Anyone having success with play action?

[_-King-_]

PA seems like a concept that video games have never been able to get quite right.

Most of the time I try it, even if the D bites they're already in the backfield sacking my QB before I have a chance to throw.

I try to establish a run game early and then try out a PA but so far it's been the same results in this game. Admittedly only tried it a few times to no avail and now I'm scared to go back because it's usually a guaranteed sack or at best I get hit as I'm throwing. Anyone having success with it?

[Danish ram]

Re: Anyone having success with play action?

Agree, it is brutal. My southern Mississippi are a juggernaut in the run game this third season but still can’t get better at PA. I call at least one play each game, just to try it out, but the cpu never seems to bite.

[bkrich83]

Re: Anyone having success with play action?

Setting protection here is key even more than normal. I have a good succcess rate on PA throws, particularly if I have set up the defense for one.

[Kramer5150]

Re: Anyone having success with play action?

PA seems like a concept that video games have never been able to get quite right.

Most of the time I try it, even if the D bites they're already in the backfield sacking my QB before I have a chance to throw.

I try to establish a run game early and then try out a PA but so far it's been the same results in this game. Admittedly only tried it a few times to no avail and now I'm scared to go back because it's usually a guaranteed sack or at best I get hit as I'm throwing. Anyone having success with it?

Whay difficulty and what are your pass block sliders set at?

[GoDucks1224]

Re: Anyone having success with play action?

Setting protection here is key even more than normal. I have a good succcess rate on PA throws, particularly if I have set up the defense for one.

Second this. If you nail your protection assignments, PA can be deadly. Because the AI definitely bites on PA fakes in the secondary. But you gotta make sure you can get that 2-3 seconds protection to get a pass off.

[tg9er]

Re: Anyone having success with play action?

Play action and bootlegs are by far the most poorly implemented aspects of the game from an offensive standpoint. Route concepts take forever to develop, the defense does not respect the run action and if they blitz you are getting sacked….period

Bootlegs are an absolute embarrassment. Im faking outside zone left but my right tackle is pass setting????

[_-King-_]

Re: Anyone having success with play action?

Whay difficulty and what are your pass block sliders set at?

Heisman. I've noticed this both on the default sliders and using canes sliders.

[_-King-_]

Re: Anyone having success with play action?

Play action and bootlegs are by far the most poorly implemented aspects of the game from an offensive standpoint. Route concepts take forever to develop, the defense does not respect the run action and if they blitz you are getting sacked….period

Bootlegs are an absolute embarrassment. Im faking outside zone left but my right tackle is pass setting????

Yeah unfortunately I don't think I've had success with a bootleg yet either.

[tg9er]

Re: Anyone having success with play action?

I still call a couple boots a game just to mix up my play calling and keep telling myself one day they’ll patch it and the OLine will block stretch away and the backside edge defender will squeeze the hip of my tackle and chase and I’ll have the defense out leveraged with a nice little hi low read.

But for now I’ll just keep banging my head against the wall, be forced to pull up everytime instead of capture edge and throw the comeback.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: Anyone having success with play action?

I'm having success with it if I don't abuse it. Overuse it, the A.I. is supersmart. Same for draw plays, qb bootlegs and counter run plays. And I wouldn't have it any other way. I have run that flea flicker a few times but to no avail, probably zero for five with as many sacks. But I've only found the flea flicker in the I-Form. I wish there was one in shotgun or pistol.

[GoDucks1224]

Re: Anyone having success with play action?

I'm having success with it if I don't abuse it. Overuse it, the A.I. is supersmart. Same for draw plays, qb bootlegs and counter run plays. And I wouldn't have it any other way. I have run that flea flicker a few times but to no avail, probably zero for five with as many sacks. But I've only found the flea flicker in the I-Form. I wish there was one in shotgun or pistol.

I got my first reverse pass completion yesterday. Was amazing. Threw a TD pass with my receiver. Redlined it, and it was a wounded duck for sure, but my TE made a great catch.

[tg9er]

Re: Anyone having success with play action?

The entire play action and bootleg system in both NCAA and Madden needs completely rebuilt from the ground up and the playbook team needs to get with actual football coaches about how these plays are structured. Play action in EA football is insanely risky because the pass protection is completely broken resulting in a near automatic sack if the defense is any kind of blitz or even a front with wide 9's.

In real football most play action concepts are extremely gap sound protections that take pressure off the offensive line to just pass block every play because the defense has to fit the run. There are some exemptions to this such as Lincoln Riley's 10 personnel counter play action that is extremely unsound but stresses a defense like crazy.

EA play action defense isn't about "fitting the run", LBs and DB's are doing one of three things every play - blitzing, playing man or dropping straight to their zone. Sure they'll freeze a little bit in zone before they drop, but they never actually react to the run.

The bootleg game is just a complete abomination and embarrasment to football. Bootlegs have been a staple of offenses for probably 50 years are among the safest, highest percentage pass plays in the game.

The fact that your OLine pass blocks on bootlegs and frequency of sacks by defensive ends on boots is beyond stupid. There is no lateral flow to boots in this game other than the QB and RB. The backside never chases the run (why would they when the boot side tackle and guard are fanning to instead of zoning away), which makes it near impossible to outleverage the defense with your flat route whether it be a slicer on split flow action or a TE on the boot side running the slam and slide.

RPO's have only been around for 10ish years and EA manages to a do a pretty decent job with them. It's hard for me to beleive that they couldn't do a 10 times better job with play action and boot stuff if they actually cared.

[dirk1970]

Re: Anyone having success with play action?

PA doesn't work for me near the goal line, or in 3rd and short situations. Those are risky plays to call, but I wouldn't say, it's completely broken. I'm getting some nice gains out of PA once or twice a game.

[Kid OS]

Re: Anyone having success with play action?

I don't run PA at all online. It results in a sack because there's too much delay between the PA animation and being able to start the pass animation. It leads to me pump faking from having to press the pass button twice

[tg9er]

Re: Anyone having success with play action?

To say it's not completely broken is giving EA a pass. There are a lot of things this game does well but the entire play action and boot system is a complete joke and demonstrate zero representation of actual football. Attached are two pictures out of 21 Personnel I Pro Left. One is running stretch to the left and the other is the bootleg action off stretch. Both are against the same defensive front and coverage. Look at the right side of the OLine on the boot. What in the actual eff is this EA??? My tackle is blocking out on the DE, my center blocks back on the DT and ends up on the right side of the RG. Look how wide the edge is. My QB has zero chance to get outside and my slicing FB #16 will end up either going inside of the RT or getting caught up in garbage. Sure I can pull up and hit the Comeback route to my X a decent amount of the time but that's not the point of the play. Bootlegs are supposed to keep a defense honest on the backside of zone and give the QB easy hi/low reads in the flat.

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Sorry for the sideways pictures...don't know why they ended up like that