Special Teams Needs Love

[canes21]

We got the new kicking meter which is awesome and I love it. Kicks aren't automatic anymore and it's great and makes me actually look forward to recruiting solid kickers with traits. What they set out to do with this mechanic they far exceeded.

And, that success only helps show how lackluster the rest of special teams play is. It's cool blocks are a thing and that we got the shield formation added to the game, but this entire area of the game needs serious attention.

I've got a few things I think would really elevate special teams play and take this game to a new level on the field, and it's already very very good on the field. The listing is in no particular order.

1. The blocking and ball carrier logic on return plays needs a lot of love. Most kickoff returns see the up men letting guys go in untouched and similar happens on punt returns. Along with the poor blocking logic, the CPU ball carriers often run in a straight line into traffic and make no settle down, find a crease, reverse field, or anything of the sorts. Punt returns are exciting in real life due to how crazy they can get, yet, they are completely static and predictable 99% of the time in this game.

2. Add Australian style punting. We got the shield formation and no Aussie kickers to use it with.

3. Revamp how blocking kicks works, leave it less scripted on animations and more based on alignment and physical ability. This, in combination with Aussie kicking can lead to more dynamic play where there is a reason to pick the different kick formations.

4. Revamp how the kick trajectories work on FG's. Only allow the user to aim left and right, but not up and down. Let kick power dictate the flight path of the ball. Less power, more loft, less distance. More power, a line drive seeking distance. Higher power kicks that are lower in trajectory have a higher chance of getting tipped or outright blocked up the middle.

5. Please look at ball physics. A back spin punt comes flying back at 100 mph in this game. It's awful. Overall ball physics are still pretty questionable.

6. With the ball physics being changed above, make it so the hands team doesn't pick up an onside kick at 90 mph with one hand on the run. Onside kicks aren't that successful these days, but it's not because the hands team can make ridiculous catches like you see in this game. At least make it authentic so recoveries can also happen more authentically.

7. This is a big one, but add more logic to how the CPU handles special teams. With kick returns, I can't count the number of times I kick to the left, the CPU calls a return to the opposite side of the field, all the blockers run there and the returner still returns it to their own 12 because his blockers aren't there. If I kick it to the side they aren't calling the blocking for, have them fair catch it and start at their 25.

Also, if the CPU is failing to return the ball to the 25 or further consistently, make them more likely to fair catch it. If I sky kick it, make them more likely to fair catch it.

If I have a dangerous return man, have the CPU make an effort in a variety of ways to limit him. Have them sky kick, have them squib it, have them try and kick it out the end zone, if I align with 2 men back, kick it to the other guy. There's so many ways teams try to counter good returners in real life and that needs to be in the game.

If I don't have anyone back there particularly special but have returned multiple kicks or punts well on the game, allow them to make the same adjustments above. This logic needs to be there for kicks and punts, not one or the other.

Add coaching adjustments that the CPU takes advantage of and each coach handles differently that dictate the frequency with which returners will try a return. Some teams in real life put their punt returner on the 10 and say if the ball is over your head, let it go. Allow that to be an adjustment CPU teams make but with a variety of yard markers you can choose.

In real life, many teams these days tell their kickoff returners to stand on the goal line and anything over their heads is let go. The CPU in this game does the exact opposite. Add this coaching adjustment to the game and also add the animation of players sticking their arms out to signal to the up men they aren't returning it just so we have that small detail for immersion's sake.

8. This is a wish that likely never comes true, but add a snapping rating that dictates how clean snaps are. A worse snap rating leads to more off target snaps with heightened chances for a completely botched snap that can't be fielded properly like one over the head of the punter or one that skips short on a FG try. Tie composure to it as well.

9. Please, for the love of god, make the CPU finally able to more consistently coffin corner and give them the ability to add back spin to a punt. Unlock all kick types for the CPU on all kick plays. If they do have access to these kick types, I've literally never seen them use them in this game so far or in any recent Madden.

10. Instead of having the landing spot how it is on kicks where it's a static 100% accurate target. Let only the return team see this target and have it be a dynamic circle that is a similar mechanic to that of baseball games on fly balls where the circle starts out large and shrinks as it gets closer to the ground. Tie it to the return rating so guys with high ratings have a fairly good idea of where the kick is landing earlier on while lower rated guys don't see it until late. Like the baseball games, have the return man moving within the circle as it narrows where it will land and have it also have the potential for a muff with guys that are moving last second to get under the ball.

And, with the landing spot invisible to the kicking team, make it so the defenders, even CPU controlled defenders are purely playing off the return man's positioning. Don't give them the magical ability to know where the ball is landing. Also give the CPU return men the ability to bluff where the ball is landing to try and get a touch back, AND, add trick return plays like 2 men back on punts with the potential for the fake returner to pull in the gunners while the real returner is left alone.

To balance this out, higher awareness players have a chance of looking up to find the ball if they get down field in time. This will make higher trajectory punts more impactful when trying to pin teams deep. If you want your gunners to have a better chance at downing the ball before it reaches the end zone, you need to give them time to get down the field and spot the ball.

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If EA can revamp special teams play and get this kind of detail added to it and get it to similar levels of quality as the new kicking meter, then it will really take the game to levels we've not seen before in any football video game before and it would make it that much more dynamic, authentic, deeper, and fun.

[northmen24]

I ran a kick return and at the end of the play I had 5 players at the 50 blocking their kicker. It’s not a huge deal to me. But it definitely shows that there is a blocking issue on kick returns.