Adding a formation/scheme to your offense?

[Smash]

I'm fairly comfortable with a single formation for my offense and a few other plays from multiple other formations. However, I'd like to add a formation/scheme to my offense.

How do you guys pick the formation you want to add, choose the plays, then lab the plays you choose?

There are just so many formations and so many plays to pick from I don't know where to start.

Thanks,

Smash

[WFColonel]

depends what you want to do.

how do you want to play?

do you want a formation that complements the other formation you have in your scheme?

do you want a formation that is opposite of your already established formation?

you have to sit down and think what you want to do. Once you do that just look in your playbook and see what formation can deliver that and then get to work breaking it down

[Smash]

Currently, I'm running about 60-70% of my plays from Strong Close. I feel fairly comfortable running and have a few pass plays I feel comfortable with my reads. I have about a 60/40 run/pass ration using the Jets playbook with the Bears.

I sprinkle in some plays from I-form Tackle over inside the redzone or to run clock when needed and have 2 passing plays from SG Snugs I use to try downfield (Bench and Jets Slot Post). I also run from Snugs as well, mostly the draw.

I was looking to incorporate the Gun Bunch Wk to add some pop downfield against zone coverage. I play strictly offline seasons against the CPU and see a lot of zone. I know the bunch formations are inherently good against zone and was wondering everyone's process to incorporate several plays from a single formation.

How do you go about choosing plays from a formation? Do you focus a lot on the formation audibles then maybe one or two more plays? I also see a lot of guys who have several setups for the same play.

I really need to add just a couple of plays at a time because I'm pretty horrible at making reads I just feel like my base offense is my only offense and looking to expand but feel kinda stuck.

[o Cpt ViDeO o]

The easiest way imo is to learn the "entire" playbook and know it like the back of your hand...The payoff?

Adjust ability vs any opponent based on the defense your going against....

Some players nano/blitz a lot, some play velcro 10/11, and some play both...When you adjust, mentally you will have loads of plays to attack those defenses, but only when you know all your plays, makes the game much easier.

[Str1fe5]

I use the Gun Bunch Wk in both my custom and in the ARI pb online. My favorite play out of it is the Z spot route against Zone (Cover 2, 3, 4, 6, doesn't really matter, I'll explain below) and vs man coverage. If I feel they are bringing the house (6+) I'll user block the inside slot receiver and the Tailback, hot route the top split receiver to a streak route and the outside slot receiver and backside slot receiver both on curls (if man) and one of them on a slant (if zone).

If you see two safeties over the top, and the defenders move from the outside in, then you know it's a 2 high zone concept, which means either cover 2,cover 4, or cover 6. Most cpu defenses are probably going to stick in cover 2. This is when I like to run Z spot. The only hot routes I do on that play are usually the backside receiver to a curl in case it's man (curl routes are tough for the cpu to stop vs. man this year) and the "spot" route (the outside slot receiver) to a streak. This gives you a "Flood" Concept against the zone with a flat receiver occupying the yellow hook zone and blue flat zone together, and it puts pressure on the deep safety but attacking it with two vertical routes with the corner and streak combination. The first read is typically that corner route. The flat route should suck in the underneath defenders and the streak route should occupy the deep safety, leaving a nice wide open throwing lane for the corner route.

The Cover 4 is more difficult to hit the corner route on. Because there are 4 deep zones in coverage, there are two defenders covering the deep area of the field. Theoretically this should easily occupy both the streak and corner routes open. But the AI generally isn't smart enough to break on the ball before it's there. So as long as the defense isn't shaded out, you should be able to time the corner route properly.

Cover 6 is tricky. If you run the play against the strong side of the coverage, there's both a deep blue zone and a purple buzz zone, which will pretty much shout down your streak/corner combination. However, that will leave the flat defender open for a nice 4-5 yard gain without breaking a tackle. So you should probably look at the corner to start your play. If he back pedals out of the flat area, you know it's cover 6 and just dump down to your flat route. If he gets sucked in by the flat defender, that should leave your corner route open.

If it's back side, then you've basically got got a cover 2 coverage, except with a hook zone replacing the flat defender. The flat route should still suck down the 2 hook zones as he goes by, and you should be able to hit that corner route.

Cover 3 is the easiest for this play to beat. You know it's cover 3 if there is a single high safety and the zone defenders start outside and move in. Personally I'd motion out the slot receiver on the streak route in this case. He'll run that deep outside defender right out of the play and you'll have a wide open corner route. You can still do this out of the bunch look, but sometimes the middle blue defender will take the streak route and you'll need to be more patient and have a less easy throwing lane to hit the corner route.

Against man coverage, I like to run "tight mesh." It has the same corner route as the Spot route, although this time it's the outside receiver running the corner instead of the top split end. The play is good stock. Just wait for the receiver to cross in the middle and hit the receiver whose covering defender gets rubbed off. You can also hot route the Z spot route into this mesh combination by either hot routing the backside receiver and really any of the bunched receivers to drag routes, or by hot routing the running back to an in route out of the back field.

The other thing you can do against man is not hot route the spot route on the outermost right slot receiver, and just motion him out and hiking it quickly. Work on the timing, but there are videos online that will show how any route that has diagonal angle that breaks inside can roast man coverage if it motions out. Motion him out, he'll break inside, there'll be a little hitch move but if you lead pass him inside he'll have separation from the defender. If you're going to do this, you *might* want to hot route the inside slot receiver to an inside breaking route instead of the flat route so that he doesn't drag another defender into the area and create more traffic.

If you don't have Z Spot in the Jets PB out of Gun Bunch Wk, you can do this out of Tight Mesh or any route that has a flat route and a corner route. You can't hot route those routes (slant out isn't as effective this year). Obviously if you don't have the spot route you can't do that last nifty motion out, but you will be able to use the mesh concept by hot routing it or already having it stock if you use the tight mesh play.

Hope this helps.

[BoShowRo]

good lookin out str1fe!