Special teams is when you are changing from offense to defense or defense to offense, or salvaging 3 points from a promising drive. Special team players are just the extras on your team, with some starters mixed in.
Kicking the Bucket ——————
Kickoffs are done after you score points, or at the start of one of the halves. Keep the default angle in place, or only aim a bit higher if you have a power kicker, but only ever so slightly. You also kickoff if your team gives up a safety, and for those you may really want to aim high.
Field goals and PAT’s are the same as far as kicking. The default angle of these kicks is best for kicks from the 20-30 yard line, maybe. The golden rule of kicking in video games is to aim a bit low, but not parallel to the ground. Low kicks increase distance while raising the chance of being tipped. Of course you need max power for all kicks, but low kicks with anything beside max power is sure to fall short. There is little risk of a tipped or blocked kick in video games, so don’t count on it for low attempts.
As far as defending field goals, well, all I can think of is crashing a player to the middle to possibly cause a bit of confusion in the blocking. But unless you see the guy run free as the kick is up, he will usually not do anything. And a guy will go unblocked once every 100 games or so, so it’s safe to say I haven’t pulled it off in this game. Other games sure, not this one.
Punting?! How Sad… ——————–
Yes, punting is the mating call of losing. Punting the ball means you have no plan on offense and are terrible at playing – sorry, but it’s totally true.
You punt the same as kicking, but unlike kicking you are sending the ball to a guy that only has to avoid two or so tacklers and your punt will only have a net total of a few yards.
So it’s best to punt with a high arch, if the punter has a lot of field to work with. The opposite is to just punt out of bounds and deny a return since there is no penalty for it. In fact, if deep in enemy territory and too chicken to go for it on 4th down, then maybe try to punt to the 5 yard line out of bounds. This is called the “coffin corner” as the offense is highly likely to punt the ball back because of fear of passing.
When aiming for the corner, it’s not aiming to the sideline or directly to the corner, it’s just about getting the ball to crossing the sideline as going out of bounds at the desired point. These punts, or just punting out of bounds in general, are best with low arching punts since you add distance and accuracy without caring how long it takes for the punt to get there.
But again, punting means you need to quickly re-evaluate your offensive gameplan.
As far as defending a punt, there is no penalty for pulling an lineman back before the punt. Why do this you ask? Well, I’ve never seen a blocked punt in these games, but I see terrible blocking on every play. Sure one extra blocker in front of the punt returner could be more trouble than he’s worth, or maybe it buys you a few more yards.
