Defense vs. heavy run conservative offense Topic

mannowar
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If you have a guy that runs a predominantly conservative to balanced wishbone/box offense would you play conservatively or very conservatively?  I know it also depends a lot on your personnel, but what I'm trying to understand is whether or not playing "very conservative" will help bottle up those inside runs.  I see a lot of explanations regarding very conservative to very aggressive offensive alignments, i.e., very conservative O mostly inside runs and short passes and very aggressive O mostly sweeps and deep shots, but I don't see much explained in regards to the defense, aside from the risk/reward of living by the sword or dying by it.

So, I guess what I'm asking is does the defense defend more against the inside ground game on conservative/very conservative settings or is it just keeping everything between it and the goal line?

As always, thanks in advance! :)
2/15/2012 11:45 AM
mrfortune3
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conservative/very conservative on defense defends up the middle and leaves the outside more exposed. basically forcing the defense to beat them each snap up the gut. basically when you play conservative you are willing to give up chunks of yardage if they beat you outside or over top but you don't give up the big time plays that allow them to hit those 45+ yard gains and TD's.
think of it as a tampa 2 defense, you bend but you don't break. you may give up 450-500 total yards but only yield 13-22 pts if the defense holds like it should.

that doesn't however mean a superior team with a knowledgeable coach won't gut you. if i can see that a team might be playing conservative on D i'm going for the kill. if i don't make all the big plays i'll live with it and adjust. it has backfired on me before but more often than not it works.
2/15/2012 12:19 PM
mlemley
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fortune, how do you tell what the defensive settings (conservative/agressive) is?  If you are running up the middle and not gaining much, does that mean they are set conservative?
 

2/16/2012 4:06 AM
harriswb3
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I never understood that conservative/very conservative would defend up the middle more.  I thought it was more of a read defense vs an attack/blitz defense.

So, how does this really work.  If I'm in Always Pass / Very Conservative......then my DBs are well off the line...but what else?

If I'm in Always Run / Very Conservative setting then that sort of makes sense that it would defend up the middle more.  But it still makes my head hurt...  :)
2/16/2012 6:44 AM
govolswoo
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Instead of matching your oppoenents style, try flipping it.
that is if you know they are A/VA then you go C/VC to limit your exposure to big plays and make the go on long drives, which will be hard for them because of the lower percentage passes and the more outside runs where your read-and-react guys will be waiting.
if they are V/VC on O then you have nothing to lose by pinning your ears back and going A/VA because these are shorter passes and inside runs that will have a lesser chance of going 80 yards for the score.
2/16/2012 9:27 AM
hcazualcc
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+1 to govolswoo for successfully explaining what no one else could.  Thank you.
3/13/2012 2:56 PM
hcazualcc
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although mrfortune gets an a for effort
3/13/2012 2:56 PM
llad_lu76
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Posted by harriswb3 on 2/16/2012 6:44:00 AM (view original):
I never understood that conservative/very conservative would defend up the middle more.  I thought it was more of a read defense vs an attack/blitz defense.

So, how does this really work.  If I'm in Always Pass / Very Conservative......then my DBs are well off the line...but what else?

If I'm in Always Run / Very Conservative setting then that sort of makes sense that it would defend up the middle more.  But it still makes my head hurt...  :)
My thoughts exactly---Somehow, this needs to be clarified by Norbert, either in some sort of FAQ or it would be great if there were some sort of evidence somewhere in the play-by-play of the tendency.  One time I had a safety get a sack.  How did this happen?  It would be great if we could control when the LBs or CBs blitz, and when they stay in coverage, etc.  Maybe LBs blitz if you're playing 4-4/pass/very aggressive, but a Safety blitzes if you're playing Nickel?  But wouldn't you want the Safety run-blitzing if you're playing all-run?  

There has to be a way to make this more clear.  Perhaps one global set of controls in the main gameplan that define what run/aggressive, etc., means (who blitzes, stays in coverage, etc.) for that particular game plan.  Then you could adjust the down-and-distance settings pretty much as they are now.  You could even have "zone blitzing" if you have a speedy DE or something by setting them to coverage and the safety to rush the QB on pass plays vs the I formation maybe---there are so many ways this could be improved, and I haven't even mentioned the offense! 

3/13/2012 4:15 PM
Defense vs. heavy run conservative offense Topic
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