IntroI'm starting this thread as a definitive guide to offensive and defensive game planning. More or less, I don't want to maintain a number of threads.
This will build off of the following threads, so if you have not read them, start here:
Basic Offensive Game Planning:
https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/community/3/3885Advanced Offensive Game Planning - Passing Zones, Levels, Spacing:
https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/community/3/4659Basic Defensive Game Planning:
https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/community/3/3581Advanced Defensive Game Planning:
https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/community/3/3791Advanced Defensive Game Planning – Cover 3 Zone:
https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/community/3/3933Advanced Defensive Game Planning – Tab Driven M2M:
https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/community/3/4170Other important threads to know:
GP Adjustment:
https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/community/3/4214 Mad Seth's Guide to Creative Roster Engineering:
https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/community/3/4277 Position Attributes:
https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/community/3/2443?page=7#27277 Version 0.4.2 threads of questionable value when 0.4.3 is released:
Thoughts on short passing:
https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/community/3/3579?page=1Quick and dirty guide to throwing to the TE:
https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/community/3/4308?page=1QB Accuracy (with Maths):
https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/community/1/2290?page=1Base Game Plan: A DefinitionThroughout this whole guide, you're going to see me use the word base game plan a lot. When I do this, I'm specifically referring to the play matrix. If you don't understand the mechanics of the play matrix, both on offense and defense, this guide is going to do you very little good. Your game plan will fall back to the matrix consistently throughout a game, so you need to know what you are calling and when you are calling it and what personnel sets you are going to use to call it.
Some things that your base game plan is going to rely on:
Short – Medium – LongIf you haven't read it, find the official blog post on Short, Medium, and Long and memorize what they mean. This will help you decide when you want to use the category and when you want to use yardage.
GP AdjustmentYou can find this in your Misc tab in the game planning section of your team menu. Set this to between 12-35. I go into a lot more detail about this in one of the threads linked above. If you haven't read it, do so.
The Rules EngineYou can win with a solid base game plan alone. It is possible. But it requires patience to get your game plan just right and great personnel. So to win without having great personnel, you need to use rules to override the base game plan. This requires knowing how the rule engine works.
The rule engine evaluates rules top-down where the first rule that evaluates as true is used. MEMORIZE this: Put your MOST SPECIFIC rule first.
Here's an example of how I set up offensive rules:
1) GL rules
2) Third and short rules
3) Fourth and short rules
4) Third and long rules
5) 2 minute drill rules
6) 4Q clock draining rules
Note how the more specific rules are at the top. There are only specific times when my team will be in GL offense. Contrarily, my team is going to run a 2 minute drill in the second quarter of every game, so it can go near the bottom. This does mean that if I get a 3 or 4 and short during that 2 minute drill that the more specific rule will be called. I'm fine with that.
For your defensive rules, I recommend splitting them up by personnel set and then by situation. So something like this:
1) Situational blitzes for the 104, 014, and 005 sets
2) Rules for the 104, 014, and 005 sets without a blitz
3) 4Q Prevent rules
4) Situational blitzes for other sets
5) Etc.
At any given time, I have a potential of 15-30 rules that can be used to override my base game plan. I used to use more, but I've cut back. And I modify my defensive rules each game based on my opponents tendencies.
And, no, it's not really that time consuming once you have it set up.
Base Offensive Game PlanThis is IMPORTANT. Your team is going to run your base offense the majority of the game. I'm serious here. You want your team to run your base offense the majority of the game. Here's why.
The key to your base offensive game plan should be consistency. You want your team to average between 4-5 yards per play. If you average between 4-5 yards per play, you can make a lot of first downs without needing to have big plays.
Here's how you're going to do this.
Focus the Matrix on High Percentage PlaysYou want your base game plan to always fall back to the highest percentage plays you have for a specific down and distance category. Remember the goal is 4-5 yards per play, so as you build your playbook be looking for those plays that average at or above that and then review some of your previous games. If those plays are averaging that because they are boom/bust plays, they probably aren't worth it. But if you can consistently get 4-5 yards on those plays no matter what the defense throws at them, that's your base game plan.
Offensive GoalsI have two goals for my offense for each game:
1) 20 first downs
2) 35 minutes of possession time
3) (bonus) 50% 3rd down completion [I find this is the hardest, and I **** at achieving it.]
Notice that I don't set a goal for yards or points because frankly I don't care. If I can get 20 first downs and I control the ball for 35 minutes, I'm probably going to win even if I only manage to get 200 yards of offense and 10 points. There are the occasional times when I get beaten, and beaten badly, by a team that has a lot of big plays, but that is rare.
Situational Offensive RulesYou will want to then modify your base offensive game plan with rules. Your offensive rules should be wholly situational football. Those times when you cannot rely on the Short, Medium, and Long categories to call the sets of plays that you want to call.
For example, I use multiple third down rules based on distance so that I can split categories. The Short category is incredibly misleading. There is a major difference between a 3-1 and a 3-3, but both fall in the Short category most of the time. So I have a rule to split that category so I can run or pass more based on the flow of the game and the distance I actually need to go for that first down.
Base Defensive PlaybookJust blitz 2 every play. It works so well for everyone.
The above is of course a joke. Unlike your base offense, your team will probably rarely run your base defense because of how you are going to build out your defensive rules. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
You want your base defense to be those plays where you're not going to get caught with your pants down. That means looking for those high percentage plays where your team can successfully defend the pass or the run.
Short – Medium – Long On Defense?Short, Medium, and Long on defense are controlled by your opponents GP setting and their ability to move the ball against you. If you are shutting them down consistently, then their play distances will lengthen based on their GP setting. You're not going to be able to control any of this in the game. This will become more important in a minute.
Defaulting SetsYour base defense is going to default personnel sets to match up with your opponent's offensive personnel set. Here are the matchups so you don't have to go look them up:
Dime/Quarter ? 104, 014, 005
Nickle ? 113, 203
Normal ? 122, 212
Goal Line ? 221, 230, 311
This is going to get really important right now below.
Defensive Rules Based on Personnel and SituationThe most important thing about defensive rules is breaking them down by personnel group that you are defending. The goal of defensive rules is to defeat the base defense defaulting of personnel and control the flow of the game more effectively. You don't, for instance, want to call a Nickle defense against a 113 or 203 when your opponent is most likely to run.
To Distance Category or Not to Distance Category?In my defensive rule build, I use both distance categories and specific distances depending on what I want the rule to do. When you want a wide sweeping rule, use a category. This gives you the flexibility to call the rule based on how your opponent is moving the ball (note the GP adjustment above).
However, when you want to call a specific set of plays only once in a while, you should use the specific distance in your rule. For instance, I use some zone plays, but I only call them when my opponent is facing a specific down and distance. Similarly, I use some exotic blitzes, but I call them in the same way. I don't put these plays in my base defensive game plan, and I don't want them called with a distance category and risk over calling them.
- - - - - - I'll probably be adding more to this thread. This was just a first attempt to start bringing a lot of these ideas together and building on the pieces that you have already seen. Let me know what you want me to focus on.
