you the ability to leave your opponent clueless on where the pass rush is coming from with 3 down linemen. You s necessarily need a “Jack” Linebacker, as the 3-4 employs. I like to employ a the first string SS and the other a OLB/SS hybrid, or a larger Safety type. Same theory as the “Jack” linebacker that is a DE/OLB thats a pure pass rusher that can play either standing up or with a hand in the dirt.

When I used the 3-3-5 in 10 the hardest thing for me was to stop the run. Luckily I found some good run fits verses people who try to bring the power run game to try to rip the 3-man line.

Gaining and Maintaining Gap Control

Typically, a 3-front defense is a two gap type of scheme. What that means is you're required to read and react to close the gap to the playside. You have keys in the offense, most notably the offensive linemen in front of you. If a guard pulls, he's going to bring you to the football the majority of the time. If the offensive lineman pass sets, you're probably going to rush the QB (unless a blitz is on, then responsibility CAN change to an occupier role). The truth is, they have to make a read and react. The nose, for example, will attack the center and slide into a gap as a play develops. Some of the best noses don't have to engage and react, they can react at the snap because they see what's going on. They are responsible for both A Gaps technically. In the game the key to improving your gap control is using slant stunts with you Defensive Linemen mixed in with blitzing Linebacker or two.

One Zone Blitz/Run Fit that I love to run is the Crash 3 Play from the Stack alignment.
The adjustment for this play is simple. Only thing you need to do is slant the line to towards the TE and user the blitzing linebacker.

Linebacker Pressures

Gap Pressures: Your LB’s must press the Open Gaps, You must know which gap is going to be vulnerable and blitz that gap with a LB, You can manipulate this by successfully manually blitzing, once your opponent decides to start shifting the line to the side that you’re blitzing from pulling a bait and switch and throwing in some F@G defense into the game should throw them off a bit. You also have to know which gap will be open for the LB. Recruiting wise for this defense your Mike LB is the anchor of your defense and needs to be a Ball Hawk. The defensive line movements and stunts are also important when it comes to the 3-3/3-5’s gap pressures and control. There are only 4 basic DL movements are available: Spread, Pinch, Crash right and Crash left. Adding a blitzing LB will also do wonders for your gap control on your run fits.

In sum, to play great run defense you must attack your assigned gap, shed blockers, pursue the ballcarrier, and make the tackle.This breakdown of gap pressures in the 3-3-5 should help you with understanding the plays that your calling and make you a better play caller.

Defending the Option

A lot of people are having problems defending the Option; be it the I-Form and Flexbone ‘s Triples and Load options, Shotgun ‘s Speed Options and the most dangerous shotgun running play of all, Air Force’s Shotgun Load Option. When NCAA 11 comes out things are not going to get easier (or so we suspect) with the Real Assignment AI blocking, will offer us “Optioneers” a chance to run these plays like they’re run in real life by optioning off the end man on the line of scrimmage or EMLOS. This becomes even more dangerous when plays like the Zone Read and Read Option are actually useful.
There are multiple ways to combat this. The most famous way is playing assignment football
TV analysts often refer to assignment football as a basic need for defenses playing the option. This refers to assigning defenders to each prong of the option. One (or more) defender(s) is assigned to the dive, the QB and the pitch.
Part of the assignment football philosophy is to switch these assignments among defenders in order to put pressure on blocking schemes.

Some common combinations of assignments:
Dive: defensive line
QB: MLB
Pitch: OLB
________________________________________
Dive: MLB and DT
QB: OLB and DE
Pitch: safety
________________________________________
Dive: MLB and defensive line
QB: safety
Pitch: OLB

Besides varying from play-to-play, these assignments will often change from the strong side to the weak side of the offensive formation.
When using this philosophy, prefer the second set up. The D-Line will take the dive with support from the ILBs. The OLBs will take the QB with the Safety taking the Pitch. To build this, I use my base play out of my “G” defense, 4-4 – 2 Deep


With the Option responsibilities show in the pictures below.



Adjustments
- Set Option Defense to Aggressive to a take the QB*
- Shift the D-line to the Field and Pinch them to handle the dive
- Hot Route OLBs to QB Spy
This play gives you coverage deep coverage, in case of a Option Pass, and puts the OLBs in the “Pitch Alley” You’ll have to user the FS to the play side to cover run support and the FS assignment on the Pitchman. If you played from the Flexbone, you may have seen a lot of your opponents take a Safety and run into the Pitch Alley to disrupt the pitch. Hot routing OLBs to QB Spy will allow them to follow the shadow the QB as he moves behind the line of scrimmage.

Another play I want to tell you about is a 4-2-5 Normal - SS Double Spy


Adjustments
- None
This play is good vs. your Flexbone - Quick Option/Ace Big – Speed Option types. User the FS to clean up the “pitch alley”. It’s a Cover 0 play, So I wouldn’t use it unless somebody is killing you over and over again with the Ace Big – Speed Option.

Another way to play the Option is letting the D-Line take the dive with support from the ILB farthest from the play side. If there is no dive the PSLB will play the QB and the OLB/Secondary will take the Pitchman. To build this I use the Nickel Strong – QB Contain play. (This play is also found in all the 4-3 alignments, but is global in the Nickel playbooks.)


Adjustments:
- Show blitz to walk a safety down into the box
- Spread the line
- Crash line in

I prefer this set up verse shotgun option teams but it works verses under center option too. What this does is gives you a “Scrape Exchange” a real life technique that teams use verses teams that like to use variations of the Zone Read to go along with your Assignment Philosophy. With this defensive adjustment, the defensive end always crashes for the running back, while the linebacker “scrapes” over to take the quarterback. If the quarterback doesn’t see this, he will pull the ball, thinking he will have an easy lane on the backside, and instead runs straight into the linebacker.



SCRAPE EXCHANGE: PistolxCoach, at the utopia boards is the inspiration for this post as he is the one that gave me the set it up.

I would come out in 3-3-5 Split*, go All Out Blitz, pinch DL crash them in, spread LB's and contain the ILBs... leave the SS's alone that are blitzing, and user the FS... coach tight zone as well...

if that doesn’t help and he is getting outside... then run the same thing, but hot route the SS's to contain, and user the FS but spread the DL and crash them OUT...

either way should give him some fits to get started, and if you are expecting pass, use R1/RT and hot route LB's to hook zones/yellow... and hot route ONE of the SS's to hook as well so you’re still sending 5, dropping 6... I would do the zone audible to the FIELD just to be safe... meaning that if he is on the left hash, then hot route the SS on the right side of your screen, and you can even buzz zone him if he’s going flat... I would still coach tight zones...

...................................F.............. ....................................
.................................................. .....................................
.................................................. .....................................
.....C.......................LB...........LB....................................C.
...................$.............................. ...$................................
.........................B......E........T......E....................................
....................................... ().................................................

B = Line Backer
$ = SS

for added measure, if you’re good at hot routing, I would do what I described ABOVE... and if you have time, R1/RT and Right Stick LEFT to reblitz the LB playing DE so that his angle goes STRAIGHT UP field...

Great set ups, and hopefully with these tools you can stop the option.

4-4 "G" Write Up

Over at Utopia, I've posted my 4-4 "G" write up. While its not quite complete I do plan on the addition of videos and possibly updating the blitz packages and coverages before I put it into .PDF format.

Reading Offensive Tendencies

In order to play effective defense, you have to read your opponent's tendencies. Some plays that are great against some people are going to be garbage against others.

But in order to determine what will work, you need to figure out your opponent's Tendencies.


Where does your opponent throw the ball when he has time?

Does he hit the seams? If so, you may want to move LB's overtop of the TE (or slot receiver) and maybe even man him up.

Does he go for the corners? If so, you may want to consider more buzz (purple) zones.

Does he use 10-yard curls? Purple zones and outside hook zones will help with this. Be sure to bump as well.

Does he use a deep post to get behind your coverage? Make it a habit to play with your coverage to help throw off his reads to prevent this.


Does your opponent like to roll out? If so, what side does he favor?

This will help you determine where to send pressure from, how to blitz your linemen, etc.


Where does your opponent throw when under pressure?

Will he throw to the shallow middle? If so, use more plays that have 2-3 guys in the middle with hook zones in the default play art.

Will he go to the flats? Corners in flat zones are great for this.


Does he use unbalanced formations often?

If so, make sure you have purple zones on that side. He will likely set up a route combo to that side.


How often does he use screens?

Try to figure out what formations he uses and who the screen goes to. Some people will roll way out to the opposite side. Stop chasing him and read the screen. I see a lot of people run HB Screens out of Shotgun and Singleback sets. If they’re in the Shotgun formations I always manually blitz from the that the HB is on, If I see him stop I’ll recover from my blitzing with the OLB/SS and recover to shut down the screen. As far as WR Screens go, a 2 deep coverage with man coverage under is the way to go.


Can your opponent run out of Shotgun?

This will determine if you can safely move guys out of the box when he's in Shotgun.


Does he use compressed sets?

Remember to move your flats zones out a little if he does. Compressed sets will enable him to throw quick slant-outs if you don't do this. And use buzz zones only to the boundary-side to better control zone holes.


Does your opponent do better against max coverage, or pressure?

Some people are great against the blitz, but are terrible when seeing F@G D. Others rely on having time to throw and will take some sacks. And some people are good against both. Figure out what is more successful and lean more towards that.

(H/T: Michura over at the Madden Boards)

Study Notes

- Option Routes I recently found a video on Youtube by DjWill on Option Routes, If you're anything like me and didn't use them at all the following information will change your whole outlook on the routes. Option routes give your WR a chance to read the coverage and find holes in the defense. Best ran against a zone defense, they were a staple of the Run N' Shoot offense and have branched out to other offense.

I remember reading somewhere that either Tiger Ellison or Mouse Davis came up with the concept while watching some kids playing a game of football in the backyard. And while playing the game you kinda have to treat the route as such.

Most option routes are built with 2 or 3 options. All should be able to defeat Cover 0/1/2/3 and some times Cover 4. Throwing to the option route can be dangerous if you dont know what direction the route is going and when the break will be made. Which is why it's important to have a knowledge of all the options the WR has. It's also imperative to have WRs with high AWR at least in the mid to high 80's. This will give them a better chance to make the correct reads and decision and get in the holes between zones.

(Blogger is kicking my butt and not letting me add the video here so...)
video linkage

- Basic Theory for Pass Defense Rhombic is definitely on it in this post for over on the Utopia boards. Who mathematically breaks down the theory of Pass defense with graphs? RHOMBIC! Great read, definitely worth checking out.

- BROPHY I've been reading some old post from Brophy as of late, And maybe I shouldn't do this, cause it makes me want more from EA development team. But he breaks down Saban's Defense in 3 post and also breaksdown concepts that would definately make you a better play caller on defense such as AFC Automatic Front Check and Formation Matching which have really became a HUGE part of my defensive play calling and has made me change my audible several times as of late.

Definately good reads.

EA Discussion on Gameplay with Russ Kiniry

Recently EA had a chat with Russ Kiniry that I missed. EA really does some wierd things, like have a community function at 4pm. The only people at home at that time are kids and Potheads. Guess we know who their core audience is. Anyways, I found the EA boards and posted my thoughts there, which in turn are posted below. Just some things that erked me with gameplay and with the way the game plays.

Russ,

- what are the chances that we can get Tiered Defensive Playcalling for defense or a Playbook overhaul? we've been playing with these playbooks for a while without any new additions?

- to add more depth to the defensive audibles can a change be implemented to where the adjustments like "Safeties In" makes the Corners play different while in man to man defense? As in keeping outside and inside leverage on receivers to keep them from getting outside?

- seeing how most defenses play Man to Man defense can something be done to make the Man to Man defenses coverage better, the reason nobody plays man defense in this game is because of how horrible its the defenders play it. Key example is Mesh plays, not even the best corner back in the game, no matter how fast or how high his man cover rating is, can stop a receiver on this play. Yes there is supposed to be a rub, but its a bit over done.

- Cover 4 issues. The Cover 4 in the base formations play too much like a "Prevent" style. The Corners drop too deep. they shoud still be in blue zones but only drop as deep as a buzz zone until somebody passes into their zones. In most Cover 4 schemes they (the Cornerbacks) should be the "force" player and be deep enough to contain the outside run. its should basically work like Cover 2 press man.

- Over and Under Formations and the lack of Weak and Strong LB/Safeties. Over fronts and Under fronts arent really realistic. Over and Under fronts should automatically adjust from the huddle if we had Weak and Strong Players instead of LOLB and ROLB (this applies to Defensive ends too). Over fronts should line up to the passing strength (in the case of a balance formations IE 2x2 sets w/ a rb, the side with the bigger threat) Under sets are more man to get the weakside OLB( or weakside safety in the case of 335 or 425) have the TE in man2man coverage, seeing how the 43Under is mostly man coverage anyways. (this may be more playbook related than gameplay though)

- Hook zones over the middle should try to get a collision with receivers running crossing routes to throw them off their route a bit. This doesnt happen, the only person that gets a collision are the defenders.

- The pass commit button and the button to make the crowd cheer are the same, giving away things you’re trying to do on defense.

- Run commit should tell your front 7 to maintain gap control rather than to fold all the way inside or outside and bring your SS up into the box to give run support.

These are just things that are schematically important defensive wise and add to the replay value. A lot of NCAA guys are tired of seeing things that madden had the year before and the new madden with all the cool new bells and whistles. We know a lot more people by Madden than NCAA and your budget isnt like Madden, but the community as a whole is hoping that the change in management is for the best.

Sir, If you've read this i hope you take AT LEAST some of it into some serious consideration. I know you guys work hard on this game and everything cant be put in (and we seriously appreciate it) but seeing how your guys have licenses on the Pro and College football games you can understand why the community are so hard on you guys to create a perfect sim football game. We appreciate being heard.

Thanks you.
(Hopefully, we'll get a chance to talk to Anthony White too)

Now, Hopefully a voice will be heard.

What I'm working on...

I dont want you guys to think that Im letting this blog die. I plan on keeping this going up for a very long time. So I decided to post some things that I've been working on.

- Option Routes, hopefully this will be up this week sometime.

- Switch Concepts and the Progression reads that love them. Just some basic stuff on my absolute favorite passing concept and route combonation other than the Smash.

- Gaining and maintaining gap control, on utopia people are always asking how to stop the run. And my answer is always the the drab and dull "Gap Control". In this post hopefully I'll get a good chance to break it all down.

- Notes on Defense, Self-explanitory

- How Cover 4 should work and how it works in the game, this will probably be a my bitch and whine complaint blog on simple mistakes in the game.

- Notes on passing against a Single high safety defense, a possible point counter-point post with defensive notes

- The "Grab bag" playcalling effect. a Post on play calling and how to avoid just going into formations and calling plays without any rhyme or reason.