Slow, Methodical Offense, Run Clock... Cheese?

[SilverBullet19]

If you're just playing against the CPU, don't worry about cheesing. Only worry if you are running away with every game and losing enjoyment or feel like you're losing realism (if that's your thing). At that point, yes, look at your play style and see if you're taking advantage of the CPU.


Personally, I don't think it's cheese. Just because they couldn't stop your run doesn't mean it's cheese. I run a fairly slow placed offense currently in my dynasty and it's run heavy. My last game the TOP was 20:17 to 15:43 in my favor. They stopped me several times and kept it even. When teams can't stop me, I tend to have the ball for 65-75% of the game.

[jsr862]

I play 15 min qts myself, it helps to keep the game quick, I also run a power heavy run game so I'm always rubbing clock grinding away. I'll end up with 40 plus mins on Offense esp against no huddle teams. If they don't score they are screwed, think of how Army plays in real life... only a handful of possessions. But really only works with 15 min qts with the right sliders and a realistic play calling scheme. I used to play 10 mins, but since no new game coming out I'm in no hurry to finish dynasty seasons. I like the grind of the season. Takes me about. Week and a half for a season if play regularly. Also only the OC right now in my 3rd year so games don't take as long. But nothing wrong with running clock. It's part of football if that's your philosophy

[whughes]

I’d say it’s not cheese, but a lot of it depends on your sliders and what plays you’re calling. If you run the same 3-4 run plays all games that’s cheese. But for example, I’m in year 2025 in one of my dynasties and I just took over a Rutgers team who hasn’t had a winning season in 10 years. I’m running the Clemson playbook and probably run the ball at a 75/25 rate and some games I’ll run 20+ more plays than the other team does. However, in year one I finished the season 5-7 because although I was running the ball a lot and controlling the clock I was still losing the games because my team is awful

[Hellisan]

I feel it's not really in the spirit of what most people are trying to do, I wouldn't call it cheese. I play 9 minute quarters (which some would say are way too long) in order to get the right number of plays and overall "chances" for each side. I tend to get the most accurate number of plays snapping it around where the CPU would.

I'd also say exclusively running it if you feel that it's too easy to do so is again probably not in your best interests.

Late in the game, with the lead, I'm more likely to go to that strategy, but I feel I'm shooting myself in the foot to run it all game, and go against the point of shortening quarter length.

[xToXiCxSAVAGEx]

My team in my current dynasty is sort of going through this. I have two running backs who are 92 and 91, but my quarterback is now 63 overall and a freshman. I've played quite a few up-tempo teams, and just with how my players are, I'm ending up with 10-15 play touchdown drives. I'm not running the play clock down, but I have to run the ball because I can't trust my quarterback. I had a game that I won by 7 where I was something like 14-17 on third down.

Basically what I'm saying is play to what your strengths are. Draining clock is cheese, but keeping the chains moving by running the ball isn't. I realized in previous years that I was trying to make big plays too often when all I needed were first downs. So I started changing who I was looking for on pass plays to the one who was most likely to get a first down instead of always looking for the deep pass.

[Collegefbfan]

Yah, getting first downs and keeping other offense off the field. I mean, my pass defense sucks. So, what was usually happening was I would score in 5 plays or so. A quick 5 plays. No time off clock. The other offense would take the field and pass all over me. And score. Like I could at least take more time to score before halftime. So, the opposite team can't score before end of first half and after halftime. I had to make my drives more than 5 plays and TAKE TIME.

[illini4life]

Play whatever way you think will be most enjoyable to you. I try to make the game play as realistic as possible but sometimes I switch things up.

One thing I enjoy doing is making a WR, RB, or QB recruit, maxing their attributes out, and then trying to get them to commit. If I'm able to land them, I make them a big point of my offense and see how well I can beef their stats before they leave. It's enjoyable for me and gives me another reason to stay invested in my dynasty.

If they don't commit then it's fun to track their stats at whatever school they do go to and hope I get lucky enough to play against them.

[bryan_nelson88]

I play 8 min quarters and chew clock. My favorite team is K-State and that's what we do in real life, so I don't think it's cheesing at all. It's just using a strategy against the CPU or whoever when they're trying to go no-huddle every game.