The Zone
When to run it
The Zone
As you remember from my post a few days ago, you’ve got a few options for backfield pass coverage:
Let’s look at an example where you’d want to use the zone.
As you know, my 1984 college project has an interesting mix of teams. My most recent game featured Miami at Ole Miss.
Miami, of course, was one of the best teams in the country in 1984. Though the defense was somewhat suspect, the offense was simply on fire.
When Miami started off the game with the ball, this is what we faced:
This is where I’d recommend using the zone.
Brown was always going to beat Truitt on the left side. Davis might be able to contain Shakespeare, but I don’t really want to take that risk. The other problem is that the tight end Smith is someone we don’t really have an answer for.
Now, we did have the ability to blitz — and I probably didn’t use it enough in this game. I stuck the defense back in a zone, stuck mostly to the 5-2, and just hoped that Kosar didn’t hit us for too much.
I’m not sure how successful I was in the end. Miami got off to a big lead, and basically coasted its way to the end:
Kosar’s 152.6 passing rating and 270 yards on a 12/17 day means that the zone didn’t really work all that well. However, we were able to keep him under 300 yards, which I suppose is something.
We were keying Highsmith most of the game, and yet he still managed to put up 80 yards on 20 attempts.
In Action PC Football, even the best laid plans are only as good as your players. For instance, you can’t do much if your players can’t tackle:
And nothing we did could stop Highsmith:
It’s still fairly realistic, though. Ole Miss didn’t exactly have a great year in 1984, after all.