Football Mogul Advice And Tips

[LongGone]

I've never really followed football much (baseball and hockey being my favorites sports) but I've also liked to watch a game sometimes, so I recently picked up FM 08 for less than $10 at Best Buy just to see how I would like it before springing for the 09 version.

So far I'm having fun with it. Being from GA, I chose the Falcons as my team and I play out each of there games on Coach difficulty. I understand the rules, etc. of football and the offensive side of the game, but it's the defensive side that throws me for a loop. I'm terrible at calling the defensive plays and the opposing teams have a field day marching down the field against me. For instance, my 2nd game of the season is against the Jaguars, who have both a decent running and passing game. I'm in the 4th quarter I'm down 21-3 and the Jaguars have a total of 206 yards (I have a 174), with 98 of those rushing and 108 passing. I guess what I'm asking for is advice on defensive play calling. I know it depends alot on your team, etc. but any general tips would be appreciated.

Like I said, I enjoy the game so far as it's not too in depth for a casual fan like myself.

One other thing, can someone explain the Cap Room and Cap Impact and how it's figured for each team?

BTW, in the game, the clock stops after every play, so what/when is the time-out used?

[Arctic Blast]

I would imagine the clock keeps ticking down in some situations (but maybe you don't actually 'see' it happening until the next play runs)? Anyway, the clock will CONTINUE to run in football any time the ball is run, a pass is completed or the quarterback is sacked, UNLESS the ballcarrier in the play runs out of bounds.

Defensively, actually, it doesn't sound like you're really doing all that badly overall. You're mostly going to want to stick with your so called 'base' defense (4-3 or 3-4) on the early downs. On what's termed an obvious passing down (3rd down with more than, say, 6 yards to go. MAYBE 2nd down if 8 or more are needed. Of course, this DOES depend on who you're playing. Check out your opponent before you play them...if their talent lies more in the QB and receivers, they'll pass earlier and more often.), you'll want more defensive backs out there (nickel and dime formations). Also, blitzing sometimes is a good idea, especially if your defensive linemen aren't good enough to make a lot of plays on their own. Blitzing EVERY play, though, leaves you open to giving up a big play on a short pass.

The most important thing on defense is unpredictability. You don't want to be running the same play, or the same defensive set, over and over and over again. The opposition will notice that and take advantage of it. Mix up blitzing with not blitzing. Mix up plays using zone coverages and man to man coverages. Don't be predictable (Again, obviously this all needs to be somewhat tailored to your own players abilities, as well. If your defensive backs are slow, you might want to play more zones to avoid having a slow cornerback getting burned by a fast receiver).

Basically, whether you're on offense OR defense, you want to be the one dictating the action. You want to be the one forcing the OTHER team to adjust to what YOU are doing, not the other way around.

As for Cap room, basically, whatever the Cap Limit is is how much each time is allowed to spend in total. You don't HAVE to spend that much, but you can't exceed it. There ARE 'Cap Penalties' in the NFL if you release a guy who is still under contract. His annual salary basically vanishes as though it never existed, but any remaining Signing Bonus money that hasn't been paid to him will count against that season's cap. Here, an easy example to try and help this make a bit of sense.

A few years back, Jeff Blake signed a 4 year contract with the New Orleans Saints to be their starting quarterback. The deal was a 4 year contract worth a total of $16 million, with $8 million of that being signing bonus. So, it's a 4 year $8 million with an $8 million signing bonus, okay? Now, in reality, in ANY sport, when a guy gets a signing bonus, the instant he signs the contract he is pai9d the entire signing bonus. So, Blake was handed a cheque for $8 million. However, the signing bonus is spread out over the total length of the contract when it comes to how much it will cost the team to keep him on the roster that year.

So, since it's a 4 year $8 million contract, his annual salary is $2 million, right? Now, his bonus is also $8 million. It's spread over the length of the deal, so, $8 mil over 4 years means his bonus counts for $2 million a year as well, right? So, every year, he counts as a $4 million player against the salary cap.

Now, let's say that the Saints decide they want to release Blake before the 4 years is up for whatever reason. His annual salary doesn't count if he's released...it disappears. Whatever is left on his bonus, however, would count against that year's salary cap.

So, he's supposed to count $4 mil a year against the cap, half of that his annual roster amount, and half of that his bonus hit. Every year of those 4 years, $2 mil of his bonus is counted against the cap. So if they release him after one season, they've paid $2 mil of his bonus...that leaves $6 mil unpaid against the cap, which means, even though he's been released and is no longer on the roster, if they release him, he would count for $6 mil of salary cap spending (the amount left unpaid from his signing bonus). Not a smart move, since keeping him on the team would count for a total of $4 mil. After 2 years, they've paid $4 mil, so releasing him then would mean he would count for the remaining $4 mil. They'd basically break even. And after 3 years, they've paid $6 mil of his bonus, and he'd count for the remaining $2 mil. Now they've saved $2 mil of salary cap money which can be used on another player.

Anyway, I HOPE that makes a lick of sense to you...it's one of those things that's not really easy to explain to somebody else.

[LongGone]

Many thanks Artic Blast for taking the time to go in detail and answer my questions. It all makes perfect sense to me. I have started studying the opposing team to see where their offensive strengths are, passing, rushing as you suggested below and set the defensive accordingly and have been more successful on the defensive side.

Again, your help is much appreciated and I'll keep playing and maybe keep you posted on my success or failures.

[ohms_law]

I would imagine the clock keeps ticking down in some situations (but maybe you don't actually 'see' it happening until the next play runs)?

Correct

[LongGone]

Ok, that's what was throwing me about the clock. I was expecting it to be ticking in real time, but now it makes sense. Thanks guys.

[Arctic Blast]

No problem LongGone...any other football related questions you might have, bring them up...somebody will come along with answer.

Oh, one quick piece of advice I meant to give you...do not ignore your offensive line. Sure, it's the quarterbacks, running backs and receivers who get the glory, but without good blocking, none of those guys is going to do squat.

[LongGone]

Thanks for the tip about the offensive line. I restarted my season last night and managed a 31-20 win against the Vikings. I think I did pretty well, all things considered. What's funny I had to replay that game after winning it the 1st time because FM crashed before I could save it! Here's a quick screenshot of the game summary.

[Arctic Blast]

That's a nice win, considering your QB situation. Nice win indeed!

[daves]

Here's a question. Often after a play, the computer screen jumps into a certain set of plays for me to choose. I.E. After 1st down, the AI jump to inside run plays or on defense it may jump to run defenses. I don't always stay where the computer puts me. I might pass when the computer jumped to run. My question is, am I better off running a play from the plays the computer 1st shows me? If the computer play call opens initially to run defense, are the percentages on my side?

[LongGone]

I've noticed that too daves and not sure if it's designed that way and/or why but always go with what I was planning to call regardless of what the game chose.

[LongGone]

That's a nice win, considering your QB situation. Nice win indeed!

Thanks Artic. I enjoyed that game alot and really took my time with the play calling, etc and it paid off. Here's the results of my Week 2 game against Jacksonville. This was a tough game, considering they had a good rushing and passing game, but my defense held it together and limited them to just a field goal. I'm off to a 2-0 start, not bad for a casual fan.

I definitely will be buying 09 as soon as I can afford it(I know its cheap but am out of work cause of leukemia). I'm having a blast with it cause its not too much in depth for someone like me.

Again, your info really helped.

[Arctic Blast]

Here's a question. Often after a play, the computer screen jumps into a certain set of plays for me to choose. I.E. After 1st down, the AI jump to inside run plays or on defense it may jump to run defenses. I don't always stay where the computer puts me. I might pass when the computer jumped to run. My question is, am I better off running a play from the plays the computer 1st shows me? If the computer play call opens initially to run defense, are the percentages on my side?

I've only messed around with the demo a bit, so I don't really know anything about the mechanics of the game or how it's playcall engine works. I would imagine it's PROBABLY showing you a set of plays that would fit for that down and distance. So, they probably aren't bad options, depending on the kind of team you have.

Thanks Artic. I enjoyed that game alot and really took my time with the play calling, etc and it paid off. Here's the results of my Week 2 game against Jacksonville. This was a tough game, considering they had a good rushing and passing game, but my defense held it together and limited them to just a field goal. I'm off to a 2-0 start, not bad for a casual fan.

I definitely will be buying 09 as soon as I can afford it(I know its cheap but am out of work cause of leukemia). I'm having a blast with it cause its not too much in depth for someone like me.

Again, your info really helped.

Just glad I could be of some help. It certainly looks like you're getting the hang of things pretty quickly. And I hope your health/work situation improves for you.

Incidentally, for anyone who can maybe offer some info...are those the rosters for FM 2009 he's using? Cause Leftwich hasn't been a Jaguar for over a year now. And Dunn, Finneran, Hall and Anderson are ALL off the Falcons roster this year (possibly Horn as well, not too sure about him. Now that I think about it...is Harrington still there???).

[LongGone]

Incidentally, for anyone who can maybe offer some info...are those the rosters for FM 2009 he's using? Cause Leftwich hasn't been a Jaguar for over a year now. And Dunn, Finneran, Hall and Anderson are ALL off the Falcons roster this year (possibly Horn as well, not too sure about him).

They are the default set that came with 08. I didn't even bother with trying any newer/different rosters until I got a feel for the game.

[Arctic Blast]

They are the default set that came with 08. I didn't even bother with trying any newer/different rosters until I got a feel for the game.

Aaaaah, okay THAT makes a little more sense.

[ohms_law]

They are the default set that came with 08. I didn't even bother with trying any newer/different rosters until I got a feel for the game.

The "roster patch" that Clay posted is something that you should really use. There was actually a bug involved in how it was reading the roster source files, so it's more then just the correct players.