Touch blocks have been fired up to max, especially on returns and outside plays. Mostly blockers engage for a tick or two and let go, but lately they’re not even holding defenders.. just running next to them.
Suck blocks. Personally not a fan since we don’t get them as much as others lol. Seriously though, having an open angle to the ball in one directions and forgoing that opportunity to make a play to engage a blocker that’s outside of playmaking radius has got to stop. Its the same on blitzes, and pursuit/blitz shouldn’t be.
Carrying awareness (imo) is extremely useless and is only carried by the sheer amount of SAs that rely on it (although depending on what you build it’s not necessary for SAs). I feel like rushing tactics does most of the “identifying rushing lanes”, plus (quite frankly) I’ve been taking carrying awareness to 90+ since I’ve started playing & the best HBs Deadman has had have all hovered around 70. I do notice it’s usefulness on screens, but whose screening all game anyways. Tweaking awareness overall could be good.
Defensive awareness was killed tremendously. Deadman had 4 sub (or even) 4.4 WRs with Gold First Step & Head Fake (+ CiS which is another pretty useless SA atm) and an (all?) pass offense. Most DBs were still built over 5 seconds on the defensive end. While I support the fact that receiver separation is finally happening, I don’t think it was done in a good way. Speed WRs run behind the defense, while shifty receivers create separation. As it stands now, you just need speed WRs with First Step. Beef up DBs awareness impact, or adjust positioning so defenders automatically take a better stance depending on the WR they’re matched up against (also based on awareness?). As much as I’d like the speed trend to replace CiT, it’s much harder to adjust to speed when building a defense (and easier to make a speed receiver in general).
Tackling is still booty, which is an extreme surprise. If blocking was finally made decent after a long existence of just existing, it makes no sense to me that we can’t bring tackling back into form. No I’m not saying go back to the days where you crossed your fingers you aren’t hit, but scale back the whole “can’t touch this”. Our line is at 60 power, the CBs are 40 tech lowest, LBs have 50 tech lowest, and the deep back is at 70 tech. Grip, power, and strip technique are all at various stages. The only ones who can tackle are the CBs & I mean it (seasons worth of evidence & extra two games in offseason). Likely may be impacted by the next point.
Pursuit looks beautiful, but over-pursuit is back with a vengeance. These are visible as hell on the outside, and can be the difference maker in many cases (we catch people on screens, but get our asses caught on them as well lol)
And lastly (off the top of my head at least) is the inconsistency of tactics. I feel like we’ve been having long, hard discussions as a team during practice about running inside.. and then game-time comes and we don’t do it… while our inside rush numbers have increased (I bumped it up a bit from 40% of the offense), we’re still doing everything else at a higher (?) rate (screens are only still 10% of the offense, but I’m sure you’ll still see us run a crap ton). Could use some consistency/stability in play-calling.
Suck blocks. Personally not a fan since we don’t get them as much as others lol. Seriously though, having an open angle to the ball in one directions and forgoing that opportunity to make a play to engage a blocker that’s outside of playmaking radius has got to stop. Its the same on blitzes, and pursuit/blitz shouldn’t be.
Carrying awareness (imo) is extremely useless and is only carried by the sheer amount of SAs that rely on it (although depending on what you build it’s not necessary for SAs). I feel like rushing tactics does most of the “identifying rushing lanes”, plus (quite frankly) I’ve been taking carrying awareness to 90+ since I’ve started playing & the best HBs Deadman has had have all hovered around 70. I do notice it’s usefulness on screens, but whose screening all game anyways. Tweaking awareness overall could be good.
Defensive awareness was killed tremendously. Deadman had 4 sub (or even) 4.4 WRs with Gold First Step & Head Fake (+ CiS which is another pretty useless SA atm) and an (all?) pass offense. Most DBs were still built over 5 seconds on the defensive end. While I support the fact that receiver separation is finally happening, I don’t think it was done in a good way. Speed WRs run behind the defense, while shifty receivers create separation. As it stands now, you just need speed WRs with First Step. Beef up DBs awareness impact, or adjust positioning so defenders automatically take a better stance depending on the WR they’re matched up against (also based on awareness?). As much as I’d like the speed trend to replace CiT, it’s much harder to adjust to speed when building a defense (and easier to make a speed receiver in general).
Tackling is still booty, which is an extreme surprise. If blocking was finally made decent after a long existence of just existing, it makes no sense to me that we can’t bring tackling back into form. No I’m not saying go back to the days where you crossed your fingers you aren’t hit, but scale back the whole “can’t touch this”. Our line is at 60 power, the CBs are 40 tech lowest, LBs have 50 tech lowest, and the deep back is at 70 tech. Grip, power, and strip technique are all at various stages. The only ones who can tackle are the CBs & I mean it (seasons worth of evidence & extra two games in offseason). Likely may be impacted by the next point.
Pursuit looks beautiful, but over-pursuit is back with a vengeance. These are visible as hell on the outside, and can be the difference maker in many cases (we catch people on screens, but get our asses caught on them as well lol)
And lastly (off the top of my head at least) is the inconsistency of tactics. I feel like we’ve been having long, hard discussions as a team during practice about running inside.. and then game-time comes and we don’t do it… while our inside rush numbers have increased (I bumped it up a bit from 40% of the offense), we’re still doing everything else at a higher (?) rate (screens are only still 10% of the offense, but I’m sure you’ll still see us run a crap ton). Could use some consistency/stability in play-calling.
