I was playing against Oregon State a couple of hours ago, and I threw a pretty ugly pick.  I'll preface this by saying that I really haven't had an issue with interceptions in this game, and I feel like I can take care of the football when I need to. Picks happen to me, but in pretty similar ratios to what I see in actual college football, so why complain? But, if it's a problem for the masses, it's worth looking into, right? And, on defense, I do tend to get "too many" interceptions on occasion while playing defense.

On this particular pass mentioned above, my receiver feigned to the inside, broke outside, and had a good five yards of separation from the nearest defensive player.  Jake Locker straightened up, let fly and... was picked off. He threw it to where the receiver was, instead of where he was going to be. It was a god-awful throw, to be honest. The WR was wide-open, the ball was just badly under thrown.

I'll never be a big-time video game producer but I always tend to think of things from the standpoint of, "if I took this game and made one change to a particular problem, how could I fix it?" You know, without breaking the game of course.

It struck me whilst watching the replay: my receiver didn't exactly fight for that ball. In fact, in response to the pass thrown well behind him, he simply flattened out, as if he would simply catch the ball further behind the spot where he originally was headed. Meanwhile, the defender is having a jolly time getting into position to high point the ball perfectly, with no interference from my guy. 

I realized that if you took the same game, with the same exact defender reactions and quarterback throws, and simply changed it to where the receivers would fight to at least get NEAR the interception point to make a play on the ball or (better yet) attempt to bat down a pass that is going to be picked, this game would be damn near perfect. As it is, the majority of the time the wide receivers react to the badly thrown pass as if it were an offense-only practice session.

So, enough of the "in a perfect world" commentary. We have this game until, well next year. In the meantime, here are some suggestions to limit your interception count.

- Don't just look for open players against zone -- look for lanes. We've all noticed that the opposing players can bat down or pick off passes that they seemingly should have no business getting to. Whether this is fact or not (our perception) is open for debate, and right now I would probably take the opposing side on that argument. But the fact is, look for lanes if you want to be safe. The defenders can't move as quickly to the side (laterally) as before, so you want to anticipate and look for lanes between the defenders rather than just a guy who has beaten his man.

If you're staring at a zone defense, there's a pretty good rule of thumb for the middle of the field and that is that two linebackers starting in their base spots will spread out (creating a gap between them) if they're both playing zone -- it's almost a given.

If the linebackers are stacked to one side of the field to disguise the zone coverage, they'll "fan" into the same positions they would normally be spreading to, resulting in huge gaps underneath. The only time you'll see a linebacker stay put in zone coverage is if he's the only linebacker playing zone in that portion of the field and there's a receiver coming right at him.

- Don't assume the receiver is open against man coverage. I've seen the defense do some pretty creative things with man defense. I think most of us have seen some switching that occurs when we have trips and the outside receiver drags to the inside -- often times one of the inside defenders takes him and is in perfect position to pick off a short pass. 

Defenders will look for a pass to the inside or outside and as a result are often times either beaten badly, or remain in perfect position despite the fact that the same play might work 80% of the time in that situation. However, never assume it, always look at the positioning of the players before you make the throw.

- Take the sack.  As tough as it is, a sack is never, ever worse than an interception. I should know; I have an awful pass blocking line and have been sacked more than 20 times in six games, but am currently 6-1 in my second season with the Huskies.

- Throw it away. Self explanatory. Live to fight another down. It's the smart thing to do. Throwing it away doesn't just save the interception, it also lets you know what the defensive team is anticipating in that situation and how the defense wants to deal with it. And you do this all without losing you yardage. The next time you have a similar down and distance, call something that beats the play where you previously had to throw it away.

- Finally, if you do throw a pick and get frustrated, just remember that bad things happen in football games and you have to keep going with the same intensity and concentration as before, in order to have a chance. Wipe the slate clean and go forward.