CALLING PLAYS & USING THE PLAY FILTER

As the head coach of your professional football team, your main responsibility during the game is to call the plays your players will execute on offense and defense. In this section of the guide, we’ll go over the basics of calling plays and using the play filter.

Play Selector

The first thing we’ll go over is the play selector. This is where you’ll cycle through and select your plays.

• Each play is represented by an icon called a Play Slice.
• In the example above you can see seven play slices, with the Play Slice for “Flood Strong” highlighted.
• Highlighted plays will have a yellow border around the slice and will show the on-field art in the main window.
• To highlight and view the full on-field play art, mouse over and click on a non-highlighted play.
• To call a play, click on a play that is already highlighted or double-click a non-highlighted play.
• The arrow on the far left cycles to the beginning of the playbook.
• The arrow on the far right cycles to the end of the playbook.
• The 2nd arrow on the left cycles to the previous group of play slices.
• The 2nd to last arrow on the right cycles to the next group of play slices.
• Clicking on the play selector’s horizontal scroll bar will bring you to the play slices at that point.
• You can also click and drag the scroll bar to cycle to plays quickly.
• Clicking the Play Boost button on a highlighted play will call that play with the Play Boost applied.

Play Slice

The next thing you’ll need to understand is the play slice itself. It shows a thumbnail representation of the play.

• At the top of the play slice you will see the name of the play.
• The middle of the slice has the play art, which shows you what the players will do on the play.
• Clicking the circle icon with the “i” inside it will bring up the play information details (see image below).
• Clicking the heart icon will add or remove the play to your Favorites.
• Clicking the 3rd icon with the two arrows will flip the play and have it run to the opposite direction.
• The letter icon shows you the play’s grade in the current down & distance situation. “A” plays are considered safe and common plays for the current down & distance and “F” plays are considered risky or uncommon play calls for that situation.

Play Filter

As soon as you start filling out your playbook, you’ll likely find it’s hard to sift through all of your plays with the play clock running down. This is where the play filter comes in. It allows you to quickly filter the plays shown in the play selector down to smaller chunks based on the criteria defined by the play filter.

• Clicking on the name or arrow will open a filter drop down menu.
• Clicking the reset button will revert the filters to their defaults.
• The lock icon can be clicked to lock the filters to their current state, which will keep the same filter settings the next time you have to call a play either on offense or defense.
• Filters can be used in conjunction, so if you have it set to Custom = Favorites and Key Player = HB1, it will show only the plays designed for the starting Halfback that have been marked as one of your Favorites.

Offense

Type: This filter lets you drill down the plays shown in the selector based on the Type of play.

• Run: This will only show plays where the design is to run the football.
• Pass: This will only show plays where the goal is to pass the football.
• Special Teams: This will show all of the punt and field goal plays — including fake punts and fake field goals.
• Clock: This will only show the plays designed specifically to stop the clock or keep it running.

Unit/Direction/Depth: This is a sub filter of the Type filter and will let you drill down the Types of players deeper.

• Unit (Special Teams): Lets you pick just punt of field goal plays.
• Direction (Run): Lets you pick just run plays that go to the inside or outside.
• Depth (Pass): Lets you pick just the pass plays designed to go short, medium or deep.

Key Player: This filter lets you drill down to plays based on the position of the primary player on the play. So, if you wish to only see plays that are designed to go to the WR2, then you can do so with this filter.

Formation: This filter lets you drill down to plays based on the formation that they are run out of. The formations listed are based on what’s in your playbook.

Package: This filter lets you drill down to the package that the plays are run out of. The packages listed are based on what’s in your playbook.

• TIP: In multiplayer games, since the defense can see what package your offensive play is using, this is a great filter to use since it’s important to call different plays out of the same package to keep the defense off guard.

Custom: This is where you’ll find some important miscellaneous filters.

• Favorites: This is one of the most important filters that you can use in the game since it only shows plays that you have marked as your Favorite.
• Recently Called: This shows the plays you called previously in the game.
• Most Successful: This only shows the plays you’ve had the most success using in the current game.

Defense

Type: This filter lets you drill down to the type of defensive play.

• Run-Stopping: This only shows the defensive plays that are good against the run.
• Pass-Oriented: This only shows the defensive plays that are good against the pass.
• Special Teams: This only shows the punt and field goal defenses.

Category: This is a sub filter of the Type filter.

• Direction (Run-Stopping): This lets you filter down to run-stopping plays geared towards the inside or outside.
• Depth (Pass-Oriented): This lets you filter down to pass defenses based on the depth they’re best at stopping — short, medium or deep.
• Unit (Special Teams): This drills down to either field goal or punt defenses.

Focus: This filter drills down to the defensive plays based on their main focus.

• Man: Defensive plays where the focus is to have defenders in man coverage.
• Zone: Defensive plays where the focus is to have defenders in zone coverage.
• Blitz: Man or Zone defensive plays where a linebacker or defensive back is rushing the quarterback.

Formation: This filter lets you drill down to plays based on the formation that they are run out of. The formations listed are based on what’s in your playbook.

Package: This filter lets you drill down to the package that the plays are run out of. The packages listed are based on what’s in your playbook.

Custom: This is where you’ll find some important miscellaneous filters.

• Favorites: This is one of the most important filters you can use in the game since it only shows plays you have marked as your Favorite.
• Recently Called: This shows plays you’ve called previously in the game.
• Most Successful: This only shows the plays you’ve had the most success using in the current game.