I'm sat at home bored so I thought I'd post this. Now I expect there are many better FOF minds than me in the FFL and they will prove me wrong in one or two areas so please don't take this as gossip, but hopefully it may help one or two. For those greater minds who read this please please please add your knowledge as well, i think the game is so much better with a more equal playing field.
Pass Defense
As Jim has hinted many times before all three coverage’s (Zone, BnR and Man) are used when you play pass defense. So if you are playing 2deep man I would expect that your DB’s Man skill is used as the primary cover skill but a smaller % of your DB’s Zone and BnR are factored in to the equation.
Safties.
The vast majority of the time the Safties will be in deep zone’s, so it seems pretty clear Zone coverage is a very important bar for them. On occasion they will play Man Coverage due to double coverage or due to some other player blitzing which I will explain later.
The Strong Safety will line up on the Tight Ends side of the field normally and he will also come up and play run defense quite often, so he will require run defense and some decent Man Coverage skills. A nice Interception bar is always a big bonus for any DB.
The Free Safety is basically your last line of defense. Most of the time he will be in Zone so he needs a high Zone Bar. I also feel he needs a high Interception bar as well as he’s going to be floating around in deep coverage looking for those deep balls to intercept.
Cornerbacks
I feel it is very important to have at least three good CB’s. The WR is king in FOF so you need good CB’s to cover them, if you only have 2 good CB’s these guy will come out of the game to rest at times which potentially means the offenses stud WR may be covered by your backup on a few plays. A lot of games are decided by a score or less so one big play to the WR who is being covered by the backup CB can mean defeat for you. I love my CB’s to have Man defense as I believe rightly or wrongly that they are in Man coverage obviously in 1 & 2 deep man but also one or two CB’s are in Man coverage in 3 & 4 deep zone.
LineBackers
I believe very strongly that Linebackers start their coverage in Zone. This makes sense especially for the MLB who is very likely to be sat somewhere behind the front 3 or 4 and not up on the line of coverage. The same is likely for the OLB’s as well. They may well then move to BnR or Man cover but commons sense says they start in zone so I like my LB’s to have high zone when I comes to coverage. Like I say this could be wrong.
Pass Coverage and Blitzing
I think this is an area quite a few people can screw up. My view is that it is way better to be able to get pressure on the Quarterback from your front 4 in a 4 or front 3 and WLB if you play 34 rather than sending a LB blitzing. So let’s take an example of the offense using Singleback and the defense in Nickle. This would most likely mean the following match ups
FL1 covered by CB1
SE1 covered by CB2
Slot covered by CB3
TE covered by SLB
HB covered by MLB
FS In a deep Zone
SS In a Zone
Now let’s say you send the SLB to blitz, that means the SS will now have to cover the TE, that further means the FS is sitting in a deep zone on his own back there more than likely on the SE1’s side of the field. That further means FL1 is in one on one coverage with the CB1. In this instance let’s hope your CB1 is damn good at covering the FL1 who is very likely to be the Stud WR!
Let’s say you send 2 blitzing in this scenario, for arguments sake we’ll say the SLB and MLB blitz, once again the SS is very likely to now have to pick up the TE. The FS will again stay in that deep zone meaning WR1 has once again got single coverage. Mr Quarterback can go deep to WR1 but he may decide to check down as he does not like the matchup there. If he does check down because the defense sent the SLB and MLB Blitizng the HB has no one covering him so the QB can just dump it off to him for some nice easy yardage.
The defense may get some help in the fact that the HB, FB or TE may not be running routes dependant on how the offense has set their blocking in the “Miscellaneous Offensive Selections” screen. On each play there are normally two primary receivers, sometimes a third (HB or FB normally). If the FB/HB/TE are not the primary receivers they may block depending on the settings. But the defense cannot count on the fact that 1 of those 3 will be blocking!
If you have the WLB set to blitz in the 43 and you are in Nickle there is not a WLB on the field so this will send the Nickleback blitzing.
If you have the WILB set to blitz in a 34 and you are in Nickle here is not a WILB on the field so this will again send the Nickelback blitzing. ( a 34 guru may need to confirm this!)
So the morale of blitzing is make sure you have enough guys left to cover the receivers or make sure you get to the Quarterback. It really is a huge risk to blitz too much.
Double Coverage
First of all you can’t get double cover any receiver if you are in run defense . Secondly you have to have enough players in coverage to get double coverage. So if you send two blitzing and the offense is in a 3WR set and you’re in Nickle you’re very unlikely to be able to get any double coverage. You also can’t double cover the Slot WR although I do believe that depending on the route the WR takes you can sometimes get double coverage.
Who is the WR1 and WR2?
WR1 is always the WR with the highest Route Running bar.
CB Orientation
In your pass coverage screens you have the choice to have your CB’s in one of two orientations. Orient CB by side of formation means that the CB will stay on one side of the field regardless of where WR1 lines up. If you have it set to “Orient CB by WR Covered” CB1 will follow WR1 along the line of scrimmage whether WR1 lines up on the right or left of the Line of scrimmage. I always use this.
Pressure from your DL and WLB
Getting pressure from these guys is key, many of you will have seen Aston (Eagles) join the league over the last 2 seasons and many of you may be sitting there thinking how is he doing so well with his Eagles with not a great deal of talent. First of all Aston is very good at FOF but you will also see all of his teams have DL’s with very high PRT and PRS. Simple put he gets a lot of pressure from the front 4 and this helps to stop the pass a lot. I am also of the opinion you do get coverage sacks in FOF, to get these you will need a lot of pressure from the front 4 or front 3 and WLB dependant if you play 34 or 43. I play a 43 as I am not very good in a 34, if you want to learn how to play a 34 to get pressure and sacks watch Nemissis in Dallas, he is a master at getting sacks and hurries from the 34 in every league he plays in.
Pass Defense
As Jim has hinted many times before all three coverage’s (Zone, BnR and Man) are used when you play pass defense. So if you are playing 2deep man I would expect that your DB’s Man skill is used as the primary cover skill but a smaller % of your DB’s Zone and BnR are factored in to the equation.
Safties.
The vast majority of the time the Safties will be in deep zone’s, so it seems pretty clear Zone coverage is a very important bar for them. On occasion they will play Man Coverage due to double coverage or due to some other player blitzing which I will explain later.
The Strong Safety will line up on the Tight Ends side of the field normally and he will also come up and play run defense quite often, so he will require run defense and some decent Man Coverage skills. A nice Interception bar is always a big bonus for any DB.
The Free Safety is basically your last line of defense. Most of the time he will be in Zone so he needs a high Zone Bar. I also feel he needs a high Interception bar as well as he’s going to be floating around in deep coverage looking for those deep balls to intercept.
Cornerbacks
I feel it is very important to have at least three good CB’s. The WR is king in FOF so you need good CB’s to cover them, if you only have 2 good CB’s these guy will come out of the game to rest at times which potentially means the offenses stud WR may be covered by your backup on a few plays. A lot of games are decided by a score or less so one big play to the WR who is being covered by the backup CB can mean defeat for you. I love my CB’s to have Man defense as I believe rightly or wrongly that they are in Man coverage obviously in 1 & 2 deep man but also one or two CB’s are in Man coverage in 3 & 4 deep zone.
LineBackers
I believe very strongly that Linebackers start their coverage in Zone. This makes sense especially for the MLB who is very likely to be sat somewhere behind the front 3 or 4 and not up on the line of coverage. The same is likely for the OLB’s as well. They may well then move to BnR or Man cover but commons sense says they start in zone so I like my LB’s to have high zone when I comes to coverage. Like I say this could be wrong.
Pass Coverage and Blitzing
I think this is an area quite a few people can screw up. My view is that it is way better to be able to get pressure on the Quarterback from your front 4 in a 4 or front 3 and WLB if you play 34 rather than sending a LB blitzing. So let’s take an example of the offense using Singleback and the defense in Nickle. This would most likely mean the following match ups
FL1 covered by CB1
SE1 covered by CB2
Slot covered by CB3
TE covered by SLB
HB covered by MLB
FS In a deep Zone
SS In a Zone
Now let’s say you send the SLB to blitz, that means the SS will now have to cover the TE, that further means the FS is sitting in a deep zone on his own back there more than likely on the SE1’s side of the field. That further means FL1 is in one on one coverage with the CB1. In this instance let’s hope your CB1 is damn good at covering the FL1 who is very likely to be the Stud WR!
Let’s say you send 2 blitzing in this scenario, for arguments sake we’ll say the SLB and MLB blitz, once again the SS is very likely to now have to pick up the TE. The FS will again stay in that deep zone meaning WR1 has once again got single coverage. Mr Quarterback can go deep to WR1 but he may decide to check down as he does not like the matchup there. If he does check down because the defense sent the SLB and MLB Blitizng the HB has no one covering him so the QB can just dump it off to him for some nice easy yardage.
The defense may get some help in the fact that the HB, FB or TE may not be running routes dependant on how the offense has set their blocking in the “Miscellaneous Offensive Selections” screen. On each play there are normally two primary receivers, sometimes a third (HB or FB normally). If the FB/HB/TE are not the primary receivers they may block depending on the settings. But the defense cannot count on the fact that 1 of those 3 will be blocking!
If you have the WLB set to blitz in the 43 and you are in Nickle there is not a WLB on the field so this will send the Nickleback blitzing.
If you have the WILB set to blitz in a 34 and you are in Nickle here is not a WILB on the field so this will again send the Nickelback blitzing. ( a 34 guru may need to confirm this!)
So the morale of blitzing is make sure you have enough guys left to cover the receivers or make sure you get to the Quarterback. It really is a huge risk to blitz too much.
Double Coverage
First of all you can’t get double cover any receiver if you are in run defense . Secondly you have to have enough players in coverage to get double coverage. So if you send two blitzing and the offense is in a 3WR set and you’re in Nickle you’re very unlikely to be able to get any double coverage. You also can’t double cover the Slot WR although I do believe that depending on the route the WR takes you can sometimes get double coverage.
Who is the WR1 and WR2?
WR1 is always the WR with the highest Route Running bar.
CB Orientation
In your pass coverage screens you have the choice to have your CB’s in one of two orientations. Orient CB by side of formation means that the CB will stay on one side of the field regardless of where WR1 lines up. If you have it set to “Orient CB by WR Covered” CB1 will follow WR1 along the line of scrimmage whether WR1 lines up on the right or left of the Line of scrimmage. I always use this.
Pressure from your DL and WLB
Getting pressure from these guys is key, many of you will have seen Aston (Eagles) join the league over the last 2 seasons and many of you may be sitting there thinking how is he doing so well with his Eagles with not a great deal of talent. First of all Aston is very good at FOF but you will also see all of his teams have DL’s with very high PRT and PRS. Simple put he gets a lot of pressure from the front 4 and this helps to stop the pass a lot. I am also of the opinion you do get coverage sacks in FOF, to get these you will need a lot of pressure from the front 4 or front 3 and WLB dependant if you play 34 or 43. I play a 43 as I am not very good in a 34, if you want to learn how to play a 34 to get pressure and sacks watch Nemissis in Dallas, he is a master at getting sacks and hurries from the 34 in every league he plays in.
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