Re: plasticweapon - cheese fest
Well the counter to the squib is usually just keep your hands off your controller. Don't try to manually recover it and don't chase after it. Just let your guy pick it up. Sometimes he'll just dive on it and you'll be stuck deep in your own territory, but it is better than the alternative. People try this all the time against me but after I recover it and return it to the 35 a few times, it stops.
I face pinched lines all the time because I'm almost always running option (under center or spread) and that makes the read cloudy, but I've never seen the DE get instant pressure from it. Pinching the line usually negates pressure. Don't be afraid to slide protect and keep a back or two in to block. Slide protect the direction most of the pressure is coming from and hot route the back to protect the other way. I stop most nano blitzing with LB's by going Pistol and hot routing my back to block. He steps up in front of me and usually takes on the LB up the middle.
If you're facing instant pressure, find WR/FL Screen in your playbook. The one where the outside WR stands and waits for a screen while the slot WR/TE/G/T run out to block for him (not a Mid Screen). Call that play, it is in most formations. When you get to the line of scrimmage, hot route the intended WR to run a slant and then hot route the running back to run a swing pattern (right or left on the right stick). What that will create is effectively a HB Swing/Bubble Screen with receivers and offensive linemen out front. Snap the ball, take a step or two back and then fire it at the back and follow the blockers. After you've run it a few times, he'll probably try and cheat over there manually, that's when you snap throw the slant when he's abandoned the middle.
Additionally, learn your quick routes. Hot route your WR's to run a curl and don't be afraid to throw it before he is looking, if you wait for him to turn you're going to be sacked. Right as he gets to his spot, fire it at him, he'll turn and catch it. Make sure your initial step after catch is lateral, left or right, one way or the other. Most people that play like this will try and big hit your receiver on the curl to separate him from the ball. If you take a quick side step, you could bust it open.
Don't be afraid to call a 5 yard hitch route all the way down the field, it'll probably be open, you can get it off lightning fast and you'll keep moving the chains. If he's a HEAVY blitzer, run HB Slip Screen ALL DAY until he proves he can stop it. Drift back with your QB a few steps, wait for the back to clear and loft it over there.
Defensively, if he ran to the exact same place over and over if you went man, mix in a run commit to that direction to see if you can't get him on edge. If you cause a negative play on first down, most of these guys panic a little and feel the need to get away from what they're doing. If you're getting beat by tosses, hot route your defensive line to have the ends contain (I believe it is L1 and up, but someone can correct me on that, it is muscle memory for me). The ends will fire out and usually either stop the toss cold or force him to cut back where the rest of your team will get him. Bring corner blitzes. The 425 and 335 defenses are perfect for this because you can bring the strong safeties on smoke blitzes from either end and usually get pretty good contain on outside runs. Make him beat you through the air, he's likely to make a mistake. You can mix in the double SS blitz in both man and zone to keep him guessing.
In my experience, cheesers have very little patience. They may start out in the run game but at the slightest hint of trouble they are going 4 and 5 wide and playing chuck n duck. If you play bend but don't break defense, they are more likely to panic and make a mistake. If you slow the tempo down offensively and put points on the board, they are more likely to panic and feel the need to score in a hurry, hurrying leads to mistakes. The fascination cheesers have with no huddle amazes me because 9 out of 10 of them are not prepared with audibles and play calls so they are basically telling you what they are doing and thus are going to make a mistake. Additionally, guys get tired, passes fly off target, running backs fumble and receivers drop passes.
Don't be afraid to shorten the game. Run the football, use conservative clock to burn time, just control the game. He can't score while you have the football. Limit your mistakes offensively and you'll force him to take risks to keep up. Most of my wins against these types of cheesers are 24-21, 17-10 type games where I had 14 minutes of time of possession but put points up at the end of every drive. They feel the need to speed up the pace, counter that score with a quick score of their own and all of a sudden they are throwing INT's and it snowballs on them. Very few cheesers have the attention span to stick with their "gameplan." All of a sudden they'll just start running the same few money plays they know and from there you just make your defensive adjustments and take them down.
There have been very few times I've been stumped by a cheeser, most are the same as every other. Occasionally you'll run into a guy who has obviously practiced his cheesemaking craft over many years of NCAA football and those guys are tough, but not impossible, to beat. As always, the most difficult opponents of online play are those that stray from the norm. I suppose the same could be said for actual football as well.
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