Offense Help

[smcdermott]

Hey lads, with a generic offense (ie. say all players with all 50 stats), whats the best way to attack certain defense's.

Eg. I came up against a 3-4 defense that had a great D-Line, a good SLB, average SILB and weak WILB and WLB. What would be the best way to attack the WILB and the WLB.
If I ran the ball away from the side of alignment would I be running at the weak side linebackers.
For passing, what is the best way to attack the linebackers? In a 3-4 and a 4-3.

I try to get a balanced offense, so if i'm facing a weak D Line i'll run it. If i'm facing a weak secondary I'll throw it. If the secondary lacks depth I'd play a lot of 3/4/5 WR sets.

Any ideas appreciated.

[QuikSand]

It sounds to me like you're on the right track, overall.

If there's one mistake that FOF newcomers make in these regards, it's probably to get too "cute" or extreme in their gameplanning. Bottom line is no NFL team varies all that much from the overall mean -- you need to have some degree of run/pass balance, and you need to have at least some degree of various short/long passing and inside/outside running to keep defenses from knowing all your punches before they're coming. So... as you look to exploit defenses, keep in mind that overdoing it in any one direction makes you more predictable, and that's a liability itself.

Generically, the strong/weak alignment makes it tough in this game to "run on the side of that terrible weak-side defender" -- you have more control on inside/outside running than to try to target a specific "side." When in doubt, many people default to the minds-eye abbreviation, that puts the tight end outside the offensive right tackle, and therefore puts the weak-side linebacker outside the right defensive end. There is some anecdotal evidence to support this is at least a substantially valid way to play the game (namely the relative pass pressure generated in the 3-4 defense by the RDE and WLB) but I think this is far from conclusive that the game actually works this simply.

As far as trying to exploit linebackers in coverage, I think the key there may be to use the "short passing" section of the gameplan, and specifically to use the longer segments of that range. not so many screens, but plenty of the 0-4 yard and 5-8 yard pass distances (I am trying to recall these from memory, so forgive my possible inaccuracy). I think these tend to target the TE and backs a good deal, but they seem to draw a LB as the primary coverage guy more than any other segment of the passing game.

Hope that gives some some things to chew on.