Slide Protection: Can you trust it?

[LBzrule]

Quote: Originally Posted by Senator Palmer

@LBz, I've got a few questions after watching the vid. 1. Was "slide right" the correct call against that play and front? When I say right call, I mean in Madden terms. Was slight left/right designed to combat 4-3 stack OLB Fire Man, or would "pinch" slide protection have been the better call here? I know that's usually my call whenever I see a blitz coming in any of the A or B gaps. I'll only slide right or left when there is an overload or pressure from the C gape? Could that be the reason the blockers were "confused"? See that's the thing. I am approaching this as if I can design my own protection for my passing game rather than just using it as an emergency tactic against an overload blitz. I believe Charlie Stubbs approach is beneficial. Mix your protections to keep the defense off kilter. Running only one protection is a recipe for disaster, but if I cannot trust the slides I'm left with only one protection. They gotta make things clear to gamers and clear in the program. Slide right with back side big on big means LG, C and everybody to the right slide to the damn right. HB step up and take up left side B gap. I don't understand what's so difficult about that. Also, in real life terms, when would a "pinch" protection call be used? I know usually when the A gaps are threatened, anywhere else? To be honest, I've never really seen this in real life. I've seen big on big, turn back, fan, and slides. 2. Front Observation: I was wondering if you could touch on some of the "keys" to look for that you've uncovered playing around with it, because looking at the video on your first play, you shifted the line away from the 3 tech. For me, from what I've observed over the past few years, I've gotten in the habit of never sliding my line away from the 3 tech. It just always felt like I was leaving the backside open to a free rusher (usually the 9 tech). Would the outcome of the play on the vid have been different if you slide left to the 3 tech? I'm actually using the linebackers as keys. The Fire man had both guys blitzing. When I slid the line away from the TE the DT on the Left came in untouched. When I went with base protection with the HB, the Will or the Sam came in. Often the result was them getting a free shot because a DL would break his block quick causing the HB to slide and pick up the DL and leave the Will or Sam untouched. So while I had number for number guys still came in untouched. I know that in real life, protections are usually changed by keying the linebackers. When I play Madden, I've always done it by keying the defensive line. If I had the game I could answer this one myself, but in so many words, is there a way to get this tool to function reliably by using a Madden-based formula instead of a real life one, because from what I've seen, the offensive/defensive lines are still tied together, so basing protections off of real life movements may be a useless at this point?

I think the latter is going to be the key for 3-4. For 4-3 I use linebackers because there really isn't a NT in a 0 technique. But in 3-4 you're basically going to have a 0 tech which I think is going to change up what you'll need to do.

[killer miller31]

We have had slide protectiong for 3 or 4 years now its not new...........

[LBzrule]

Quote: Originally Posted by killer miller31

We have had slide protectiong for 3 or 4 years now its not new...........

This statement shows misunderstanding of what the article says. It does not say slide protection itself is new. It says four-man slide with back side tackle in big on big is new. Why can't people understand this?

[moose1619]

Quote: Originally Posted by N51_rob

Yeah, this is new. I know that in Madden if you slid the protection say to the right side your LT would leave the end unblocked as the whole line would shift and the end would have a free run at your QB, unless you changed a RB/FB to block to that side, or you moved the pocket and got rid of the ball quickly.

I know in easy high school blocking schemes when u slide left the rb blocks off right edge and if you slide right the rb blocks left edge. Like you have stated if you slide you have to manually adjust the RB, most people probably do not realize this. Having a Tackle stay on a DE is a nice touch as long as the RB can fill for a blitzing LB.

[TajDeni]

on passing plays ive always hit down on the slider protection, to reinforce the pocket, cept for designed rollouts (ie. boots) then i would slide the protection that way.

personally i would never slide the OL to a given side on passing plays, outside of a designed rollout, so i guess my answer would have to be no i would not trust it.

what i would trust is to hit down on the pass protection to get the OL to pinch, then id use 1 of 2 options...

1. set my HB/TE (maybe both) to block to the side i thought the pressure was coming from

2. or try to better identify where the pressure was coming from pre-snap reads and work on developing a hot route to replace the spot the pressure just came from.

both of these option i would trust before i slide my OL to a given side to help pick up pressure.

[GCSM]

Quote: Originally Posted by LBzrule

This statement shows misunderstanding of what the article says. It does not say slide protection itself is new. It says four-man slide with back side tackle in big on big is new. Why can't people understand this?

You should edit how you worded that.=)

[at23steelers]

Quote: Originally Posted by Shaun Mason

You should edit how you worded that.=)

Agreed, I have found out even in a few page threads, some people just write a response based on the title and don't even read the thread. If you edit it, maybe there will be less of those type of responses. Keep up the good work!!

[Smoke6]

Quote: Originally Posted by THE YAMA

The slide protection for me is a 50/50. Half the time it works, half the time it doesn't.

Wish it worked on run plays, I got zoo sick of people running thru the LOS with a clear lane at any given time on run plays. And before people yell, counter it with tosses, I hate being restricted to a small amount of plays due to jerks who can't stop plays conventionally.

But it needs to work on both runs and pass plays equally and even moreso when the defense is not properly equipped or chooses wrong play wise.

[wat3]

Welp, after watching the video it looked right to me. Everyone was sliding as usual.

[killer miller31]

Yeah the title indicates you are talking about slide protection as a whole.my bad