Can/Will they finally fix the Ga Tech offense?

[feeq14]

Ga techs offense has been in the game for 3 years now and although it has seen some improvements, it is still not all that fun to use against the CPU because half of the plays dont work. Some of this stuff has been an issue in NCAA for almost a decade.

1- Option passes are almost impossible to pull off because of this stupid animation that force the QBs into a dropback instead of letting them throw on the run, or at least break the animation to throw.

2- Although pulling guards kind of work on most running plays, they never work on the trap option or fullback trap. At best the guard will pull, stop, then find a defender to block without messing anything up, but most of the time they just get in the way, dont block anyone, run in the wrong direction etc.

3- Toss plays are a crap shoot because, A- The corner crashes the line automatically, B- The blockers do not block anyone or they run pass threatening defenders on the outside to block guys on the inside who are of no threat to make a tackle, C- defenders take perfect angles/make perfect moves off of their blocks in order to make the tackle.

4- The triple option is a crap shoot. Defenders will run to the play instead of running to the ball, often making cutting inside a much more sure way to get yards which is not realistic. The defensive linemen hardly ever play the pitchman over the full back. And we have the same blocking issues as with the tosses.

5- Slightly un related, but where are the rest of the power running formations? Where is the power T, where is power I wide, where are the rest of the full house sets? My favorite all time college team is Tom Osborne's Nebraska teams. They ran pure power football offense. Can we please get this back?


All this is not to say that you cannot have success running the flex option, but most of your success comes from learning to exploit the AI and not from plays actually working.

[CObra-la]

Re: Can/Will they finally fix the Ga Tech offense?

While I think you have a lot of valid points. I think most of your problem stems from your playcalling. I've been running a Flexbone offense since '09 in online games. And done some extensive research on when Paul Johnson calls certain plays. The bones of the offense is a If/Then system, where everything is dictated on what the defense is doing to try to stop the Triple Option. And even then the Triple Option needs to be ran a certain defensive lineman technique, the same goes for the Midline as well.

But I especially agree with points 1 and 2. Point 3, I think you need to run this play if the defense is blitzing the interior linebackers. especially vs the 4-3 normal. Most of the blitzes in this game that involve a OLB and ILB blitz dont have a CB playing the flat and you wont have to worry about him crashing in; Its been determined that when the CB crashes that he's usually playing the flat. And if you see this, my suggestion would be to run a Load Option. The Motion man on the Load Options block responsibility is to block that force (run support) player. Not saying that it will always work, but it should give you more to think about.

Hope that helps.

[Kaiser Wilhelm]

Re: Can/Will they finally fix the Ga Tech offense?

I agree that the triple option is pretty poorly done in the game. You are spot on with the passes.

The problem I have is the play falls apart on the outside and the logical route for me more often than not is to run just outside the tackle or sometimes actually inside the tackle.

I play as Army a fair amount of the time and running a triple option without seeming like you are cheesing is a pain because only so many plays in the playbook actually are programmed to work. I think I run the Triple Option play more than half the time when I play because the blocking for the tosses, sweeps do not seem to function correctly.

As for passing, most of the plays are playaction or option passes which means when I need yardage I usually resort to running 3-4 plays simply because that is what I must default to because of the playbook. Half the passing plays are rendered useless due to the inefficiency and borderline brokenness of the option passes.

This is not to say I cannot run the triple option in the game, but I feel one of two things is wrong: (1) I cannot use a good portion of my plays to keep the defense guessing and (2) I feel I am not running the option correctly but am instead compensating for poor implementation to succeed.

[stylee]

Re: Can/Will they finally fix the Ga Tech offense?

Good post.

The pitch phase is crap, because
A) the MLB is rarely ever blocked, and often becomes a de-facto pitch/keep key.
B) the cornerback is rarely blocked, and sometimes becomes a pitch/keep key. If you've already pitched though, he can just tackle the a-back in the backfield
C) if you've actually got decent-rated players, sometimes the problem is the opposite - corners or linebackers literally stand still and refuse to make a play on any player.

I ran for 400 yards with my QB on Heisman mode against #3 LSU once. B-Back had 150 yards. I was 3* Montana State(Teambuilder - built them from 1 star. this was the third year, I think).
QB had a ton of long runs. Why? Because opposing defenses would freeze when he ran the ball. And I'd always tuck it UNDERNEATH the middle backer.

Still, it was impossible to make a realistic pitch/third phase of the triple.
Pitch relationship. lack of a true pitch key.

Midline - obviously ********.
Rocket Toss - it's decent. not great. can feel like cheese sometimes. can feel unbelievably busted sometimes.

PA passes - unworkable.
And why so many weird PA passes but NO Smoke pass? GT ran this fairly regularly with D.Thomas and ocasionally with Stephen Hill.

I'm a spread option coach. I can't run the GT spread option in this game with any realism. Ergo, not buying 2013 unless some spread option-head confirms that its workable this year.

[Playmakers]

Re: Can/Will they finally fix the Ga Tech offense?

To me the biggest issue is Georgia Tech not being able to run their own offense not the other way around....

I'm not worried about the Human players ability to run any offense in this game. The biggest downfall over the years has been the CPU's inability to run option attacks.

If EA fixes that issue i'll be a happy gamer becuase this something that dates back to beyond Georgia Tech running the attack for the last 3 years.

This goes back to NCAA 07 for any option team in the game.

[feeq14]

Re: Can/Will they finally fix the Ga Tech offense?

Good post.

The pitch phase is crap, because
A) the MLB is rarely ever blocked, and often becomes a de-facto pitch/keep key.
B) the cornerback is rarely blocked, and sometimes becomes a pitch/keep key. If you've already pitched though, he can just tackle the a-back in the backfield
C) if you've actually got decent-rated players, sometimes the problem is the opposite - corners or linebackers literally stand still and refuse to make a play on any player.

I ran for 400 yards with my QB on Heisman mode against #3 LSU once. B-Back had 150 yards. I was 3* Montana State(Teambuilder - built them from 1 star. this was the third year, I think).
QB had a ton of long runs. Why? Because opposing defenses would freeze when he ran the ball. And I'd always tuck it UNDERNEATH the middle backer.

Still, it was impossible to make a realistic pitch/third phase of the triple.
Pitch relationship. lack of a true pitch key.

Midline - obviously ********.
Rocket Toss - it's decent. not great. can feel like cheese sometimes. can feel unbelievably busted sometimes.

PA passes - unworkable.
And why so many weird PA passes but NO Smoke pass? GT ran this fairly regularly with D.Thomas and ocasionally with Stephen Hill.

I'm a spread option coach. I can't run the GT spread option in this game with any realism. Ergo, not buying 2013 unless some spread option-head confirms that its workable this year.

Yea the spread option is broken as well. But the main problem with it is that the AI playcall is always in psychic mode. It makes me frustrated becuase the main reason to play NCAA is to play with the unique college style, but its basically broken except for pro style offenses.

[kirkdawg]

Re: Can/Will they finally fix the Ga Tech offense?

The CPU has major issues running that offense. Look at the sim stats and you'll see that the HB gets a ton of carries and the #3 WR will grab 30+ catches per year while the #1/2 get 10 or less.

In GT's version of the option, the FB is the primary ball carrier. In a sim season, the FB usually gets 20 carries. The problem is that even if they do fix it and the FB gets the bulk of the carries, the CPU generated FB recruits are not capable of carrying 180+ times per season with any sort of success. If the FB is good, he gets moved to the HB depth chart during the next season.

Until EA makes depth charts fit the offensive and defensive systems (A-Back, B-Back, slot WR, H-back, wildcat QB) we're going to consistently see problems with these sorts of non-standard offenses being run effectively by the CPU.

[blkrptnt819]

I've almost punched my TV because of pitch relationship. My HB (running it out of the I) always gets ahead of my QB. Why would he do that?

[Gap Integrity]

Re: Can/Will they finally fix the Ga Tech offense?

I think you get the Maryland-I, power-I, formations in the default option playbook, not sure if you get all the flexbone plays. I love running the option, but you are right, it's hard to execute because of poor pitch relationship, and sporadic blocking.

I'm currently playing a dynasty with ARMY, thats a challege. Steelman and Hassin are tough, but the Defense is p*ss poor. I'll put together an 16 play drive for 80 yards, then get scored on in 4 plays.... lol

[Blitz1942]

Re: Can/Will they finally fix the Ga Tech offense?

The CPU has major issues running that offense. Look at the sim stats and you'll see that the HB gets a ton of carries and the #3 WR will grab 30+ catches per year while the #1/2 get 10 or less.

In GT's version of the option, the FB is the primary ball carrier. In a sim season, the FB usually gets 20 carries. The problem is that even if they do fix it and the FB gets the bulk of the carries, the CPU generated FB recruits are not capable of carrying 180+ times per season with any sort of success. If the FB is good, he gets moved to the HB depth chart during the next season.

Until EA makes depth charts fit the offensive and defensive systems (A-Back, B-Back, slot WR, H-back, wildcat QB) we're going to consistently see problems with these sorts of non-standard offenses being run effectively by the CPU.

I have not had any problems with sim stats for option teams in most of my dynasties.

In my current Wisconsin dynasty, Georgia Tech's FB actually somehow managed to win the Heisman.

However, whenever I actually play against them, I feel it's way too easy to stop their attack unless they run some sort of hurry up option offense (which I've run into one team that has done that).

[feeq14]

Re: Can/Will they finally fix the Ga Tech offense?

I think you get the Maryland-I, power-I, formations in the default option playbook, not sure if you get all the flexbone plays. I love running the option, but you are right, it's hard to execute because of poor pitch relationship, and sporadic blocking.

I'm currently playing a dynasty with ARMY, thats a challege. Steelman and Hassin are tough, but the Defense is p*ss poor. I'll put together an 16 play drive for 80 yards, then get scored on in 4 plays.... lol

The Maryland I and Power I are both in there, but they are still missing the Full house strong and weak as well as the Power T which was one of my favorite fomations a few years back.

[kirkdawg]

Re: Can/Will they finally fix the Ga Tech offense?

I have not had any problems with sim stats for option teams in most of my dynasties.

In my current Wisconsin dynasty, Georgia Tech's FB actually somehow managed to win the Heisman.

However, whenever I actually play against them, I feel it's way too easy to stop their attack unless they run some sort of hurry up option offense (which I've run into one team that has done that).

In what season of dynasty was that? I have seen a GT FB do well in the Heisman balloting too, but it was in season 2-3 when someone who the original roster had at FB got moved to the HB depth chart.

[TDavis45]

Re: Can/Will they finally fix the Ga Tech offense?

Formation subs are what I have had to start using .. But obviously the computer changes these in dynasty mode.

[walshcav]

Re: Can/Will they finally fix the Ga Tech offense?

Running the option in the game is nothing like running it in real life.

In the game, I've only had success with the lead and power options so someone can get the corner for me. Like many of you other posters, I prefer the power running game. I like running the Wishbone, Maryland I, Power I, and LOVED the Full T on the game.

The main flexbone option formation that I've had success with was the tackle over so you have an extra blocker to the option side. Obviously that doesn't let you flip the formation quickly and easily, but for the most part it was effective for me.

[Special27K]

Re: Can/Will they finally fix the Ga Tech offense?

My biggest issue, like someone already said, is the CPU running these offenses. It doesn't matter how highly rated a team's players are, these are games that I literally never lose ever. Oregon, Navy, Georgia Tech, any verstion of the option just gets blown up either because of animations taking too long or poor execution in blocking responsibilities. Some is however defenders reaction to the play, some is also just offensive decision making.

The offense needs a complete overhaul along with how "Play Recognition" affects gameplay

Edit: by the offense I mean option