So playing as IU last night in the first game of my dynasty, I scheduled Duke as my opponent. I figured they'd provide a nice warm-up game. Early in the first quarter, my second-best receiver, Glenn Johnson, broke his tailbone on his first catch of the season, and to make things worse, he fumbled the ball on his way down. Now, he's out for the season with 1 catch for 26 yards and a fumble. And I lost to the damned Blue Devils 35-28. :( They had 2 touchdowns that came off of tipped passes that their receivers miraculously came up with. This is Duke, for God's sake!

This was a little too realistic a start for my poor, pathetic Hoosiers.

I can't catch a damn pass in the game, even on the easiest setting.

I'll take over the player with no one around, and he drops it. I let the computer take over, he drops it. I bump up pass catching, he drops it.

And I can't run to the right, my guys don't block, even with blocking all the way up and D-awareness down.

Am I doing something wrong.

Should have scheduled UTEP...

I get a lot of drops too.

Originally posted by Kodos
I get a lot of drops too.

I will be online to play you shortly

Originally posted by Fritz
I will be online to play you shortly

Just watch out for the cat. :)

I can't run to the left.

Originally posted by Easy Mac
I can't catch a damn pass in the game, even on the easiest setting.

I'll take over the player with no one around, and he drops it. I let the computer take over, he drops it. I bump up pass catching, he drops it.

And I can't run to the right, my guys don't block, even with blocking all the way up and D-awareness down.

Am I doing something wrong.

That's interesting. I have thought at times they catch the ball too much. I regularly play with Missouri and Darius Outlaw (who is decent, but not a great receiver) makes catches in heavy traffic all the time. And that is on All-American level. I rarely have a guy drop a ball.

Dola,

I also don't have any problems running to the right. Are you sure you are not just out running your blocking? Last year in Madden a very common mistake people online made was running an offtackle play and then taking it outside like it was a sweep. *Looking Kodos' direction* So your blocking wouldn't be that far outside. Since the majority of runs are setup to go right that is where many of my runs end up going.

Originally posted by primelord
Just watch out for the cat. :)

the wife is getting the cats

My problem is when I flip a play and try to run it to the left. I am never able to break off any decent runs. I do pretty well running to the right though.

I don't have any problems with dropped passes.

Originally posted by Easy Mac
I can't catch a damn pass in the game, even on the easiest setting.

I'll take over the player with no one around, and he drops it. I let the computer take over, he drops it. I bump up pass catching, he drops it.

And I can't run to the right, my guys don't block, even with blocking all the way up and D-awareness down.

Am I doing something wrong.

I noticed this too, and then realized I was holding the pass button too long, so in essence my quarterback was throwing the ball too hard. On short passes, this seemed to almost always result in a drop. I tried touching the pass button for less time and with less force than I had been and now I get much better results.

A second thing that I noticed was that my quarterback was throwing off his back foot a lot too. This was resulting in passes that my receivers had to reach for, and they would drop a lot of these too. Once I let my quarterback set up better, the passes were more on target, and my guys catch more of them.

Hope that helps.

*Looking Kodos' direction*

I suck at running, there is no doubt about it.

I'm workin' on it!

Kodos, I'd love to play you online sometime. I need to get my work in with my college hero Bradlee Van Pelt!

Originally posted by Godzilla Blitz
I noticed this too, and then realized I was holding the pass button too long, so in essence my quarterback was throwing the ball too hard. On short passes, this seemed to almost always result in a drop. I tried touching the pass button for less time and with less force than I had been and now I get much better results.

A second thing that I noticed was that my quarterback was throwing off his back foot a lot too. This was resulting in passes that my receivers had to reach for, and they would drop a lot of these too. Once I let my quarterback set up better, the passes were more on target, and my guys catch more of them.

Hope that helps.

Good points...in past years these things really haven't mattered much, but they are key now. Getting your QB setup in a good position is one of the keys to passing, as it should be.

Yeap, if you throw bullet passes all the time you get more drops, you have to touch pass on some of the shorter routes.

But I like hearing them comment about what a strong arm my QB has.

I try that as well, but then the DB always catches up to knock it away. I've even tried stepping into the throw to no avail. I mostly do about 3 or 4 step drop, but I've noticed play action takes a while to develop, so my line is always broken by the time the symbols pop up.

My QB's normally go about 7-31 with 180 yards. Its ends up being home run or nothing.

Have you tried shorter routes instead of throwing deep a lot?

I use the scrambling method of running around, then if someone is open stopping and throwing. Get drag and out plays for your receivers and it should help. Home run passes are a crapshoot.

yeah, I try the crossing routes and quick outs and screens. They normally catch the screens, but lose 5-6 yards in the process.

Originally posted by Easy Mac
yeah, I try the crossing routes and quick outs and screens. They normally catch the screens, but lose 5-6 yards in the process.

Are you playing with just really poor wideouts?