Warrior General Games

Bare with me now, as the Defensive AI is a whole new thing to me.

We were recently in a game tonight and the opposing team had a speedy back. And in previous games every time they got into a strong I, the back would most likely get the ball and take off on his merry way.

So in order to take this on, I tried to set my AI up to run a 4-3 Cover 2, and having all the LBs blitz whenever they got into a Strong I formation. And I set this for 100% chance, any time any distance between first and third down. If they went to the Strong I, 7 guys were supposed to engage.

I set it up for Max Blitzers to be 3 and then set all the LBs to 100?

I didn't want to use Thunder Smoke or Engage 8 because I wanted a Cover 2 over the top.

It wound up being only 1 LB Blitzed or none blitzed.

Did I do something wrong? Was their an oversight I missed. I tested the Def. AI and set it to Strong I, two receivers etc, and it said that it would run the scheme I chose.

Again I appreciate the help and I know it's late. I thought I would throw this question out there for some in hopes to get a couple responses. I'll see if I can be on tomorrow to continue the conversation, if not then I'll check the thread Friday.

Thanks to all those who offer the new guy some help/advice.

Here's a couple of the plays that the defense didn't do as I wanted

One LB Blitzes
http://goallineblitz.com/game/replay.pl?game_id=235443&pbp_id=6186217

LBs play pure Cover 2
http://goallineblitz.com/game/replay.pl?game_id=235443&pbp_id=6187965

If you play a cover 2 with a speedy back...Just remember the first action your SS is going to do, is zone pass coverage. If you go cover 1 then your SS is free to play the play. Now when his vision kicks in and he recognizes it, then he can help out. If you are thinking they are going to strong I, off tackle run, you can shift LB's over to strong side, send in MLB, and have your Sam backer play the run, with the SS backing him up. If your sam back is a monster then blitz him and see what he can do against the TE. If your corners are good, you can play it with short coverage..and get the Sam side just stuffed of your toons. Just a thought.

On your plays you have linked...The first one...you have 6 toons going into pass coverage, the cover two commits your safties, both corners, and you ahve 2 lb's backing up on the start of the play. They have 7 blockers against your 5 remaining guys stopping the run...its a numbers thing...Also their Oline pushed your NT and DT around like rag dolls. On the other play you have a miss tackle. they happen. However again a cover 2 on a strong I formation? I am not a fan of cover two, you only get 9 of your 11 toons engaged cause you are using two toons as a safety valve. If they run a fair amount, I prefer cover 1 and get pressure on their line with blitzing. Hope this gives you ideas.

Is it possible you have a Strong I input set up higher in the chain?

Originally posted by mdkaden
Is it possible you have a Strong I input set up higher in the chain?

Or an Any I formation higher?

Yeah, the AI reads top-down. So if you set that Strong-I input, and have another input for "I any formation" above it - it'll read that one first. The AI always checks from top-down.

Also, do you have Auto-adjust on? If so, is it set relatively high? It could just be adjusting / overriding your settings.

Couldn't sleep so thought I would check in to see if I had any responses.

*sigh*

You know, sometimes it's the simplest things in life that you never see coming. You know, like checking off the box that says "Enable Defense AI? (required for these settings to work)". Yeah, I noticed that it wasn't turned on when looking for the Auto-adjust.

*smacks forehead*

Color me embarrassed... maybe I'll just turn in my D.C. card now. Thanks to those who offered their thoughts. You learn something new everyday.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the GLBers out there.

It's all good man.

We all started DC'ing *somewhere*.

Plus, with the holidays - we're all preoccupied with a billion other things each. That's your get out of jail free card for this time.

Cover 2 will get eaten alive by runs up the middle and off tackle.
Cover 2 is ok in 3rd and med/long situations.

This year, a lot more teams are playing Cover 1 or Cover 0 against two back sets on 1st or 2nd down. Blitz 1-2 LBs.

You can also play Cover 1 and blitz the FS to stop runs to the left.

To have success in GLB, your CBs are going to need to cover one on one without much help. If you play your safeties in pass coverage, you just won't be able to stop the run.

In Cover 1, don't blitz the SS and LOLB at the same time though as the TE will run wide open.

Yeah agree with goshann here. Teams that constantly drop back into a cover 2 I plan on running against a lot. But that being said if those Cover 2 safeties are set up to stop the run and blitz fairly frequently that will stop the run in a heartbeat. I have seen that done a lot.

Originally posted by goshann
Cover 2 will get eaten alive by runs up the middle and off tackle.
Cover 2 is ok in 3rd and med/long situations.

This year, a lot more teams are playing Cover 1 or Cover 0 against two back sets on 1st or 2nd down. Blitz 1-2 LBs.

You can also play Cover 1 and blitz the FS to stop runs to the left.

To have success in GLB, your CBs are going to need to cover one on one without much help. If you play your safeties in pass coverage, you just won't be able to stop the run.

In Cover 1, don't blitz the SS and LOLB at the same time though as the TE will run wide open.

I take it you disagree with this guide then:
http://www.glbwiki.com/index.php?title=Developing_a_Successful_Defensive_AI
Which says:
Common Mistakes

* Blitzing a FS out of a Cover 1 or blitzing a SS out of a Cover 2. These are just terrible ideas.

Originally posted by merlin olsen
Originally posted by goshann

Cover 2 will get eaten alive by runs up the middle and off tackle.
Cover 2 is ok in 3rd and med/long situations.

This year, a lot more teams are playing Cover 1 or Cover 0 against two back sets on 1st or 2nd down. Blitz 1-2 LBs.

You can also play Cover 1 and blitz the FS to stop runs to the left.

To have success in GLB, your CBs are going to need to cover one on one without much help. If you play your safeties in pass coverage, you just won't be able to stop the run.

In Cover 1, don't blitz the SS and LOLB at the same time though as the TE will run wide open.

I take it you disagree with this guide then:
http://www.glbwiki.com/index.php?title=Developing_a_Successful_Defensive_AI
Which says:
Common Mistakes

* Blitzing a FS out of a Cover 1 or blitzing a SS out of a Cover 2. These are just terrible ideas.


It would be a terrible idea unless the team is an extremely high % running team. If they rely on the rb and have no passing game, it may not be a bad idea, though id prefer running cover 0 and doing that.

The games where I went against a crazy runner, I run a 4-3 cover 1 with a run focus and short coverage. It crowds the line, looking for the run. I'll blitz the mlb but not the olbs, since I want them to be able to chase and not be tied up with a tackle. If they run right all the time I'll line up strong side and also blitz the lolb. Setting your underneath coverage to man also prevents the lbs from initially dropping back too far, giving up free yards to the rb.

In terms of responding to the Wiki.

You can blitz the FS and get away with it.
In Cover 1, the FS obviously plays a zone in pass coverage...so if you blitz the FS, your CBs will be one on one with no one backing them up.

But the fact is, most of the time in Zone coverage the FS just wonders around there and doesn't cover anyone closely anyway. The big issue with blitzing him is support for down field tackles in case someone breaks free.

You can also blitz the SS out of Cover 2 as long LOLB is not blitzing (so he will pick up the TE). This is preferred to Cover 1 if you expect them to run because the SS will first focus on Pass coverage in a Cover 1 and won't make a tackle that close to the LOS.

So in general, the Wiki post may be accurate for NFL football...it isn't that helpful for GLB. Blitzing the SS and FS can help stop the run.

The big difference between real football and glb is the offense isn't going to audible based on what they see So it's all about exploiting a team based on the tendencies you see on down/distance/formation situations.