I’ll be dead honest here. EA is starting to get things right; and I think it bothers people a lot in our community.
I’m not going to be naming names or pointing fingers; but a lot of the guys who think this game sucks have been getting by on lame gimmicks for the past 4 years. The party is over, and this blog from this point forward will be a safe harbor for those who look to learn a little something about real football; something that will help you on the virtual gridiron as well.
Do any of you know how hard it is on a player to roll away from his protection, expose himself to the defense in the flat (or 15 yards behind the LOS) and make an on point throw? It just doesn’t happen. There’s a reason that guys like Randall Cunningham, and Mike Vick are “once in a generation” type guys. Some people think that a guy like Tony Romo should consistantly be able to make plays with no blockers in front of him. Now we expect 70-80 overall college players to do the same? Not only that, but we have guys expecting players to be making accurate throws without their feet being set, player squared to his target; all while have a LB/DB pursuing him from 5 yards away. Not only that, but I’m hearing “GET RID OF THE BALL!” way too often on throws of 25+ yards; when their QB is sacked by a DT or DE. The last time I checked, very few QBs are capable of just flicking their wrist and putting a ball on the money with 1 or 2 defensive players closing in on them. Also, a 25 yard throw requires a longer throwing motion than a drag route, so please stop with the whining about Darron Thomas or Andrew Luck not getting a 40 yard pass out with a split second release.
It’s time to get out of that mentality of “I’ll hot route to several levels of long crossing patterns (typically a deep post, slant, and a drag) and bide my time until someone breaks free”. It just isn’t that way in real life. Have you ever heard of 60’s series passing? How about a passing tree, in general? Do you REALLY know how to make a hot read, or are you still playing the guess-snap-throw game of Madden/NCAA 11?
The days of 3-4 man nano blitzes are over. You don’t need that anymore. In NCAA and Madden 11, the AI was so bad you couldn’t afford to drop less than 7 into coverage. Now that zones communicate, trade off, etc…you can afford to rush a “blockers + 1” type blitz to make sure you’re getting a free runner at the QB.
Not only that, but I’m hearing so much about how hard it is to have run defense. Stop complicating the game. Gap integrity is the key to stopping the run, as a dominant 2-technique is the key to a Tampa-2 defense. If you cover up the G–C–G with hats, your opponent will have a hard time getting away with anything but man on man run scheme. It’s time to stop trying to stop twin tightend sets with dime and nickel packages.
You wanna know why fast runningbacks dominate this game? Because speed is what wins games in college football. Power backs like Lattimore (though that guy can get out and run) are effective too. But the whole transition of college football from the Lombardi/Bear Bryant mentality to the newer developments started (most recently) by Rich Rodriguez’s power spread scheme, or even Urban Meyer’s spread are both predicated on stretching out the D and giving your speed guys room to make plays. I think the game shows this factor pretty well.
Don’t make this game harder than it is. It’s football.
Until next week,
ZAN
