Special Teams - Yearly Rant

[ODogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pokes404

I didn't play NCAA 12 much, are you saying there's a limited number of bounces, which gets repetitive? Or does the ball literally bounce the exactly same way on every punt?

the ball always bounces forward. So if you hit a high punt at the 5 yard line it will ALWAYS bounce in the end zone unless you have a player to stop it. It never does like in real football and just hardly bounce at all, bounce sideways and go out of bounds or like sometimes rarely happens, bounce back 20 yards the other direction. Just is really aggravating to always see that...

[UMhester04]

One big problem they had is gone now with the coverage team staying in their lanes finally. However there are more problems that are needed to be adjusted until I am satisfied:

1. Patty cake line play - watch a video of a punt return and you will see once the ball is kicked the whole line sprints back. Right now all we have is MAYBE 3 people on coverage and MAYBE 2 people helping block (if you called a return play). ***And heres another thing..to the guy a few posts above me saying he calls a punt block return so the cpu automatically has less people coming downfield so you can get a return TD, that isnt gonna cut it in my book. To me that is cheating the system, and all I want is to call a return play like normal and read the blocks to run to daylight.***

2. The cut on dime system needs to go. I dont care if they re-impliment the ps2 running system they had, do fifas foot planting system, physics system, IDC as long as this goes. This also leads me into my final complaint with the return game,

3. Psychic Coverage Teams. What I mean here is I catch the ball on a return, I take 2 steps to the left and IMMEDIATELY AS I DO THIS, every single person on the coverage team that is not engaged in a block (pattycake line play) MIRRORS MY STEPS. This REALLY is the biggest problem with the game IMO. You think returners would ever break off returns if this happened in real life? Returns are all about attacking and using angles to your advantage. If I take 2 steps to the left as a returner and cut towards the middle, I should have the guys to my left still moving to the left as I cut up the middle, they should NOT immediately cut back with me and tackle me.

This is a big problem with the running game also. There is a reason why in real life you see guys knifing through defense while defenders are still in the process of recovering after over-chasing someone. FOR EXAMPLE, LaMichael James takes a handoff from the shotgun moving from left to right on a sweep play from the left hashmark. He runs parallel to the line until he sees an opening and cuts up the middle through two blockers just past the right hashmark. There are defenders (linebackers, db's) who will be running with him parallel to the line, and once he cuts up the middle they will fly right past him because they did not and could not ANTICIPATE the quick cut up the middle. This is why defenses in real life stress that you have to be in the right position to make a play. Fill the gaps and hope someone is in the right spot to make a tackle. You cannot just magically break off a block, turn 180 degrees and tackle someone flying by you all in a matter of seconds.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Yeah it literally would bounce forward. Seemed like 98% of the punts in NCAA 12 was either a touch back or fair catch. And another huge pet peeve of mines was that the CPU punter never coffin kicked it or sky punted it for can have high hang time.

The CPU punt kicking only had one trajectory. I play coach mode a hell of a lot and it gets boring as hell seeing so many fair catches and touch backs.

Another thing they need to fix is the speed of the gunners. They get down the field on kicks way too damn fast. Don't matter if they have zero speed, they still get down the field too fast to the point as soon as the guy catches the ball, he has 2 guys in his face all the time.

[ODogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by UMhester04

One big problem they had is gone now with the coverage team staying in their lanes finally. However there are more problems that are needed to be adjusted until I am satisfied: 1. Patty cake line play - watch a video of a punt return and you will see once the ball is kicked the whole line sprints back. Right now all we have is MAYBE 3 people on coverage and MAYBE 2 people helping block (if you called a return play). ***And heres another thing..to the guy a few posts above me saying he calls a punt block return so the cpu automatically has less people coming downfield so you can get a return TD, that isnt gonna cut it in my book. To me that is cheating the system, and all I want is to call a return play like normal and read the blocks to run to daylight.*** 2. The cut on dime system needs to go. I dont care if they re-impliment the ps2 running system they had, do fifas foot planting system, physics system, IDC as long as this goes. This also leads me into my final complaint with the return game, 3. Psychic Coverage Teams. What I mean here is I catch the ball on a return, I take 2 steps to the left and IMMEDIATELY AS I DO THIS, every single person on the coverage team that is not engaged in a block (pattycake line play) MIRRORS MY STEPS. This REALLY is the biggest problem with the game IMO. You think returners would ever break off returns if this happened in real life? Returns are all about attacking and using angles to your advantage. If I take 2 steps to the left as a returner and cut towards the middle, I should have the guys to my left still moving to the left as I cut up the middle, they should NOT immediately cut back with me and tackle me. This is a big problem with the running game also. There is a reason why in real life you see guys knifing through defense while defenders are still in the process of recovering after over-chasing someone. FOR EXAMPLE, LaMichael James takes a handoff from the shotgun moving from left to right on a sweep play from the left hashmark. He runs parallel to the line until he sees an opening and cuts up the middle through two blockers just past the right hashmark. There are defenders (linebackers, db's) who will be running with him parallel to the line, and once he cuts up the middle they will fly right past him because they did not and could not ANTICIPATE the quick cut up the middle. This is why defenses in real life stress that you have to be in the right position to make a play. Fill the gaps and hope someone is in the right spot to make a tackle. You cannot just magically break off a block, turn 180 degrees and tackle someone flying by you all in a matter of seconds.

Totally agree, thank you for typing that all out as I couldn't have said it better myself!!

[UMhester04]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

Totally agree, thank you for typing that all out as I couldn't have said it better myself!!

No problem, I am nearing finals week and have been extremely productive so I have no work to do for a while haha. I have a feeling we wont see this until we see a new system but this is what needs to happen. I think im gonna start my own thread with the same post and hopefully one of the higher ups will see it.

[LucianoJJ]

Special teams is not a sexy, back of the box feature. It is a big part of real life football, and should be better in any game that wants to be considered a sim. As others pointed out, I too would like to see more variety in special teams. Different punt formations. Reverses and fake reverses on KO returns. Bad snaps on punts and FG attempts. Better, more realistic blocking. Better chances to block punts, FG & XP attempts. Will we have to wait until NCAA 14 to see these being addressed?