Originally posted by tautology
Folks,
I've said this before and it seems to fall on deaf ears...but please consider it comes from a coach who has consistently had both the best rushing game and best rushing defense in his league season after season.
The running game was barely functional in season 8, with the exception of the Strong I Slam
Every other running play could be stuffed for a loss with alarming consistency unless the HB was an absolute stud and simply broke tackles to make gains.
Functional, but barely so. And yes, this is why the slam was so prevalent...it was the only play with reliable yardage.
And even the slam could be slowed/stopped with the right defensive calls and good defensive builds...as thehazyone showed in the USAPro championship game.
I am not advocating no changes in the sim but...
The changes being made are fundamentally misdirected
This is an over-reaction that will nerf the running game globally in response to a single-play trend in season 8.
What we need is to LOOSEN UP the running game in general, and slightly nerf the specific dynamic that made the Slam a bit over-powered (and it wasn't over powered so much as it was very difficult to ever stop for a loss..every other run was FAR TOO EASILY stopped for a loss, which is why peopled stopped using them and went All -slam).
And I will say this: The D AI alone would solve the Slam problem.
From the looks of the sims I have seen, the ONLY running games that will be viable for season 9 are ones with insane powerbacks vs poor-tackling teams.
Let's not go back to season 3, please.
100% agreed. Honestly, by the end of ssn, the SI Slam wasn't much of a concern to my D at all. I'd have LOVED playing a 80% or more SI SLam team! I don't even believe it was over powered, once the Ds caught up. Frankly, the repeated play penalty that Bort is adding, whether you like or hate it, solves the SI Slam issue all on its own. Toss in the D AI creator and I don't see it being an issue at all.
I used other run plays all ssn long. The only time they worked somewhat consistently was when you could catch the other team in the wrong D. When in the right D, they were fairly consistently shut down, many times for a loss, and I've got a damn good run team.
As far as ideas tossed arond so far (from multiple sources), here are my thoughts:
OLs with much higher str (20 or more) SHOULD get movement on the D. What Bort is responding to here by limiting it is all the guys that made ultra high agility and low str DLman. Sorry, but if you have comparatively no str, you should get blown out of the hole by a strong OLman that gets his hands on you.
There should be more of an energy drain for HBs. Having 1 HB being able to run the ball 40 or more times in a game is insane.
Reduce fall forward, but not by more than 50% of what it was at. Frankly, reducing it by 20% most likely would be enough.
PBs broke too many tkls, but, again, not many more. I'd again that a 20% reduction would be sufficient (otherwise you're just rewarding players for having shitty builds on D and again penalizing those that put the effort into stopping broken tkls)
DL Shifts (along with the D play creator) will have a very negative impact on the run game, as is. I like both, but, without a counter boost of some sort to blocking, this alone will kill the run game. IF you toss in the LB's reacting better and slowing the HB through the line, the run game is completely dead right there.
Lead blocking needs to be fixed. Far too often, the FB (or Gs, OTs & TEs) make flat out foolish blocks, allowing the best positioned defender a wide open shot at the HB
On outside runs, the HB needs to break more outside of the DE. Many plays, the HB only needs to go a couple clicks more to the outside to get a good gain. Instead, he tries to cut it up right next to the DE and is tkled for a loss.
Final thoughts:
Don't over react because ppl were screaming. By far the biggest problem was that there was no penalty to running the same play 30 or more times a game and that a PB could have 40+ carries without a drop off in production. The repeated play thing sucks, and has happened every single ssn since the O AI was unveiled (it's just that so many did it this ssn that it finally got noticed). Frankly, it sucks playing PO games where the other team runs 1 play 40-70 times. The play penalty takes care of that.
60-70% of the plays in the play book in the passing game are flat out horrible and have been since they were 1st introduced (bump that up to 70-80% for the run plays). They just don't work against a decent team under all but the most ridiculous circumstances. Some of the pass plays don't even make an football sense at all. They desperately need to be deleted and new, functional plays inserted in their place.
Don't overreact by overpowering the passing game. IMO, the only thing that absolutely needed to be fixed was the QB hitting open WRs/TEs/HBs, instead of forcing the ball so much into double and triple coverage. Leading the WR should be improved slightly. However, again, don't over react by making it any more than 20% better or you just killed the D.
Think that's it
