A while back i noticed a post (by Spacehorse, i believe) where he presented an unbeatable gameplan based on throwing the long pass constantly which typically yielded a hundred points or more per game.
Unfortunately, the bomb/blitz strategy is still the way to go if you're interested in winning. Teams can win and maintain a very high winning percentage by blitzing on every play (a strategy that would get murdered by a competent team with a veteran QB in the real world) and throwing long passes every three or four plays (another strategy which would easily be stopped by double-teaming or running deep zones in the real world).
Unfortunately, these strategies don't work in MFN - blitzing on every play (even using only 2 or 3 different plays) is supremely effective, and long passes are basically unstoppable regardless of personnel or play calling (except for massive blitzes).
What this means is, sadly perhaps, the game has an optimal solution which detracts from its value as a pure strategy game/simulation. (Contrast this to chess, for example, which retains its appeal to humans by virtue of the fact that a couple generations of supercomputers have been working around the clock on it and yet it remains unsolved).
Simply as an anecdotal account i provide the following experiences/observations:
I have run 6 teams in MFN since i started. One team (a historically losing team with by far the worst offensive line of all my teams) i converted to a team which throws long primarily. In its 18 previous seasons before i took it over it had never had a winning record, won a division title, or made a playoff game. In its second season with virtually no change in personnel it won its division simply by virtue of throwing long from its previous "possession" offensive scheme.
All five of my other teams i had configured to play an almost exclusively short passing game (four of which i still own) along with primarily deep zone-based defenses.
In the real world, teams insisting on a bomb and blitz strategy against teams who exclusively played and became expert at short passes and deep zones would get beaten and badly. In MFN, nothing like this happens.
All of my teams, which have been constantly upgraded and which play short pass / deep zones most of the time, regularly lose to bomb and blitz teams often very badly.
Simply put, if the best real world strategies do not work in the game, something is wrong.
Also, if you want to win blitz every down and throw long passes every three to four downs, minimum.
