HC09 Defensive Playbook Analysis

[SwimsWithPhins]

I just finished a complete defensive playbook analysis for HC09 and would like to give back to the forum I have lurked in so often.

Unfortunately, I cannot seem to attach the file. Can someone help?

UPDATE: The attachment issue is resolved. See below.

[JeffHCross]

Re: HC09 Defensive Playbook Analysis

I'm not going to be of much help except to say that neither Attachments nor Manage Attachments seems to do much of anything for me either. Doesn't look like I have a pop-up being blocked either -- that would have been my first thought.

[SwimsWithPhins]

Re: HC09 Defensive Playbook Analysis

It appears that the forum's attachment feature is now fixed! Thank you somebody ...

Attached is the spreadsheet with my analysis of HC09's defensive playbooks. The .zip file contains both a .xls file for Microsoft Excel and a .csv file which is generic enough for most other spreadsheets but doesn't include the equations.

The analysis is performed as follows:

Every normal play every playbook was examined and categorized according to its use of coverage and rushing. On the coverage scale is Man, Zone, and Combo, and on the rushing scale is Cover and Blitz. Together, these give six combinations, Man Cover, Man Blitz, Zone Cover, ... The spreadsheet tallies how many of each play type are in each playbook, further broken down according to formation (except for special formations like Goal Line and special teams). I would like to have included coverage shells in my categories, but the number of combinations was just too large to manage.

My working definitions are as follows:

Blitz: 5 or more players in pass rush (orange or pink, though I do not see that the color matters).

Cover: 4 or fewer players in pass rush

Man: All players that are not pass rushing or in the coverage shell (dark blue and red zones) are in man coverage.

Zone: All players that are not pass rushing or in the coverage shell are in zone coverage or QB spy coverage (yellow, pink, light blue, or white zones).

Combo: Ignoring pass rushers and the coverage shell, both man coverage and zone coverage are present.

This approach removed all subjectivity but at the price of some categorization problems, including:

Engage Eight and Pass Prevent type plays don't fit anywhere and were called Zone Blitz and Zone Cover respectively.

Cover 1 plays are considered Combo Cover even though they function as man coverage. (It's a case of where to draw the line.)

Many self-titled blitz plays, particularly zone blitzes, are called Zone Cover because there are too few pass rushers to meet the definition of a blitz.

A couple of other observations are in order. Some playbooks seem to have duplicate plays, same name and same assignments. With further study, there was always a change in the formation, sometimes only one player. Another observation is that there seem to be a few duplicate playbooks. It is possible that there are some small differences in formation, but a difference was not obvious.

Please feel free to mention any corrections or suggestions.

SWP

[ebongreen]

Re: HC09 Defensive Playbook Analysis

Nice work!

[Byron Yatch]

Re: HC09 Defensive Playbook Analysis

Just dled this, and upon a quick skim through, this seems very useful for someone trying to make a new playbook or trying new ones out when starting a new franchise.

Love how its very simple and to the point, while still giving enough detail to know if a playbook suits your philosophy/how you want your BASE defense run.

If you play like I do sometimes and just let your coordinators call most plays, they will USUALLY only use the base defensive(or offensive) playbook's plays. The only exception Ive really seen is if you've called a certain play multiple times in the same or very similar situations(3 and long or 2nd and five on the right hash, etc), they'll start to as well(not always though).


You could also use this as a way to help gameplan against your opponents every week. Once you get done reading the team scouting report of your opponent, go to coach stats under the nfl menu and find the coach of the team you're versing. Right click his name so you can scout him. You can see his special skills, how well he trains each position and his philosophy/playbook choices.

Once you know these things, check for their playbook on this chart. You can decide based on what kind of defense they call how you want to attack it with your gameplans.

[Rx3]

Re: HC09 Defensive Playbook Analysis

Just downloaded, having problems viewing it. Zip file only had one file (not two as advertised) and opening in excel the file just has garbage characters. Can you open with something other than excel?

[Byron Yatch]

Re: HC09 Defensive Playbook Analysis

Deleted my second post cause I realized I didnt look as hard as I thought. Had everything I was asking for already!
Rx3, go get free file opener. opens like 200 kinds of file formats I think... I just use it for excel files though usually.

http://www.freefileopener.com/

[SwimsWithPhins]

Re: HC09 Defensive Playbook Analysis

Rx3, I verified the .zip file contains two files. That implicates a problem with your unzip software.

[Rx3]

Re: HC09 Defensive Playbook Analysis

Rx3, I verified the .zip file contains two files. That implicates a problem with your unzip software.

Thanks for the suggestion. The contents of the zip file are also compressed. Got both excel sheets now, gonna check it out.

[Skarecrow]

Re: HC09 Defensive Playbook Analysis

I found the excel sheet very informative. Thanks.

[JimK]

Re: HC09 Defensive Playbook Analysis

This was a great contribution. I was wondering if you or anyone else had done something similar with offense. I'd like to know which offenses utilize the TE more, which throw most short passes, etc, etc... stuff that would help you draft players for that offense.

[SwimsWithPhins]

Re: HC09 Defensive Playbook Analysis

Thank you! It's gratifying to know my efforts are appreciated.

I haven't done anything or seen anything similar for offense, though I've thought about it. While it seemed pretty easy to categorize defensive plays, I have not found a good way to categorize offensive plays ... yet. Basically, the categories need to follow the following guidelines:

1. A small number of categories--too many categories make it hard to categorize plays accurately, and there is a wide variety of offensive plays
2. An analysis method that relies only on the play diagrams--it is already a lot of button pushing just to scroll through all the playbooks, and I'm pushing carpel tunnel as it is
3. The analysis of each play is quick--the defensive playbooks took me almost 3 months to finish, and I believe the offensive playbooks are generally larger.

If you, or anyone, has some ideas or suggestions, I would love to hear them.

[ebongreen]

Re: HC09 Defensive Playbook Analysis

This was a great contribution. I was wondering if you or anyone else had done something similar with offense. I'd like to know which offenses utilize the TE more, which throw most short passes, etc, etc... stuff that would help you draft players for that offense.

I believe this is the closest thing for offenses.

[rdnk]

Re: HC09 Defensive Playbook Analysis

Wow I can't believe the 3-2-6 playbook only has 13 plays. More like a play-sparknotes if you ask me.

Has anyone tried this playbook? If so, was it great, or was it rubbish?

Nice job Phins.

[Byron Yatch]

Re: HC09 Defensive Playbook Analysis

I'd have to believe the 3-2-6 would be pretty good against the pass, horrid against the run, but then again I could be wrong(never used it). I would bet they have 3 safeties(2 as "OLBs", one deep in middle field), 3 cbs, 2 mlbs 3-4 style lineman. could also be 4 cbs and 2 safeties but I dont know, as Ive never used it.

I think you might have just got me to try it on the next one(may be awhile). I liked using the 3-3-5 mustang so if its anything like that I can adapt fairly well to it.

I'd even bet the 3-2-6 is one of the most versatile defenses in the game as it is obviously what you make it after 3 years, having only 13 base plays. Thats kind of the reason why I usually choose the michigan spread offense, only 75 plays...

3-2-6 might even be the best for when you start versing all 5 wide formations most of the game as other playbooks can lack a dime and/or quarter formation. Coordinators wont call those formations either if you add them to a playbook unless you use them yourself over and over again in certain situations.

Im getting tired of the 46 this run through so if it gets on my nerves too much I'll just start a new one to try the 3-2-6. Prolly only got another year left in this franchise if it doesnt get any more tolerable, too much blitzing even on light in the philosophy!