Tecmo Hot Routes and timed JJ’s.

As in a football game a hot route is designed to thwart a blitz.  In football a blitz is defined as a play when the defense brings more people on a rush than the blockers available to stop them.  (A fact that in recent years most TV announcers confuse blitz with a LB rushing a gap.  Or even worse the highly inaccurate term run blitz keeps popping up.  There is no such thing as a run blitz as a rush is designed to fill a gap and designed to stop a run in that gap.)

The reason I rant about this is I want it to be clear what a blitz is in tecmo superbowl.  A blitz only occurs when the defense guesses the play of the offense.  If a drone lineman/linebacker is popcorning his blocker or the human defender comes after you it’s not a blitz.  One rusher can often be avoided or out tapped.  That means you have more options in those situations.

During a guessed play you have very little time.  Unless you get very lucky or have QB Eagles you got maybe three to six seconds to do something besides take a snap.  This will start exploring what routes will be open in that time.  Keep in mind just as in real life a blitz is not without risk.  Sending so many players leaves people open.  You just have to know where they will be and how to throw the ball so they can get it.

Set up the Jets roster as in the earlier examples.  The defense can be anyone.  The first thing to do is to learn what options you have.  We will be using three R and S passes and one shotgun.  Here is a pic of the pass plays.

Play against the coach mode with any defense.  Get the ball on offense and choose the second pass play.  Have the cpu pick that play.   If you’re in nestopia save state at the snap so its easier to do this over and over.  Its time to learn how to throw a “timed” JJ.

On the snap drop back straight until the defender diving from the top misses.  Then take one step up, switch wr to the second receiver and throw.  If you time it right the ball should sail perfectly over the head of the wr.  The wr will jump and catch it.  If you throw too soon he might dive.  Too late and he will not be led deep.  If your on the wrong angle he will miss and you might even get picked off.  The angle depends on passing speed.  The more passing speed and its harder to time this.  The quicker the wr is then the harder it is to time.

Here is the latest video example.

Now that gives some ideal of what to do.  Now here is what you are looking for.  Plays with hitches and curls.  Plays with angles and short check down routes.  Also it can be plays with a fast wr on a streak.  Sometimes different qb’s have different reads on the same play.  Elway is hard to jj with timed or not timed.  Yet on pass 2 he can hit the tight end square in the nose in perfect timing.  Of course QB eagles can just run around drones.  The drones do not behave smart just because there are a lot of them and they are angry.  They miss like idiots same as almost every other time in a tecmo game.

To conclude this I will list the hot reads I like to use on each play.  The key to these is learning to instinctively avoid drones.

Pass 1.

Top WR

A. Throw during the second wiggle and he will be lead out-of-bounds.

B. Avoid with the qb down and wait for the wr to complete the wiggle.  There is a chance he will break away from the defender.

Second RB, third rb, second wr.  Just throw to either one if open.  They are normally left open.

Tight end.  If you can tap this far he gets knocked out often.  Then if he his not the throw leads him out-of-bounds.

Second Pass

WR 2 on a timed JJ or diving CC.  Rb2  if you wait longer.  Might get a dive/jj but you risk getting nothing.

TE Tricky but with high passing speed you can hit him in stride just in front of the defenders.

Shotgun Pass 3.

WR 2 Run up and throw over the head of the defender around 8 yards.  Often will either get a timed JJ or diving CC.

WR1 Often will streak past his defender.  Run down to go for this.

RB 2 Button hook often left open.

RB1.  Out pattern often left open.  Risk int if lead too far.

Pass 4

WR 2 Often will break by defender or get a diving cc if thrown on an angle.

RB 1.  throw immediately to him and it often results in an incomplete.  Wait an extra second or two and it will be thrown on the money.

RB 2. is often open on a short out across the middle.  It’s best to toy with the rb 1 and rb 2 out against a human defender.

The pattern is a curl or hitch becomes a timed JJ.  Short routes in the middle of the field are often left open by the cpu.  Streaks have more potential to get the wr breaking away from the defender.

The final thought is this.  On each pass play you need to know things.

1.  What is the typical cpu coverage patterns?

2.  What is the progression on the play?

3. What are the hot reads in case this play gets blitzed?