Sacks are the ONLY thing.

- Phillip Bolden, RDE Denver MFN-7.

Hey! I am great here! Your team has impresive numbers, better than mine! You effort looks as though it is paying off.

Yeah... seattle keyed up for that game. They guessed right often.( that is only half important IMO)

Your team keyed pass on 3 and 8 a few times. Not bad, but i think the difference is the way the keys were used in tandem with play calls.

That gave seattle the edge, and a big edge in the stat line, and score.

Like your offense hit a "brick wall". ... I had not touched keys for a real year, but once i did it was "night and day". I am talking getting blown out in the playoffs against good owners then going to deep in to the playoffs in almost every hard league, and losing by 6 in MFN 1 big game. With no rules and still maybe 5 minute gameplans.

I will touch on a little of this tactic here.

Well,........first i will define a blitz. That is more than four rushers on any given play. Seatle had 5 and 6 at times, that is agressive play calling.

Now adding keys to the mixture can enhance the desired effect. Either way i might add as there is a methodology to it.

First let us look at what JDB said these keys do;



"By jdavidbakr - Site Admin
8/06/2016 10:50 am

Key run: slight boost to your defensive line in run defense, LB's and DB's play closer to the line and are quicker to get to the hole. Slight penalty to your defensive line in pass defense and to your DB's in the pass coverage attributes. Key pass: exactly the opposite of key run. Neutral: no penalties or boots. "



Not only is there effect on how quick players recognize what is happening they postion themselves more according in the pre snap alignment.

Dropping some unexpecting combos of plays and keys to stifle an offensive scheme in the right situation is successful at separating two balanced teams or even giving an edge to a lesser talented team.

On the other hand, some of these same combos might hurt if not applied correctly. Some times it might be better to just play it safe with no keys, but i like the odds here.

Or try this.......keying pass when blitzing 2 in a basic senerio. Defensively it a run play but your DBs will look pass if the offense passes deep. This is great to use in so many situations. Stops the run and agressively plays the pass. Might not work well on pure passing downs. Or against someone who knows how to counter it.

Another angle to the other extreme might be to key run with no blitzers. Combine that with some passive 2 deep man, with the right guys of course, and that stragety might work against a heavy pass team on plays they might actually run, but will still give maximuim coverage benefits in case they pass.

There are limitless combos to use. These were two effective ones that i coud think of off the top of my head. Ones i currently use in 75 depending on the team i face. Good luck!

thanks ray as ever - much appreciated the time you spend on my inaptitude!
yes I use the 'keys' - on game planning section where I drag the line up from run to pass or neutral etc? always used since you told me but my deficiency is in understanding what defense strategies to use -
I think I've got hang of offense (to a basic level) but really need to understand defense more - a task for 2017 season maybe!

another problem I have is that I play same way/style independent of where on field, which down or how far too go. I need to vary it and think I have better understanding to do this now

It is really per opponent per random dice roll, but alot of guys use rules in this manner.

Your are on the right track and very in tune to an advanced technique. This will work any game, but is for the close ones where gameplanning out weighs roster unbalances. This is by no means a secret, just another way of playing an aspect of the game.

The reallife equalivalent might be the pre snap aligments teams use to fool others by showing one look but deploying another. Quite tricky cause they are making educated guess based on player movement pre snap.

Here you are slighty moving your guys in position based on what you think your opponent will do. I guess wrong alot too! But I use those percents to guess, but really key on what the user i face will do. A complete guess......Well educated guess when it works.

This is why i love the game, because i see real football a chess match of moves by the coaches dictated by his talent available matching his foes.

In an important game real or fake thats is how i see it works here too. How to go about it is an opinion. One I would change each game, how ever slightly or drastically i felt needed.

IRL i would go by feel ,but here you got to plan it out. Alot sometimes.

But the Rules seem to duplicate (pretty much) what you do on the GamePlan screen where there's a gridiron with the colours etc, right?!

The rules allow you to do more situation specific gameplanning

Rules allow you to use score and clock time to overide situations and the gameplan screen has a text option also. Not just that field view.

thanks yeah I think I've made mistakes in not playing clock down etc recently.
I've also learned best ways to keep possession and also how best to score when down with little time left. guess it's time I start putting these into practice!