I’m back again with another philosophical post. I guess you can call this a sister post to the other holistic topics I have cover on this blog in the past.
I am curious about your thoughts on two types of pass plays:
- plays that have many options but the defense dictates who you throw to
- plays the are designed to give the ball to one (maybe two) player
Pass plays that fall under the first criteria are plays I normally use in my current West Coast Offense I’m using in my Wazzou dynasty.
In fact, most passing attacks center around “distribution” concepts.
These plays usually have 3-5 good routes that when combined, form a concept that basically creates an answer for anything the defense throw at me.
These plays are great as no matter what defense I see, I know I can execute.
However, the biggest downside to these plays is that the defense dictates who you are going to throw to.
This means that now matter how badly I want to throw it to my best playmaker, the defense might not let me do so depending on the coverage.
This is the only grip I have with passing attacks that heavily involve these types of plays.
For instance, one of the reasons I picked the WCO was to be able to get my tight ends more involved, but I am struggling to feed him the ball, for now.
It’s not that the plays aren’t working as my offense is playing well at the moment, but as of now, defenses are taking him out of the equation.
There are times where I want to simply call a play where I know one certain player will get the ball.
The other type of pass plays are simpler to execute as you barely have 1-2 post-snap reads.
The plays are even better for teams that only have a few playmakers that deserve to get the ball.
Thankfully, these games have plenty of both types of plays!
I hope all of this makes sense. Perhaps a passing attack that features both it worth considering.
Please send me your comments and thoughts on this subject and let’s get a good conversation goingd. Thanks!
I typically follow the first option, but it depends since I take more of a statistical approach to my offense, hence why I don’t have a true identity per say on offense, I try to do a mix of both, If I have a impact TE, who is a absolute stud, or say WR, in this case, I will try to pick plays and get them going early on to set the tone, I say I use a mix, because sometimes, I feel I just wanna spread things around, like going 5 wr, hence why when I am done usually playing my games, If I look at the stats my Stud players, get around 10 catches, for 150 yds, and on average 2 tds, while my non studs get around 5-6, 100 yds, 1td on average.
In summary Im a mix of both.
Yeah, as good as my Wazzou offense is going, I may add some Iso plays to the playbook. I have plenty of distribution plays in the book as is. I hate it when one of my best players doesn’t get to touch the ball.
I agree with you on that one, 100% If I have a Impact Player who can’t get touches early on, and doesn’t start making an impact 3/4 of the game it makes me mad, that I have to figures out ways to get him involved, I once had a Tight End who was really good, but it made me Irate, that I couldn’t get him the touches he needed to help us win, it wasn’t till I changed to my current mindset on offense than, when I started to notice us winning a ton.
A quick recipe for throwing an interception is to pick your receiver before you snap the ball.
(Note, giving a QB the greenlight for their first post-snap read is very different from the QB deciding to throw to a particular reciever)
Not sure if this gets at the right points in the discussion: One of my favorite pass plays (when I need 8 – 10 yards) is Shotgun Normal; Arrows. My WR1 can beet the CB (in man) 80% of a time, which is a pretty solid 3rd down conversion rate. Arrows’ weakness is that it kind of sucks against zone, and my QB has to scramble / buy time if the hole isn’t there.
Sticking in the same formation, I also love to use PA Read (in Shotgun Normal); there’s often a ton of space for the RB to run (off the handoff or the quick pass) or for WR3 to catch outside the right hash. It would be easy to hotroute WR1 or WR2 to a go route if the other corners are really weak. Again, could easily gain yardage on 80% of snaps, especially with an aware RB and mobile QB.
I should add, this is my current playbook:
– Ace Twins
– Ace Empty
– Ace Slot
– I-form Tight
– I-form Normal
– I-form Twins
– Shotgun Normal
– Shotgun Trips
– Shotgun 5 Wide
Pretty basic, but I use everything for Run & Pass plays (except maybe 5-Wide, which I’ll exclusively pass / scramble)
I wasn’t referring to determining who to go to before the snap, just plays in general that are designed to give it to 1 or 2 guys compared to the 5 out plays. Otherwise, I agree with you on the rest
For Arrows against Zone, move your X WR (the Arrow route) to the right. He can distract up top for you TE in the flat. This is a right hash for me.
I’ll try that motion next time.
Depending on the zone, sometimes been able to force the ball into the gap right in front of the safeties, but it’s a risky pass.
Yeah, I’m scared of those forced throws.
I’m a mix between both concepts but I lean more towards taking what the defense gives me so I formation sub my players around. I’m not really too concerned about who’s getting the touches as long as somebody is and I’m slicing the defense up! With the help of Al’s books [especially the Pro Dawg one] I sub my players all over. RBs split wide, TEs in the RB spot, etc.
I use the multiple options plays. My problem has been my receivers just drop way too many passes even if they have great hands. I know some drops will happen but my A+ hands WR dropped 5 passes in the last game I had. Wide open on 3 of those. I get they will drop some occasionally but not wide open that often every game.
I can run the ball with ease but I like to get the passing game going too but I always struggle with INTs and drops by my receivers when my QB makes a good throw. I have gotten the INTs under control by just taking the sack when my o-line breaks down instead of trying to throw and getting hit.
I have been watching your practice videos and reading up and have found some concepts I like but getting them to work at a better % is my goal. Making the correct read and then making a good throw only to have the WR drop the pass so often is frustrating me.
If the drops bother you that much, just crank up the WR Catching slider. Test it for awhile until find a spot that is realistic (we all have different definitions of this). I only get 1 to 2 drops per game which I okay with.
I will just keep track of the drops more closely. I could have been exaggerating a tad. I will track and see if it is as much as I’m thinking or just the key drops at key times that have skewed my opinion.
I got this game a couple months ago and I’ve been loving it. This is definitely one of the greatest sports games ever created. I started a dynasty with a created team and I’m now midway through year 3. I play on Heisman with some tweaked sliders. I noticed that I’ve been getting frustrated because of the passing game. My impact qb has 89 passing accuracy, and it infuriates me when I have a wide open receiver running across the middle and my qb throws it 8 yards in front of him. I’m not getting pressured, my feet are set, and I don’t throw a bullet pass, yet the Heisman cpu feels it’s fair to make my qb constantly over throw the receiver. However If the pass is on point the receiver would just drop the ball. What is it with drop passes in this game so many wide-open receivers drop passes it’s so annoying and feels like the cpu is trying to keep me from pulling away in a close game or making a comeback.
I don’t want to play on all American because that is too easy no matter what I do to the sliders.
I don’t want To sound like I’m complaining but what is up with this super defenders jumping 15 feet in the air to knock down my passes? Yet when the computer throws passes my defenders just watch the receiver catch the ball. Out of frustration I changed my offense mid season to an option based attack because running the football is the only thing that works for me consistently. But I want to pass the ball because I have fast receivers and they have good hands, and it makes the game more fun to me rather than just running the ball every play.
Well, I hope all of my dynasty videos showing off all the various passing attacks I’ve used works well in this game. All of that shows you that it can be done so don’t quit on it. I’ve had a gamer here and there tell me of similar issues but I just don’t have those problems.
I don’t know what to tell you as I would tell others exactly what I do and they say it doesn’t work for them so either they’re lying or they don’t practice it enough because again, my methods work.
And by the way, how hard you throw matters alot. All types of passes are needed depending on the route. I use bullet passes, lobs, and medium throws.
It’s really hard to know what your doing wrong without seeing what you’re doing. I’m not saying you’re lying but your statement says you do everything right with talented players but you see constant drops and bad throws so something has got to give.
I wish I had magical words to tell what you’re doing wrong so you can fix it, it’s just hard to know what that is when you say you’re doing everything right.
Also, some gamers have told me similar stories of seeing constant drops yet when they finally tell me their exact team stats for the season, they barely see 2-3 drops a game which is realistic. Some gamers looks at all drops the same but that isn’t true as the defense hitting that player can force a drop. I mean. You mentioned your WRs are wide open and still drop them which I doubt there are that many drops. If for whatever reason, you’re still not satisfied with this then just increase the WR Catch slider.
The same with accuracy as you can’t expect your QBs to make perfect throws every play, especially without a clean pocket. There are so many variables to all of this.
Hope this helps.
One last thing, it took me years to really nail down all the intricacies of passing. Not saying it should take you that long but you’ve only been playing for 2 months so be patient keep practicing, and devour my content on the blog and channel and you’ll get better over time.