How do you stop this?????

[djal]

I played online last week, my opponent used Ohio State. He would roll out to the left, then stop when defenders got close, and throw a bullet pass back to the right side of field. What made this so hard to defend is the reciever would be about 15 yards up field but so far on the right hand side that he was off the screen. So you could not see him to defend him. He would appear on the edge of the screen right as he catches the ball. A lot of the time it would be Ginn, but not all of the time. IT would be a bullet pass, and the reciever never dropped it.

[djwill13]

In most cases such as this, you've got to manually blitz him from one side and let the computer blitz from the other. Personally, in situations such as this, I'll manually blitz a corner (dime 3-2-6 is a wonderful defense for this), but I'll shift my line over to the opposite direction that I'm blitzing from and stunt them away from me as well. Reason being, most people sill slide their protection towards the manual blitzer (most people will also roll away from the manual blitzer, so by shifting and slanting your line in the opposite direction of the manual blitz, you're still keeping contain. Doesn't hurt to bring another blitzer [corner blitz] coming to help keep pressure as well on the same side of the slanted line).

A lot of the stuff you see online is hard to defend because it's hard to practice against online. The more you play online, the more wild and crazy antics you start to see.

[djal]

Thanks, that is good advice about blitzing the QB. I already do some of that. However, the focus of my question is defending that pass. The reciever is off the screen when he throws it, so it is hard to try to intercept it, knock it down, or deliver the big hit to make him drop it.

[djwill13]

Thanks, that is good advice about blitzing the QB. I already do some of that. However, the focus of my question is defending that pass. The reciever is off the screen when he throws it, so it is hard to try to intercept it, knock it down, or deliver the big hit to make him drop it.
As for that aspect of it, make sure your best corner/safety is covering to the side that he throws to most often. This next step is pretty risky, but will help (it's about the only thing you can do IMO).

Take control of that corner/safety once the ball is in the air. Run to the spot of the circle and click off of him.

It's a risky move b/c you don't know how the CPU will react, but he'll probably make a better play on it than you will.

[TnGolf22]

Djal,

Is he (Ginn) running one of those "deep comeback" routes? WR runs a streak then breaks back but toward the sideline?

[djal]

Djal,

Is he (Ginn) running one of those "deep comeback" routes? WR runs a streak then breaks back but toward the sideline?

No,he running toward the goal line when he catches it.

Take control of that corner/safety once the ball is in the air. Run to the spot of the circle and click off of him
Thats the problem, there is no circle, because he was not even on the screen, by the time the reciever and the circle came into "view" he was already catching the ball. From the time of the throw ( or before the throw) and the time of the catch, the reciever is off the screen. I could have 3 guys around him and he still would make the catch every time. I would tackle him almost immediately, but he would gain around 15 yards.

Again, he would take the quarterback and roll all the way to the sideline. and then bullet the pass back across the field. YOu can't even see what route that reciever ran.

[rhombic21]

I would think that if you used DJ's strategy to keep the QB from getting to the sideline, then the second part of it wouldn't be an issue.

Here's what you might try doing.

Dime - Crash Gold.

Crash the DL to the side that he doesn't run to.

Hot route the FS to shade over to the side that he throws to.

Bump and run coverage could be a possibility.

Manually control the blitzer and rush him upfield at an angle where you force the QB to stay in the pocket. Make sure that you stay wide and don't engage a blocker.

Now, the problem with that is that he's probably going to run all over you. Also, if the blitz doesn't get there, then you could be in some trouble downfield.

But if you have a fairly fast OLB, you could use the same basic strategy, but do it from the 4-3. If he's not throwing to the slot WRs, then there's no reason to match up to them. Make him throw to his #3 and #4 WRs against your LBs and Safeties before you honor them.

Even in man coverage, the OLB on the playside will do pretty good against HB directs and speed options.

Another thing that you could try is coming with some sort of safety blitz off the edge from a zone look. Bring a safety off one side and a LB or DB off the other. The only thing with this is that you absolutely have to control the safety, because the AI is retarded and runs those guys into the middle of the line, rather than bringing them around off the edge. And you pretty much have to get instant pressure, or he can kill you with the bullet lob.

Another blitz that was one of my favorites was:

Nickel - Storm Red

Bump and run (do this first if you're going to do it).

Spread the DL (don't loop)

Manually take the blitzing safety and place him between the OG and the OT, at about LB depth.

Control the other safety to cheat on any deep ball.

You can do a similar thing from the 4-3 Under package - Storm red.

Move the SS down on the LOS, outside the DE (like a blitzing slot CB).

Move the blitzing LB over so that he's between the OG and the OT.

Don't touch the DL.

Control the FS to help on deep balls.

Lots of times the Safety gets in completely untouched and the QB can't do anything, and if he tries to run, usually the safety will track him down, especially with the DE having outside leverage. The 4-3 version should be pretty good against the run as well, and this time the OLB gets in untouched, and forces him right to the SS.

But if he knows what he's doing, you're pretty well ****ed on this. If he doesn't know what he's doing, then you have a chance to stop him by taking away the one thing that he wants to do (scramble and throw deep).

The problem is that you can't control both blitzers and guys dropping off into coverage at the same time, and the AI sucks so bad with either of them that whichever one you don't control will **** up. If the AI would ****ing speed rush around the edge, you could control a guy in coverage. If the AI dropped into the right zones with coverage, you could control a blitzer. But you can't do both.

The best answer to the deep ball on this game is to get pressure. If you get pressure you'll get sacks and force turnovers. I would recommend blitzing every down against these guys unless it's an extremely long yardage situation (3rd and 20+). Then you want to go Cover 2 Man, spread + Loop the line, and bump and run, controlling a safety to pick up anybody that gets off the bump. My philosophy was "I'd rather die aggressively than die passively." If he beats you with a few big plays but you force a few big plays of your own, that's better than just sitting back and him still beating you with big plays, but never being forced into a mistake.

[ROCKZILLA]

Thats the problem, there is no circle, because he was not even on the screen.

Dude might have a wide screen tv and have the camera view set to wide screen or even overhead view. That would allow him to see to whole field while joes like us stare at our classic view box and utter "how the hell can he do that"?!! :p