NCAA 2003 Football pet peve (1 Viewer)

[LarryDavenport]

As much as I love NCAA Football 2003 for the Game Cube, I just had to vent. I admit I don't know much about defense but I'm frustrated that I am ranked 1st in offense but last in defense. I do very good on the first two downs, but I swear, no matter what I do, the AI almost always completes third and long (whether I am playing against Ohio State or Idaho).

I have no problem winning (I'm 32-5 on Varsity)and am in season 2 of a Husky Dynasty where I average 100 pts a game in 15 minute mode). I guess if I can accept a game where I can score 100 pts in a football game I shouldn't complain about letting the other team score 42 points, but it still bugs me that I don't have a decent pass defense (or maybe that's just a Husky thing).

 

[Paul_Fisher]

Thats the way EA football games have been for many years. I know exactly how you feel, but thats just the way it is. :frowning:

 

[Mitty]

I know that with the Madden games, I'm consistently holding the other team to miniscule rushing yards, while giving up 300+ yards through the air. So, I'm first (by a wide margin) in rush defence, bottom 5 in pass defence.

That's pretty weird.

 

[Manuel]

I'm with you Mitty. I have the game set on Heisman. I have tweaked it to my liking where I have a really good defense and offense is almost as good. ( I sure wish the Huskers where as good in real life as they are in my dynasty!) Anyway, The game seems to pass at will when it wants but gives up on the run early. If you play on Heisman level, expect the cpu to go to the air and score towards the end of regulation if it is close.

 

[Carlo_M]

I'm playing on Heisman level (8 min quarters) and rank in the top 5 on offense, top 15 defense - all sliders on normal. Yes I am #1 in run D and #60 on pass D which makes sense since teams have to abandon the run to pass on me when I get a big lead. I've found that the best way to avoid being beaten on the pass is to call Cover 2's and combination man/zone defenses while on their side of the field, and once you're backed up against the end zone I usually use straight zones which helps bat balls away and get an occasional pick. I restarted my dynasty with this year's UCLA squad who have 1 good corner and 1 good safety. I always schedule Oklahoma, Miami, etc. and don't get burned too bad, although I do give up a fair share of yards. If you're getting beaten on the pass perhaps you are too aggressive w/ blitzing or just calling too much man to man w/ no safety help?

This may sound dumb, but I didn't figure this out until a few weeks after I bought the game, and pertains to the XBox version but I suspect all of them do this...

You can see the FORMATION that the offense selects at the bottom of the screen. Once they pick the formation (shotgun, 3 wide, whatever) they stick to it. I used to just guess until I noticed that it was accurate. That reduced the amount of times I would get caught in a base 4-3 while the CPU brought out 5 wides (which Texas and Washington State love to do). That improved my pass defense by 100%!

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Cover 2 is an awesome defense for short yardage situations.

I use a hell of a lot of zone. Every time I use man-to-man, somebody always gets beat.

 

[Carlo_M]

BTW, Jason Gesser just passed for 350 yards on me but I hung on to win 34-31, so I guess my pass D ain't all that...
Still, I'm 12th defense overall entering the UCLA/USC game, but now the numbers are skewed: #1 run D (78 ypg) and #63 pass D (215 ypg). Was a lot better before Wazzu. Now I'm off to shut down Carson Palmer and the trO.J.ans

 

[Jason Hughes]

How do you sub a player back into all formations after he can come back from injury? I had a QB get wiped out for a quarter the other night, could figure out how to do it without going formation by formation (which would take too long).

 

[LarryDavenport]

Last night as the UW Huskies I went up on UCLA 42-7 in the first half, and in the second half all of a sudden all I could do was throw interceptions or fumble the ball, and I could hardly tackle anymore. I still wound up winning 87-48, but it was a frustrating second half, I gave up 58 yards in the first half and over 500 yards in the second (I wonder if writine EA would do any good).

One thing I liked was that when you totally blow out a team on their home field, the stadium starts to empty out and there is no crowd noise.

I have found an offensive play that works 99% of the time if you run as an audible. It's the Slant Pass (I can't think of the formation, I'm at work now), but it's a default audible in the Miami playbook (which I use because the Huskies don't us the Shotgun or have a Hail Mary in their playbook).

If I see that the defense is playing for the run, I call the Slant audible, hike the ball, and scramble to the right and do a quick pass to the running back when he cuts left. It has worked every time and works particularly well in the redzone for touchdowns.

 

[Carlo_M]

Larry there are always "money" plays, they've just been trying to reduce them over the years (and doing a good job of it IMO). Move up to All-American, that will reduce the money play effectiveness. I haven't found any on the XBox / All American level combination, but in fairness I haven't been looking. I'm like the old Street Fighter 2 guy who doesn't like "cheese" so I play a straight up game w/o using money plays.
Also, for some reason I don't use the audibles since I rarely ever get to the line of scrimmage and go "oh crap! I'm screwed!" Even when I've called a run up the middle and they come out in a 5-2 I just run it anyway and see what I can get. I like smash-mouth football.
What types of defense were you using in the second half? I find that the CPU punishes you for using prevent sometimes (like Madden said Prevent just prevents you from winning! ). If you're talent is clearly superior it won't but on close matches it will. Heck it does in real life too, look at how Newson got all those catches in the UCLA/OSU game last week in the fourth quarter when UCLA's secondary sagged off of receivers.

 

[LarryDavenport]

I was using "bump" plays because the ESPN guy (Corso?) kept mocking me, saying if I'd only bumped the receiver, I wouldn't have given up so many yards. I also tend to use zone, quarters, and coverage plays when I expect the pass, which work when it's close, but fails when the AI tries to falcheat in the second half to make the game closer. I noticed early that blitzing is usually a waste of time and a sure way to give up the long ball.

I'm still on varsity but will probably move up to All American next season. I lost 45% of my team to the draft after the first season and did not do too well picking up defensive players (or a kicker for that matter), but I have two freshmen running backs that have almost 4000 yards between them in the first 7 games, and my QB, Nate Simon, is fortunately a sophomore, so I think I can keep him another year, has passed for over 5000 yards and has been the Pac 10 Offensive player every week (and NCAA Player of the week twice).

In my first season I won the Heisman with my HB and beat Nebraska 98-13 in the Fiesta Bowl for the National Championship, which was a nice bit of alternate reality since the real Huskies have already lost to Michigan and Cal, but even so, no matter how well the Huskies, or any West Coast team does, the National Press will never rank them above 3 or 4. I'm sure if I switch up to AA or Heisman I will have more realistic offensive numbers, but I'm afraid my defense will suck even more, and frankly, I hate playing defense.

 

[Carlo_M]

I think the defense bumps up a bit too, so don't fear that. I guess I'm the opposite as you because I love to play D. I can move the ball nearly at will, but I love guessing plays and stuffing them.

Well best of luck to you. I find it funny the West Coast Bias is in the game as well. Instead of using "bump" why not just call a cover audible to crowd the line, it accomplishes the bumping of a receiver without actually having to call the bump defense...

 

[Willy burz]

Why are you playing 15 minutes on Varsity?????!!!! Put it at least to all american or even Heisman with that amount of time, holy crap that would take a day to finish at 15 minutes.
I play Heisman at 7 minutes for my franchise or whatever and keep the default at 6 minutes and all american for multiplayer. With both madden and NCAA you should crank up the run blocking and running back performance sliders for the CPU for good quality gaming.
Also don't do a ton of blitzing, my roomate would do it all the time or go bump n run while playing zone!? (obviously only do bump n run while in man to man, you don't bump a receiver when your supposed to be playing an area) That doesnt work and you'll give the puter plenty of points, he would lose game after game, now he plays a bit more conservativlely and he's winning a bunch. A very good one for me on long down situations agains the cpu or person is cover 2 man, or full zone in the Dime package. Just overall play a little more conservative on D and blitz here and there, you should also know what D audibles to call in case a certain formation looks a bit wierd.
Overall you need to start moving the cpu sliders for tougher D if you keep scoring that much, Crank the awareness all the way up on Heisman... I bet you won't score 50 at 15 minutes, let alone anything!
If you have any good quality team and still play on varsity after a week or two, just turn in the game and study up on your football. As for money plays, I still haven't found any that will execute over and over.
Man I own, bring it on!!

 

[LarryDavenport]

Why are you playing 15 minutes on Varsity?????!!!!

Because I am trying to unlock all the bonus teams and stadiums.

At 15 minutes on Varsity I accumulate about 300 points, which is 6 pennats.

Has anyone unlocked the Seattle Bowl yet? I am curious if it's at Safeco (last years bowl) or Seahawk Stadium (all future bowls).

 

[Willy burz]

Wow... You really want to unlock everything quickly!!

 

[Carlo_M]

Larry, I've unlocked everything. Trust me, it is much faster on All American as the points you get per task accomplished is increased. It will also make your scores more reasonable to play w/ less time in the quarters.