Passes To the Flats

[d_neum80]

Is it me or are passes to the flats nearly impossible to complete??? I'm talking to both the WR's and the RB's. These should be the easiest passes to complete in the entire game, but yet it seems as if they are dropped nearly every time. Even when I press triangle like was stated in another thread, these passes are still dropped. But instead of making these very simple routes easy to complete, EA makes a 50 yd. bomb to a WR in double coverage easier to complete. What the hell were they thinking!!!! I would really like to get a short to intermediate passing game, but EA made it nearly impossible to do because either the defensive AI is all over the shorter routes or when you finally do get someone open, they drop it.

Sorry for this little outburst, but it is really starting to get annoying.

[fullflavor]

I feel your pain

[dmy365]

The passes to the flats (in real life) are much more difficult than they look. I think the game does a pretty good job of representing this. It's a throw that alot of college QBs have trouble making consistently and not all college RBs always make the catch.

[d_neum80]

The passes to the flats (in real life) are much more difficult than they look. I think the game does a pretty good job of representing this. It's a throw that alot of college QBs have trouble making consistently and not all college RBs always make the catch.

The game overly exaggerates the difficulty of a flat pass. You should easily be able to complete 75-80% of passes to the flat. In the game, from my experiences you complete around 10% of passess to the flat. I am a high school QB and the flat pass to the RB is featured quite a bit and we complete a high percentage of those passes. Sure you will have bad throws from the QB or drops by the RB, but not nearly 90% of the time. You should be able to complete flat passes for 5 yds. on a pretty consistent basis and you cannot do this in the game.

[dmy365]

I'm just not having a big problem throwing to the flats. Yes, it's harder than last year, but I don't believe it's unrealistic. If you throw the ball too hard, the pass will be off or dropped, throw too much of a lob and it gives the D too much time to get there.

I guess for me, a pass to the flats is NEVER option number one. I'm always looking downfield, with the flat pass in the back of my mind if the corner is in a soft zone (cover 3 or 4) or I see a blitz. For that reason my intended receiver is almost always wide open when I throw a swing pass. My FB is #2 on my team in receptions.

[mad_bomber]

Part of the problem is the type of routes that calls for the backs to go to the flats. Most of the pass routes for the backs call for them to "shoot" to the flats vs. swinging out to the flats. This would really come in handy for a spread offense.

[Gujuan]

I love this game but I hate it. The passes to the flats are basically nonexsistent. The thing is, in football when making reads on offense you have to throw the ball underneath as a check down. In NCAA 05, that's not the case. EA has made throwing the ball for bombs easier than a simple 2 yeard pass. Don't get me wrong, in last year's game it was probably to easy to complete passes to rb, but this S--T is ridiculas about this game. I have other issues with this game pertaining to the offense, but I will wait to see how Madden is before I detail them. I want to see if it's just NCAA 05 or the whole 05 football series that the offenses have problems.

[CrazyOldGuy]

I've all but eliminated the passes to the flats this year...athough I still like to use a pattern that has a player attacking this area. The deep middle IS WIDE OPEN on almost any given play.

I try to use a lot of outside cutting slants but have to agree with whoever mentioned in another post that 2k5 LBS seem to have REMARKABLE speed in covering these routes, if they aren't covering that the DB's speed from the deep thirds (when they cover the deep thirds ) is better than Deion Sanders ever had. I've studied the routes for the flats this year and they hare HORRIBLE, there is no bowing back for for the bubble, instead the receivers seem to be running a HORIZONTAL ARROW WITH THEIR BACKS COMPLETELY TURNED TO THE QB?????

I must disagree slightly :o with my friend DMY, historically short (emphasis short and quick if they are late passes he is 100% correct ) passes to the flats have some of the highest compeletion rates, so high that you will see many of these routes used by high schools were the talent is even more disperse. Spread Formation Bubble screens,West Coast HB Options, RNS Go routes, Bunch formation mesh routes are extremely reliable and so easy to throw your average grandma could probably do it :)

Deep fades like the ones we can hit almost at will in this game and wide field out routes have the lowest accuracy because they require tremendous touch and arm strength,traits extremely hard to find even in the NFL.

[mad_bomber]

I can tell you guys now that Madden 2005 doens't have this problem. I've been sneaking a few games in and wow! It's night and day between it and NCAA. The defense in Madden 05 is tough, but not in the sense of NCAA where the players have super human abilities. You can complete passes to the flats, slants, outs, etc. but the cpu really starts to mix it's coverages to take away your bread and butter. In the old days of Madden, EA would make it so that defensive linemen would bull over your offensive linemen and sack you or defensive backs would play like the ones currently in NCAA. Also, I've tried my best to jetpack and it's not there. The difference between Madden and NCAA 05 is almost unbelievable.

[Equalizer]

I am having tremendous success lately throwing to the flats.

My completion percentage went up a bit when I started to use the "Catch" button without taking controll of the rec. (as bomber reposted from another forum). I have still been sticking with passes to the flats and slowly I have probably raised my completion percentage to backs in the flat to maybe 80%.

After continuesly reading comments here about how tough they are to complete I started trying to pay more attention to what I am doing. I think I have the answer. When I am throwing most passes I am setting my feet - when I pass to the flat I am moving towords it when I pass.

I went into practice and did it over and over - running towords the rec. this seems to be what makes it work for me.

Let me know if this helps! :)

[dmy365]

I've all but eliminated the passes to the flats this year...athough I still like to use a pattern that has a player attacking this area. The deep middle IS WIDE OPEN on almost any given play.

I try to use a lot of outside cutting slants but have to agree with whoever mentioned in another post that 2k5 LBS seem to have REMARKABLE speed in covering these routes, if they aren't covering that the DB's speed from the deep thirds (when they cover the deep thirds ) is better than Deion Sanders ever had. I've studied the routes for the flats this year and they hare HORRIBLE, there is no bowing back for for the bubble, instead the receivers seem to be running a HORIZONTAL ARROW WITH THEIR BACKS COMPLETELY TURNED TO THE QB?????

I must disagree slightly :o with my friend DMY, historically short (emphasis short and quick if they are late passes he is 100% correct ) passes to the flats have some of the highest compeletion rates, so high that you will see many of these routes used by high schools were the talent is even more disperse. Spread Formation Bubble screens,West Coast HB Options, RNS Go routes, Bunch formation mesh routes are extremely reliable and so easy to throw your average grandma could probably do it :)

Deep fades like the ones we can hit almost at will in this game and wide field out routes have the lowest accuracy because they require tremendous touch and arm strength,traits extremely hard to find even in the NFL.

My mistake. When I was talking about flat passes and their difficulty in real life, I was thinking only about swing passes to the RBs. I didn't consider smash routes, mesh routes, etc. which are (and should be in the game) pretty simple to complete.

[Lew4osu]

Yes, it is harder to get receptions in the flats. However, if you remember or just didn't know, last year (ncaa 2004) passing to the flats was way too easy and near impossible to stop. So, alot of players began complaining and demanding that EA fix this for 2005. Well, EA fixed it by making the AI more aware in the flats. I say good job, to EA.

I am beggining to have some success in the flats. The key seems to be hot routes. Pick a play that has some slants in it. Then using hot route, send one or two inside receivers on inside post patterns. Then send one of your wide-outs straight up the field to force the safeties to pull back. Hike the ball and wait for the play to develope (receiver/s to get open). There will almost always be one open. If know one gets open in the flats, look down field (someone will be open). If you hit two or three plays deep, the AI will compensate. This will leave your flats wide open for attack.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Lew