If you have read any of my posts on this blog, you will see a handful of philosophical articles.
From my post on balance to how many passing routes you need for any given pass play, seeing the forest through the trees of football always peeks my interest.
As much as I love talking about the Xs and Os, I enjoy studying the philosophical side of football more.
I believe all decisions made in the game of football start with a philosophy of some sort.
And in this quick post, I want to ask a simple question to all of my awesome readers:
Which playbook/offense do you like more?
- one with many formations but with very few concepts
- one with many concepts but with very few formations
- one with many formations AND many concepts
- one with a few formations and a few plays
I have had success with the first two options as most of my offenses come from the first two theories.
However, I have had plenty of success with all four at one point or another.
The “many formations/few concepts” style is a lot like my Ace Offense I used in my Yale dynasty.
Many good NFL offenses follow this model where they have a few runs and a handful of pass plays but will formation you to death.
The “few formations/many concepts” style is similar to the Cycle Offenses I mentioned a few months ago.
The Run N Shoot, and some Air Raid versions fall under this umbrella.
There are also offenses the have many formations and many concepts, but these offenses tend to not work as well, isn’t that right, Bill Callahan?
Imagine carrying around an 8 lb playbook. I mean, how many plays do you really need?
I know the plays so well in this game as sometimes it appears that my offenses can accidentally fall in this category.
Then there are the offenses that can fit on a note card that showcase barely two formations and only a few concepts.
Many high school coaches (successful one mind you) that love these types of offenses.
I’ve seen several successful high school offenses that use one set and a handful of plays and can march right down the field.
In the real world, what your players can handle is the key as high school players simply don’t have as much time as the Pros do to study their playbooks.
But since with are talking about video games, all bets are off!
Please put your thoughts in the comments section below as I am curious what your thoughts are on this. Thanks!
I stick to the base play approach like I have said many times, but what I do is take more of a statistical approach, And I build my offense around who I want to get involved with. For Me Its my TE he is my go to number one, so I build my offense around him with plays designed to get him involved early and often, I just stick with 8 base plays and build around those for my formation and plays, I may have a ton of other plays I use but it still meshes will together because of my stat based appoarch. Hell I just put up on all american diff 650+ yards passing in three straight games by my approach, granted this is unrealistic. But Still I think you can catch my drift.
I usually use one of the first two as it’s easier to get into a rhythm and is quicker to pick plays. I often model my offenses after what I learn on the videos or from the site, so my offenses usually mimic yours.
On a side note, have you ever used a mostly passing offense that uses two tight ends almost exclusively?
If is something I have been thinking about doing.
I have never ran a dynasty that was tight end-focused, but it is definitely possible as there are plenty of plays where you can get a couple of more tight ends involved at the same time. It is even easier if you don’t plan on using the TEs much in your passing game. Using mostly 22, 12, and 11 personnel groupings for this offense will work just fine. Regardless of what you want to do with the tight ends, it can be done in 06.
I’m currently using the I Option with my race for Heisman. I mainly just run an I formation twins left with a TE right.
Hi Al,
Slightly of topic but I have a request/idea for an article. I’ve been searching but couldn’t find anything on various offensive and defensive controls pre-snap audible controls e.g. coverage etc. The ones provided in game under controls only cover very basic controls. Could you share all the controls that you can do?
Keep up the good work!
Best regards
Alen
I’ll look into this. It may be best to write an article instead of a video but I’m not sure. I’ll give this some thought. Thanks
Al I like your power shoot offense I haven’t decided what Team I’m going with but some kind of a under dog. But I watched the 2 vids on it. and I feel surprisingly comfortable when I practiced with a few underdog teams I’m thinking about coaching. It’s easy to understand. Now I have to tackle the defense playbook and special teams! But I wanna say thanks for the way you explain things it helps everything slow down during game play!
Thanks for the kind words. Many gamers love the Power Shoot, simple and effective.
I use a what you’d call in the NFL the Erhardt-Perkins system, which is basically a pro style offense in your ‘many formations/few concepts’ category. This is how the patriots have shredded defenses with Tom Brady.
I prefer to use the classic 70s style that makes it a run first offense. As Erhardt says ‘Pass to score, run to win’.
I create one playbook and almost never modify it, recruiting to fit my system of fast burner WRs and tall pass catching TEs. Ever since I started throwing Ace Normal in from the power shoot I’ve heavily emphasized TEs on my team.
This is in comparison to your videos, where you switch up the playbook to fit personnel.
Good stuff right there. I like to study all kinds of offenses and enjoy running them in games like 06 which is why you see me run many schemes in my dynasties.
But I like the E-P more and I always suggest it to gamers over other things. I’m a big believer in execution and repetition and both are hard to accomplish when one tries to run so many different concepts, even worse from more sets. If one wants to run a ton of concepts, they better limit the sets. Otherwise, they run into the same problems most coaches have with struggling offenses, a huge playbook that makes things harder.
Regarding your last point, I try to fit my offense to my personnel instead of the other way around, but it all depends on what offense I want to run at the time though.
Lastly, I would like to run an offense like you do in a future dynasty but I’m afraid my subscribers would get bored watching me running the same few run plays over and over again in a run-oriented offense. I could be wrong though.
And this is not meant to correct you but the E-P system is more of a football language than an offense. It’s all about simplifying terminology by looking at plays as concepts instead of just routes and assignments. But yes, many formations and just a few concepts coincides with that. Apparently players have an easier time learning formations than the other things like routes, etc.
I think the original E-P system was its own offense considering the state of football in the 1970s. Nowadays it is more of a language, but most systems have devolved to this as their concepts become more intertwined.
Sometime next week I think I’ll try one of your Spread Offense books. Never done much out of the gun but it never hurts to try!
I thought your triple option SMU Dynasty was entertaining. Doing an I Option or 2 back pro set run first offense would surely be interesting as well…or maybe something out of the T-Form
Any of my books should help. By the way, I sent you an email today so make sure check that out.
I got your email by the way, I’m waiting until I have my computer set up to reply. Just bought all your books today, been reading through them. Good stuff Al!
Thanks, hope the books help.
Yeah, I like conceptual offenses, easier to remember than just running a collection of plays that none are alike.