Well I didn’t intend to offend with that comment, and I respect the posts that setherick and company put out there regarding playcalling strategy and such. I was going to follow up that first post with more clarification anyway, so here goes.
I think the real problem with 4.5 is the exposure level to it by now. All those expert strategy posts wouldn’t exist if everybody didn’t already try everything to the point of knowing practically everything that works and what doesn’t. Primarily the zone defenses are completely useless, so obviously everyone runs m2m sets, and yes the blitzes get exposed as well. In order to emulate reality, the base cover 2 or cover 3 defenses should stop almost every play at a reasonable rate and yardage, but they also would almost never make any big plays either. Every type of defensive strategy obviously has an offensive counter that exposes it, but every move away “base” involves a risk vs reward balance on both sides.
M2m blitzes should bring more pressure and result in higher rates of offensive mistakes, but also risk exposure to “screens” or possibly “trap” running plays. Also max protection deep passes would expose m2m corners without safety help over top.
On the other end, dime and prevent level zones should virtually eliminate any possibility of a deep completion, but likely allow underneath middle of the field routes and obviously vulnerable to running in general, but they are meant to be called when those types of plays waste too much clock to get meaningful yardage.
There’s always a lot more options and possibilities, but we all know 4.5 doesn’t quite work this way because the zone coverages are broken. (As is the random generated talent available that gives you fast players with no skills, or skilled players that can’t move)
