TarquinTheDark wrote:
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.)
We run keyed every play . Later in the game the auto key kicked in a we were calling pass keys. I think that had some effects on our deep zone, but it did help the run some.
In general watching the game at regular speed there were some bad looking plays. Why , I am not sure. I like to go back and watch stuff in slow motion with another page opened to the log and I have my opponents roster page open too. That way I can break down the view, play matchups, and roster at once.
Those plays where the targeted DB in zone looks lost is probably because he's kicking it into some version of man where he tries to hone in on the reciever. At that point he starts up again and seems a second behind . Also, On those deep routes I saw my dbs in deep zone biting on stutter steps and losing position . I didn't see this so bad in other games with pass keys. So, I will chalk it up to that.
And for pass yards allowed were at the bottom of the league playing a strict zone. Qbs seem to get better reads vs. Zone and my 100 zone defenders just aren't enough to compete. We ran a man under in preseason and in terms of effectiveness in comparison there still is not a balance . Man under is favored only cause the qb reads there seem horrid ....in comparison and zone under defenders run back too far vs. The run (we were last in yards per carry last I checked) .
As for feeling like 4.5 I am starting to think the parabolic changes combined with play overuse penalties and auto keys are the culprits. Qb Reads vs. Man under is up on that list as well, but when you change one the others will change too.
As for game plans I was just stating the power of the play overuse penalties . Call any plays you want. I just don't want the game to be as loose as 4.3 where 6 total play could win you a championship .
And pressure /sacks is bad. To avoid sacks.. When I build teams for 4.5 I get recievers who can get seperation that's it. Then I look for Oline with the best pass block. Then maybe a strong armed qb. That doesn't seem balanced, but I am going to test the limits in LoLs . We won't have much more than speed but I think it will do.
With that same approach in a rebuild we got a sub 75 rated accuracy , rookie qb to pass pretty well. We're avoiding pressure by having more open recievers . I think elite Oline should matter more