[Wanderer]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

I think you're right (an odd bump of a 21 month old post, but I'm game)

Sorry, I found it on a search for defensive gameplanning tips and answered before I looked.

that this works if:

(1) you are gameplanning one game at a time;

Yeah, only if you're gameplanning one game at a time, but it's maybe 10 mouseclicks to make the adjustment.

(2) you are correct about the FL/SE being identified as the upcoming opponent's "top" receiver (determined in-game) and the opponent does not make a switch in their roles; and

I thought the first part was confirmed from SSoftware, no? That the route running measure was the determining factor? As to the 2nd part, that's true I guess. That sort of gamesmanship could happen.

(3) your assumption that FL=Strong is correct in at least an overwhelming share of situations (reasonable, but not ironclad).

This is pretty close to ironclad, actually, and you can see it from the playcalling screens in SP when you shift the strengths from right to left in the various formations. No matter what formation you choose, if you "view" a play and look, your FL1 is always on the side designated as strong. This is true even in balanced sets. In a Single back 4WR, there is no strong side, but FOF actually defines the strong side by where the FL1 goes.

I confess that I'm lost at item #1 above. I have long since lost the patience required to do any gameplanning game by game in any setting, even for title games in MP leagues.

So, what I really wanted way back (at least one or two patches ago, by the way) when we were having this conversation was some way to create a defense that more or less automatically placed my CB1 man specialist on the man-coverage side, and my CB2 zone specialist on the zone-coverage side in a split man/zone formation. And it still appears that there's no real way to do that.

I'm afraid that to be able to put an opponent's top WR on Revis Island, it will take somewhere between 0 and 12 mouseclicks before a game where it might be important to you. But if your opponent flips his SE and FL out of nowhere, then yes, it would be undone.

Just thought I'd contribute to give a 90% solution to a problem that looked like it was left unresolved.