Mike Leach Does It... You Can To

Every Coach in the NCAA/NFL has a play call sheet. Not saying you NEED ONE, but it sure is helpful.

But what I have found out is the Mike Leach (as seen up top) puts Circles ( 0 ) next to plays that he ran that were successful. He also puts X's (X) next to plays that were not successful

Now Why Would He Do That?

I dont know exactly why he does but I can sure name reasons why people would...
1. Tells him what works

2. Lets him know what didnt work...not so that he wont run it again, but just so he knows the defense played it well the first time. So he can be wary next time 

3. A few coaches take a list of the "circle plays" and use those plays to script the first drive in the 2nd half of the game

How Can You Use It In Madden?
1. again to tell you what worked and what didnt...

2. Its written down so you dont have to worry about remembering. Thats really kinda big in my opinion... For some guys that alone will get them to focus more on playing than remembering

3. You can use that list to work on your schemes after games. Yeah it isnt helping you in game, but in the end it is helping you more. At least thats the way I see it.

So this is just an idea/tool that you yourself could use, if you want to. I think that it could help a lot of people.

Tell me what you think about this in the comments....does it help, is it not useful, whats your thoughts?

xWkDcLwNx: Getting into your Offense/Defense

I was browsing http://ncaastrategies.com/utopia/ and I came accross a great post by xWkDcLwNx (a poster). I feel the need to share it with you guys

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FOR THE ATTACHMENTS THAT COME WITH THIS THREAD CLICK HERE  

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Generally every year, I go back and start figuring out what offense or defense to start out with in the newest edition of the game. Last year, I focused heavily on the Air Raid going for a 180 from running the Flexbone the year before last. Well, this year is no different. I had to start all over again getting into game and Im going to share the tools I used to do so. 

1st - Playbook - What style of offense/defense do you want to implement this year? What kind of personnel is required to run that style? What teams (base rosters) fit that personnel? Most people jump right into online play without thinking about none of the above. They jump right into the mix and come out with skid marks all over them. Think heavly about what you want to achieve and goals for doing so.

2nd - Practice - How do you expect to run an offense/defense without learning all of the new tricks of that scheme?
I see alot of people pick up offenses and defenses without practing at all, and if you force them outside of their usual bag of tricks, then they start to panic and go beserk. You must put the time in and here is some steps for you to follow. 

A. Learn your PB - Below I posted a Formation Audible's sheet for anyone to use to go through your intended playbook and learn the Audibles of each formation, Unusal Package Subs to throw a curveball at your opponent, combining sets of Personnel together to form groupings, and a place to derive audible schemes to keep you on the fly. I highly recommend you print one out and sit down and learn the PB. Go through every formation and see how subs can help you fit personnel into just about any of your favorite formations (thanks to PSUEagle for showing me alot of subs on 11 that tie into 12). Group your personnel together, there is no need to have 1,2,2 - 3,1,1 - 4,1,0 randomly tossed all over a pb, fit them together for easy retrieval. Learn some audible tricks. I.E. if I audible from Strong I Close into SG Bunch - I am able to put my TE in as Slot Receiver and abuse a usual matchup of LB vs TE, or I-Slot into SG Bunch to put my Slot receiver against a slow LB. 

B. Put a PC Sheet together - Nothing helps out someone new to an offense more than a good PC Sheet. Once you have your main schemes and ideas together, pull them together to one coherent offense. The sheet I have posted allowes you to form your base offense by identifying base runs, screens, play action, man/press beaters, and zone beaters. Then you can derive a set scheme to use in different yardage situations to fit your style. You can also set different schemes to attack the defense in the red zone, and formulate a 2 minute drill that is fool proof.

C. Get to know your defense - Now im working on a sheet for you to get into a habit of checking your defensive personnel versus what you intend on running. I cannot turn a team with 1 good safety that runs a 3-4 into a team that runs the 4-2-5, but based on the defensive line, I could chose to run a 4-4 defense. You have to get used to looking at this. Now Custom Defensive PBs are really starting to make me feel like Wile E. Coyote trying to burn the Road Runner with EA's version of an ACME Rocket, but I havent given in. I am a true believer in an audible system on both sides of the ball, so it pays to know your formation audibles too. 

D. Know that you know youe personnel and the defense to fit them, put together a PC sheet for your defense. Fit together your base zone coverage, man assignments, and blitzes into a situation scheme to best fit any time of the game. You can also focus on what works best in the red zone and what can get those rare Goal Line stops. I also put a section in for you to derive a scheme of FAG D's to combat the cheese, so when someone wants to cheese you, you can shut em down and be called a fag. 

So tryem out... tell me what you think.. and feel free to post completed versions for others to get basic ideas on. Ive also attached my Pitt PC from 2011 so that you can get the idea of how I put mine together.

NYKIA: Pocket Presence and Reading Coverage

Another great youtube video by NYKIA. In this video he is talking about Pocket Presence and Reading coverage...(hence the title)

So check out the video below.

AND MAKE SURE TO SUBSCRIBE TO HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL Click Here !!!!!!

NCAA 12: NY_KIA31'S 3-3-5 STACK BREAK DOWN PART 2: STACK

Whats up guys im back again with some more of NYKIAs 335 stack.. If you havent seen the first instalment you will want to check it out

Part 1

And again guys, if you havent subbed to NYKIA's youtube page Here!!!! you will want to do so. He is a guy who really knows what he is talking about.

Now on to part 2

CrazyOldGuy's Run and Shoot pt.7

This is the final chapter to an epic series.....Its been a fun ride, enjoy this final chapter
maddentips.com
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Plese read these previous posts before reading this one
CrazyOldGuy's Run and Shoot pt.1
CrazyOldGuy's Run and Shoot pt.2
CrazyOldGuy's Run and Shoot pt3
CrazyOldGuy's Run and Shoot pt4
CrazyOldGuy's Run and Shoot pt5
CrazyOldGuy's Run and Shoot pt6

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PART 7: A BRIEF discussion of Screens and Future Concepts

This one's going to be relatively brief.Like the running game, the screen packages have long been a part of the run and shoot.


I use the screens out of trips and balanced shotgun spread formations. We've also talked about the Slot Screen as one of our automatic adjustments.

Again I don't make a lot of adjustments but feel free to use any combination of "hot routes". It does seem like screens are little harder to hit this year and I tend to drop qb back more and allow the time necessary for the S back to get open.

A couple of concepts on the screen. From Shotgun Spread, don't be afraid to motion W over and throw the screen to the Strengthside of the formation.

X...........LT.LG.C.RG.RT...............Z
.........W>>>>>>>>>>>W....Y
..................Q.S


For both this play and the Trips Slot Screen, if you have a good running qb don't be to roll him to the backside (toward X) and take off if you see man coverage, if you decide to do this just forget about going back tothrow the screen, I've never had enough luck with it to make this an accurate pass.

SOME FUTURE CONCEPTS

Really this is an open ended conversation because I think as we discuss the run and shoot A LOT OF YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE BETTER IDEAS THAN I HAVE, so don't be afraid to share them!!!! I remember over on the old Strategies site we really had a terrific thread going and I learned SOOOO MUCH from Bomber,Bronco, REV and so many others who contributed. MY WAY IS NOT THE ONLY WAY. Feel free to test and tinker with it see if you can find something better.

I just want to reiterate that plays I have mentioned are only suggestions. For example the switch route, there is a great switch route in Flexbone Slot, as well as Shotgun Spread. I'm always checking to see if another play will work better.

A concept I discussed with VTHOK, was the idea of a universal calls, these would be plays that we can call that give us 2 good run and shoot plays without using a lot of hot routes, but if we can use hot routes then we only add to the potential. As I said if I get enough of them together I'll post them.

Passing Concepts I'm working on are a Switch Choice, A Switch Go and a play that I call Camden. I'm also working on the double screen from Shotgun Wide (Thanks for the tip AIR RAID!!).

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

Just wrapping up the series of post here guys. I'd love to see it continue on for as long as you want to.

I don't make any claims or boast about how effective this offense is especially against the toughest of all competition, human opponents in our living room or on line, I've made it work for me against the computer and lower levels at that!!! I don't have any doubt that if I played all of you I would thoroughly get my butt whipped.

That said I take it as a huge compliment that many of you are trying to implement my ideas. Don't get frustrated if it doesn't seem things are clicking right away, in all honesty I've been trying to run the run and shoot in video games since Madden came out for Sega. Some games, I was absolutely horrible at it. I must confess, I'm a true believer (a zealot if you will) in this offense and I'm going to do everything I can to make it work. But if you tried and it just doesn't work than don't pound your head against the wall!

There are other offensive systems out there for you to try, who knows maybe you are great wishbone guy or a great west coast offense guy find your niche and if you really enjoy what you are doing than PLEASSSSEE post it!!!!

Good luck everybody, I'll try to answer any questions you may have.

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maddentips.com

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To read the whole thread click here

NCAA 12: NY_KIA31'S 3-3-5 STACK BREAKDOWN PT 1: OVERVIEW

Here is the start to a great breakdown of the 3-3-5 in Ncaa 12 by my dude NYKIA.

Heres a brief run down of NYKIA

- Know a ton about X's & O's

- Really high on the Cover 2 Buc

- Air Raid/Run and Shoot Offense kind of guy

- An avid visitor of ncaastrategies.com

- A great Youtuber 

- Played High School Ball

- Favors NCAA, although he plays madden and apf2K8

Thats all I can think about for now so lets get this thing going.....Take it away NYKIA!!!!

Look out for Part 2 soon

Applying the THIS effect to your defense

What is the This Effect?

THIS is their offense...
THIS is why they do it....
THIS is what gives them fits....
THIS is how we can lock this up.....

Now lets break this down and show you how it can help your defense

This is their offense

You observe pre game (if you can) or during game. And you better do it post game if you got beat. 

You better be able to tell the opponent what their offense is (not litterally specking). But you have to know what they are doing to stop it. 

This is why they do it

During the course of a game (or pre game if you have the chance) you will be able to see why they do what they do. 

Ex: they motion the HB out to the slot to gain separation from the LBs

EX: they are hot routing players to get a rub where 1 players route is un covered

Again its just observation, but it is key to figuring out how to stop what they are doing.

This is what gives them fits

This is either learned by watching previous games (if possible) or in game..Its trial and error in game. If you play around enough you will find a chink in the armor. 

This is trial and ERROR!!!!! I cant stress this enough guys. And the more in game reps vs something the quicker you will adapt and find what gives them fits.

This is how we can lock this up

This is just a culmination of all of the above things... You take all of your observations and work through your trial and error. After that you will know what you need to do to put the squeeze on the offense. You may need to use what gives them fits and adjust coverage and so on but just expand on the observations that you picked up


Tell me what you think about the This Effect in the comments!!!!

How To Beat The Eagles Defense Breakdown

Here you will see a basic breakdown on how I will attack the eagles defense in madden 12

constraint plays? (smartfootball.com)

Here is a good read from smartfootball.com

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What kind of offense should you (or do you) run? A typical responses sounds something like: “I run a system with bubble screens, play action passes, screens, and draws.” This is a nonsensical answer. That’s not an offense; it’s a collection of plays. An offense consists of what are your base runs, base dropback passes, base options, or whatever else are your base, core plays. The other plays I mentioned are not your offense, they are constraints on the defense, or “constraint plays.”

The idea is that you have certain plays that always work on the whiteboard against the defense you hope to see — the pass play that always works against Cover 3, the run play that works against the 4-3 under with out the linebackers cheating inside. Yes, it is what works on paper. But we don’t live in a perfect world: the “constraint” plays are designed to make sure you live in one that is as close as possible to the world you want, the world on the whiteboard.

Constraint plays thus work on defenders who cheat. For example, the safety might get tired of watching you break big runs up the middle, so he begins to cheat up. Now you call play-action and make him pay for his impatience. The outside linebackers cheat in for the same reason; to stop the run. Now you throw the bubble screen, run the bootleg passes to the flat, and make them pay for their impatience. Now the defensive ends begin rushing hard upfield; you trap, draw, and screen them to make them pay for getting out of position. If that defensive end played honest your tackle could block him; if he flies upfield he cannot. Constraint plays make them get back to basics. Once they get back to playing honest football, you go back to the whiteboard and beat them with your bread and butter.

In a given game your offense might look like it is all “constraint” plays: all gimmicks, screens, traps, draws, fakes and the like. Maybe so, if that’s what the defense deserves. But you can’t lose sight of the structure of your offense. Just because the bubbles, the flares, the fakes, and other gimmicks are your best offense for a couple of weeks doesn’t mean that it will be there. Indeed, the best defense against that kind of stuff is simply a sound one. Thus great offenses must be structure around sound, time tested core ideas, but have the flexibility to go to the “constraint plays” whenever the opportunity exists. Too often, the constraint plays are alternatively given too much and not enough weight. But they nevertheless are what make an offense go.

If you’re a dropback pass team — think of the Airraid guy— you need constraint plays that counteract defenses that cheat for the passes. If you’re a great run team, you need constraints that attack safeties and linebackers who all cheat by formation and post-snap effort to stop your run game. You must have the counters, the screens, the bootlegs, and the quick passes, which work best when the defense gives you the structure. All this comports well with a game theory approach to football. Indeed, these constraint plays are most important against the best teams because those teams put the biggest premium on taking away what you hang your hat on. (But be wary of constraint plays against very talented teams — they may be stuffing your core offense not because they are cheating, but instead because they are better than you; the constraint plays then play into their hands.)

The upshot is that a good offense must: (a) find those one or two things on which it will hang its hat on to beat any “honest” defense — think of core pass plays, options, and so on, but also (b) get good at all those little “constraint” plays which keep the defense playing honest. You won’t win any championships simply throwing the bubble screen, but the bubble will help keep you from losing games when the defense wants to crush your run game. Same goes for draws and screens if you’re a passing team. You find ways to do what you want and put your players in position to win and score.

Designing an offense is all about structure. Constraint plays, like the bubble, work when the defense gives you the play by their structure; same for play-action passes over the top. When I say these are defensive cheats, I mean they aren’t the base, whiteboard defenses you expect, because defenses — both players and coaches — adjust to take away what you do well. But you want to go to your core stuff, so you build your offense off of that, and each constraint play forces the defense back in line, right where you want them. That’s the beauty of football: punch, counterpunch.

The Quick Passing Game in the Spread Offense

This article comes directly from spreadoffense.com. You get to take a look at some of the quick passes from the spread offense, enjoy!!!!!

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The Quick Passing Game in the Spread Offense:

One of the big advantages of the spread offense is to use the quick passing game (i.e., slants, stops, speed ins, sticks) as well as other routes and combinations to exploit the defense.  At the most basic level, the quick passing game works well because it is high percentage passing, beats blitzes, minimizes an aggressive pass rush, and allows your best athletes – usually your slot receivers - to make moves on linebackers in space.  The plays that I will discuss are good for all down and distances – even a 3^rd and long scenario - if your opponent has a high blitz tendency in that situation.  With that foundation, let’s learn how to properly execute the quick game from the very beginning.

First, the quarterback should be in a shotgun stance, with heels 5 to 5 ½ yards from the LOS.  I will walk through the progression of the play assuming we have a right handed QB.  The QB must pick which side he is going to go to pre-snap, and can not change his decision regardless of what happens.  Using daily drills, the QB must get used to catching the ball while using his peripheral vision downfield.  Assuming the QB is throwing to the right, he must plant his right foot in the ground as he would usually, rotate his hips and throw all in one motion, as his feet are already in position to release the ball.  When throwing to the left, the same rules apply; the QB’s hips are already open to that side, so plant the right foot in the ground, step and throw.  (I use a rapid fire drill where I get 5 footballs and set up 5 receivers across the field, with our routes at designated positions and shotgun snap the ball to the QB, so he understands to just catch and throw.)

Second, the role of the Offensive Line in the quick passing game is crucial.  Obviously, they do not need to hold their protection for a long period of time, but do need to open passing lanes and prevent balls from being batted down.  We still use our basic slide protection for these plays.  However, unlike our vertical passing game, we allow the linemen to cut the DL, helping to prevent them from getting their hands up and in passing lanes.  Should a DL deliberately choose to not rush the passer and is only worried about getting his hands up, we will work on legally striking him in the midsection so as to avoid having balls batted down.

The third and perhaps most neglected aspect of the quick game is the role on the running back (s) – whether there is one or two in the backfield, you can use them to your advantage.  In my opinion, you do not need either of them as a checkdown option in the quick passing game because the ball should be out of the QB’s hands.  Therefore, when not using the RB to checkdown, we use him in protection.  We line him up on one side of the QB and call the slide to the side he is on, meaning that he must cross in front of the QB to pick up backside pressure.  The cross action freezes LB’s who must respect our zone running attack.  By making the LB’s go flat footed for a second, larger windows are opened to execute a slant, drag, speed in, or even a stop route.  The QB does not need to fake to the RB, as the cross action does enough to hold the LB’s without disrupting our timing.  There are also situations where we use the RB to be part of the routes.  In these cases, the RB is not used as a checkdown or as an extra blocker in pass protection; rather, he is part of the primary read, meaning the back will be hot to his route – usually an arrow flat route.  The arrow flat route works best with the stick play which I will diagram at the end.

The final component of the quick passing game is the receivers.  Our best quick game formations are a 2x2, 3x1, or empty set.  We are able to run all quick routes in all formations, making us more difficult to defend.  It is best to view the plays from the diagram at the bottom, but I will discuss the execution of each of the routes.  In general, when running the slant, we want the outside receiver to make his break after the 3^rd step.  He must punch and break at a 45 degree angle.

The inside slant will take one step and punch, so that each slant is on a different plane, creating a clearer read for the QB.  When running double slants in a 2x2 set, each side will mirror each other and the QB should pick the side he likes most (softest coverage, nearest alley defender).  The QB will read the guy covering the #2 receiver; if that defender covers #2, we throw the outside slant now.  Should he expand out and #2 can beat him inside, we throw to #2 now.  The same read progression applies for running double speed ins.

Slant Routes

Again, we want the routes to be on different planes, so we run the inside speed in at 5 yards and the outside one at 6; since our slot receiver is lined up one a yard off the ball, they should both be turning their heads at the same time.  When running both of those plays in a 3x1 or empty set, we have the #3 receiver on the strong side run a seam route.  He must create a wall on the first LB either head up or inside of him, to prevent the LB from covering.  In all of those scenarios, we will cross the RB in front of the QB to freeze the LB’s.  Another staple of the quick passing game is all stops – which are run out of all three formations and are self-explanatory.  Every receiver runs through 6 yards, turns around and should expect the ball to be on them.

Stop Routes

For the QB, we choose a side by identifying either softest coverage or if coverage is balanced, the shortest throw or best leverage against defenders.  The stops need to be completed as close to 100% of the time as possible - in essence, we view the stop pattern as an extended handoff.  We utilize the RB in the same way we do on double slants and speed ins with the cross action.  The last play I will discuss is the stick route.  We can run this out of all 3 formations as well.  In a 2x2 set, we run stick on one side and any of the route combinations I previously discussed on the other side.  The stick route is for the slot receiver - he will run through 6 yards, plant off the first LB to his inside (the Mike) and stick out.  The outside receiver to the stick side will run a fade to occupy the corner.  This is the situation where we use the RB to run and arrow flat.  What we want to do is occupy the flat defender – whether the corner in cover 2, the OLB in man, cover 4 or 3, we want him to be occupied.

Speed In Routes

This will open up the window to throw the stick route.  When there is no immediate flat defender, we will throw the arrow flat to the back now.  Should the Mike LB blitz, the man running the stick should just turn around at 4 yards and expect the ball, and should not run the complete stick route.  When running the stick route out of empty or a 3x1 set, we call it double stick.  We want the #1 receiver on the 3 receiver side to still run his fade, #2 to run a roll over speed out (start to roll at 2 yards and gain depth to 5), with the #3 receiver running the traditional stick route.  The read for the QB is the same on each - if the flat defender commits immediately, throw the stick, if there is no flat defender, throw the flat now.

I did not include bubble or a stay route because I consider them to be more of a screen package than the quick game.  The plays that I discussed are great in all down and distance situations and are designed to advance the ball downfield in an attacking mode.  The most important thing is timing, since these routes are shorter.  The QB’s and WR’s must practice each of these routes daily, without too much stress on the QB’s arm or the WR’s legs.

NYKIA: Keeping your cool vs cheesers (great msg for all kinds of players)

I ran into this video in youtube from my dude NYKIA (sub to him guys,he makes great videos) and what he says in the video is very important.

Key points
-dont get flustered
-play your game
-keep on chipping away
-look to take away their gimmick

Like I said, sub to him, he is a really good guy. This was a great view for me and I hope you guys enjoy

Dont Install Too Much Too Soon

Just as the title says, dont install too much to soon offensively and defensively.

You may have been hitting the lab hard man....busting ass with all the hard work you have been putting in, and now you want to show the world the fire you been cooking (how can you cook fire...sigh)

But slow down there cowboy, dont head into a battle with too many weapons they will just slow you down.....And the weapons you do bring you better know how to fire them (i have a way with words dont I lol)


There are many of things that can go wrong, so I will just post some

-you wont know what play to pick and when because you have too much to chose from

-you wont remember your plays and have to constantly keep checking your notepad (or whatever you use to write down your set ups)....it isnt a good look, even through the internet lol

- your focusing on to many things pre/post snap.. confusion breeds slow reactions

-you will find it hard to set up your blitz packages (again confusion breeds slow reactions)

- you wont know exactly how to play/adjust that defense vs everything you might see in game

Thats just a few (I could go on but.....yeah lol)

Long story short, I find it best to start off slow (early in the year as well as whenever I break out new schemes)...You will be more focused on what needs to be done, and you know how to do it....that = execution, and execution is king on the real gridiron as well as the virtual one.

Remember K.I.SS

Keep it simple stupid

And once you feel good with the stuff you got look to expand

Colonel Out, leave your thoughts in the comments