Stock Plays - What's your take?

[TNT713]

Madden has a ton of plays available on offense and defense - but are they any good?

How often do you hot route? Why?
How often do you change an assignment? Why?

What changes do we make to the stock plays?
Why don't we run those plays as-is?

Later

[mALiZ]

Well I run most of the plays as it but there are certain route that are useless like shake routes are too long and drawn out. I change them to slants.

Sometimes I change change the vertical routes that var out or inside instead of straight up the field. Just depends on what I'm trying to accomplish though.

Then there is some plays where the receiver does a weird movement instead of whats drawn like Slot Drive(or Under) out of the Ace Twins formation. The slot receiver stops for a brief moment then runs the slant.

[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by TNT713

Madden has a ton of plays available on offense and defense - but are they any good? How often do you hot route? Why? How often do you change an assignment? Why? What changes do we make to the stock plays? Why don't we run those plays as-is? Later

I hot route occasionally, but changing assignments, especially on defense, I do regularly.

Mainly because I want a different arrangement at the second level (LBs), though sometimes I will for the secondary - but it's to get combos like man CBs, Zone safeties, Zone LBs, or Hook, spy, blitz in a base defense, etc.

I find the stock plays, some of them either too "all-in" (like Engage Eight or a 7-man blitz with 1 zone and 2 man defenders) or good "canvases" for creating something else more exotic or interesting (like the 2 Man Under type plays).

[Gotmadskillzson]

I change them often on both offense and defense for one main reason:

The CPU AI controlled players aren't smart enough to take advantage of mismatches on their own. The day EA program the AI to do this is the day I will stop hot routing on offense and defense.

[baller7345]

On offense I pretty much run every play as its drawn up unless I need a hot read on a blitz. They all pretty much work if you know what the concepts are designed to beat so as long as you get the right look you can use pretty much any play in the game.

On defense though you have to change things around constantly in order to stay on their tendencies, and almost none of the stock blitzes work.

[Tengo Juego]

I frequently hot route my backs to stay in to pass protect. A lot of the time it's because I want that safety valve, in case of any failed animations on the line, and because it's far too easy to pick up a chunk of yardage from a back running a route out of the backfield.

On defense, I rarely hot route. Sometimes I just hate the idea of my interior lineman dropping into coverage, because the pass rush can be very ineffective in low numbers, so I like to have as much pressure on the O-line and switch him to a rushing/blitzing assignment.

Quote:

What changes do we make to the stock plays?

I don't know. My answer is: Give us a custom plays feature.

[CM Hooe]

On offense, I most frequently hot route when I want an RB to stay in and pass protect. Occasionally I'll change a slot receiver to a quick slant when I sense a heavy blitz coming.

On defense, I hot route all over the place, depending on what sort of looks the offense gives me. While I'm pretty happy with the state of offensive playbooks in Madden, the defensive playbooks leave a lot to be desired, IMO.

A custom play creator would be something I would use in a heartbeat. I'd draw up an entire playbook of my own, haha.

[football5680]

How often do you hot route? Why? Pretty often. I call my own plays and I will pick a play based on the primary route that I like. I will use hot route to create a safe checkdown throw if the reciever I want is covered.

How often do you change an assignment? Why? Rarely. I might change a lineback's assignment so he isn't rushing in but thats about it.

What changes do we make to the stock plays? Nothing. There are plenty of plays within the playbook and have the hot route option gives you way more choices

Why don't we run those plays as-is? I usually do. The only reason I would change it is if the defense shows me something I can exploit. If they move safeties in then I check out of a run or deep pass. If they back off or there are no linebackers behind the D-line I will run the ball. Based on the defense there are just some plays you can't run. If everybody is rushing in you should never call play action because they get back there too fast.