Back to basics. I'm going to let the AI call D here for a few games.

That nerf to blitzing was put in because it would stop running and passing. By getting elite/fast players one could blitz two and pass key everything allowing negative to 100 yards a game. idk is anyone has a defense that is good enough to even try it in this code.

But with slants and deep passes opened up a bit blitzing is just not a good idea unless you can keep counts low. Still, with 20 blitzes in your book ...and the qb passes 60 times you could keep blitz counts below three.

As for familiarity , I like to think it works like this. Say a guy is 100 rated overall with no familiarity and with a play being fully familiarized he might be rated 103 or 105 on that play . So, it does something but I don't think it can account for Carolinas success . It's like a few percentage points and it does matter but I think they are just using ratings well and taking advantage of the poor deep help in general.

Man under is tight and very effective on the inside . Zone under is better , but not great . Still, the deep zone seems the weakness in general . Just giving up huge plays instead of an incomplete of solid gain.

Slow defenders seem to take decent purist angles when tackling ball carriers, but defending the deep ball is a hit or miss, and when they miss it's bad. The plays Carolina is putting out there is taking advantage of this. In terms of yards gained their wr1, wr2, and TE1 are leading they way with a solid distribution , but the average per play is huge.

Playing 4.5 this way is good too. Those plays are good . ...it's like tampa...they are picking good run plays and they ran well vs. US because of it last game.

The passes are good only cause qbs are forcing passes. You want to force it in to talent and hope for the best . Hope for that db to bite or play to the fact that flat defender is not getting there. Still, a great study for this release , because they are tearing it up week in and week out, and I don't think there offense is even that great .

Right now it seems like you can pass for a 1000 yards but with my set of dbs he still only got 700 vs. a non familiarized set of 100% zone plays where I blitzed close to 50% of the time. One play was called 17 times vs. them. So, I think I could make a plan to hold them to 500 at least . Using both man and zone.

A general release will see monster games if we are seeing scores like this here , but once again I am chalking it up to the odd deep help and forced throws. in other words "money plays" might creep back in and give that feel of certain ones being better that others.

Qb scrambling is something to note, because in 4.4, 4.5, and some in 4.6 you don't want them to scramble , the results considerably worse compared to a good read and throw. A 237#wlb playing LDE is leading the league in sacks with 40 pass rush. Something is off there and the littlest changes have drastic impacts in other areas . Still , he might be an anomaly . (I haven't checked to see if that roll out play is being sacked alot.)

Some decent pass blocking gave my qb some time (to scramble ) on a deep pass play and the result was awesome like a 45+ yard pass in the air. I haven't seen that since 4.3 and think it is great, but without qbs moving around or all effective throws coming under two seconds the usable plays might feel limited . And that pass I saw last game will rarely happen.

I almost want better blocking, but more pressure from blitzes and more scrambling with better deep coverage but looser man underneath . Something like that, but it gets tangled up if one is tweaked too much or too little. Locking up that deep zone is important because I don't think we need the long passing nerf....how ever strong it even is right now, because I have seen only like 3 or 4 drops all season long so far.

And we're not even talking what it would do to the run game, which I think is way too static.

https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/watch/10107#1843251

We rotate the zone right where this pass should be. The CB1 is head up the TE1 and has that flat but is in the hook zone and he drifts away from the target even after the pass is thrown.

https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/watch/10107#1843256

This SS is in deepest man assignment but covers no one. He is near the target , just standing there, measuring who is the deepest man, and the pass comes his way, but too late to make a play .

https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/watch/10107#1843298

Were in a run key but our players seem to have good positioning here in a 3 deep, but the CB1 is in man and is targeted . The wr1 runs a corner route and the SS in that deep third zone is cutting off that route to the outside , but and end route senerio sends the wrs pattern in to a 15 yard in route. The deep safeties continue to the outside , even after the pass is thrown, and only the CB1 , in man , is there to make a play .

It's like the qb knew he couldn't make the outside throw but some how knew the wr1 would come back in, but the zone defenders where oblivious to all of it.

We got you guys next week. I checked out your calls though the scouting tab. Most of your yards were let up with only 5 or so plays , all blitzes. I was scouting AI plans with those two open teams early in preseason just to see some zone play in action. They definitely don't play to the rosters strengths but I think the defensive ones are a little better than the offense ones. Good luck!

https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/watch/10107#1843367


The mlb has the hook here and with a pass key he's very deep. It's tough to to knock this play as it was a good call , read, and throw, but the MLB drifts until the pass is caught and then pursues. The back didn't hitch either he continues deeper in stride .

Name (pos) ....thrown at
Carl Ethridge (MLB) ....... 36
Joe Hargrove (WLB) ....... 22
Freeman Tomita (CB1).... 37
Ruben Grant (SS) ............. 4
Michael Barber (FS) ......... 1
Terence Hamada (CB2).. 28
Carlos Cuadra (SLB) ...... 15

I have been talking about the lack of deep help, but why are not my SS and FS getting any thrown at stats? Idk how much these stats refer to a target at them but my other guys seem correct. While the safeties are barely getting any when playing a strict zone. Or nobody is throw deep up the middle ? I know I have seen my safeties whiff big at times and get some knock downs, but is that all they are doing in the pass game in zone?

That roll out play is being sacked a lot (when I call it).

First impressions:

There's no B & R with zones. Your CBs would just scramble to get back to their zones. They would turn around just as my WR was getting ready to make the cut. They would freeze trying to anticipate the route. Only my outside guys wouldn't cut, I was calling a lot of straight routes. They would accelerate and blow right by for long receptions.

There wasn't much pressure. I wasn't uber-blitzing, your line bit on any play action.

So we each got five TDs in a thousand-yard game. My slight edge on punts made up for your slightly better yardage, or vice-versa. It came down to turnovers and field goals, shades of early 4.5. :)

Offense definitely has the upper hand again. One reason I had so many blitz plays loaded last game was that I was down to about eight other defensive plays that hadn't allowed more than four yards average this season. The blitz plays were the most familiar ones in my playbook that weren't 4-deeps. (I should be trying those soon.)