Holden_22

I know the feeling of constantly wanting to change playbooks. Since you said you like to run the ball but don't want to run any meta style of offenses I would suggest trying out a playbook like the Saints. They have the Singleback Tight Slots pitch/dive combo, but if you don't want to run that because of its popularity there are still other good options. They have Pistol Bunch TE which can be very effective between the Strong Power, HB Zone, and even the HB Draw along with some solid passing plays. Also in shotgun you've got Tight Offset TE with the Inside Zone/01 Trap combo which can be very effective, supplemented with some other nice passing options.    If not the Saints I would say the Packers, which is somewhat similar in that it also has Tight Offset TE but they have other stuff such as Deuce Close and SB Wing HB Stretch. If that interests you more I would suggest going on YouTube and watching some gameplay of Problem from the Club Championship and the Ultimate League to get a feel for how he runs his offense. I hope this helped!

Quote from adunaway23 >> Thans for the tip Holden!  I'm a long time sub! My pleasure man, and I recognized your name! Thanks for the support!

Like for Nickel 3-3-5 Normal? Tampa 2 is obviously the most popular coverage out of there, it really just comes down to adjusting your coverages based on your opponents tendencies and knowing where your user needs to be at on the field since a lot of the time your user gets delegated to covering the entire short/intermediate part of the field with the most popular setups like blitzing 6 or putting the MLB into a deep third. It's mainly just important to catch onto tendencies and take away your opponents first read.   Also mix in other coverages situationally such as Cover 3 Cloud, Cover 4 Drop, even 3 Double Buzz can be good in the right spots. I also think man-to-man can be a good mixup depending on what your opponent is running on offense.

Quote from camnewtongoat >> The out routes the dudes hit on me were 10 yard smart-routed ones. They relied on them consistently to move the chains on third down. Seems like my cloud flats would get glitched into man coverage for whatever reason. Hmm the only thing I can think of is if the cloud flat was converting to man-to-man coverage because the outside receiver was the only threat on that side of the field. For example if you were in Gun Bunch Wk and motioned the HB from the left to the right, there would now be 4 receivers to the right of the QB and 1 to the left. So in this case the cloud flat/soft squat on the left side will convert to man coverage.

How deep were the out routes? If they were the little 3 yard ones then I can see a cloud flat/soft squat drifting back far enough to hit them underneath, in that case you would need to go with hard flats.   If they were like smart routed 10 yards out routes, against what sounds like Tampa 2 w/ cloud flats, then I'm not sure that would be pretty strange. I have seen some flukey passes sneak through but a read like that most of the time would result in a pick.

I have never been to a tournament who didn't let you pick whatever default playbook you wanted to. Generally they just mean that you can't go in and create a custom book before your game.

A lot of people like the HB Sting out of Goal Line as a somewhat consistent run in those short yardage situations. Another popular thing to do is come out in Singleback Ace and threaten the HB Dive/Stretch combo. This works pretty well since it is a symmetrical formation so you threaten outside runs to either side of the field along with right up the middle. Another play that can be included in that scheme is the WR Quick if your playbook happens to have it.   Another thing I have seen have some success is HB Draws since most people use some type of Cover 4 look as their base run defense, and draws do a good job of picking on the safeties dropping back and linebackers shooting out at the snap.

For Cover 3 it kind of depends in my opinion. If they are in a standard Cover 3 Sky then like rsmith said it is a pretty neutral defense that comes down to defensive alignment and where you have the numbers advantage. If it's a cross fire variant, then you want to try to run the ball right at the LB they are blitzing, as he will essentially run himself out of the play by trying to loop around. If it is a Cover 3 Cloud, then you have to keep in mind that on one side there will be a CB in a flat zone, essentially turning it into a Tampa 2 run-wise on that side of the field. So you would either want to run up the middle or to the opposite side, since both safeties will be rolling their coverage to the side of the CB who is covering the flat.    Cover 1 and 2 Man Under both being man based defenses you generally want to run where you have leverage, similarly to a neutral style defense like Cover 3.