Hey guys, I'm not sure if you guys have noticed this or not, but there's a HUGE problem with zone coverage when the ball is on one of the hash marks rather than in the middle of the field.
Basically any hook zone where the player has to move laterally rather than drop straight back seems to be completely screwed up when the ball is on the hash. It's like the player way overcompensates, leaving huge areas open where he was supposed to cover. I am 99% sure that the issue is that they have the drop points tied to places on the field, rather than to where the player lines up. So essentially, if a linebacker is supposed to cover the right hash, he always covers that general area, regardless of where the ball is placed. This can cause serious problems, if, for example, the ball is already on the right hash. In that case, you have a very short throw to receivers lined up near the boundary for the QB, and no defensive players drop into hook zones over there, so you end up with massive holes in coverage.
Like in a cover 3 zone, usually your safety is designed to come down and cover the short area just to the inside of one hashmark, and your MLB to drop over and cover the area just to the inside of the other hashmark. When the ball is in the middle of the field, this results in a fairly good zone where there's a small window between the two players, just over the middle of the field. Because the players on each side are basically already lined up over the inside slot receivers on their respective sides, they will also move laterally with threats in their area to make that window smaller as players enter.
However, if you move the ball to the right hash mark, the two defenders still initially drop to the the same areas as they do when the ball is in the middle of the field. But now, since the ball is on the right hashmark, this takes them AWAY from the slot receivers. Now, instead of dropping off at an angle and covering the hook area off to the right side of the formation (just over where a TE would line up), your MLB drops to the area directly over the center, which leaves nobody covering short between him and the sideline. So now if you have a formation like SG Spread, or any 2X2 formation, the slot receiver on the right side will be left wide open if he goes straight upfield.
There also doesn't seem to be any way to fix it. If you hot route to a hook zone, you still get the player dropping back towards the middle of the field, rather than dropping straight back, when the ball is on the hash mark. Even if you try to manually control one of the players, the other hook zone defender will still drop way too far to the opposite side, leaving a huge hole in the zone coverage over the middle. Since you can't control two or more players at the same time, there is nothing that you can do about it.
It also affects other types of zones, but those generally aren't as pronounced as they are with the hook zones. I've included a short video to demonstrate the issue. Watch the drop patterns of the MLB and SS when the ball is in the middle of the field, and then watch their drop patterns when the ball is moved to the hash mark. You can see how this results in very serious coverage problems, and effectively renders zone coverage worthless when the ball is on the hash:
http://www.filefront.com/14238725/hookzones.avi
08-10-2009, 12:20 PM
Every year there is an issue with pass defense. Last year's Zone D was a joke... this year I find it very inconsistent. Then the Game Planning GIMMICK screws everything up if you go anything other than normal.
