4 Bottlenecks

So far, I have tried an entire team with Avalanches.... Derrick Henry was bouncing off every tackle. Will try again once ES becomes more available. 

Tried 5 Universal Coverages. Good, but not as good as previous years.

Tried 4 reinforcements. Had a lot of fun running this stack. Played a few ranked games and Boz, Coop, and Budda were getting after it. Really liked it.

My question now is, would 4 bottlenecks be viable? I know Double me/YAC/RAC beats it, but sometimes I see the DBs bully the WRs to the ground. Wanted to see if anyone tried it with Mitchell, Pat Pete, Herb and Jaylen yet.

joemainey said:

So far, I have tried an entire team with Avalanches.... Derrick Henry was bouncing off every tackle. Will try again once ES becomes more available. 

Tried 5 Universal Coverages. Good, but not as good as previous years.

Tried 4 reinforcements. Had a lot of fun running this stack. Played a few ranked games and Boz, Coop, and Budda were getting after it. Really liked it.

My question now is, would 4 bottlenecks be viable? I know Double me/YAC/RAC beats it, but sometimes I see the DBs bully the WRs to the ground. Wanted to see if anyone tried it with Mitchell, Pat Pete, Herb and Jaylen yet.

Any man defense (bottleneck or not) has the potential to get destroyed - as people will just keep motioning until they catch a DB not following his assignment

I am using it right now nd have been doing fine pat Pete bd Mitchell in the slot with herb nd Watson on the outside since there taller nd im 4/0 in regs rn

Imdagoat247 said:

I am using it right now nd have been doing fine pat Pete bd Mitchell in the slot with herb nd Watson on the outside since there taller nd im 4/0 in regs rn

How do you counter motion or RPOs or bunch formations where your DBs bump into each other?

I found pre double me RAC and Max security, herb and Watson expecially still got fried(I had a dallas and chiefs hybrid back around 96-97 ovr days) watson would rarly win presses and get sauced over the top. I gurentee Mitchell and Pete are dogs and far better because of the KOs and everything, but watson and herb at least didnt play great

watson and herb at least didnt play great

Same experience for me 1-2 months ago running 100% Bottleneck Pressed with those two as CB1 and 2.  Gave up on it after a handful of games.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'll still try it out in my champs games today and put Herb & Watson in the slot. Will report back later with feedback.

bottleneck isnt worth this year, too many motion wheel routes that cook it

joemainey said:

So far, I have tried an entire team with Avalanches.... Derrick Henry was bouncing off every tackle. Will try again once ES becomes more available. 

Tried 5 Universal Coverages. Good, but not as good as previous years.

Tried 4 reinforcements. Had a lot of fun running this stack. Played a few ranked games and Boz, Coop, and Budda were getting after it. Really liked it.

My question now is, would 4 bottlenecks be viable? I know Double me/YAC/RAC beats it, but sometimes I see the DBs bully the WRs to the ground. Wanted to see if anyone tried it with Mitchell, Pat Pete, Herb and Jaylen yet.

Have u tried 4 Vanguards yet? It's funnnn

REALdeal75 said:

Have u tried 4 Vanguards yet? It's funnnn

I tried 3! lol Waiting for more WRs to get vanguards, seems to work better in that position IMO.

joemainey said:

I tried 3! lol Waiting for more WRs to get vanguards, seems to work better in that position IMO.

Vanguard is seriously overhyped by the community, it's been nerfed into the ground and is nowhere near as effective as in prior years -- seems to be a common theme with so many abilities this year.  Quite often they just don't seem to do anything, even when you see the star light up, as if the ability is activating, but the results are underwhelming.  And yes, i ran four Vanguards for a while (both Guards, Vernon TE & Munoz WR).  Meh.  I would encourage everyone to build their offense around players that get the ridiculously overpowered and elite spin moves.

And yeah, Man Press (even with Bottleneck) is not going to become the meta this year.  I've only faced a couple players this entire year who were somehow able to run effective Man to Man.  Heavy pressure, combined with tight Man Press coverage can reliably defeat bad players, as they only have ~2-3 seconds (at most) to get the ball out, but any competent player is going to set up some Drag/Post/Corner, whatever route combination that will cook your defenders and inevitably give up big one play touchdowns.  Not that Zone coverage reacts much better, but at least you can have players defend areas of the field and hopefully be in position to make a play on the ball.  The speed at which DBs can close/cover large areas of the field, especially the NBA sized defenders is insane this late in the year.  Stuff that seems open, often is not.  Especially on longer developing / deep routes.  Which assumes you can block the pressure, half the time i don't even bother trying, i pull the ole Kyle BananaHands and go five wide, throw hot into the pressure.  Fuck it, dude... let's go bowling.

peatrick said:

Vanguard is seriously overhyped by the community, it's been nerfed into the ground and is nowhere near as effective as in prior years -- seems to be a common theme with so many abilities this year.  Quite often they just don't seem to do anything, even when you see the star light up, as if the ability is activating, but the results are underwhelming.  And yes, i ran four Vanguards for a while (both Guards, Vernon TE & Munoz WR).  Meh.  I would encourage everyone to build their offense around players that get the ridiculously overpowered and elite spin moves.

And yeah, Man Press (even with Bottleneck) is not going to become the meta this year.  I've only faced a couple players this entire year who were somehow able to run effective Man to Man.  Heavy pressure, combined with tight Man Press coverage can reliably defeat bad players, as they only have ~2-3 seconds (at most) to get the ball out, but any competent player is going to set up some Drag/Post/Corner, whatever route combination that will cook your defenders and inevitably give up big one play touchdowns.  Not that Zone coverage reacts much better, but at least you can have players defend areas of the field and hopefully be in position to make a play on the ball.  The speed at which DBs can close/cover large areas of the field, especially the NBA sized defenders is insane this late in the year.  Stuff that seems open, often is not.  Especially on longer developing / deep routes.  Which assumes you can block the pressure, half the time i don't even bother trying, i pull the ole Kyle BananaHands and go five wide, throw hot into the pressure.  Fuck it, dude... let's go bowling.

I agree it's not the same but still very effective. The biggest difference is getting off 11st Block. In previous years the would quickly get down field and pancake 2-3 defender  lNow you lucky to get 1-2 but still creates big wholes , so definitely worth the AP to me

peatrick said:

Vanguard is seriously overhyped by the community, it's been nerfed into the ground and is nowhere near as effective as in prior years -- seems to be a common theme with so many abilities this year.  Quite often they just don't seem to do anything, even when you see the star light up, as if the ability is activating, but the results are underwhelming.  And yes, i ran four Vanguards for a while (both Guards, Vernon TE & Munoz WR).  Meh.  I would encourage everyone to build their offense around players that get the ridiculously overpowered and elite spin moves.

And yeah, Man Press (even with Bottleneck) is not going to become the meta this year.  I've only faced a couple players this entire year who were somehow able to run effective Man to Man.  Heavy pressure, combined with tight Man Press coverage can reliably defeat bad players, as they only have ~2-3 seconds (at most) to get the ball out, but any competent player is going to set up some Drag/Post/Corner, whatever route combination that will cook your defenders and inevitably give up big one play touchdowns.  Not that Zone coverage reacts much better, but at least you can have players defend areas of the field and hopefully be in position to make a play on the ball.  The speed at which DBs can close/cover large areas of the field, especially the NBA sized defenders is insane this late in the year.  Stuff that seems open, often is not.  Especially on longer developing / deep routes.  Which assumes you can block the pressure, half the time i don't even bother trying, i pull the ole Kyle BananaHands and go five wide, throw hot into the pressure.  Fuck it, dude... let's go bowling.

I agree and it feels like they have nerfed the baked on X-Factors this year. Avalanche, Bottleneck, Vanguard and even Universal coverage doesn't work nearly as good as previous years. I've even played around with Man Up 3 Deep for fun and it seems to work whenever it wants to. It catches people off guard, but any competent player will find a way. I believe mixing in man with zone is truly the ideal route to go here. We are about to get some crazy cards with insane ability stacks. I'm excited to see where it goes.

Man am I doing it wrong. Man align. And then press by hitting triangle and down.  They never get stuffed off the line. Appreciate any help