Defensive Game Plan Discussion

[Ben E Lou]

Several comments were made in the offensive library discussion about wanting something like that for defense, so rather than getting the two muddled, I'm pulling it out for another discussion.

I'm also anxiously awaiting some defensive gameplans because I've been focusing on that as of late and still can't come up with anything useful to me or the community. Ugh.

Now if you or somebody would do the same about defense... At least for me, defense remains to be the biggest mistery in FOF gameplanning, i seem to struggle always against the pass even having what i think is the right personal against it.

Great post SD. Now I await the Defense Plans and i'm all set.

First off, in my estimation, defense is too dependent on the offense and defensive skill sets, which is what would make this sort of project--which took me a good amout of time for offense--a MASSIVE one for defense. There are simply too many variables for one to come up with a reasonable-sized library that could be used pretty much out of the box like these offenses. At a bare minimum, for out-of-the box usage, you'd need to have every combination of three basic coverage schemes to emphasize (bump/man/zone), at least two blitz setups (high, low), and at least three expectations (run/pass/balanced)--18 game plans at the very least. I know I'm not up to that task. :p

I strongly think that the best intermediate strategy is to do the following, in order, each week:

1. Rex everything.
2. Don't go too far from Rex with blitz locations and coverage schemes. He does a good job of matching these to your personnel.
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate Goal Line from Opp. 1 to Own 21, even with Run Aggressive.
4. Reduce the aggressives, except in obvious pass situations like 3rd and 8 or more.
5. Tweak blitzing based on opposing QB's sense rush rating.

Do others agree with this, or am I off-base here?

[Tormaz]

I strongly think that the best intermediate strategy is to do the following, in order, each week:

1. Rex everything.
2. Don't go too far from Rex with blitz locations and coverage schemes. He does a good job of matching these to your personnel.
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate Goal Line from Opp. 1 to Own 21, even with Run Aggressive.
4. Reduce the aggressives, except in obvious pass situations like 3rd and 8 or more.
5. Tweak blitzing based on opposing QB's sense rush rating.

Do others agree with this, or am I off-base here?

I agree with this totally.

The big parts are the Goal Line (I completely remove it) and the aggressive settings (which I reduce by a good amount).

I don't mess with the blitzing to much no matter what the QB's sense rush is. I find the when I dial it up against a weak sense rush QB I tend to struggle.

[cuervo72]

Close to what I do. Basically, don't do anything extreme. Also, I will:

* Tweak double coverages based on the WR I am facing, and will take my CB into account there (if the RCB is an injury replacement, help him out).

* Look at the opponent's tendencies some for passing. If they spread it around a lot, I'll just go with whatever my team usually does. If they pass long more than expected or pass short more than expected, I'll tweak coverages.

* Look at run/pass ratio. If it is really off, that might change how much I run the nickel/dime. I think it's easy to find yourself in nickel too often, and against a running team that may not be a good thing. So against running teams, I'll tone down the nickel a bit.

[ddrrbb]

In the Data Mining thread, it didn't seem like the aggressive run or aggressive pass settings gave you that much more advantage than regular run/pass and Rex likes to call aggressive looks almost half the time.

Does anybody think the negatives to running aggressive outweighs the positives? i.e. 1st and 10- Defense aggressive against the run

A) They run and get negative or a couple yards = Great!
B) They pass and torch your safeties for a big play = Oops!

I'm not saying eliminate it, but maybe Rex should tone down his aggression.

[camulos]

I'm still pretty much a noob when it comes to defensive gameplanning. I've used the recommended settings for most of my OSFL career.

I have a very good #1 CB (71 OVR) and a very weak #2 CB (42 OVR) who is a terrible man-to-man cover guy. However when I use the recommended settings in the pass coverage screens it chooses: "Orient CB by WR Covered"

So this means my good CB will be matched up against the other team's best WR. However for the double coverage settings it gives a higher % to the opposing teams #1 WR. Wouldn't it make more sense to leave my good CB in single coverage and send more double teams to the other side of the field. (unless I'm playing a stud WR)?

What other strategies should I use to protect a weak CB? My defense is pretty solid all around and I have 2 70+ rated safeties as well, but teams have been picking on this guy all year.

[Lintyfresh85]

Question... is there anything in this game that basically sets up a all zone coverage scheme? Other than doing a cover-3 or cover-4 zone for all coverages?

[tarcone]

I follow thos steps although in a different order. My biggest concern is the balance between pass and run. I base my defense on that every week.

[flair1234]

I just have a little tidbit to add.

Recently on my SP and MP teams I switched from a BnR scheme to a Man scheme, mixed with man/zone and no BnR.

Having my BnR set to "0", resulted in me getting killed. as far as passing went. Was giving up a 106 QB rating with 8.4 yards per attempt.

What I tried was using recommend for the pass defense screen, and then reducing the recommended setting for BnR. For instance if Rex said 19% for 2-deep BnR, I would reduce it to 7-10% then spread the difference around to the 2-deep man, and the man/zone options.

In the small sample I have been doing this, my pass defense has shown a remarkable recovery (in my SP league; not enough info for my MP league yet).

So yet another lesson that the game hates extremes and punishes you for it.

[BighouseBrock]

I just have a little tidbit to add.

Recently on my SP and MP teams I switched from a BnR scheme to a Man scheme, mixed with man/zone and no BnR.

Having my BnR set to "0", resulted in me getting killed. as far as passing went. Was giving up a 106 QB rating with 8.4 yards per attempt.

What I tried was using recommend for the pass defense screen, and then reducing the recommended setting for BnR. For instance if Rex said 19% for 2-deep BnR, I would reduce it to 7-10% then spread the difference around to the 2-deep man, and the man/zone options.

In the small sample I have been doing this, my pass defense has shown a remarkable recovery (in my SP league; not enough info for my MP league yet).

So yet another lesson that the game hates extremes and punishes you for it.

flair, i do completely the opposite, i usually rex the coverage the subract 5-10 from both loose man categories and add it back to the bnr cat's

i'm in pfl with you check my D's there usually in the top 5 every season. just don't look at my o, it usually stinks...

[ezpkns34]

Allow me to preface my addition to this thread with the fact that I only play SP

But I've had success w/ a simple plan. Just Rex everything, then go to 'Basic Defensive Game Plan' & edit out a lot of the aggressiveness. Seemed to me that my teams were always putting all their eggs in one basket so to speak with a lot of aggressive expectations (for run or pass) on such downs as 2&7, a down that can just as easily be a pass as a run. I also go into the 'Defensive Personnel Choices' & reduce the amount of goalline usage. Again, appears to me that Rexing your defense leads to a lot of senseless gambling. I also lower the amount of blitzing my secondary does.

Works well enough for me, most recently bringing me a 7-9 record with a team that had a 26/43 QB, a top WR rating of 41/49, a 60/63 RB & a decent, but not great o-line (2009 Raiders for anyone wondering).