Cheese or no cheese? You decide.

[tpaterniti]

I played a guy who had Dan Marino, Jerry Rice, and 3 Silver WRs. He came out in Shotgun every play and threw it every single play. I simply could not stop him. I had Lem Barney, a silver CB Herb Adderley I created based on the Packer's CB (Speed Burner and Coverage Bonus), a Silver SS and Eugene Robinson (Bronze FS). I tried everything, but I could not get any pressure on Marino. I would blitz 7 but he would throw quick routes and complete them, or if I dropped 8 in coverage he would run around until one of his guys came open. If I went to man he ran deep outs and killed me on that. I ran all kinds of zone blitzes from every formation (I have 90% of all the defensive plays in my playbook and all the formations), I let the computer pick defense, I blitzed, I played man, zone, Cover 1, 2, 3, 4- it didn't matter. The one time I got a 3 and out he went for it on 4th and got it. I scored every time I had the ball, but I could not stop him.

Do not write you just suck and you're whining. I may be whining but I don't suck. Check the leaderboards- I am like 91 and my defense is rated in the 80s. I usually give up 14 points or less. He scored 35.

The thing is that in this game there is almost nothing you can do about 4 legend WRs because your Nickle package does not add a CB, it adds a FS, and your dime package adds another FS (i.e. there is no way to match 4 CBs against his 4 WRs because you cannot sub CBs into Nickle or Dime. You will always end up with 2 FSs versus 2 Silver WRs and that is always a mismatch). The only thing that I could think of to stop it would be to draft a team with 1 SS, 3 FSs, and 2 CBs, but I am not even sure whether that would work, and who would draft 3 FSs anyway? That is my beef. Just vote in the poll whether you think it is cheese or legit. I will accept the consensus. I am not a super sim nazi so don't accuse me of that. Comments and advice are welcome too.

[Grizz21]

All I can say is burn all the time when you get the ball. When I win the coin toss, I usually kick. So if my oppontent comes out and passes all over me and scores a quick TD, I just start burning the play clock to 1 every play.Chances are if they are stacked on offense, you should be able to score every possesion. If you play your cards right, you could score to take a 14-7 lead ( If you score every possesion ) at the end of the half and leave little time for your oppontent. Then when the second half starts, you will get the ball back and a chance to take a 21-7 lead. Then it would be ok to trade TDs every drive as long as you burn the clock. If you are good like you say you are, this should work.

Edit: You would have to score to tie it at 7. Then you would just keep trading TDs in the 2nd half. You take the lead, they tie it up. Keep burning the clock. Just score with as little time possible for your oppontent to tie it up or make 1 stop on D.

[Chop Stick]

i define cheese as anything that isnt realistic.

[Maverick]

hmmm. sounds like there defense was probably a bit weak so therefore you could have used a bit of ball control on offense.

[vicious776]

I don't see it as cheese because his defense must have sucked. I'm sure it sucked playing him, but you can't really expect him to do anything else but pass when he has that kind of team. Likewise, it's not like he is exploiting the game. He just has a bunch of amazing receivers. If I were you, I'd make an all-D team that you could switch too just in case you run into one of these guys again.

[DallasOwnsNFC]

Its not cheese because you cant stop the pass.

Its not like (From what I understand) he was bombing it or something, he was using a pass heavy offense that you couldnt stop, so why should he stop doing it?

Like the other guy said find a counterweapon like eat up the clock or try to stop the pass better to make him run the ball.

[AllBusiness34]

Weak, but not cheese. You ARE allowed to create teams that are stacked in certain positions. I'm sure a bunch of different aspects of his team were weak which you can exploit. Really, his defense should have been so weak that all you had to do was make one stop and you could have won. Sounds like a fun style to play against, to tell you the truth.

[Witasick21]

Weak, but not cheese. You ARE allowed to create teams that are stacked in certain positions. I'm sure a bunch of different aspects of his team were weak which you can exploit. Really, his defense should have been so weak that all you had to do was make one stop and you could have won. Sounds like a fun style to play against, to tell you the truth.
I agree, if the guy you were playing has D. Marino, Jerry Rice, and 3 silver wr's, why should he let them go to waste by running the ball.

[Numbski]

As frightening as the scenario is, nope. Not cheese at all. You ought to be able to whoop his defense into next year. The run ball down his through for 3-4 yards at a shot. Don't let him have the ball any more than required by the rules of the game. This may include kicking a surprise onside kick. >:)

Kinda hard to use all that firepower when you don't have possession of the football.

[birdfry]

agreed it is within the spirit of the game and i would mix up my zones because noway you are going to stop it man to man. Put as many back as possible in zones and hope one of your play makers makes a play.
Oh and your offense should have some succes.

[grushcow]

if an NFL team had peyton manning, terrell owens, steve smith, chad johnson and Marvin Harrison and a arena league RB they would pass over 95% of the time. Football is all about mismatches and if you can' stop the pass it doesn't make it cheese.

[Hollywood055]

WOW. Think about this if there was a real team that had Jerry Rice, Marino and three other Hall of famers do you think the coach would say "hmmmm I think the other coach might think
I'm a cheeser if I pass to much with my HOF QB and WR and three pro bowl WR's so let me make sure I run the ball 25 times with my Reuben Droughns caliber back." I kinda doubt it but maybe smart guy. Look if he has all that fire power at WR then he will have a **** defence and maybe a **** line. That;s the thing about this game you pick your strengths and weaknesses. You have to play to your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses. Like real football. When Buddy Ryan made the 46 Defence I bet you were somebody who called it a cheese Defence lol

[YungFresh]

I played this guy and it was damn near impossible to stop him i int his *** once but other then that he was dominating the whole game so bascially i would call it a great team not a cheese but it seems like a cheese but you'll have to figuire out how to counter it there has got to be someway i know prevent man tight 2 worked for me a bit until he started running with his RB then i just quited b/c it was over.

[KCChiefsMan]

only a crybaby would call that cheese

[tpaterniti]

Thanks for the responses. To answer a few. I seriously did think of making a team in case I play someone like that again. I should have looked at his team more closely I guess. Second, he was bombing it pretty frequently. Rice was catching EVERYTHING, and it wasn't like I could focus my attention on him because he had 3 other silver WRs. Ball control would have been a good idea, but he could score in less than a minute. I did get the ball after halftime and I scored to tie it with like 48 seconds left in the half and he used his timeouts and got another TD in that window. It is real easy to talk about it, but when you play someone who has a team like this you will see and when you try almost EVERYTHING in your play book and NOTHING works, then perhaps you will understand the frustration. They do in fact limit the number of players you can get at certain positions and I wish they would have limited the WRs to 3, although I suppose 3 legend WRs and a legend TE would have been almost as bad.

Finally, my question was whether it was cheese to make a team like that in the first place. Of course if you had a team like that it would be perfectly logical to use it the way you designed it.

And BTW, I lost 35-34 (I went for 2 with 2 seconds left rather than take a chance in OT- he told me he would have done the same thing) so I had no trouble scoring. I just couldn't get a stop on D.

[garistotle_kc]

I don't see it as cheese because his defense must have sucked. I'm sure it sucked playing him, but you can't really expect him to do anything else but pass when he has that kind of team. Likewise, it's not like he is exploiting the game. He just has a bunch of amazing receivers. If I were you, I'd make an all-D team that you could switch too just in case you run into one of these guys again.

or make an all o line offense team and run the clock and score tds

[AllBusiness34]

I understand you were frustrated, but don't confuse that with cheese. Try to catch on to what kind of routes he favors, your DB's alignments, down-and-distance situations, bringing some pressure on his QB, stuff like that.

[Technique83]

No cheese.

Parallel to real life: Keep Marino OFF the field.

[ScottyP]

That would suck, but it's not cheese.

As others have said, clock control and ball management. Don't give him the chance to score.

[tutata]

I dont think its cheese IMO but its hard as s**t to stop a team like that. By the way you can switch your FS to CBs in the substitutions. I played a team that had Marino, Rice, 1 silver and 1 bronze WR. It was frustrating but it wasnt cheese. Im working on coming up with a team that will stop that or maybe having a team that will do the same hehehe. But in the end this is what I love about the game. All the different matches that can be done.

[Lorax]

I would consider it a strategy, not cheese. Cheese is exploiting glitches, IMO.....Its beatable, burn clock like crazy - his defense has be vulnerable with all those slots used up on offense.

[djphleks]

This game is a chess match. He stacked up his offense to be a passing powerhouse. Like it was said ealier in the thread, either keep marino off the field with ball control or make a defensive stacked team to counter 4 tier WR matchups

[Azn_Essence]

That's not "cheese"
It's near impossible to get pressure in shotgun formation. It's more of a game flaw than anything. Whatever stunt you call on your dline, they'll always get sucked in the middle. He doesnt even need 4 legend WR. He just needs marino + rice + shotgun. VC needs to fix the shotgun formation, having 4 legend DL is basically neutralized by this formation.