League Forums

There have been some comments and frustration about the play selection and use "goals" that we have in this league, which is based on the initial trial by the FCS league, which has been working well. There will be one or two teams/owners that are not getting a good play mix, especially on defense, as that is a little more difficult to do.

The "goals" are to use 30 or more offensive plays per game, and 24 or more defensive plays, its that simple.

The reason we are attempting this is to get away from only a few plays used over and over, which is not a good simulation of RL football. There are those who play Roster Only, which takes the play selection, gameplanning, and rules right out of the game, completely. This league is an attempt at an "in-between" level, and the challenge of using plays that you would not normally use in "4.6 Optimal". 4.6 Opto has been posted in the Community Help Forum if you are not already aware of it and how to play it. Personally, I prefer the challenge of using a full selection of plays and having a higher level of diversity in the game.

If you are having a hard time getting the minimum use levels, (30 offense, 24 defense) please send me a message. I will give you the outline of the settings you need to have, starting with having 40 offense and 30 defensive plays ACTIVE. Set your Offense Personnel all between 10 & 12 other than Goaline, set that on 1 or 0. Make sure you have that setting for all the downs and distances (short, med, long). As far as Offense Gameplan goes, you can vary it but if you do it too much, you will get limited play use. For example, 1st and Medium. 10 Outside Run, 50 Inside Run, 30 Short Pass, 10 Medium Pass, 0-2 Long Pass. You will get a high % of inside run plays used on first down and that will reduce your overall play selection & use.

Defense, you have the 30 play selection and active, then you have two settings.... one for the Secondary and one for Linebackers. You should have all of those with the same number, except for Blitz2+, that should be 0-2. Try to get a fairly even selection of plays between the linebacker settings (Zone, Blitz 1, Blitz 2, Man, and Zone In), same for your Secondary, which has more settings, there are 10. 4 deep men and zone will be the least used, but try to get those plays used at least 3 or 4 times in a game. Same for 3 Deep Zone and 3 Deep Man.

To check your play use in a game is simple. Click on "Gameplanning" then either "OFF Plays" or "DEF Plays". Then check your boxes at the top of the page, they should be "All Personell", "All Formations", "All Play Types", "Times Called", Number of Recent Games - 1, and Minimum Times Used - 1. Selected Plays - 40 for offense. Defense is similar but starts with "Secondary" - All and "Linebackers - All.

Then you count the yellow boxes, the plays, 3 to a line, to get your play count and times used. The goal for both offense and defense is to not use a play more than 5 times in a game.

It takes a while to get it right, some get it a lot quicker than others. You want to be able to scout a game and forget about the rest other than changing out plays to try something else and checking your roster. Again, am happy to help if you need it, as will other owners in the league who are getting the minimum goals of play use.