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Originally Posted by Fours |
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All of the posts here are great, it's nice to see players that realize there's more to success than speed bursts and perfectly timed juke spins.
Another way to classify the two most common run game philosophies that are used today are zone and man. This post is to help players better understand why and how to effectively run different schemes. It's not something I would normally explain in a game forum, but surprisingly this is a case where "real life" knowledge can transfer to game success.
I'll keep it dead simple because this post isn't intended to test anyone's depth of understanding, it's just to help moderately advanced football minds who may not have been exposed to higher level OL systems.
Man scheme:
The purpose is to "out gap" the defense. Modern schemes have a defender assigned to each gap and he's expected to hold his gap. The first level(DL) shades(5-edge, 3-field shade Guard, 1-boundary shade Center, 5-edge) are designed to make it impossible for a 5 man line to create an unmanned gap without movement(pull,trap,etc..) to give them the leverage needed to create an undefended gap. Most defenses feel comfortable with their LB's matching the athleticism of moving OL to prevent that which is why you ideally want OL that can displace the DL to block second level flow to the point of attack.
Offensively you are picking a specific hole and attacking it, unless you have undisciplined over-pursuit from a non-gap defense(doesn't exist in madden) there should not be a cut back option for the back. the blocks at the point of attack are the best angles and usually a double team so the chance of successful first level block decreases the farther you get from the point of attack. The OL tries to turn the defenders shoulders and seal him off from controlling that gap or remove him entirely.
Zone scheme:
The offense is now counting on the defenders to maintain gap integrity and in a way allowing them to. The basic principle here is that if the B gap defenders job is to not vacate his gap, then we can bring an OL from a gap "behind"(weakside of the play) to block him. It's most obvious on outside zone, but inside zone is the same thing but with a double team. The zone double team is very different from the man double. Here the idea is that if he sinks(holds his gap) you capture him with the OL from weakside. If he floats(poor integrity, vacates his gap to chase the ball) the playside OL stays on him and the weakside now has space to move up the second level because you guessed it - the float read makes the RB cut back. The benefit of zone is in this simplicity, you're not fighting the DL for his gap all day, and the RB initially has 1 simple read.
For technique the OL doesn't have to displace or turn shoulders, they just need to keep central pressure on the defender and let him choose to sink or float. This is where Madden breaks down for realism, the individual OL don't behave differently for man and zone plays, but their assignments are generally right and you can run zone off the read with great success.
The reason zone is very popular in the NFL today is not because it works better. It's because you don't need huge strong athletes to run it like you do man. You also don't need backs with great vision or tackle breaking ability. When it comes to draft picks and free agents, zone gives great value. That does apply to CFM, but if you have those pieces in place already, man should be more successful.
The most helpful thing about understanding the two systems is that you can see why your running game is failing early in the game and adjust your run calls. If the DL is dominating the LOS, isolate them by running zone. If you're getting great push and it's allowing defenders to leak through big seams, you should be running man.
I hope this helps someone enjoy more success running the ball.. There are many more layers of depth here that I'm happy to dig into if anyone is interested.
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Great post!
I think it would cool to see Clint Oldenburg see this thread and chime in w/ his 2cents as well.
I know they're striving to get the Oline and Dline play as good as they can and to see a "Sim" thread about this very thing, speaks to how far they have come w/ Madden already.
I'll be following this one just to build my knowledge on running and possibly more.
Good job Charter for bringing this to light!
So with this new Update, do we like where the difficulty is in running @ default All-Pro or All-Madden?
Or
Do we still need to change the sliders around to make it better?
I've struggled running w/ the new Update. I'm offline CFM, AP default, Normal gamespeed. I've thought about testing slow speed to see if running is any easier, but, I really love the challenge, and not being guaranteed a 3rd & 1 dive, fb dive, qb sneak to work everytime.