In this Madden Guides post, we look at four key elements in creating an offensive philosophy in Madden. One question that was posed awhile back was what is the difference between an offensive philosophy and an offensive scheme/style? Schemes such Run & Shoot, Spread, West Coast, Compression/Bunch Attack, and Pro Styles have a specific emphasis. An offensive philosophy is all about emphasis. The emphasis however is slightly different than the emphasis in a system. An offensive philosophy will emphasize the physical and mental aspects that drive your offensive system when creating an offensive philosophy.
Speed
Of all the player ratings in the games, the most important is speed. In our creating an offensive philosophy, we emphasize the need for speed. We want to attack the defense with speed. When choosing an offensive system or style one of the first things we factor in is the speed on our team. When we recruit athletes or draft players in franchise mode, speed is always one of the first physical attributes we examine in determining if we will give the player a serious look. Speed has been the most important attribute in football video games for years and this year that does not change (but it is no longer exclusively the only attribute to look for although still the most important). Be sure to examine your personnel and highlight your speed guys. Even if the athlete is not great in many areas his speed can be used on end arounds as well as in the kick return and punt return game.
Adaption
Adaption is element we like to emphasize in creating an offensive philosophy. By this we mean the moving in and out of formations on the fly. For example, we may come out in the Singleback Doubles and see our opponent is bringing some type of A-gap heat from the MLB. Rather stay under center, audible into the Gun Doubles to help buy some extra time to look for an open receiver.
Opportunity
The third element of our creating an offensive philosophy is opportunity. We must create opportunities based upon our play sets. We like to categorize our plays as base plays and explosive plays. For example, the Gun Bunch – Stick is play we would consider as a base play. We need not looking for the big play, but instead our looking to move the ball steadily and consistently down the field. A play we would consider an explosive play would be the Gun Bunch – Verticals. This plays sends four receivers, deep us a chance a explosive play down the field.
Balance
Our fourth and final element to our creating an offensive philosophy is balance. Balance is not about ratios in this case. It is about efficiency as well as ratios. If we are efficient in our rushing attack with only fifteen carries for over one hundred yards rushing to compliment our passing attack at twenty-three attempts and two hundred fifty yards passing then we consider that balance. There are areas in which you will want to think about balance in terms of 50/50. We want to balance our inside running plays with our outside running plays as well as short, intermediate and long passes. We want to balance our plays going left with our plays going right.
Final Thoughts
We play to our strengths when creating an offensive philosophy. If we do not have an option QB we are not going to be an option team and will never call the option as a part of our play set. If we do not have great speed at wide receiver we are not going to build our offense around the vertical attack. Playing to your strengths is a very important element in football video games.
