My NCAA '06 Experience Last Night

Last night at a friend's place, this friend of my friend challenged me to a duel in "NCAA Football '06." While I hadn't played the game in approximately 6 months and forgot what a couple of the buttons did, I rarely turn down a challenge. I'm sure my friend was bragging about how good he thinks I am and yadda yadda yadda. He also told me how this friend of his was really good, as well. While I knew I'd be in trouble early, since it had been so long, I figured I'd get the hang of things again in the second half.

I picked Virginia Tech, as usual, and my opponent was Florida State. We played in Neyland Stadium, home of the Tennessee Volunteers to neutralize things a bit.

For the majority of the game last night, it felt as if I had done something to piss the football gods off, because he was catching every break imaginable. When a player of mine was wide open and I threw to him, he'd drop the ball. When my opponent fumbled and five Hokies surrounded the football, he somehow came up with it. A starting cornerback of mine got hurt and would be out for the remainder of the game. Something even worse happened in the third quarter, but I'll get into that in a minute.

I played briefly in this league a friend of mine composed. He made up a few rules in attempt to make the games more realistic. Ever know a person who has a quick quarterback and every single play, they run a shotgun formation play and just take the quarterback and run with him? Doesn't that get annoying? Is that at all realistic? If it's a busted play, if the quarterback is under pressure, or if he can't find anyone that's open, then making something out of nothing with their feet makes perfect sense. But, to snap the ball and immediately look to run every single play is annoying and very unrealistic, so my friend made a rule that prevented this from occurring. He also made a rule that disallowed heavy blitzes on every single play, because again, this is unrealistic. Some people are very blitz happy, but no coach in their rightened mind will blitz six of the front seven and a safety or a corner on every single play. I liked these rules, because when I play the game, I want it to feel like a chess match, as opposed to an old-fashioned game of "NFL Blitz" where there's a hit on the quarterback and long prayer throws that will either be answered or rejected. "NFL Blitz" was fun for a short while, but there's something about the strategy of the game that is truly what makes me so interested.

Well, this was not a league game last night, so there weren't any of those side rules, and my opponent blitzed heavy on every single down and ran with his quarterback on numerous occasions. Having to deal with this, all the breaks he was getting, and me not playing for six months played into his favor early on in the game.

I like a balanced offense and typically like to run to set up the pass. Throwing the ball 50 times a game makes for a lot longer of a contest than running the ball successfully and chewing up clock. But, like I mentioned, he ran heavy blitzes on every single play, so while I attempted to run very early in the game, this stopped at the outset of the second quarter, when I was down 14-0. As the old saying goes, "Live by the blitz, die by the blitz" and this is quite true.

I noticed that most all my receiver (good ones at that) had single coverage on all my plays, so I began heaving balls up for them. More times than not, the plays worked. I'd run crosses, slants, posts, even a hail mary one time that was successful. As long as I got the ball in the air before the defender hit me, I had a 1 in 3 chance of coming down with that football (the defender and an incompletion being the other two potential outcomes). Also, what's the best way to beat a blitz? Screens. The halfback screen wasn't too successful for me, but the slot screen worked beautifully. I scored two touchdowns on the slot screen. Marcus Vick would throw the ball laterally and as 6-7-8 guys were coming after him, I'd have two other receivers blocking while my slot-man caught the ball and took off with it. Unless the ball was underthrown, it ended up in a big gain, including, like I mentioned, two touchdowns. This is how the whole game would be. I finally started getting the hang of things and tied it up 14-14 at the half. I went ahead 21-14 in the 3rd before Marcus Vick went down with a game-ending injury. My back-up Sean Glennon then entered the game and at that point, I was going, oh boy, but else could happen? My opponent had another fumble where four or five Hokies surrounded the football, but for some reason, a Seminole fell on top of it. After Vick went down, my opponent tied the game up on the lone successful running play by a tailback by either team in the game. The score was tied 21-21 entering the fourth. I knew Glennon didn't have as strong a throwing arm as Vick, so I stayed away from the long pass plays and went more for the short cross and slant routes, along with the ever-so reliable screens. I went up 28-21 with a tough 2-yard run by my fullback. A slot screen midway in the 4th quarter put me up by two touchdowns, 35-21 and I was finally feeling comfortable again (mostly), as I had scored 35 of the last 42 points. My opponent squeezed a pass into the hands of a receiver to close the gap to 8, but for some reason, he went for two and failed. The game then was 35-27 and he'd never touch it again. I gained a few first downs. He called timeouts. When I knew he was out of TO's and there was about a minute left, I just took three knees and that was the game. My friend said, "Oh no, you're going to be that guy." I was just thinking, "Well, let's see here. My opponent plays 'NFL Blitz'-style ball, my starting quarterback got hurt, a starting cornerback got hurt, my team can't recover fumbles, and if I don't mess up here, I can officially win the game that the football gods wanted me to lose. What would they do in real life? Down the football and that's exactly what I did. Final score: Virginia Tech 35 Florida State 27.

It was a nice time to play the game again, as the new version comes out next Tuesday. To my surprise, my opponent never gave up with the blitz. Even when he realized I had him figured out, he still blitzed heavily on every play. While I couldn't run the ball, I threw for over 400 yards in the game. Also, while I like to run the ball and want a balanced offense, you just have to adjust to the game. If I liked to pass the ball and he had a zone defense where 7-8 men were in the secondary covering receivers, it'd be dumb of me not to run the football. It'd be 7 on 3 or 4 and unless the line, fullback, and tight end couldn't block worth a lick, chances are that my tailback would have some holes to peek and dart through. So, I just went with what the guy gave me, single coverage on all my receivers and nobody to cover on the screen passes. He better change his game around next time or I'll carve him up for a dominating victory. In the final three quarters, I beat him 35-13 and that includes a late score by him.

The moral of the story is mix your defensive formations and blitz packages up a bit, because that'll confuse the opposition a lot more than running zone coverage plays or heavy blitzes on every single down. Unless the player is a newbie gamer, they're probably going to figure things out and just take what you give them. While it's good to make a team one-dimensional, it's not good to be so bound and determined to do that, that you totally disregard the other dimension of the offense. Navy may be a run-oriented offense (option anyone?), but if there's just single man coverage on all the receivers, even Navy will be able to pass for a good chunk of yardage in the game.