Your Football Background - PT#1

[childslovegame]

Guys,

Does your football background influence how you play EF? In HS, I played DB. My mind set whether I played one stop pitch or pass or multi-stop system, I'm defensive minded first. Maybe that's why I've have trouble in league and tournment championship games! I grew up on George Allen. Solid defense, good FG Kicker, and run the ball! I can't help it. Getting out of this mind set is difficult. To be honest with you, I know very little about offense, because I never played it. My challenge in every EF game is to stop my opponent. If I can do that, I find satisfaction in this recreation win or loose.

However, I see now that if I want to play better, I'm going to have to select an offensive system and buy DVD's and books to study and understand the system in an attempt to implement it into EF.

Does your football background influence how you play EF?

Smitty
BMEFA

[TVsCHACHI]

I feel at a slight disadvantage,
only having gotten INTO football in the last two years. I never competed as a kid, I was sick most of the time, hemmed up in bed reading & drawing comics. As a teenager I was gonzo! It wasn't until a mate suggested catching a few Steelers games in the 2005 pre-season. I can't even begin to explain what an entry into the world of football that was, history need only, it's archived now (for the THUMB!!!).

I try and watch the game played, dig what other coaches are doing, listen, learn what I can. Unfortunately it will take awhile. But I am patient, and have the follow through with this hobby to be here when I can finally call myself a competitive coach!

Until then, I'll amuse myself amusing others, and learning from each bruise I get on the field.

You Cats ROCK!!!


I love this hobby!!!

I would say it does influence the way I play ... I had the pleasure of playing both sides of the ball ... offense I played RB .. which I catch myself when playing EF trying to run the ball to much ... defense I played Safety ... and that makes me try to stop the pass a little more than the run


BEFL & MPFL
Mike

[Reginald Rutledge]

Definitely! I played both ways. I was a running back and strong safety and cornerback.

I believe in agressive defensive schemes. I believe in challenging the opposition at the line of scrimmage. I love to run the ball. I really hate passing. I love to see my back get 20 carries and average 5 yards per run.

But I also think my game is influenced by my intelligence or "lack there of". I am more of a cerebral coach. I love playing guys who think running is a sign of domination and machoism.

Playing in a style of play that allows you to set your defense however you want, whether its 10 in a straight line, a standard 4-3 or however, I think having the knowledge to deal with these senarios make it much easier to overcome than not having had that type of experience.

When many guys come here to play in the Shootout, they become frustrated because they were not able to stack in their leagues and other tournaments. But with the advent of clocks and cerebral thinking, those that succeed in this style of play use their experiences from high school sports but a cerebral understanding of how to combat things like that.

I played every position in my 20+ years of Pop Warner, HS, Army and Semi-Pro. I embody every player on the field and I let each individual play their position and do their job, as well as making sure they gel with the TEAM. So, to answer the question, my personal football experience DOES translate to the miniature field.


Smitty and CHACHI: if you have kids and they have MADDEN Football on any of the video game systems, then look at your team's Playbook and try to convert the real plays to MF. Every team runs a different Offense, whereas the Defenses are pretty much the same for all, except those that run a 3-4.

[Coach K-LO]

Great Question Smitty.......


I would have to say yes. I played most every position on the field except Center. Having been a "student of the game" I found following college and pro games to be easier to understand after I began playing.

However, you can create almost every play you see at the MF level. You can run screens where your O-lineman get out in front of the RB while the D-Line is out of position; you can run the "necked-boot", "zone-blitz" etc.

I played mostly RB and OLB in school/boys club so that's why these players on my teams are the best players. The rest of the team have to do their jobs (true point, Jimbo).

Elements of the 3-4 defense can work even in the FOB world if you understand the objectives of that style.

[jeff]

Originally Posted by JIMBO

I played every position in my 20+ years of Pop Warner, HS, Army and Semi-Pro. I embody every player on the field and I let each individual play their position and do their job, as well as making sure they gel with the TEAM. So, to answer the question, my personal football experience DOES translate to the miniature field.


Smitty and CHACHI: if you have kids and they have MADDEN Football on any of the video game systems, then look at your team's Playbook and try to convert the real plays to MF. Every team runs a different Offense, whereas the Defenses are pretty much the same for all, except those that run a 3-4.

You were even a kicker?

Smitty,

I played DB in school and drew up the offense for my neighbor's pop warner team. I gave him 3 runs and 3 passes. He was like (is that it?). I said (yes if your kids can execute these 3 runs consistently, they will by unbeatable)(now go and coach them so they can succeed in these 6 plays).

I am obsessed with Xs and Os and you know about my video research. Building a winning football team isn't about doing a lot of things well, it is about doing a few things very well and as a team.

My experience is that to have a winning team, you must be a winner in attitude first and learn to work as a unit.

I believe that a winning football team will only have a few plays (literally 3-4 runs, and a few passes off of that). Games are short and you should not go into a game with too many plays. That is one of the reasons I think that the NFL play has diminished in the last 10-years. The players are thinking too much and have too many audibles and options.

The point is that you must be able to adapt your go-to plays to your opponent's defense. For this you may change up your formations from time to time but the idea is to be able to show the same thing to multiple opponents without being stopped. This is known as power football.

Teams that cannot impose their will on the opponent are forced to mix and match plays, and use deception to create breaks on offense and defense.

But, again I'd say that the final level of mastery is when opponents know what you are going to do and still cannot stop it.

I watched Super Bowl 18 this morning and was amazed that the Raiders only had about 8 plays for the whole ball game. They used a spilt-T offense for the entire game. Lots of trapping and off tackle running with Marcus Allen as that formation is designed for. They tried to run out of the I, but Dave Butz and Darryl Grant were too strong for zone blocking. This kind of adaptation is what good coaching is all about.

I have a lot of videos of the 90s Cowboys. They ran zone blocking for Emmit Smith up the 0,1,2,3, and 4 holes. Very little trapping and no outside sweeps. For this they ran an offset I-formation with two receivers and a tight end. The reason was their mammoth offensive line. Teams knew this but could not stop it. Very few teams in history have been able to base their running game on the C, RG, LG blocking because it requires so much power.

The MPFL system really allows coaches to expand their mind and express what they know about the REAL game of football. We are free to experiment with all of these things as you and I discussed the other day. But to answer your original question: Yes, my approach to the game of EF is based heavily on my football knowledge and beliefs.

I kicked off to the NCAA's 3rd Most Prolific WR in Yards Gained growing up in Park Forest, IL way back in 5th Grade! If you can name him, I'll give ya a lil token for your trivia excellence. He and I traded slobber-knocker hits and he was always the fastest kid on the block.

I punted in HS, but, I have never attempted any FGs or EPs.

[DANDY DON]

I played TE in High School (Irving MacArthur,Texas) so I'm always fond of those sneaky TE's that creep out into coverage for a big gain.A good TE opens up the passing game as the defense can't simply DBL the outside WR's.
As a kid I used the Flex defense in Electric football to disrupt blocking schemes of my opponent(usually the Steelers ) a trick I learned from Coach Landry of course
Speaking of Coach Landry,any of you DFW folks remember his weekly TV show back in the 80's? He would bust out the projector and break game film down right there on the tube! He'd rewind over and over again to show one of his own linebackers getting burned on flare pass! Poor Steve Deossi....