rhombic21
11-27-2007, 09:43 PM
I have played a bunch of online games against "Cheesers", and I have developed a base scheme that I find to be very useful against most cheese offenses. It's basically a 3 play base defense and against most of the random people that I play, I will stay within these 3 plays for the bulk of the game in normal down and distances (not third and long or short yardage) against non-spread (4+ WR) and non-power (0 WR) sets. I set all of these plays in my audible, plus Cover 2 Man and a basic Cover 3 zone, all out of 4-3 Normal. Generally I can make adjustments to these plays rather than trying to find other plays. They basically allow me to stop 1) Most Option Plays, 2) Most of the Play Action stuff that people use, 3) Most of the common pass plays and scramble plays that people use.
1) Buzz Weak. IMO, this is the most under-utilized cheese stopping play on the game. Great against I form triple option. Virtually everytime I see a 2 RB set, I go to this play at least early on. Pinch and crash the line. Manually move the safety with the flat assignment down near the LOS so that he's closer to the flat. Flip the play so that the Safety Flat assignment is always to the wide side of the field. It's moderately weak against the scramble, but because your SS is in the flat that contains scramble somewhat, and usually a DL will be chasing from behind. Has a 3 deep zone coverage scheme on the back end that will hold up on most downfield throws. The wideside flat assignment also stops most of your HB flares and PA passes to the TE or FB leaking to the flat. This defense is mostly successful against formations with a strongside and a weakside, or if the offense is on one of the hashmarks. Not so great from the middle. The one adjustment that you can make if the ball is in the middle of the field is to manually hot route the backside LB to a flat assignment, which gives you a basic cover 3 scheme. Defense is solid against almost all running plays, except weakside tosses (another reason why it's mostly good from one hash). It gives you an 8 man near the LOS look versus the run game. I generally take the weakside safety and shade towards the weakside in case of a backside run. I leave the CBs on an island and play up near the intermediate area, generally picking up a slot or TE, or any kind of intermediate route over the middle.
2) Cover 2 Buc. Great conservative pass coverage. Especially great against shotgun sets. Anytime I see 3 WR I go to this play, and anytime I see shotgun I go to this play. Only adjustment that I make is that I hot route the wide side DE to contain. If ball is in the middle of the field, hot both DEs to contain. I generally control the strong side OLB. It's weak over the short middle, but you can free-lance with the OLB to manually cover some of the underneath stuff, or at least put some off color jersey in the area and make the opponent hesistant. Great against Shotgun 3 WR 2 RB Slot Cross, or any of the variants (RB goes to flat, slot runs intermediate drag, sometimes it involves a TE running an out) If you've played online against a mobile QB, you've seen this concept.
3) OLB Fire Man. Great against 1 back option plays. Great against play action. Great against balanced singleback sets. Not so good against 2 back sets. Decent as a man to man pressure play. The main adjustment that I make is that I loop my line (don't spread, just loop out). Against 2 TE sets, like Ace Big, I take the strongside safety and move him down so that he's about 1-2 yards outside the TE's shoulder, at about OLB depth. Manually control other safety. Pass commit basically every down. Sacks galore on play action. This is my go to defense against ace sets, particularly with a fast QB that's an option defense. I generally don't bump and run, because bump and run makes you vulnerable to slants and streaks, and while most people don't throw slants, and they generally don't have time to throw streaks, there's really just no reason to bump and run from a Cover 0 blitz with no safety deep, since the CBs on this game are so ridiculous at jumping short passes.
I get people all the time asking how to stop this, or how to stop that. My advice is to take whatever defensive playbook that you use (4-3, 3-4, 3-3-5, 4-2-5, Multiple), it doesn't matter. Find plays like the ones above. Basically you're looking for one play that's a good run stopping play (key is that it has to stop both interior runs and option runs) and is fairly balanced against the deep pass, one play that can contain a scrambling QB and the quick pass to the flats while still giving deep help in the passing game, and one play that's your aggressive man to man scheme which can stop play action and preferably singleback options, and can get good heat on the QB. Now, when people start going spread all game, or come out in jumbo sets all game, then you've got to look for other defenses that stop those things.
Most of the people on this game are not very good playcallers. Most of them only work a few concepts, and do so in fairly predictable ways. Your average online player only runs 3 or 4 formations, and probably stays within a base of 10-15 plays. Don't out-think yourself by trying to get too cute on defense with mixing things up. When you find stuff that shuts down their core concepts, and get to a space where you can a good feel for how they're calling plays, you're in pretty good shape defensively. Save the intricate stuff for specialized situations (third and long, end of game/prevent, etc...). The fact is that a whole bunch of the defensive plays on this game are just terrible and never work, so mixing things up too much just makes more problems.
1) Buzz Weak. IMO, this is the most under-utilized cheese stopping play on the game. Great against I form triple option. Virtually everytime I see a 2 RB set, I go to this play at least early on. Pinch and crash the line. Manually move the safety with the flat assignment down near the LOS so that he's closer to the flat. Flip the play so that the Safety Flat assignment is always to the wide side of the field. It's moderately weak against the scramble, but because your SS is in the flat that contains scramble somewhat, and usually a DL will be chasing from behind. Has a 3 deep zone coverage scheme on the back end that will hold up on most downfield throws. The wideside flat assignment also stops most of your HB flares and PA passes to the TE or FB leaking to the flat. This defense is mostly successful against formations with a strongside and a weakside, or if the offense is on one of the hashmarks. Not so great from the middle. The one adjustment that you can make if the ball is in the middle of the field is to manually hot route the backside LB to a flat assignment, which gives you a basic cover 3 scheme. Defense is solid against almost all running plays, except weakside tosses (another reason why it's mostly good from one hash). It gives you an 8 man near the LOS look versus the run game. I generally take the weakside safety and shade towards the weakside in case of a backside run. I leave the CBs on an island and play up near the intermediate area, generally picking up a slot or TE, or any kind of intermediate route over the middle.
2) Cover 2 Buc. Great conservative pass coverage. Especially great against shotgun sets. Anytime I see 3 WR I go to this play, and anytime I see shotgun I go to this play. Only adjustment that I make is that I hot route the wide side DE to contain. If ball is in the middle of the field, hot both DEs to contain. I generally control the strong side OLB. It's weak over the short middle, but you can free-lance with the OLB to manually cover some of the underneath stuff, or at least put some off color jersey in the area and make the opponent hesistant. Great against Shotgun 3 WR 2 RB Slot Cross, or any of the variants (RB goes to flat, slot runs intermediate drag, sometimes it involves a TE running an out) If you've played online against a mobile QB, you've seen this concept.
3) OLB Fire Man. Great against 1 back option plays. Great against play action. Great against balanced singleback sets. Not so good against 2 back sets. Decent as a man to man pressure play. The main adjustment that I make is that I loop my line (don't spread, just loop out). Against 2 TE sets, like Ace Big, I take the strongside safety and move him down so that he's about 1-2 yards outside the TE's shoulder, at about OLB depth. Manually control other safety. Pass commit basically every down. Sacks galore on play action. This is my go to defense against ace sets, particularly with a fast QB that's an option defense. I generally don't bump and run, because bump and run makes you vulnerable to slants and streaks, and while most people don't throw slants, and they generally don't have time to throw streaks, there's really just no reason to bump and run from a Cover 0 blitz with no safety deep, since the CBs on this game are so ridiculous at jumping short passes.
I get people all the time asking how to stop this, or how to stop that. My advice is to take whatever defensive playbook that you use (4-3, 3-4, 3-3-5, 4-2-5, Multiple), it doesn't matter. Find plays like the ones above. Basically you're looking for one play that's a good run stopping play (key is that it has to stop both interior runs and option runs) and is fairly balanced against the deep pass, one play that can contain a scrambling QB and the quick pass to the flats while still giving deep help in the passing game, and one play that's your aggressive man to man scheme which can stop play action and preferably singleback options, and can get good heat on the QB. Now, when people start going spread all game, or come out in jumbo sets all game, then you've got to look for other defenses that stop those things.
Most of the people on this game are not very good playcallers. Most of them only work a few concepts, and do so in fairly predictable ways. Your average online player only runs 3 or 4 formations, and probably stays within a base of 10-15 plays. Don't out-think yourself by trying to get too cute on defense with mixing things up. When you find stuff that shuts down their core concepts, and get to a space where you can a good feel for how they're calling plays, you're in pretty good shape defensively. Save the intricate stuff for specialized situations (third and long, end of game/prevent, etc...). The fact is that a whole bunch of the defensive plays on this game are just terrible and never work, so mixing things up too much just makes more problems.