ELECTRIC FOOTBALL STRATEGY PLAYBOOK _____________________________ This book issued to COACH’S MESSAGE You are holding the heart of this Electric Football© team in your hands. The pages in this playbook contain all your planning and organization for the upcoming season. A football team plays the way it thinks. This is how we think. Included in this playbook are: 1. Basic information about our formation and positions. 2. A rundown of our fundamental plays and defenses. 3. Brief notes on our philosophy of strategy and tendencies. 4. A lexicon of our terminology. You are responsible for all the information in this book. You can’t play the game if you don’t understand it, so come back to this book again and again. Ensure your understanding on matters concerning rules and procedures, take notes when you need to and study hard. If you want to win, you have to develop a strategy to do so. Don’t beat yourself! Be smart! * * * * * * * * * This book is property of your football team. It shall be kept on your person, in a locked room or in the trunk of your car. With increased base performance you can achieve many combinations as seen in football. This playbook throughout will illustrate how to run plays as diagramed in a football playbook with basic directional movement or provide an electric football equivalent to it. 2 FORMATIONS AND POSITIONS Offense QB FB HB This is our basic offensive formation, typical of most in football (all offensive players are indicated in dark uniforms). There are two running backs, two wide receivers (split end and flanker) and one tight end. Notice that the offensive line is balanced in strength (there are an equal number of players on each side of the center) except for the tight end. Whichever side the tight end up on is one man strongest. Therefore it is known as the “strong side” and the other side of the formation is known as the “weak side”. Throughout this book, the right side. Keep this in mind. Defense LE LT RT RE LLB (SAM) RLB (WILL) MLB (MIKE) R CORNERBACK R SAFETY L SAFETY The defense (indicated in white uniforms.), naturally, faces the opposite way from the offense (defensive line is indicated by the “blockers”; the three linebackers “backers” and four deep backs by “sprinters and runners). Since the offense in these plays will always have its strong side on the right, the defense’s left linebacker is the strong side linebacker and the left safety is the strong side safety. In this basic defense, there are four line men, three linebackers and four deep backs. This is always the case except for situations of very short yardage or very long yardage. 3 DEFENSES A sound team is built on a sound defense. If the other team doesn't score, there is way no you can lose. You aim for a shutout every game. The two defensive concepts in electric football are: (1) linear and (2) circular. The first is used primarily with rookie bases and a defender being at the right place over a certain time of the play. The second will employ Total Team Control (TTC) bases and depending on the amount of area to cover the defender will travel in a circle. In the following pages are eighteen basic defense formations. Of course you may use other combinations later in the season, but with this 18-defense formation backbone, you have several ways to handle every possible situation. Our play-calling system has three parts: (1) the formation, (2) what the linemen do, (3) what the pass coverage is. Take the defense “4-3 Key Man-to-Man”: (1) “4-3” means that the teams lines up in the standard defense (four linemen, three linebackers). (2) “Key” means the linemen key (watch their backfield placement): (3) “Man-to-Man” means the linebackers and backs will cover specific men if a pass play develops. There are many defensive formations and calls in football and you want you to be aware of them also. Schemes were difficult in electric football until now. Based on TOEPRO-Football gameplay, you could deploy many of these schemes. We cover the positions, formations, defensive areas and, the advantages and disadvantages you make in each setup. Once you understand setup, defense line play, linebacker play and secondary protection you can create your own scheme. Blank pages in the rear of the guide are provided so you can create you own and maintain as complete a playbook as possible. 4 LIST OF DEFENSIVE FORMATIONS 3-0 Base: Designed to cover all downfield passing zones. 3-3 Base: Designed to pressure run gaps while providing an envelop cover. 3-4 Base: Designed to pressure or cover depending on the desires of the defense. 3-4 Beau: Designed to pressure from outside in or cover depending on the desires of the defense. 4-1 Dime: Designed to pressure the passer and cover outside routes. 4-2 Nickel: Designed to pressure A-C gaps while covering outside and deep routes. 4-3 Base: Designed to pressure A-C gaps or cover zones base on needs of the of defense. 4-3 Flex: Designed to pressure run blocking by creating a hybrid lineman-linebacker along the front seven. 4-3 Miami: Designed to pressure up field in any situation. 4-3 Tampa 2: Designed to pressure inside running while covering side passing. 4-4 Base: Designed to pressure run blocking along the front seven. 4-6 Base: Designed to pressure the passer and cover short zones. 5-2 Base: Designed to pressure the C-D gap. 5-3 Base: Designed to pressure the QB while covering short area passes. 6-2 Base: Designed to pressure big package B-C gap runs. 7-1 Base: Designed to pressure big and heavy package runs. 7-2 Base: Designed to pressure big and heavy package runs. 8-0 Base: Designed to pressure only a committed run. 5 LIST OF LINEMEN AND LINEBACKER ACTIONS Cover: placement in front of a player pre-snap; occupy a specific area of the field post-snap. Fill: placement in a gap pre-snap. Fire: Linebacker movement to fill a gap. Key: Designed to pressure or cover RBs. Pinch: Linemen pressing in toward a player or a gap. Ride: Align along edge of forward player’s base. Rush: Designed to pressure QBs. Shade: Align over player and occupying a gap at the same time. Slam: Linemen pressing in one direction. Stunt: DL/LB Crossing areas of responsibility during rush. LIST OF PASS COVERAGES Cloud: Designed to cover all midfield passing zones. Combo: Designed to double cover receiver X. Leverage: Maintain vertical position downfield. Man: Designed to cover each receiver to their front. Mombo: Designed to double cover receiver Y. Sky: Safety moving up to cover short passing zones. Smoke: Designed show one cover and move to another. Zone: Designed to cover a specific passing area. 6 AREAS OF DEFENSE OFFENSIVE SIDE B A Z D C B A A B C D Y X LINE OF SCRIMMAGE LINE PLAY AREA LINEBACKER PASS COVERAGE Divided into three areas, each player placed in it, has a purpose. The further back the less likely to be engaged on two-part offensive plays. Line play area is 0-10 yards. The purpose is to contain and fill line gaps. Linebacker area is inside the numerals and 11-20 yards. The purpose is to read and react. Players here move forward defending short throw areas and supporting two-part run plays to supporting one-part run plays. In electric football, unlike real football, it works in reverse. Defend the short pass in route to supporting runs. Pass coverage area is outside the numerals and 21 yards beyond. This area is last line of defense on one-part run plays, support for two-part runs and coverage of pass plays. 7 DIAGRAM SYMBOLS Offensive player, center; X receiver X Defensive lineman, Jack linebacker; defensive back J Player blocking Player movement without the ball Player movement with the ball Primary receiver route QB post-snap PASS movement Zone coverage area 8 DEFENSIVE PLAY CARD DEFENSE PACKAGE SCHEME Use to diagram formation/scheme B A Z Y X LINE ACTIONS DL: LBs: PASS COVERAGES SECONDARY: CORNERS: SAFETIES: SUSPECTED RUN Actions to take on potential runs. SUSPECTED PASS Actions to take on potential passes. 9 3-0 PREVENT B A Z Y X LINE ACTIONS DL: NT over center; DE shade C gap. LBs: Changed out for defensive backs, 15 to 20 yards back covering mid routes. PASS COVERAGES SECONDARY: Employ deep cover 4, 30 yards deep. CORNERS: Will cover deep outside SAFETIES: Will cover deep inside SUSPECTED RUN Fire the inside linebackers. SUSPECTED PASS Set ends in C gap to hurry the quarterback. 3-3 BASE B A Z Y X S M W LINE ACTIONS DL: NT shade weak A-gap; DE shade C gap; slam strong side LBs: fire PASS COVERAGES SECONDARY: 5 backs umbrella cover CORNERS: cover short outside; middle inside routes SAFETIES: deep cover 1 SUSPECTED RUN fire outside corners SUSPECTED PASS zone outside linebackers 10 3-4 BASE B A Z Y X J S M W LINE ACTIONS DL: NT over center; DE shade C gap; slam wide LBs: over G and TEs. 10-15 yds back, fire Sam and Mike PASS COVERAGES SECONDARY: various covers; blitzes can employed CORNERS: cover outside routes SAFETIES: cover inside routes SUSPECTED RUN fire Jack and Will SUSPECTED PASS Jack and Will press TEs; rush 3-4 BEAU B A Z Y X W J S M LINE ACTIONS DL: NT cover C; slam strong, DEs slam in on T LBs: 4, weak side LB ride DE and blitz, Sam and Mike fire PASS COVERAGES SECONDARY: various covers CORNERS: outside leverage SAFETIES: mombo Y; safety X SUSPECTED RUN fire the inside backers while CBs cover flats SUSPECTED PASS inside LBs cover short inside routes 11 4-1 DIME B A Z Y X M LINE ACTIONS DL: fill A-C gap, pass rush LBs: 10-15 back, key closest RB PASS COVERAGES SECONDARY: two deep triangle coverage CORNERS: cover middle area routes SAFETIES: cover deep outside SUSPECTED RUN fire Mike SUSPECTED PASS