Setherick has been saying for months he wasn't happy with the state 4.3 was in. I took over a gutted team in MFN1, so for my team it was kinda hard to judge. There seems to be a lot of band-aids built in to nerf QBs as opposed to improving defense. Just my 2 cents.

I can't believe you passed for almost twice as many yards as me and still lost!!!! What in the world is going on?!

The thing that is most disconcerting to me is and I'll try to not discuss too much strategy while giving an example...

Someone could join tomorrow, have a defense littered with flat zones while mashing the run key and even if my QB and play knowledge is filled to the brim we won't throw over the top to the plays that previously destroyed it.

Completely feel like it's playing exclusively against the system now; no matter opponent or skill level.

Well, I can almost guarantee that I'll find out. I have to do something to combat this. It'll be interesting. That's for sure!

I'll just throw this out there. I'm almost certain that the only defense you need to run in 0.4.3 is a blitz 2 defense in Pass Key as long as you use the right rules.

Here's why:

* Using the right Blitz 2 plays will shut down inside runs most of the time because of how blitzes blitz the gap and running plays run the gap.

* Most Blitz 2 plays will shut down outside runs by getting at least one defender in the backfield before the RB can react. FB lead blocks and pulling blocks on outside runs are largely useless, so the outside run becomes a RB vs a blitzing defender. The RB is going to lose.

* If you are in Blitz 2, it doesn't matter what key you are in because the defenders will immediately switch to run defense when the RB gets the ball. For this reason alone, Run Key becomes useless (unless you game plan against team that exclusively runs out of a set, and then, by all means, key the **** out of the play and hold the team to -20 yards out of that set).

* Blitzing isn't an automatic -20 to accuracy for getting QBs under pressure 100% of the time now. It's _only_ a -20 to accuracy 50% of the time... See what I mean.

* QBs are so nerfed that even if they identify a hot read (if you are blitzing more than 2 or you aren't running a Cover 5 behind the blitz) they are likely to (1) miss the throw completely or (2) wobble the pass.

* Receivers are so nerfed that even if the QB doesn't wobble a pass, they might just stop and wait to be tackled anyway, especially if they are a RB 5 yards behind the LOS.

* Pass Key guarantees that your DBs play their man closely (until the RB gets the ball) and are less likely to fall for stutter (purely anecdotal). Pass Key does give a bonus to pass defense, but I forget how.

Now, if you look at all the above bullet points, you'll see that the most exploitative defense in 0.4.2 STILL WORKS FINE. And that 0.4.3 really did NOTHING to prevent the most annoying of defensive game plans.

I'm not saying I'm going to start exclusively blitzing 2 just to see how badly I can beat teams defensive, but since "all the best" owners are doing, we all might as well do so.

This is discouraging to hear.

interesting

I'm a known Blitzer & I am disappointed in hearing this......

A new challenge, yes...!

:)

re: Crazy Razor

Thank you for the response, Setherick.

You nailed the mark on the nerfing of QBs and WRs. I've noticed all of those things; especially the hot reads not smashing with long gains or exploding. WRs stopping to catch the ball, all sorts of commentary explaining how a WR dove to catch it or slowed up and got tackled. It's truly endless on how plays are not resulting in vertical high chucks of yardage any more.

Your rundown on Blitz 2 is intriguing and how the behavior changes with the defenders once the RB gets the ball even when one is in pass key.

Hopefully, JDB tweaks away some more and fine tunes things so it falls under a more happy medium of limiting passing offense to a degree but not overwhelmingly.