The long ball ( jet packing?)

[kbell97]

Hitting the long ball seems easier than completing an out or hitch at times, has jet packing made its way from Madden to NCAA 2005? Even against cover 4 and cover 2 man I can jump(jetpack) for a nice chunk of yardage.

[TrojanNole]

KBELL, since I'm with the TrojanNole Cheesy Firm, do you know if "jetpacking" be considered a CHEESY tactic?

I my have a client that would need represenation if this arose concerning this matter.

[sitinon32]

I have never had to "jetpack" to make a catch in NCAA as of yet, even on long bombs. I just position my WR to use his body to make the grab downfield. LSU has 3-4 WRs who are are LEAST 6'2 with 88-99 speed. The only WR I can't CONSISTENTLY out-body a DB with is Skylar Green b/c he's only about 5'11. I'll only drop it if my composer meter is empty, or I get smacked with a "big hit" right as I make the catch. But I have yet to see a "jetpack" animation. But hitting the deep ball is easier than throwing a crossing pattern, which so far to me is the easiest pattern in the game to throw, if timed right (but sometimes a highly composed and good DB will squat on the route and break it up). PA streaks have been damn near money for me so far.

[kbell97]

I guess its not true " jetpacking" but whats wrong with going to the long ball more often than not , it seems easier sometimes than the short pass. Trojan, I don't know if its cheesy or not, I read about AWN, and a guy thinks its cheesy. Hey, how is it cheesy if you can't stop it. I guess if you run the ball every play, and the other team can't stop you,is this considered cheesy? It is the same think as the long ball.

[TrojanNole]

KBELL, a very cheesy response, which means, good point. It comes down to this, it doesnt matter what you are running, deep balls, run plays, screens, whatever.....But if the other person cant stop, THEY ARE GOING TO CALL YOU CHEESY NO MATTER WHAT!

I ran the SG-Y-Trips FL Screen on a guys about 4 times for 4 TD's, he called me cheesy, its not my fault he couldnt call the right defense at the right time to stop it....its not that hard...then.....he glitched me...aint that a *itch. LOL

[kbell97]

Well then I gues I am cheesy to, can I be a member. - haha

[rhombic21]

It's not a matter of cheese or not, but it is a fundamental flaw in EA football games. I played a guy who completed 8 passes all game. All were streaks into double or even triple coverage. Meanwhile, I try to mix it up by hitting crosses, outs, hitches, drags, and then the occassional deep ball when it was actually OPEN, and not double covered like his were. But the thing is, the short pass isn't nearly as high percentage as it should be. Eventually, no matter what I do, I'm going to run into drops, errant throws, and fumbles. All he has to do is connect on 1 or 2 streaks (which is precisely what he did), and now he's ahead because I can't do anything passing wise inside the redzone due to drops, poor routes, and bad throws, as well as sacks. The game rewards you for just chucking it deep everytime, even if the other team calls the perfect play to defend it, because there's virtually no risk. Even if you miss, it works out like a punt, wheras if I make a mistake on a short throw, it can lead to good field position and points for you. In real life, teams can't throw 100% deep passes (30 yards downfield) because those passes are extremely tough to complete, especially when the defense expects them. In this game however, they are JUST as difficult to complete as the short stuff, so the risk/reward factor tells you that it's better to go deep much more than is realistic.

[TrojanNole]

RHOB<..............that was like deep dude........So, it would be cheesy to throw down field every play> OK, got it, flaws basically in this years game.

On a serious note, would playing on heisman vs human even the playing field?

So, since this guy does this does it mean its OK to AB him?

[kbell97]

You got that right on the money Rhombic. Try and a short drag route and see how much YAC you get. Even curls are a lot harder.

[thovind1]

Rhombic...my thoughts exactly. I've been fighting with guys since the game came out...many of whom I played all the time last year, because I just don't wanna play them. They rely on the deep ball EVERY play, and don't run a realistic offense. I call all the right defenses, and control the strong safety to protect over top...but the guy just blows right by. It has nothing to do with player skill...just throw it up into triple coverage, and at least half the time you'll get a big play out of it. Sorry, but if that's what it takes to win, then I guess I'm losing all my games.

Throwing deep occasionally is one thing...it's good strategy to set up a PA deep throw with runs and short passes. Throwing deep, and basing your entire offense around streaks, is just unrealistic and a glitch. It's impossible to stop. Either make the short passes easier, or make the deep stuff longer. Be consistent.

[GaryGuanine]

rhombic,

I think you're absolutely right. If you have an elite receiver, the deep ball is there all day. A friend of mine and I did Florida State (me) at Florida, and Craphonso Thorpe had like 350 yards receiving at the end of the game. I tried lots of other stuff during the game, but after dropped hitches, Rix zinging flats passes into the stands, and tight ends letting the ball hit them in the back of the head, I had 3rd and long situations. And Crap was there for me.

The long ball is much, much easier to hit than a quick throw to a 4 yard hitch. Not only in terms of risk/reward; I genuinely believe that the 40 yard bomb to a good receiver, regardless of coverage, completes at a higher percentage than nearly any other pass in the game.

Gary

[TrojanNole]

I honestly didnt know the long ball was that easy to throw this year. Sorry if I made fun of everyone not playing defense, I just evendently havent come across anyone who has done this to me.
I take it, if this is the case, then I wont feel so bad doing the AB on them.

[pinolian]

played alot this weekend. 4 out of the ten guys i played, all used USC and chucked it deep to their awesome wide receivers. The only other play they called was counters with number 5.

I used cover 3 all game, and never called bump and run.. because the few times I have called bump n run against USC it resulted in 6.. like deeep passes wide open.

I had little success as FSU, but once I started using OU or LSU it got a lot better.

[seanmac]

The deep streak is the highest percentage throw in the game, which tells you that something is seriously wrong. That said, someone who uses that exclusively can be defended more or less. I was playing a guy who took Georgia and threw a deep seam on 30 of his 33 offensive plays. When a guy is being that predictable, I'm frankly not going to feel bad about doing what I have to do in that situation. Basically, I ran cover 2 man, spread my D-line and analog blitzed off the corner. He ended up going 9 of 30 for 200 yards and three picks, and most of the yardage came when I was running cover 2 or cover 3 early in the game before his playcalling became thuddingly obvious.

But the streak play is effective enough that most offensive gameplans revolve around putting yourself in a situation where you can run the streak at a moment when the defense isn't playing exclusively to stop it.

[gloves off]

out of the guys that are getting thrown on deep all game, do you take control of the db to try and defend or do you let the computer do it?

[thovind1]

I think I speak for the majority that do this when I say that I control the free safety and try to play over top. Some guys go for the int, some go for the knockdown, and some go for the big hit. The key (provided you're in a good position, which is hard enough to do!!) is to know which to do in which situation.

Now, having said all that, I'll say that even though I know HOW to do it, I still get beat regularly because as I eluded to, it's ridiculously hard to keep your man in position over top of the correct wideout.

Not sure if you were asking for the sake of wanting to learn, or checking to see if everyone was doing it correctly, but that's what I do. Still get burnt more often than Smokey the Bear.

[GaryGuanine]

My friend against whom I was playing (I also racked up over 300 yards receiving with Texas Tech's #1 wideout in a later game) isn't the most experienced at manual coverage. By the end of the game, though, he was manually covering Thorpe. If he took a safety over the top, I had Thorpe just leap in front of him and snag it. If he tried to double man cover him, Thorpe just burned them -- something I suppose Mike Williams couldn't do. Bear in mind, however: Florida's safeties aren't that great.

Earlier today I was goofing around in practice mode, setting my #1 WR on a streak and trying to jetpack against random dime defenses. I scored a TD from 40 yards out maybe 40% of the time. This was with a created school of the "Middle of the Road" variety, so most of the players were ~70 OVR. Because of this, the only defense that stopped me was a Double-X man, since he couldn't outrun the corners, but if he had speed I'd have completed it at a rate closer to 50%. And I'm not a good jetpacker; I never really got it down pat for Madden 2004.

Whatever, whatever. In my dynasty I only use it for key 3rd down conversions. And when playing against friends, but I probably wouldn't do it to a stranger.

Gary

[d_neum80]

When you guys throw the long ball, do you lob the ball or fire it????

[GaryGuanine]

d_neum,

Depends on the situation, where the receiver is in relation to the DB, what angle he's taking, etc. Looking for a money play, are we?

Gary

[PhilIvy16]

I played a guy who used OU with their speedy backup QB. He beat me like 14-10. He was using the option, and the deep ball. Very tough to stop because to contain the option you need to be in some type of zone most the time, and to contain the deep ball it's best to be in either Cover 2 Man or Double Outs or sometimes Cover 4 but Cover 4 isn't very strong against the option. It is frustrating that such a great game has a flaw like this...every year, ever since NFL 2k1 online days, I have been praying for a game that had a good balance of realistic gameplay. I never got it from those games. I didn't get it from ESPN 2k4 or NCAA 2004 but those were definitely the closest to it. ESPN had far to many broken tackles, Ricky Williams up the middle or on the sweep all game, it doesn't matter if it's 3rd and 41, he'll get it. I won't even begin to talk about how bad Madden was last year... Actually though this year I think Madden may come out with the best gameplay, but it's going to be close between ESPN IMO, although obviously we'll have no idea until they're both out. Does anyone know if 20th is the ship date or when ESPN is actually in stores?

[PhilIvy16]

Has anyone tried to call cover 2 zones and just drop the safeties back a few yards before the snap, or call a cover audible deep? What about controling a deep saftety...putting him in position and then clicking off of him?

[kbell97]

Is it just me, I think it might be easier to throw the long ball against humans than the computer? what do you guys think?

[TrojanNole]

I really havent had anyone throw the long ball on my that much, maybe cause I AB him too much, but I know I will come across someone who will and I will be able to relate.

[Reese04]

What exactly is jetpacking, stoping short and just pressing Y?

[GaryGuanine]

PhilIvy,

I'll throw deep on a cover-2 zone all day. Just get the WR in front of the safety and jump.

kbell,

I think it is easier to throw it against a person. The computer has great stick control, and always has their guy in at least decent position. Player-controlled DBs too often go for a crappy animation to pick off the ball while your WR jumps in front of them.

Gary

[cccjw]

I'll throw deep on a cover-2 zone all day. Just get the WR in front of the safety and jump.


That why you have to take control of the saftey and move him up. Don't let the WR get into postion.

[funfootball]

Hard Hit them (PS2 L2 button) I haven't gotten beat long yet since taking this technique on. You must play with your safeties back though.

[GaryGuanine]

cccjw,

The best part -- just throw the ball when the receiver and safety are behind the scoreboard. It's really hard to click on a safety and move into position when you can't see until the last moment. The WR, on the other hand, goes toward a better position automatically, so you have to do less.

funfootball,

I'd imagine that'd work, though I haven't played with my friend yet. I'll bet that's the only solution.

Gary

[DR HOLLIDAY]

KBELL, a very cheesy response, which means, good point. It comes down to this, it doesnt matter what you are running, deep balls, run plays, screens, whatever.....But if the other person cant stop, THEY ARE GOING TO CALL YOU CHEESY NO MATTER WHAT!

I ran the SG-Y-Trips FL Screen on a guys about 4 times for 4 TD's, he called me cheesy, its not my fault he couldnt call the right defense at the right time to stop it....its not that hard...then.....he glitched me...aint that a *itch. LOL

Did you sub your fastest player at punter as well, LOL........ :D