Maddenbible.com Mad-Den #112

Here is another great Mad-den episode from maddenbible.com.

CrazyOldGuy's Run and Shoot pt.1

Over the years I have read lots of posts that have changed the way I thought about offense in madden/ncaa but this one is crazy good. It was the first write up that made me look at madden from a different angle

I will be posting bits of this thread from Maddentips.com
I will start from the top...enjoy
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The Run and Shoot for NCAA

DISCLAIMER/WARNING: While I have made these concepts work for me I make no claims that what I do will work for others, online or against the cpu. What I post in this thread maybe considered EXTREME CHEESE by the dairy judges or even MONEY PLAYS for those who have talent much richer than mine..


"Mouse Davis, June Jones and John Jenkins taught me the art of the passing game. Passing was never so much fun."~ Hall of Fame Quarterback Jim Kelly


"Fun Football leads to Optimistic football which proceeds into Positive football that gives birth to Winning football"~ Glenn "Tiger" Ellison, the inventor of the Run and Shoot

My intent in this thread is to merely pass along a way that I have found extremely fun to play the game. I hope by writing about my love for one particular style of offense that I can spur others into having has much fun with their style even if it isn't run and shoot. Study the game and love the game, it will make every football game enjoyable regardless of who is playing or the style of offense or defense they use. If you get one idea to tinker with than that will make this worth it for me. I take no credit for what is here these are the concepts I learned from others much greater and far more knowledgable in the game of football than I could ever wish to be. While I orginally wrote this thread for the NCAA05 version of the game, the routes and conversions remain almost identical in 06. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Finally thank you to Mad Bomber, VG Bert, Kobra and the rest of the VG gang for allowing us such a wonderful place to share our ideas.

So Let's have some fun! or "TEE IT UP AND DO THE DEAL" as Mouse would say!




Part 1: A Brief History of the Offense

In the 1950's, Tiger Ellison was a true believer in the power run game, but his Middletown Ohio football team was on the verge of its first losing season, something that was totally unacceptable. Ellison was about to lose his job, when on a weekend he watched a couple of grade schoolers playing a little school yard football. What he witnessed that day inspired in him one of the greatest football concepts of all time, the Run and Shoot Offense.

At first though, it started out in a crazy formation Ellison and his staff called Lonesome Polecat (Oh for a play editor)

LE.LT.LG.RG.RT.RE.............C...........
HB................................................ ......FB.....HB
.....................
.....................
.....................................QB


It saved the season for Ellison and the next year he decided to get a little more balance and somewhat more predicitable with the run and shoot formation that is now widely recognized.

WR........LT.LG.C.RG.RT...........WR
...........SB......Q......SB
....................FB


Ellison described this all in his ground breaking book Run and Shoot Football Offense of the Future, with Woody Hayes himself doing the forward. The reasons the book was revolutionary were it was the first time anyone had advocated early motion on every play, it was the first time anyone suggested using hand signals and the first time automatic adjustments were done based on how the defense aligned and the first time the offense attacked based on how the defense reacted. The attack was so adjustable Ellison explained that there were nights that they just couldn't figure out "how to turn it off".

The Ellison style offense was and is still highly succesful on the high school level. In the 1960s, though ,Darrel "Mouse" Davis begin to refine the system and make it even easier to execute while attacking the modern defenses that football was beginning to introduce. Davis had so much success that he went to Portland State University where coaching Neil Lomax and June Jones they rewrote the NCAA record books.

In the 1980s, Davis took the offense to the CFL and the USFL. His Houston Gamblers lead by Jim Kelly had legendary perfomances. The USFL folded but like many of the Hall of Fame players from that league the offense gained national recognition and during the late 80s and early 90s the offense spread like wildfire through out college and the NFL.

Davis himself coached both Detroit and Atlanta where both teams (to that time not exactly NFL powerhouses) were very successful in implementing his ideas.

Meanwhile Davis protege's Kevin Gilbride,John Jenkins and June Jones had great success at the college and pro levels. Currently almost every college and professional football team uses the concepts that Coach Ellison and Coach Davis brought to fruition over 40 years ago.

Like all football offenses it continues to evolve and continues to pose significant headaches for its opponents.

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Maddentips.com

Passing is most effective?

Every year you hear people talk about how it is useless to run the ball.Well that always gets a little chuckle out of me because passing the ball is really risky at times. I will break down how with an age old pro-con list.

Theres an old saying (well kind of old, 1980 ish) that says that there is only 1 good thing that can come from passing the ball...And whoever said that couldnt have been more right.

PASSING
Pros
- a completed pass (that could go the distance at any time)


Cons
-incomplete pass

•  The clock stops

-sack

• could cause fumble

-interception

Now once you take these "wonderful" outcomes and compare it to its run counter part

RUNNING

Pros
-clock stays running (if runner stays in bounds, not hard to do)

- simple to do, doesnt take much work to be good at

-3 yards and a cloud of dust. Runs can go the distance at any point and time


Cons
-fumbles

-loss of yards (which can be minimised, when it happens, by the type of run used)

Maybe I left a thing or two outin either section but its not hard to see which is really most effective. Early in the madden/ncaa year people really focus on the run game. But somewhere after the first month or so that gets lost. Whenever you feel yourself with a crazy run pass ratio remember this blog post

Onebacks Under Front Defense

I have been knee deep in X's and O's the last few weeks preping for this madden 12 season and I decided to share with you all a favorite thread of mine. This thread helped me learn the basics of a defense that I have taken quite a liking to.

Hopefully this thread can get your wheels turning justas it did mine


http://ncaastrategies.com/utopia/topic/73068-onebacks-under-front-defense/

Why Use the 46

Whats up guys, I have spent a little time over at Coach Huey and an interesting question wasa brought up. So I thought I would share some of the first few reponses
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Coaches,
I have been in an internal debate with myself over using a 4-6. I know a little bit of it and I also know that it has been used against me successfully. Can anyone shed some light on why they use it, especially versus a spread offense

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shuts down inside run game, puts pressure on
qb.

we just didn't have the kids to shut down the run
when people spread us out (or when they didn't,
for that matter). if your front can't stop the
run, don't matter what happens in the secondary.

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IMO, this particular defense is solid if you're coaching in a league dominated with teams that run the ball out of heavy sets. It's a very good defense in this aspect as the base alignment can be hard to block. But, this isn't a very flexible defense in terms of coverages and adaptability. You could end up overloading the kids if you're seeing a wide variety of offensive schemes because you'll end up bouncing around alot.

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Here's what we wanted when we went to it Back in the Day:

1. Pressure QB
2. Solid on inside
3. Eliminate Option
4. Turn Sweeps inside or at least buy time
5. Take away quick passes
6. Ability to change up Secondary
7. Good blitz and stunt package
8. Pre-snap movement
9. Versatility to meet Offensive strengths (stunts)
10. Match up all alignments


When you start thread about "Why to move away from/not run '46'-Bear (at HS level)" I'll get back to you on my experience with that.

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We went to it originally for a few reasons:

1. It was different, yet still sound. Teams had to prepare for a different look than they saw every other week. Since we weren't blessed with talent, we felt this would be a benefit to us.

2. The defense adapts to personnel. You can run the basic schem with 3, 4, or 5 Defensive Linemen. After we literally ran out of linebackers in an injury filled season running the 44 I vowed that would never happen again.

3. We had a ton of kids who could take up space without being game changers. We thought of all that offenses and defenses these kids had the best chance to help our squad as the TNTs of the Bear Front.

4. It is a {censored} to block. The TNT alignment stresses some things as the natural order of combo blocks or pulling is disrupted.

5. We were in a run dominated league and wanted to stack the line.

After two years the results varied. Year one was a successful transition and we played fairly solid defensively. Year two we saw more spread and partially due to staffing issues we suffered a bit more.

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Ok you have read the reponses, hopefully the opinions of real life coaches have tought you something. It really made me think about things.

If you want to read the whole thing head HERE!!!!

Onside Kicks

There wasa topic on Madden Bible were someone wanted to know the best way to recover onside kicks
http://www.forum.maddenbible.com/t4882-onside-kicks-in-ncaa-12

And that really got me thinking about the whole onside kick thing myself. If you read the responses you will see where Megatron posted his response of

"

Best bet is to get into practice.. In practice, hit start and select practice option ,then practice type, then KO...

Obviously switch to ko team..

Ftw... U should be labbing so u never resort to onside kicks!!!! Lol"

And I agree 100% with this response. Forst of all you must get in practice mode. No way that someone tells you is sure to work for you.

why?

Because every kicker is different. They all have different kick power and acc. Thus onepersons "sweet spot" may not be yours.

You have to get in practice mode yourself and see how that ball bounces, tinker with power and angles and find yourself your own "sweet spot". There are no short cuts when it comes to onside kicks.

Now I also agree with Megatrons second point. If the game comes down to you needing onside kicks then you will more than likely lose. If you handle your business in the first 3 3/4th quarters than you wont be in that position.

Lab so that you will win, and not so that you will need to rely on a onside kick where even if you hit that sweet spot can still be negated if anyone of 3 players (if usered) will negate the good kick.

But if you want a place to start in practice mode, under is a video of how to onside kick in Madden 11. Like I said earlier, if a player is udered on the return team it can be negated. But heres a start