Defense - Man vs. Zone vs. B&R

[Shoveler]

Has anyone tried removing a defensive scheme from their game plan? For instance if your pass coverage is weak in one of these three areas, say zone coverage, then only run man to man and bump and run?

Are there any drawbacks to doing something like this?

To clarify - I'm not real knowledgable in NFL defense, but I'm wondering if each scheme is good against a particular type of pass play. Man to Man (Med/Long Passes), B&R (timing routes?), zone (short passing?). Or perhaps the program doesn't take that into account?

[Shoveler]

Note to self- don't post thoughts right after waking up.. they aren't coherent.

What I'm asking is this. Is each defensive passing scheme specialized in protecting against specific passing situations (short, medium, or long). Or does the program not really take this into account, and therefore if you are weak in one area you could just eliminate that area of deficiency?

[gstelmack]

The help file describes them and how they apply, but yes one strategy is to get all bump-and-run or all zone guys and use mostly that in the gameplan. A reason for this is you might be able to get, say, a guy with a very high bump-and-run bar but very low other coverage bars much cheaper than someone who can play all coverages. The offense may have an advantage if you always run same coverage, but that advantage may be less than the penalty you pay for a guy being poor at that coverage. Best bet is to experiment and find out.

[Ben E Lou]

...one strategy is to get all bump-and-run or all zone guys and use mostly that in the gameplan...This strategy worked very well in FOF2K4, did not work well in FOF2K7, and hasn't--to my knowledge--been tested in FOF7.

[aston217]

I try to focus on what my coverage guys are *good* at, but Sole support previously said "all coverage skills are used to some degree on every play."

In addition to the 3 coverage bars, or when in the absence of some or all of them, I try to make sure my guys offer something: interceptions, or play diagnosis. I'm not sure if it helps at all.

Mostly, I use GameplanAnalyzer7 (link in the reference thread) to see, over the course of the year, if there are noticeable differences in how my coverages are performing.

[Marmel]

I have always wondered, if your entire secondary are guys with high m2m but low zone and you rex the gameplan, does the game realize this and adjust the gameplan accordingly? This same question goes for all position groups and skill sets. If I have an O-line of run blockers and a good RB with average QB and WRs, does the rex'd gameplan have my team run a lot more than usual?

[Ben E Lou]

I have always wondered, if your entire secondary are guys with high m2m but low zone and you rex the gameplan, does the game realize this and adjust the gameplan accordingly? This same question goes for all position groups and skill sets. If I have an O-line of run blockers and a good RB with average QB and WRs, does the rex'd gameplan have my team run a lot more than usual?Definitely "yes" on the offense. It adjusts quite a bit to your personnel. I've never taken a careful look at defense rexing, but my general take is that a lot of it is based on the offensive talent that you're facing in the upcoming game.

EDIT: Meaning that on defense, it goes to more "stop-the-run" friendly coverages against teams with personnel that indicates a strong running game, and to more pass-friendly coverages against teams with good QB/WRs.

[Julio Riddols]

The defensive game plan rex is a little bit of each in my opinion - If you hit recommend, then change your starting personnel and hit recommend again, it changes.

[stevew]

so, a piggyback question. If I'm playing loose m2m and 2 or 3 deep, I'd want to load up on Zone safeties and man corners, right?

This is the first time I've tried to concentrate on more specialized defenses instead of just collecting big red bars.

[Caligari]

In my last season I brought on two guys with really high M2M and realized some way into the season (when a friend pointed it out) that I was running a lot less Zone than I had previously. The result of that was that some of my less skilled players were no longer using the Zone skills that were their best, and simply didn't produce as well as previous seasons.

I'd never seen this happen so clearly before. It has really got me thinking about the composition of my defensive unit, and the plays which Rex calls for them.

[corbes]

Game Plan Analyzer says to Ping Yoda on this question...

[Yoda]

I heard someone mention my name.... ;)

Has anyone tried removing a defensive scheme from their game plan? For instance if your pass coverage is weak in one of these three areas, say zone coverage, then only run man to man and bump and run?

Are there any drawbacks to doing something like this?

To clarify - I'm not real knowledgable in NFL defense, but I'm wondering if each scheme is good against a particular type of pass play. Man to Man (Med/Long Passes), B&R (timing routes?), zone (short passing?). Or perhaps the program doesn't take that into account?

In general, removing a type of coverage from your game plan is not a very good idea. Much like offenses can get familiar messages, the defense can get the same type of effect (albeit to a lesser extent), you just don't get a message from it.

In my limited testing (mostly during Beta, with some after), defenses did better when they had at least a mix of defenses.

As to your last question, I believe it does. And I would suggest this. Get the Game Plan Analyzer by our esteemed Greg Stelmack (which you can find here: GamePlanAnalyzer7 - Front Office Football Central (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=88565&highlight=game+plan+analyzer) ). Run 15 - 20 seasons or so, and load up all the stats and look at the numbers yourself.

Overall, I'd say this- game plan to your strengths, but don't ignore other types of coverage completely. There are situations where I have my defense set up to 100% 3 Deep. But, you have to keep in mind how many times on average a down and distance are seen in a game.

[Yoda]

so, a piggyback question. If I'm playing loose m2m and 2 or 3 deep, I'd want to load up on Zone safeties and man corners, right?

This is the first time I've tried to concentrate on more specialized defenses instead of just collecting big red bars.

Yes.

Also, make sure you are in nickle or dime when you are in a 3 deep coverage. Else your WLB will be dropping deep.

[stevew]

Yes.

Also, make sure you are in nickle or dime when you are in a 3 deep coverage. Else your WLB will be dropping deep.

Who drops in a 3/4? The SLB or WILB?

[Shoveler]

so, a piggyback question. If I'm playing loose m2m and 2 or 3 deep, I'd want to load up on Zone safeties and man corners, right?

This is the first time I've tried to concentrate on more specialized defenses instead of just collecting big red bars.

It appears that the free safety is always in zone, with the strong safety also in zone during all formations except the 1-deep, loose man, and 1-deep, bump and run.

Correct me if I am wrong, getting this from the help file - Defensive Pass Coverage Screen

[Yoda]

Who drops in a 3/4? The SLB or WILB?

WILB

[stevew]

WILB

Thanks. Considering the dreck I usually play there, I should have known this.

Man. When pass rushers fall off in this game it's really noticeable. I hate cutting guys who who were multiple DPOY types but once they dip below 10 sacks it seems like it's over.

[The Orange Man]

Is it possible, when you sim the exhibition and regular season together, to rex the depth charts and only part of the game plan?

As an example, I'd like to rex the above but set the 4th down strategy and FG or punt yardlines myself.

[Yoda]

you can manually rex the whole game plan and then go in and change those things yourself.

[Caligari]

But they will only stay for the whole season if you have turned off the coach resetting the gameplan before each game, of course.

[The Orange Man]

Yoda, Caligari...

Yeah, kind of what I thought - no way to do it if I want to sim all the way through the regular season at once, unless I want to have the same game plan for every game of the season.

For me, there is just way too much detail regarding formations and down/distance planning to actually do it myself - perhaps I could do it once per season but no way could manually adjust each week based on the opponent or to take into account any major injuries you might have on your own team.

That is one thing I liked better about TCY (if you've played that) - it's got just the right amount of detail where it wasn't too tedious to adjust the game plan myself every week.

[Caligari]

I find myself switching between two or three offensive setups in a season, usually, and perhaps tweaking a setting or two now and then, but not much on any one week.

Defensively I do a lot more, and that's where I take my time for each week. In a MP game that means a lot of time looking over the analyser and changing things, or getting Rex to do things and then tweaking them. In SP it usually just means getting Rex to take care of some of the screens in particular, and I'm done in a minute.

Working out what you might need to change is perhaps something you get better at? Initially I was hopeless and it all took forever. Not so much now.

[corbes]

Here's a question. If you go 1-deep with goal-line personnel, is that effectively zero-deep (9 in the box) because the free safety's not on the field, or is the strong safety going to drop into zone coverage in that situation?

[Pyser]

this seems like a good place to plug the GML - a great multiplayer league where gameplans are all rexed - so everyone is on the same level there:

General Manager League Forum (http://www.fof-gml.com/forum/forum.php)