Worth Noting: All Single Back is now viable.

[Ben E Lou]

I'd tried this in the past with horrible failure. I'm not sure if it is something that worked its way into 6.1, or if I simply didn't have a QB who knew enough of the single-back formations to make it work. At any rate, it's clear that using single back nearly exclusively is workable now, given a QB who knows all five single back formations. I just set up a game plan with the '07 Colts that used the five single back formations exclusively in the first five screens (extreme pass, pass, slight pass, slight run, run). On "extreme run", I used the 5 2 TE sets (including single 2TE) and the GL 3TE exclusively. Here were the results:

http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/61/allsinglesummary.png


Has anyone else tried this with miserable failure in the past? I just wonder if I was doing something terribly wrong, or if this is a part of the 6.1 tweaks.

[Ben E Lou]

Dola:

Note that it's unknown (at least to me) whether or not this could be *optimal* for any given team's roster, but I'd certainly assume that for a team that has:

1. a QB who knows all of the single-back formations,
2: 3 solid WRs,
and
3: a crappy FB,

using pretty much pure single-back may well be the best way to go.

What I *DO* know is that when I tried it in the past, it just completely sucked--which it clearly doesn't any more. It may or may not be the best way to go for your team, but at least it's a viable option, which I think is a good thing.

[bulletsponge]

thanks Skydog. now to get 3 good WR and a good RB and i can do this too!

[Ben E Lou]

I'm very pumped about it for SP. It seems like I always have more depth at WR than any other position in my SP careers.

[Pacersfan46]

I'd be interested in seeing how it would work without Peyton Manning at the helm, and maybe an average QB who knows the formations.

I think just about anything will work with him running it.

-- Steve --

[Ben E Lou]

I'd be interested in seeing how it would work without Peyton Manning at the helm, and maybe an average QB who knows the formations.

I think just about anything will work with him running it.

-- Steve --
Well, when I tried this in the past, the familiar messages all over the place nerfed it tremendously. I'm talking like 3.0ypc and 40% completion percentage with a good QB and receivers. It was clearly related to the engine, not the talent, at least partially, if not fully. It is *possible* that it was a situation where the QBs I tried it with didn't know all five of the single-back formations, and that's what caused it. I strongly suspect, though, that any QB who knows all five of them can have success.

[Ben E Lou]

Dola:

I just tried it with my shortpass QB, who knows all of the single-back formations. No nerfing of it there, either.

[Daimyo]

Nice to know. I was disappointed in the past that it sucked so bad.

[Dave Hansen]

Gotta credit that awesome defense!

[Sgran]

I tried running a single back in my only serious attempt at TCY. maybe that's why Iowa never won much...

[Ben E Lou]

Nah. Completely different situation in TCY.

[highfiveoh]

Hmmm.. doesn't this sort of go against what Quicksand was getting at in the most recent topic he started?

[QuikSand]

Hmmm.. doesn't this sort of go against what Quicksand was getting at in the most recent topic he started?

While I don't have a lot of playcalling experience in FOF, my guess is that there are just plenty more short passing plays in each formation bundle than there are medium and long passes. Thus -- if you tried to run a limited-formation offense with a lot of medium or long passes, you'd probably run into the "familiars" too quickly for it to succeed. But I believe here SkyDog is running a primarily short-pass setup, and I think by and large short passing is just more diverse in the FOF playbook (even for passing formations) and less likely to trigger the "familiars."

[Ben E Lou]

Bumping this for someone who asked a question about the viability of this. I just ran a one-season sniff test in 6.3. It still seems to work perfectly fine with a balanced offense. I just went 20-20-20-20-20 on the formation screens. All three WRs had 100-yard seasons, the QB had a 96.9 rating, and the "starting" FB was on the field for 0 run plays and 0 pass plays the entire season--pretty fair evidence that it used the game plan I put in.

[johnnyshaka]

Hope your TE had a 3000-yard season cause your WRs definitely underachieved in an offense designed to have them excel.

:P

[Disturbed]

Thanks for the bump Ben. I was the one who asked him if it was still viable in 6.3.

I'm going to work on this. I find myself having more fun in FOF building teams based on concepts like this one, the 2 TE offense and such.