NCAA Football 12 News Post

25 New Plays Coming to NCAA Football 12 - Play #22: Rover Wk Dog

10:30 AM - April 12, 2011 by illwill10

Over the next few weeks, EA Sports will show 25 new plays that you will find in NCAA Football 12.

New offensive plays will be shown every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while a new defensive play every Tuesday and Thursday. Each new play will be accompanied by a screen of the play art and a brief description of why the play has been added to NCAA Football 12.

Play #22 features the Rover Wk Dog.

Quote:


	"4-2-5 Under Slide Rover Wk Dog � 4-2-5 Under Slide is a new defensive formation for NCAA Football 12. This defensive look from the 4-2-5 calls for the secondary to align in a two deep look with one cornerback aligned tight and the other aligned in a loose technique. Rover Wk Dog is a pressure scheme that allows the defense to rush four defenders at the weak side of the offense. "

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Member Comments

# 1 frankrizzo380 @ 04/12/11 12:41 PM

Nice i see the 425 got a major influx of philosophy/plays, im sure that the alignment issues have beej addressed. Now can we get the 34 in the mix?

# 2 Solidice @ 04/12/11 02:20 PM

nice, finally a 2 deep base 4-2-5 formation.

# 3 Palo20 @ 04/12/11 02:24 PM

Nice to see the CBs playing different techniques. Definitely make sense to have the field CB playing off while the boundary CB plays press.

# 4 Senator Palmer @ 04/12/11 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Palo20


	Nice to see the CBs playing different techniques. Definitely make sense to have the field CB playing off while the boundary CB plays press.

Hey Palo,

How do you identify which corner is the boundary and which is the field?

# 5 Knight9299 @ 04/12/11 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankrizzo380


	Nice i see the 425 got a major influx of philosophy/plays, im sure that the alignment issues have beej addressed. Now can we get the 34 in the mix?

We don't know that for sure- yet. As well as alignment issues, I hope they addressed the depth chart issues associated with the 425 and 335. There are so many little tweaks that are needed defensively but EA would say they make the game less accessible to the 'casual' gamer, that I won't bring up because it depresses me.

# 6 reyes the roof @ 04/12/11 10:06 PM

The problem with this play is the game doesn't identify strong/weak sides, so if the offense happens to have a play flipped and the TE lines up on the left, the concept of the blitz is ruined

# 7 canes21 @ 04/12/11 11:00 PM

You could always use an audible to just flip it if that were to happen.

# 8 Palo20 @ 04/13/11 12:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Senator Palmer


	Hey Palo, How do you identify which corner is the boundary and which is the field?

Disclaimer: I'm not a coach. Based off the picture, I think the RCB is playing the field.

Not sure what you mean by your question, I assume you know the difference betwen boundary and field, but if you don't, the field is the wide side of the field and the boundary is the short side. The wide hashes in college make it more likely that a team will flip their CBs than in the NFL where most CBs will generally play just the left or right.

I'm actually not sure where teams will normally play their best cover guy, boundary or field. Intuitively it would make sense to put your best guy to the field side just because there is much more ground to cover. But when you think about the different route options the outside WR has to run, they really are pretty limited. The outside WR to the field side will hardly ever run any out breaking routes, especially beyond 5 yards; the throw from the opposite hash is just too far. This allows the CB to play off more often than not, and it also allows the CB to sit on all in breaking routes.

The CB to the boundary is more likely to have to account for the entire route tree. Even though space is limited toward the sideline, a deep out or comeback is still a possibility. Also, since the QB is much closer to this WR, it makes much more sense to play bump coverage to the boundary, especially to redirect the WR toward the sideline even more. So I actually wonder if it makes more sense to have your best CB playing the boundary since that WR is more likely to see more balls thrown his way (I think the Gators play Janoris Jenkins on the boundary).

So if we take a look at this play, imagine it's being run from the right hash. The RCB is playing off coverage, which would make sense since any throw to his side of the field will be a very long throw and he'll have plenty of time to break on it. That CB can basically play a little softer and disrespect the deep out or comeback route (it would have to be about a 30-40 yd throw on a line). The LCB is playing bump on the boundary side.

To make this play "realistic," I'd just flip it so the off corner is always playing to the field side. Of course, pass speeds in the game are a little ridiculous and field spacing is much less important than it is in real life.

# 9 Senator Palmer @ 04/13/11 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Palo20


	Disclaimer: I'm not a coach. Based off the picture, I think the RCB is playing the field. Not sure what you mean by your question, I assume you know the difference betwen boundary and field, but if you don't, the field is the wide side of the field and the boundary is the short side. The wide hashes in college make it more likely that a team will flip their CBs than in the NFL where most CBs will generally play just the left or right. I'm actually not sure where teams will normally play their best cover guy, boundary or field. Intuitively it would make sense to put your best guy to the field side just because there is much more ground to cover. But when you think about the different route options the outside WR has to run, they really are pretty limited. The outside WR to the field side will hardly ever run any out breaking routes, especially beyond 5 yards; the throw from the opposite hash is just too far. This allows the CB to play off more often than not, and it also allows the CB to sit on all in breaking routes. The CB to the boundary is more likely to have to account for the entire route tree. Even though space is limited toward the sideline, a deep out or comeback is still a possibility. Also, since the QB is much closer to this WR, it makes much more sense to play bump coverage to the boundary, especially to redirect the WR toward the sideline even more. So I actually wonder if it makes more sense to have your best CB playing the boundary since that WR is more likely to see more balls thrown his way (I think the Gators play Janoris Jenkins on the boundary). So if we take a look at this play, imagine it's being run from the right hash. The RCB is playing off coverage, which would make sense since any throw to his side of the field will be a very long throw and he'll have plenty of time to break on it. That CB can basically play a little softer and disrespect the deep out or comeback route (it would have to be about a 30-40 yd throw on a line). The LCB is playing bump on the boundary side. To make this play "realistic," I'd just flip it so the off corner is always playing to the field side. Of course, pass speeds in the game are a little ridiculous and field spacing is much less important than it is in real life.

Yeah, I knew what the "boundary" and "field" corners where, I was just wondering how you could tell from the pic; if you were looking at the hashmarks or the formation using the "nickel" to determine the strength?

Great breakdown of the designations, though. Hopefully, we can actually get some of these designations along with LEO and ELEPHANT into the game to determine real schemes.

Oh, yeah, and intuitively, it would make sense to play your best player at the field, I would think, but I know that Virginia Tech always used their best corner as the boundary once he got enough seasoning playing on the other side. I'm guessing, as you noted, it's because he's got more route combinations to defend, especially if it's zone and he has to potentially deal with a slot receiver.

# 10 Palo20 @ 04/13/11 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MachoFantastic


	Actually, I think you've got it backwards. The blitz is coming from the weak side, and since most of the time the strong side is going to be on the open side of the field, you would normally have the CB playing back on the boundary side.

It looks like the blitz is coming from the strong side, that's where the extra DB is.

# 11 Knight9299 @ 04/13/11 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MachoFantastic


	Well the play is called Rover Wk Dog. Wk = weak. Also it says in the description that the blitz comes from the weak side.

What difference does weak or strong make in NCAA? It's not like the defense lines up based on the offenses formation or field. It's funny they call this Rover Wk dog, it should just be call Rover Right dog. Because unless we flip the play when we call it, the dog is coming from the defenses right. This is another thing that is IN the game, BUT NOT IN this game.

# 12 Palo20 @ 04/13/11 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MachoFantastic


	Well the play is called Rover Wk Dog. Wk = weak. Also it says in the description that the blitz comes from the weak side.

I think it's worded wrong then. The side of the defense that has more players should not be called the weak side. Unless they're only using a TE as strong/weak designation and the "Sam" LB (which we know doesn't exist in NCAA/Madden) is said to be on the strong side. So the extra Safety (nickel back positon) is on the opposite side of the Sam, making it a "weak" blitz.

I dont know.

# 13 Palo20 @ 04/13/11 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MachoFantastic


	There is no "weak side of the defense" like there is for the offense. In real life the defense adjusts their positioning based on the strong side of the offense (for instance in real life there.are not ROLBs or LOLBs, but rather a strong side linebacker who lines up on the offense's strong side, and a weak side linebacker that lines up on the offense's weak side). So when it says that the blitz comes from the weak side it is referring to the fact that the blitz is attacking the weak side of the offense, not that the blitzers are on the "weak side of the defense." Although, as Knight9299 said, it ultimately doesn't matter since weakside/strongside is not properly implemented in the game.

Yes, I understand, but most defenses in this alignment will have the Safety/Nickel back mirror the strong side of the offense. If the offense comes out with 3 WR, 2 of them to the right, I would imagine the defense would flip this play to match up the Safety/Nickel back with the slot WR.

Also, if the offense does come out in that formation, more than likely, the slot WR would line up to the field side. Of course I'm talking real life here, I'm aware that strong and weak don't exist in Madden/NCAA.

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25 New Plays Coming to NCAA Football 12 - Play #22: Rover Wk Dog