WOW, DAT's CRAZY!!!!!!!

by LBzrule57 | 4 years ago | 8 Comments

I thought about leaving this alone, but, in good conscience I cannot. Reflecting on  the QB statistics from season one and man, what can I say?  Unfortunately, Madden is going to reward many of you guys for it anyways.  Jameis Winston would love this game.  You get rewarded for being reckless.  I mean throwing 50+ INT's ?? DAT's CRAAAAAAAZY!!!

Disclaimer:  I do not see myself as some QB guru or anything, but I do know recklessness when I see it and it ran-a-muck in season one.  I mean really? 

Let's look at some of the reasons why this is the case.

1.  You skip the plays that CAN be made.  Yes, you skip the plays that can be made.  What do you mean LB?  Time and time again, people throw picks because they are not thinking about moving the chains.  They are thinking about home runs on almost every damn pass play.  Now this is something that can work against people who are just out here calling anything on defense, but it will get you out of the game by the half against people who understand your unquenchable thirst to keep chasing the big plays.  I've seen it on almost every stream.  You chase big plays, you throw picks, you get sacked.  Sometimes it works.  But against skilled users on defense it might only work once.  This leads to the second point.

2.  You chase big plays because you don't have an identity on offense, in particular, your passing game.  The meta (crossing routes) is not an identity and it is easily countered.  LB, explain.  To have an identity on offense is to force the defense to respect something.  The best way to do this is to think about actual passing concepts (Drive, Smash, Ohio, ect).  But the key is to master a few passing concepts and MARRY it to EVERY formation.  Make defenses respect it, THEN go for the big stuff.  Too many players are going for the big stuff first without making the defense respect anything.  When you use one formation to run one play, some people know it and are going to stop it.  Stop being predicatable.

3.  Your game management is bad.  Yes, it's bad.  You somehow got a big lead, why not just manage the game from here on out and play bend but don't break defense.  The clock is your friend and your opponents enemy.  Run the damn ball.   But nope, you continue to throw people right back into the game.

4.  You did not even bother to study your opponent's personnel to see where you might have an advantage.  You are just going to play this game exactly like you did the last one.  Epic FAILURE coming up.

5.  Piggy backing on #2.  You run way too much stuff that you are not comfortable with.  You haven't even practiced it but you run it and are right back on defense because of it.  In other words, this is going to require some work.  You should be looking at your playbook right now during the signing period and asking yourself about concepts that interest you.  Hey look at the drive concept.  Look at how many ways teams might run it.

Find concepts you are comfortable with and again MARRY them.  Run this stuff first, see how your opponent responds to it.  Then go for the other stuff.  Until you make the defense respect at least one thing, you are playing a dangerous game of hit and miss, and when you miss it's going to be costly.

6.  You still need to read coverage.  The coverage the defense is playing impacts your reads.  If you don't understand this you are going to end up forcing a lot of passes.  You might get lucky here and there, but it's just a bad proposition all the way around and you will not improve that way, you will fall into a dangerous habit.

7.  A lot of you will get new toys.  Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields ect.  Dont make them look like incompentent fools.

Defensively, I see the same problems.

1.  You have no rules for how you call your defense.  You are just out here calling popular stuff, but don't know why.  Decide what you want to give up on each down.  For example, for the most part, I'm not going to give anyone the box count on 1st and 10.  That's just a rule that's been drilled in me from playing and coaching days.  We are not going to give teams the box count on 1st and 10.  But what can we run, to do that, and also protect our personnel?  Start protecting your players.  If you don't have the guys to run man coverage vs the team you are facing, then why are you running it especially on an open field?  Can you find a place for it?  Maybe the 10 in, but not on an open field.

2.  What play calls must I make to shore up weaknesses and WHEN can/should I make them?

3.  Know where the help is!  As a user know where your help is that way you can cover more effeciently.

4.  Learn from losses and adjust the playbook.  If you end up getting gashed on the ground or through the air.  Reflect on it and move on.  Was it my personnel?  Was it my play calling?  What could I have done differently?  What was it that my opponent saw about my team that I don't see?