Simming Franchise (Playbook question)

[bryan_nelson88]

Hey guys,

My buddy and I are in a CFM together where I am the Las Vegas Raiders and he is the San Francisco 49ers. We sim our seasons and choose not to play because we love to scout and draft to build our teams. I won the Super Bowl last season, beating his 49ers team. This season, I changed my playbook style to a balanced offense, due to the fact that my QB was throwing for 5,400 yards in back to back seasons. I started the season off 1-7. Thinking it was the fact that I became a balanced offense I then changed my offense back to a spread and reeled off 8 wins in a row to finish 9-7. We then ended up playing in the Super Bowl again.

My question is: Does playbook style matter as far as simming a franchise? Does using one style help you win more games than others? It looks like it does, but I've only done one season like that so I don't have enough evidence yet. I'm curious to know what type of offenses you guys run and if any of you sim your franchise games like we do.

Thanks

[SethMurphy]

I'd love the answer on this too. It's an interesting aspect to Franchise mode.

That said, I love your idea, as I'm a much better GM than I am at playing the game, lol

[johnnyskoods]

I usually only sim. Maybe I'll play one or two games a year. I've been curious as well on this. I usually use the Eagles and stick with Doug Pederson's playbook and the WCO. But, I tend to find that my team is always running the ball more than passing AND that they give the ball to the backup RB too much in the redzone. I signed LeVeon Bell and he ended up with 8 touchdowns while my backup RB who was rated 18 points lower had 15 touchdowns. Kind of annoying.

[bryan_nelson88]

Quote: Originally Posted by johnnyskoods

I usually only sim. Maybe I'll play one or two games a year. I've been curious as well on this. I usually use the Eagles and stick with Doug Pederson's playbook and the WCO. But, I tend to find that my team is always running the ball more than passing AND that they give the ball to the backup RB too much in the redzone. I signed LeVeon Bell and he ended up with 8 touchdowns while my backup RB who was rated 18 points lower had 15 touchdowns. Kind of annoying.

I had this happen too. I went to a West Coast offense and my backup running back had 12 TDs while my starter had 8. I have no idea why it's like that. My starter was also my third down back.

[Alex the Great]

Yes, playbook style matters very much. I'm in a 32-man league that just sims games like yours (we got through 7 seasons in Madden 17 and are through 5 in 18).

This year a lot of people are using the Spread offensive playbook because it causes your QB to throw tons of passes and the 3rd wide receiver gets tons of yards. Everyone that drafts a QB and is going for ROY awards will use that to boost stats.

And the backup RB scoring touchdowns thing seems to be a weird quirk with the EA sim engine. There's a lot of issues to be honest, I need to write it all up and send it to John White.

[bryan_nelson88]

Quote: Originally Posted by Alex the Great

Yes, playbook style matters very much. I'm in a 32-man league that just sims games like yours (we got through 7 seasons in Madden 17 and are through 5 in 18). This year a lot of people are using the Spread offensive playbook because it causes your QB to throw tons of passes and the 3rd wide receiver gets tons of yards. Everyone that drafts a QB and is going for ROY awards will use that to boost stats. And the backup RB scoring touchdowns thing seems to be a weird quirk with the EA sim engine. There's a lot of issues to be honest, I need to write it all up and send it to John White.

Okay cool, I'm glad we're both seeing the same thing. The spread system is a little crazy. My QB was throwing for 5,400 yards in three straight seasons, so thank you for answering my question. What would you consider to be the next best type of offense on the game, West Coast?

[Alex the Great]

Quote: Originally Posted by bryan_nelson88

Okay cool, I'm glad we're both seeing the same thing. The spread system is a little crazy. My QB was throwing for 5,400 yards in three straight seasons, so thank you for answering my question. What would you consider to be the next best type of offense on the game, West Coast?

It seems the most common other playbooks in our league are New England's and New Orleans'. They don't produce any wild stats like the Spread playbook does, but they definitely throw more.

I haven't run the West Coast offense or seen anyone in our league run it.

[bryan_nelson88]

The thing for me is, with the spread you get really gaudy looking passing stats, I had 5,900 yards passing one season in between two 5,400 yard seasons and 5 straight MVPs.

I didn't like that at all. It just killed some of the realism for me. That being said, my teams have won more games with a spread system than with a balanced offense or with a west coast.