u/IrishPotatoHead

First, my own personal stuff. I’ve been around football since I was little. It’s very much the family business. Specifically, the offensive side of the ball. Even more specifically, the offensive line. For almost 20 years I played or coached offensive line, all of it, save 1 miserable year in the split back veer, in the Wing T. A very classic Wing T. The OG Delaware staff literally taught my old man the offense and he was my OL coach.

Everything was played on AA, because it’s more fun to me than Heisman. CPU cheats less.

Offense

All that to say, the first thing I look at when I check out a new NCAA or Madden is the offensive line play. This is the first time in a LONG while that I’ve actually been impressed with the OL. These were all the beta players, so no abilities, middle of the road stats, and I have been able to consistently run Buck for positive yards, as well as g-down, counter and power. I even saw a guard course correct on power when the playside linebacker over scraped and turn back on the backside linebacker. (Do yourself a favor and check Indiana’s book, it’s loaded with great run plays.) EA scored pretty high marks for me there.

Blocking on all fronts was pretty solid for me, even from the WRs. The only negative (and this may be a beta issue or a formation change I was not aware of) was when a random WR would sub at RB when I was trying to run Jet Power Read. They absolutely got wrecked at the point of attack.

I didn’t mess with the new shift mechanics much, but what I saw, I thought it was pretty cool. I feel like that’s going to be much different versus another player than the CPU, especially if the opponent likes to formation match.

New Additions and Playbooks

Probably not a huge surprise, but I’m a playbook junkie. I collect any PDFs or install guides for offenses and defense that I can find online. So, before I even play a game, I scroll through all the formations and plays so I can see if anything was added or removed (or just looks cool.) I spend absolutely ungodly amounts of time testing and designing playbooks based on classic offenses and styles. This year, if Buck doesn’t get absolutely ruined in a random patch, I’ll probably be in a Kenny Simpson/Drew Cronic Sling T.

I didn’t see just a major amount of new formations compared to last year, but I did see a good amount of new plays, especially new motions. The tear motion to run speed option is a particularly nice addition. There has also been an addition of the spinner series to some formations, which can be helpful if you want to get your WR the ball as a runner without having to move him to a gadget role.

EA did slip in two new Wing Back formations, however. One of which, I believe is hidden under “Gun Deuce Close” similarly to how EA hid one of the wingback looks under “Gun Doubles Y Off HB WK” last year. I don’t know how fleshed out it is just yet, but I do know that the doubles formation was a nice change up for me last year. The other “Gun-Flexbone Heavy” has not been fleshed out at all and is considerably underwhelming. I know that EA has said that these playbooks are not finalized, but I hope that they take a good look at some of Navy and Rice’s actual gameplay from last year and adjust these books considerably. Why can’t we run a power read to the wingback in motion?

Also, give us the I Bone, please.

The new defensive formations are amazing as well. Really gives the user a lot of choice, which is all we can hope for.

Defense

Defense feels so much better. Even without the ability to run macros and the newer adjustments, it felt more responsive and just better. Zone coverage was much less brain dead. I’ll actually play defense in 27, which I barely touched in 25 or 26.

The CPU defense has been much improved, with some caveats. The CPU did force a few punts from me, which was fairly rare in 26. For the most part, the CPU played their option responsibilities much better. My caveat is that is still way too easy to outflank the defense on a formation basis. For example, Gun U-Off Trips HB WK will almost always result in the defense not aligning a force player to the TE and essentially conceding that flank. I did notice that the CPU’s defensive play calling got worse the longer the game went on, (IE 3-2-6 vs 13P) but that could have been due to W&T/Injuries. For reference, I was playing 8 min quarters to try and test as much as I could in one game and the auto subs are all over the place.

The CPU was more able to get a consistent pass rush with 4 rushers and I was pressured a decent amount. I don’t throw the ball downfield a ton, so YMMV.

I did not have a ton of time to play dynasty mode, but I love what I saw, even though I’m sure some of it will surely change at launch.

All in all, I’m very excited for this edition of CFB. I’ll probably sink just as many hours into it as I always do, but to see EA pouring this amount of resources into a game series that I’ve been playing since 1998 makes me a happy dude.