Many Pee-Wee teams struggle with defense, especially Copper teams and 1st season Silver teams. This guide will not build you a championship level defense, but will give you the skills needed, along with some work on your part, to have a good defense in Pee-Wee and allow you to compete with most Pee-Wee teams.
Presumptions:
A good defense starts with making some logical presumptions. You can’t call a defense that will counter every possible play, but if you make some logical presumptions on how the simulator works in Pee-Wee, you can focus your defense to counters most of the situations you will encounter. Basically, play the odds. For example, odds are that someone will pass on 3rd & long and will run on 3rd & inches. These educated guesses, ie presumptions, will help you focus your defensive calls in the right direction most of the time.
1st presumption is that in Pee-Wee, rushing is KING! Everyone has heard the saying that offense wins games but defense wins championships. Well in Pee-Wee, passing might win some games, but rushing can win a championship. What I am trying to say is that your good Pee-Wee teams usually rush the ball first and pass second. Thus you need to setup your defense to stop the run first. But don’t totally ignore passing either.
2nd presumption is that most Pee-Wee teams us their powerback to run inside and their speedback to run outside. This mainly comes out of the fact that in Pee-Wee, your builds are very one sided and most people pump most of their skill points(SP) into their core skills first, ie speed on a speedback and strength on a power back. That means your powerbacks are generally slow while your speedbacks can’t break a tackle. Use the tagging feature to setup your defense to best stop this pattern. Just remember things will change as you get deeper into the season and the builds start to mature.
3rd presumption is that most Pee-Wee teams don’t run or pass to their FB very often. This basically means that there are fewer offensive plays you need to setup your defense to counter, and probably could get away with not covering the FB on passing plays or just using a zone to cover him.
4th presumption is that most Pee-Wee QB’s are not good enough to throw a long ball and catch the WR in stride for a long TD. This means you don’t have to protect against a deep pass like you do against a short to medium level pass. Thus you can have more people in or near the box to help stop the run.
5th presumption is key for those who want to stop a rushing QB. Rushing QB’s almost never pass, so if you use the tagging system correctly, you can call a defense designed to stop the run whenever a rushing QB is in when passing won’t be a threat.
The 6th and last presumption and probably the most important one is that OC’s become very predictable and don’t change their offense that much on a per game basis. Thus use the scouting tool and see what plays they call the most often from each formation and setup your defense to counter those. This is most important in the playoffs as teams generally don’t want to try new things here, they will usually stick with what has worked best, making it easier to setup your defense. Also look to see how often they run vs. pass from each formation and that can help you pick which defense to choose as well.
Custom Defensive Play and D-AI Tips:
1st tip I would suggest is that every DC look at your offensive playbook and make a spreadsheet of all possible running plays out of each formation. You generally want to make your defense formation specific, meaning you call a specific defense based on the formation the offense lines up in. Knowing which possible runs come out of each formation will allow you to best place your defensive players. For example, many might not realize that there are no QB or FB runs out of the Weak-I and only 5 total HB runs. This makes defending a run out of the Weak-I a lot easier.
2nd tip is to create your own custom defenses. CPU defenses suck! You start by creating your core anti-run defense, which means a Cover-0 or Cover-1 with your SS/FF set to each side to stop outside runs. While it’s best to create one custom play per offensive formation, you could start with creating one based on the number of WR’s in a set, so one for 2WR, one for 3WR and one for 5WR. If you are new to creating custom defenses, you might want to do this first and then later expand to formation specific defenses. Once you have your core anti-run defenses created, create a copy of your core plays then switch them to a more balanced defense that defends both the pass and the run, usually a Cover-2. Just make sure that your Cover-2 defense is still decent at stopping the run, which means set your FS/SS to wide/outside zones so they are still in the area to stop an outside run by the HB or FB, but might not stop them in the backfield like the Cover-0 often will.
3rd tip is to use your FS/SS to stop the outside runs, including QB rollouts. The most popular place to put your FS/SS is just inside the outermost CB on a blitz. If you place them too far inside, the lead blocker is likely to pick them up. If you put them too far out, the WR has a chance of blocking both the CB and FS/SS. I have yet to find the perfect position and play with it constantly.
4th tip is to use the tagging feature on rushing QB’s so you only call a Cover-0 defense as most rushing QB’s can’t or won’t pass. Reference presumption #5.
5th tip is to create a couple pure passing defenses to be used when you are likely to see a pass, like 3rd & 12+. Even if you give up a 6 yard run on these plays, you will leave the other team with a long 4th down.
6th tip is zones don’t work well as a pure coverage system in Pee-Wee. A strong armed QB can get the ball to a WR/TE before a defender can get to them. Use man coverage on the WR’s and TE and then use the FS/SS to provide mid-deep zone coverage to help in pass coverage when that’s what you want.
7th tip is to use the D-AI to call certain defenses in certain circumstances. You don’t want to call a Cover-2 when it’s 4th & 1 or a Cover-0 when it’s 3rd & 10. Just remember that teams will look to run the ball first, so don’t always follow the logic the NFL would use.
8th tip is that it’s not good to line your LB’s up close to the Line of Scrimmage(LoS), but rather you should line them up a couple yards deep. What this does it allows the OL and lead blockers to engage the DL, and as soon as the rusher starts to get by them, your LB tackles them after only a 1-3 yard gain. I have seen many rushers go the distance because teams have lined up their LB’s too close to the LoS and were blocked there, thus allowing the rusher to get by them. The build of your LB(Speed vs Strength) along with your tactic settings(Rush vs Pass focus) as well as defensive assignment(Blitz vs HB/FB coverage) all make a difference on how fast your LB hits that LoS, so play with those settings until you find what works best for your team.
Player build and staffing tips:
1st tip is though the type of base defense you use is up to you, I would suggest using either a 4-3 or 3-4 as the base for all 2WR sets, the Nickel for your 3WR sets, and the Quarter for 5WR sets. This gives you a FS and SS and the correct number of CB’s for every defense.
2nd tip is to staff your defense with the right players. If you choose a defense with 3 DL, meaning 1 DT and 2 DE, those DE’s need to be built more like DT’s as they will usually face Guards where DE’s in a 4 DL defense will usually face Tackles. A 3 DL defense will usually require more LB’s than a 4 DL defense, so make sure to pick the right number and build of players.
3rd tip is that on the Defensive line, STRENGTH is KING! I see way too many DE’s and even some DT’s built will all speed and agility and have little to no strength. Ya they might get a couple extra sacks during the season, but they will get their butts pancaked a lot, which really hurts your team. Personally, I think 2nd cap strength on all DT’s and 1st cap strength on all DE’s is an absolute min!
4th tip is that Speed is King on all other defensive positions. A lot of people like to build these high strength MLB’s or similar positions that can tackle anything that comes their way. Well if you can’t catch the ball carrier, you can’t make a play, so your high strength MLB is useless. I always 1st cap speed on all my LB’s, CB’s, and SS/FS and all equipment goes into speed as well. After speed is 1st capped, you can build your player to suit your needs, but get that speed to the 1st cap ASAP!
5th tip is that agility is a very under-rated skill. I see a lot of people create defensive players with 2nd-3rd cap speed, but very little agility. Well agility is your ability to make cuts and not slow down to a crawl when you do, a vital skill for CB’s as they need to make quick adjustments to stay with the WR they are covering. For Pee-Wee, a CB with 1st cap speed and agility will usually out perform a CB with 2nd cap speed and mid-20’s in agility. Same goes for LB’s trying to catch a quick and agile speedback.
6th tip is to make sure to have enough tackling on every defensive player. I would recommend a minimum of 20 on all defensive linemen and 15 on all other defensive players. With your tackling style set to Wrap-Up, this is usually enough for 99% of situations.
7th tip is that stamina is a very under-rated skill. Remember that as you get tired, ALL of your skills reduce by a %. An extra 5-10 points in stamina can stop you from losing 20+ points on your skills because you get tired quickly. I generally recommend a minimum stamina of 20 on all dedicated starters and 15 on all backup’s or on those players that rotate evenly.
Defensive Tactics Tips:
1st tip is to stop the FS/SS from blitzing in too quickly and thus get picked up by a lead blocker is to set their defensive play focus to Pass. They will pause for a second on all runs, allowing the rusher to come towards them and usually the rusher will outrun their blockers before they get to the FS/SS. This also helps as you will also use your FS/SS in pass coverage a lot.
2nd tip is that every defensive player should set their tackling style to Wrap-Up, no exceptions! Some people think that with a high strength, they can force fumbles, but the number of missed tackles they will have will far outweigh the few forced fumbles they might cause.
3rd tip is all defensive players should set their man coverage distance to -50 to -75. Reason for this is the tighter you play the person you are covering, the less of a chance they do a quick stop for a pass and your cushion allows for an uncontested reception. Remember the presumption that Pee-Wee QB’s are generally not good or strong enough to lead a receiver on a deep pass? Well that means it’s highly unlikely you will get beat deep if the receiver does get a step or two lead on you. Reason for -50 to -75 instead of -100 is that -100 might cause your defender to start towards the receiver right at the ball snap, and thus they have to change direction quickly and this sometimes allows a fast receiver to blow by them. Play with the settings and pick the one you like best.
General Tips:
1st tip is to watch how your defense performs after every game and make frequent adjustments/tweaks to make it better. Also make sure to go through your depth chart a couple times each season and switch people around as needed. Players frequently take a good starting build and go off on some weird tangent, or players are not building to your specs, so you have to find those people and move them into more of a backup role quickly.
2nd tip is once you are done with your defense, take a look at it from the perspective of an OC and look for gaps that an OC might try to take advantage of. This will help you know where your weaknesses are, and every defense has them, but to make sure they are at a spot that isn’t used very often.
If you use this guide as a beginning step towards building your own defense, it will generally give you a pretty good defense. Your better teams know most of what I have said and do try to counter some of the things I have suggested, so this guide won’t work against all teams, but should work well enough against most teams. Just make sure that once you implement your defense, you watch how it performs after every game and tweak it frequently.
Good luck and enjoy the shut-outs!
Presumptions:
A good defense starts with making some logical presumptions. You can’t call a defense that will counter every possible play, but if you make some logical presumptions on how the simulator works in Pee-Wee, you can focus your defense to counters most of the situations you will encounter. Basically, play the odds. For example, odds are that someone will pass on 3rd & long and will run on 3rd & inches. These educated guesses, ie presumptions, will help you focus your defensive calls in the right direction most of the time.
1st presumption is that in Pee-Wee, rushing is KING! Everyone has heard the saying that offense wins games but defense wins championships. Well in Pee-Wee, passing might win some games, but rushing can win a championship. What I am trying to say is that your good Pee-Wee teams usually rush the ball first and pass second. Thus you need to setup your defense to stop the run first. But don’t totally ignore passing either.
2nd presumption is that most Pee-Wee teams us their powerback to run inside and their speedback to run outside. This mainly comes out of the fact that in Pee-Wee, your builds are very one sided and most people pump most of their skill points(SP) into their core skills first, ie speed on a speedback and strength on a power back. That means your powerbacks are generally slow while your speedbacks can’t break a tackle. Use the tagging feature to setup your defense to best stop this pattern. Just remember things will change as you get deeper into the season and the builds start to mature.
3rd presumption is that most Pee-Wee teams don’t run or pass to their FB very often. This basically means that there are fewer offensive plays you need to setup your defense to counter, and probably could get away with not covering the FB on passing plays or just using a zone to cover him.
4th presumption is that most Pee-Wee QB’s are not good enough to throw a long ball and catch the WR in stride for a long TD. This means you don’t have to protect against a deep pass like you do against a short to medium level pass. Thus you can have more people in or near the box to help stop the run.
5th presumption is key for those who want to stop a rushing QB. Rushing QB’s almost never pass, so if you use the tagging system correctly, you can call a defense designed to stop the run whenever a rushing QB is in when passing won’t be a threat.
The 6th and last presumption and probably the most important one is that OC’s become very predictable and don’t change their offense that much on a per game basis. Thus use the scouting tool and see what plays they call the most often from each formation and setup your defense to counter those. This is most important in the playoffs as teams generally don’t want to try new things here, they will usually stick with what has worked best, making it easier to setup your defense. Also look to see how often they run vs. pass from each formation and that can help you pick which defense to choose as well.
Custom Defensive Play and D-AI Tips:
1st tip I would suggest is that every DC look at your offensive playbook and make a spreadsheet of all possible running plays out of each formation. You generally want to make your defense formation specific, meaning you call a specific defense based on the formation the offense lines up in. Knowing which possible runs come out of each formation will allow you to best place your defensive players. For example, many might not realize that there are no QB or FB runs out of the Weak-I and only 5 total HB runs. This makes defending a run out of the Weak-I a lot easier.
2nd tip is to create your own custom defenses. CPU defenses suck! You start by creating your core anti-run defense, which means a Cover-0 or Cover-1 with your SS/FF set to each side to stop outside runs. While it’s best to create one custom play per offensive formation, you could start with creating one based on the number of WR’s in a set, so one for 2WR, one for 3WR and one for 5WR. If you are new to creating custom defenses, you might want to do this first and then later expand to formation specific defenses. Once you have your core anti-run defenses created, create a copy of your core plays then switch them to a more balanced defense that defends both the pass and the run, usually a Cover-2. Just make sure that your Cover-2 defense is still decent at stopping the run, which means set your FS/SS to wide/outside zones so they are still in the area to stop an outside run by the HB or FB, but might not stop them in the backfield like the Cover-0 often will.
3rd tip is to use your FS/SS to stop the outside runs, including QB rollouts. The most popular place to put your FS/SS is just inside the outermost CB on a blitz. If you place them too far inside, the lead blocker is likely to pick them up. If you put them too far out, the WR has a chance of blocking both the CB and FS/SS. I have yet to find the perfect position and play with it constantly.
4th tip is to use the tagging feature on rushing QB’s so you only call a Cover-0 defense as most rushing QB’s can’t or won’t pass. Reference presumption #5.
5th tip is to create a couple pure passing defenses to be used when you are likely to see a pass, like 3rd & 12+. Even if you give up a 6 yard run on these plays, you will leave the other team with a long 4th down.
6th tip is zones don’t work well as a pure coverage system in Pee-Wee. A strong armed QB can get the ball to a WR/TE before a defender can get to them. Use man coverage on the WR’s and TE and then use the FS/SS to provide mid-deep zone coverage to help in pass coverage when that’s what you want.
7th tip is to use the D-AI to call certain defenses in certain circumstances. You don’t want to call a Cover-2 when it’s 4th & 1 or a Cover-0 when it’s 3rd & 10. Just remember that teams will look to run the ball first, so don’t always follow the logic the NFL would use.
8th tip is that it’s not good to line your LB’s up close to the Line of Scrimmage(LoS), but rather you should line them up a couple yards deep. What this does it allows the OL and lead blockers to engage the DL, and as soon as the rusher starts to get by them, your LB tackles them after only a 1-3 yard gain. I have seen many rushers go the distance because teams have lined up their LB’s too close to the LoS and were blocked there, thus allowing the rusher to get by them. The build of your LB(Speed vs Strength) along with your tactic settings(Rush vs Pass focus) as well as defensive assignment(Blitz vs HB/FB coverage) all make a difference on how fast your LB hits that LoS, so play with those settings until you find what works best for your team.
Player build and staffing tips:
1st tip is though the type of base defense you use is up to you, I would suggest using either a 4-3 or 3-4 as the base for all 2WR sets, the Nickel for your 3WR sets, and the Quarter for 5WR sets. This gives you a FS and SS and the correct number of CB’s for every defense.
2nd tip is to staff your defense with the right players. If you choose a defense with 3 DL, meaning 1 DT and 2 DE, those DE’s need to be built more like DT’s as they will usually face Guards where DE’s in a 4 DL defense will usually face Tackles. A 3 DL defense will usually require more LB’s than a 4 DL defense, so make sure to pick the right number and build of players.
3rd tip is that on the Defensive line, STRENGTH is KING! I see way too many DE’s and even some DT’s built will all speed and agility and have little to no strength. Ya they might get a couple extra sacks during the season, but they will get their butts pancaked a lot, which really hurts your team. Personally, I think 2nd cap strength on all DT’s and 1st cap strength on all DE’s is an absolute min!
4th tip is that Speed is King on all other defensive positions. A lot of people like to build these high strength MLB’s or similar positions that can tackle anything that comes their way. Well if you can’t catch the ball carrier, you can’t make a play, so your high strength MLB is useless. I always 1st cap speed on all my LB’s, CB’s, and SS/FS and all equipment goes into speed as well. After speed is 1st capped, you can build your player to suit your needs, but get that speed to the 1st cap ASAP!
5th tip is that agility is a very under-rated skill. I see a lot of people create defensive players with 2nd-3rd cap speed, but very little agility. Well agility is your ability to make cuts and not slow down to a crawl when you do, a vital skill for CB’s as they need to make quick adjustments to stay with the WR they are covering. For Pee-Wee, a CB with 1st cap speed and agility will usually out perform a CB with 2nd cap speed and mid-20’s in agility. Same goes for LB’s trying to catch a quick and agile speedback.
6th tip is to make sure to have enough tackling on every defensive player. I would recommend a minimum of 20 on all defensive linemen and 15 on all other defensive players. With your tackling style set to Wrap-Up, this is usually enough for 99% of situations.
7th tip is that stamina is a very under-rated skill. Remember that as you get tired, ALL of your skills reduce by a %. An extra 5-10 points in stamina can stop you from losing 20+ points on your skills because you get tired quickly. I generally recommend a minimum stamina of 20 on all dedicated starters and 15 on all backup’s or on those players that rotate evenly.
Defensive Tactics Tips:
1st tip is to stop the FS/SS from blitzing in too quickly and thus get picked up by a lead blocker is to set their defensive play focus to Pass. They will pause for a second on all runs, allowing the rusher to come towards them and usually the rusher will outrun their blockers before they get to the FS/SS. This also helps as you will also use your FS/SS in pass coverage a lot.
2nd tip is that every defensive player should set their tackling style to Wrap-Up, no exceptions! Some people think that with a high strength, they can force fumbles, but the number of missed tackles they will have will far outweigh the few forced fumbles they might cause.
3rd tip is all defensive players should set their man coverage distance to -50 to -75. Reason for this is the tighter you play the person you are covering, the less of a chance they do a quick stop for a pass and your cushion allows for an uncontested reception. Remember the presumption that Pee-Wee QB’s are generally not good or strong enough to lead a receiver on a deep pass? Well that means it’s highly unlikely you will get beat deep if the receiver does get a step or two lead on you. Reason for -50 to -75 instead of -100 is that -100 might cause your defender to start towards the receiver right at the ball snap, and thus they have to change direction quickly and this sometimes allows a fast receiver to blow by them. Play with the settings and pick the one you like best.
General Tips:
1st tip is to watch how your defense performs after every game and make frequent adjustments/tweaks to make it better. Also make sure to go through your depth chart a couple times each season and switch people around as needed. Players frequently take a good starting build and go off on some weird tangent, or players are not building to your specs, so you have to find those people and move them into more of a backup role quickly.
2nd tip is once you are done with your defense, take a look at it from the perspective of an OC and look for gaps that an OC might try to take advantage of. This will help you know where your weaknesses are, and every defense has them, but to make sure they are at a spot that isn’t used very often.
If you use this guide as a beginning step towards building your own defense, it will generally give you a pretty good defense. Your better teams know most of what I have said and do try to counter some of the things I have suggested, so this guide won’t work against all teams, but should work well enough against most teams. Just make sure that once you implement your defense, you watch how it performs after every game and tweak it frequently.
Good luck and enjoy the shut-outs!
Edited by Gerr on Jan 22, 2010 19:35:45
