Warrior General Games

Safeties seem a little low, tbh. LBs are ok.

Legacy was able to survive Storm today with lesser numbers for our LBs (though our safeties are generally better).

sorry - this is going to sound a-hole-ish. But I get it....I'd be pissed if I lost that big of a lead.


My question after watching it:

How did they NOT get a morale spiral!! your O was unstoppable. They fumbled as they were going in for a TD...they fumbled at midfield...they botched a snap on 3rd down....their QB went 3 for 8 with 3 drops.

When (what I assume is) their trailing offense kicked in...their O vs your D was no longer a good match up for you.

Why did their HB's become so stinking good in the 2nd half? I don't know but I would assume heart is a factor (and assume they are on high contracts).

Meanwhile your O started running the ball a lot (who would think someone could come back from such a point deficit??) which seemed to stall them out.

I feel your pain. That comeback had to be like a 1 in a 1000 (or more) occurance

Originally posted by TxSteve
sorry - this is going to sound a-hole-ish. But I get it....I'd be pissed if I lost that big of a lead.


My question after watching it:

How did they NOT get a morale spiral!! your O was unstoppable. They fumbled as they were going in for a TD...they fumbled at midfield...they botched a snap on 3rd down....their QB went 3 for 8 with 3 drops.

When (what I assume is) their trailing offense kicked in...their O vs your D was no longer a good match up for you.

Why did their HB's become so stinking good in the 2nd half? I don't know but I would assume heart is a factor (and assume they are on high contracts).

Meanwhile your O started running the ball a lot (who would think someone could come back from such a point deficit??) which seemed to stall them out.

I feel your pain. That comeback had to be like a 1 in a 1000 (or more) occurance

not a-hole-ish at all and maybe it was a case of bad luck, but this does concern me a bit that they could shed my tacklers so easily after being held in check most of the game. I'v talked to my defense and we will probably continue to work on run stopping since our pass defense seems to hold up well. im am thinking unless something changes setting up the front 7 to focus on run stopping to an extreme point maybe the only way to go if you want to stand a chance against these super heavy run focused offensive builds.

Fwiw USC, I wouldn't consider any of those LBs or Safeties to be "great" tackling builds. You've got a few guys with elite power tackling, but they generally have very modest tackling technique and grip. Most you listed have modest grip. No-one you listed has elite tackling tech either. I'm not saying that Air Raid's any better off, as we've got our own tackling issues against elite HB builds too.

Originally posted by USC_Trojans
well not exactly, I guess posting all 3 main tackling skills would clear it up (tech, power, grip) lb 1: 72, 49, 63. Lb 2: 71, 46, 63. lb 3: 53, 77, 49. Lb 4: 76, 40, 47. Lb 5: 50, 89, 19 (primarily a pass rusher). heres the numbers for our safeties. SS 1: 47, 96, 30. SS 2: 57,, 82, 31. FS 1: 60, 44, 44. FS 2 70, 23, 37. The numbers are pretty solid across the board safeties could use more grip is the biggest argument you could make


I fear this with my team as well -- My tackling caps are just too low. I don't know how badly that is going to hurt me against elite teams....but I think it will be a LOT

Originally posted by USC_Trojans

not a-hole-ish at all and maybe it was a case of bad luck, but this does concern me a bit that they could shed my tacklers so easily after being held in check most of the game. I'v talked to my defense and we will probably continue to work on run stopping since our pass defense seems to hold up well. im am thinking unless something changes setting up the front 7 to focus on run stopping to an extreme point maybe the only way to go if you want to stand a chance against these super heavy run focused offensive builds.

I built four pure run stopping players to counter it. LB/CB/CB/FS (because for some reason only the FS can be lined up at CB other than a CB.... I would have preferred to use a SS).

They suck at pass D, but they hit hard enough that they sometimes get the FF or KL after allowing the catch. They do shut down the blocking WR teams decently when lined up against them. If I'm playing a pure pass team, I'll sub them down the depth chart and make them only play sometimes (give them more STs playing time). When I'm playing a balanced team, I try and mix them around the field a bit. When I play a pure run team, I'll load them up on the sides that they tend to run to or balance them out to both sides if they have no such tendency.

Without tagging or being able to bring in Run stuffers from other positions to counter the blocking WRs, you have to make some sacrifices to depth to attempt to counter it.

Originally posted by Time Trial
I built four pure run stopping players to counter it. LB/CB/CB/FS (because for some reason only the FS can be lined up at CB other than a CB.... I would have preferred to use a SS).

They suck at pass D, but they hit hard enough that they sometimes get the FF or KL after allowing the catch. They do shut down the blocking WR teams decently when lined up against them. If I'm playing a pure pass team, I'll sub them down the depth chart and make them only play sometimes (give them more STs playing time). When I'm playing a balanced team, I try and mix them around the field a bit. When I play a pure run team, I'll load them up on the sides that they tend to run to or balance them out to both sides if they have no such tendency.

Without tagging or being able to bring in Run stuffers from other positions to counter the blocking WRs, you have to make some sacrifices to depth to attempt to counter it.

thats what i feared. Its seriously disappointing that we have to sell out to stop the extreme run teams

Easiest way is to probably only have 2 maybe 3 S*'s on your team so you can max the roster to 43, maybe 42 would work.

Fill up with 4 DE's (2 run stuffers, 2 Pass rushers)
6 CB's (2 blitz/run stuffer/power tacklers, 4 pass)
2 maybe 3 FS's (1 power run stuff/1 pass)
2 maybe 3 SS's (1 power run stuff/1 pass)

Then proceed to only use whole formations for solely run and solely for pass (because we can't gangster tag). Oh, and hire a really good D coordinator.

I feel this is the only way to run a balanced D at the top level. Even then, you'll probably get destroyed.

Originally posted by . Ninja
Easiest way is to probably only have 2 maybe 3 S*'s on your team so you can max the roster to 43, maybe 42 would work.

Fill up with 4 DE's (2 run stuffers, 2 Pass rushers)
6 CB's (2 blitz/run stuffer/power tacklers, 4 pass)
2 maybe 3 FS's (1 power run stuff/1 pass)
2 maybe 3 SS's (1 power run stuff/1 pass)

the problem with this is, if you do this... you'll end up getting only 4WRs or no depth at all on your O-line, due to the roster size limit

either rosters need to get expanded to let teams have both run and pass stopping defensive players, or there needs to be an awareness bump on defense to help Ss and LBs for favoring pass/run, or awareness loss of offense for running repeated plays

Originally posted by TDiddy8701
the problem with this is, if you do this... you'll end up getting only 4WRs or no depth at all on your O-line, due to the roster size limit

either rosters need to get expanded to let teams have both run and pass stopping defensive players, or there needs to be an awareness bump on defense to help Ss and LBs for favoring pass/run, or awareness loss of offense for running repeated plays

Yeah, if you don't run an all passing team, 4 Wr's you can get by as long as your offense doesn't exclusively run out of the Spread. Carrying 1 Center is also not a big deal if you build him right.

1 QB, 2 HB, 1 FB, 7 Oline, 2 TE, 5 WR, K, P, 3 DT, 4 DE, 5 LB, 6 CB, 2 SS, 3 FS

Increasing roster size by 2-3 would allow room for specialist players like pure run stopping CB, ect or for things like STOP players. The slots would help balanced offenses and not really help specialized offenses

Originally posted by . Ninja
Easiest way is to probably only have 2 maybe 3 S*'s on your team so you can max the roster to 43, maybe 42 would work.

Fill up with 4 DE's (2 run stuffers, 2 Pass rushers)
6 CB's (2 blitz/run stuffer/power tacklers, 4 pass)
2 maybe 3 FS's (1 power run stuff/1 pass)
2 maybe 3 SS's (1 power run stuff/1 pass)

Then proceed to only use whole formations for solely run and solely for pass (because we can't gangster tag). Oh, and hire a really good D coordinator.

I feel this is the only way to run a balanced D at the top level. Even then, you'll probably get destroyed.

What, no pure run stuffing LBs?

One way to exploit the running teams blocking WRs is to match up a run stuffing LB against a blocking WR in man coverage by using fewer CBs than necessary.

I don't really feel like figuring out which LB would go out and cover over top of the blocking WRs, but that would be the easy way of doing it. Stupid thing is, you can put a LB over a WR by tricking the LB into playing CB at no OOP, but you can't just put a LB in at CB and suffer the OOP.

Originally posted by TDiddy8701
the problem with this is, if you do this... you'll end up getting only 4WRs or no depth at all on your O-line, due to the roster size limit

either rosters need to get expanded to let teams have both run and pass stopping defensive players, or there needs to be an awareness bump on defense to help Ss and LBs for favoring pass/run, or awareness loss of offense for running repeated plays

The big issue is still that pursuit angles (even with 80+ pursuit) try and have the tackler go through the outside blockers to get to the ball carrier. This wouldn't be a problem if you gave them a swim move or something that they could use to get around the blockers, but instead the tackler runs right into the pile and comes to a full stop. Instead of adjusting the pursuit to just slightly be upfield of the blocker/defender and pushing off them to cut off the gain, they just uselessly run into the blocker (to no effect... at least have the impact break the block or something!).

QB
HB
HB/Returner
C
C
G
G
G - Pull
OT - Pull
OT - Pull
OT
OT
TE
TE
WR
WR
WR
WR

DT
DT
DT
DE
DE
DE

LB
LB
LB
LB
LB - Run Stuffer

CB
CB
CB
CB - Run Stuffer
CB - Run Stuffer

SS
SS
FS - Run Stuffer
FS

K
KOS
P

Originally posted by Time Trial
What, no pure run stuffing LBs?

One way to exploit the running teams blocking WRs is to match up a run stuffing LB against a blocking WR in man coverage by using fewer CBs than necessary.

I don't really feel like figuring out which LB would go out and cover over top of the blocking WRs, but that would be the easy way of doing it. Stupid thing is, you can put a LB over a WR by tricking the LB into playing CB at no OOP, but you can't just put a LB in at CB and suffer the OOP.

Every team needs to have at least 1 run stuffing LB. I have 1 pure, 1 duel run stuffer/cover. I'd rather stack 6 for CB's though. You do not get a OOP and the pure run stuffing LB stays in the LOLB or MLB spot pending what you are against.

Facing a Pro Set HB Sweep. Run the C1 CB Fire out of 4-3 or even a 4-3 Cover 2 Man Under or what ever it is you choose. Your Run stuffing/BRB LOLB, DE, and SS are all in that area of attack along with your high blitz aware/BRB/run stuff CB. That setup can also neutralize a long list of other attacks.

If you face a Spread Sweep, Put the BRB/Run stuff CB's 1 on each side. Throw in the Hybrid LB at MLB. You're good to go.

Use a different D formation if you know that pass is coming with your other subs, you are all set to destroy every team possible. Jk, I am sure this plan has been thought of and destroyed over and over again. The balanced Defense is dead.