How to Use the Eagles (Chip Kelly) Playbook in Madden 16
The Eagles playbook became a popular playbook last year due to the variety of shotgun running formations and number of option plays. However, it became a little overpowered and some leagues (ours included) banned it from use. We plan on allowing any playbook in the game this year though as we are hoping some of the flaws in the AI from Madden 15 have been addressed. So with that, I wanted to make a primer on how to run this popular offense in a sim manner.
I used Oregon’s offense (or a version of the spread option) for 11 seasons in our NCAA 14 league. I also did quite a bit of reading and studying of Chip Kelly’s offense and the core principles to grasp how to run it correctly. It wound up leading me to three-straight national titles with TCU in one league and a title with UCLA in another. Since that is the offense that I know the best and have had the most success with, I thought I would start our Madden 16 X’s and O’s discussion there.
Philadelphia Eagles Chip Kelly Offense
Core Principles
The idea of Chip Kelly’s and many other spread offenses is to make the defense wrong no matter what they choose to do. The concept was first popularized with the run-n-shoot back in the 80’s and transitioned into the Air Raid and now the spread option you see so often on Saturdays. Chip Kelly brought it to the NFL and has had considerable success with it (back-to-back 10 win seasons).
Run First
Contrary to what most people think, Chip Kelly’s offense is actually designed around the run. Yes, it produces big plays through the air, but the entire concept is to dominate by running the ball.
Inside Zone
The staple running play of the spread option is the inside zone. The inside zone is designed to be run at the A gap (between the center and guard) and is the play almost all of the other plays in the playbook are designed around. The idea is to use the inside zone to establish the run and move the ball. If the defense obliges and leaves six or less in the box, you keep running it (while mixing in some dives, off tackle, etc).
Read Option
Once you have established the inside run and proven you can move the ball with it, the defense will likely start over pursuing off the edge to try and make a play on the ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage. That is when you hit them with the read option (or zone read which it was called in Kelly’s Oregon days).
The read option looks exactly like the inside zone except it gives the quarterback the option of pulling the ball back and keeping it himself. This exploits an over aggressive backside defensive end who is trying to run down the running back from behind. If the end crashes down on the back, the quarterback pulls the ball back and takes off around the line where the DE just vacated.
The offense can then add in a third layer to the read option and add a pitch option to another HB (triple option) or even a WR (slot option). It is all designed around pounding the ball with the inside run and then attacking an overaggressive defense that overcompensates in attempt to shut your base run game down.
Screens and Bubbles
Once you establish the ground game and add in the option, your opponent is likely to start bringing an extra defender into the box. They might try blitzing off the edge or even sending a cornerback to corral the QB should he keep the ball. This is when you dip into your tool box and pull out your screens and bubbles.
Screen plays and bubbles are considered “constraint” plays. They are designed to keep the defense honest and prevent them from stacking the box and bringing extra pressure to stop the run. Again, the primary objective is to pound the football. So use your constraint plays to keep the defense spread out and the middle of the field open.
In Madden 15 bubble screens did not work well so you were forced to use WR screens. However, in real life, Kelly and most spread offenses want to utilize the bubble. The reason being is that with the bubble, your outside WRs can get leverage on their blocking assignments. This creates running room for your inside (bubble) receiver on the outside.
The one thing that most people don’t realize with the bubble though (and regular WR screens to a degree) is that you are looking for a numbers advantage. Many users get caught up in seeing a CB lined up off the line and think, “hey, he’s got space, lets hit the screen”. That can be an effective strategy and can give you a decent gain sometimes. However, the Chip Kelly offense isn’t about marginal mismatches. Kelly wants to attack you at your weakest point. So, he wants to run bubbles when he has a numbers advantage on the outside.
For example, say you come out in a 3 x 1 formation (three WRs on one side and one on the other). This is a common formation for running bubbles in Kelly’s offense. If the defense comes out with only two defenders lined across from those three WRs, the QB will often audible to a bubble to exploit that mismatch. That allows the other two WRs to wall off their defenders and create running room to the outside for the bubble receiver. Usually he is in a one-on-one situation with the safety (if there is one to that side) and it can often go for a big gain. Once you complete a bubble for a 15+ yard gain, your opponent will think long and hard about not keeping proper numbers to the outside and loading up to stop the run. Which again, goes back to what you want to do, pound the ball with the inside zone, dive, etc.
Play Action
Now that you’ve established the run and stretched the defense with screens, its time to light them up with passes over the middle. A defense that is getting pounded with runs, options and screens is going to play a lot of short zones to try and contain what you try to throw at it. That’s when you pull out your big guns and start shooting missiles at their secondary. Each of the three concepts mentioned before use either the inside run or a fake of the inside run to get the defense to bite. They’ve seen you run it repeatedly and will automatically think something short when they see the fake handoff to the HB. The LBs will usually bite up a step or two and that’s when you hit them with a deep cross over the middle.
The cross was one of the easiest routes to complete in Madden 15 and it was especially lethal after being set up by a power run game and play action. While we certainly hope the coverage is better this year, it will still be an effective strategy, especially in this offense. You can (and should) also work in the deep in trailing the cross and the opposite streak depending on what the defense gives you. However, the cross is your most likely ally with the linebackers playing up to stop the short run or pass.
Four Verticals
Ahh yes, that ‘v’ word. Four verts has had a lot of negative pub around the sim community and rightfully so. It has worked far too well in certain versions of NCAA and Madden and still does to some degree. However, most guys have absolutely no idea how to defend it.
That gets magnified even further when they are sitting in a Cover 2 shell and playing under coverage. They are just asking you, and you should oblige, with beating them deep over the top with four verts. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating running four verts on every drive. As with every play in this offense, it is a situational tool. But if you have done your job setting up the run and using your constraint plays, four verts is going to allow you to hit a few big plays in the passing game. And the defense (hopefully) will try to adjust by playing more Cover 4 and man defenses. Then you start the cycle over and start pounding it up the middle, spreading the defense out and BOOM, back to the air you go. Rinse, repeat, dominate.
Implications on Sim Play
As I mentioned, the Eagles playbook was mostly, and rightfully so, considered cheesy last year. The shotgun running game was far too overpowered. As was the read option. EA has said they have focused on making pursuit angles better and keeping the option more balanced. Let’s hope that is true.
Should there (and there likely will be) some flaws in the defense in Madden 16, here is what you can do to keep your game sim while also enjoying one of the most exciting offenses in the game:
Be diverse in your play calling. Just because Kelly could (conceivably) just run inside zones all day doesn’t mean you should. As with any offense, you should mix things up and try to set up your opponent. Run a couple of off tackle plays from the same formation and then drop a counter on them. Use slants and levels on 2nd and 3rd and short. Mix in some deep outs and curl routes to keep the defense guessing.
Don’t abuse the same formations or plays. There are 20 some shotgun formations in the Eagles playbook. Use them. You don’t have to use all of them, but most of them. Slants and crossers are great yardage gainers but so are quick outs and flat plays. Screens can be deadly, but even the Eagles don’t complete more than about four per game on average.
You have plenty of tools in the tool box and a great blueprint for how to use them. Find 6-8 running concepts and 8-12 passing concepts that you like and can execute and then figure out which formations have them. Perfect them and you will be an unstoppable beast that even the best sim players will have difficulty defending.
Sign up to join our Madden 17 leagues here
The Eagles playbook became a popular playbook last year due to the variety of shotgun running formations and number of option plays. However, it became a little overpowered and some leagues (ours included) banned it from use. We plan on allowing any playbook in the game this year though as we are hoping some of the flaws in the AI from Madden 15 have been addressed. So with that, I wanted to make a primer on how to run this popular offense in a sim manner.
I used Oregon’s offense (or a version of the spread option) for 11 seasons in our NCAA 14 league. I also did quite a bit of reading and studying of Chip Kelly’s offense and the core principles to grasp how to run it correctly. It wound up leading me to three-straight national titles with TCU in one league and a title with UCLA in another. Since that is the offense that I know the best and have had the most success with, I thought I would start our Madden 16 X’s and O’s discussion there.
Philadelphia Eagles Chip Kelly Offense
Core Principles
The idea of Chip Kelly’s and many other spread offenses is to make the defense wrong no matter what they choose to do. The concept was first popularized with the run-n-shoot back in the 80’s and transitioned into the Air Raid and now the spread option you see so often on Saturdays. Chip Kelly brought it to the NFL and has had considerable success with it (back-to-back 10 win seasons).
Run First
Contrary to what most people think, Chip Kelly’s offense is actually designed around the run. Yes, it produces big plays through the air, but the entire concept is to dominate by running the ball.
Inside Zone
The staple running play of the spread option is the inside zone. The inside zone is designed to be run at the A gap (between the center and guard) and is the play almost all of the other plays in the playbook are designed around. The idea is to use the inside zone to establish the run and move the ball. If the defense obliges and leaves six or less in the box, you keep running it (while mixing in some dives, off tackle, etc).
Read Option
Once you have established the inside run and proven you can move the ball with it, the defense will likely start over pursuing off the edge to try and make a play on the ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage. That is when you hit them with the read option (or zone read which it was called in Kelly’s Oregon days).
The read option looks exactly like the inside zone except it gives the quarterback the option of pulling the ball back and keeping it himself. This exploits an over aggressive backside defensive end who is trying to run down the running back from behind. If the end crashes down on the back, the quarterback pulls the ball back and takes off around the line where the DE just vacated.
The offense can then add in a third layer to the read option and add a pitch option to another HB (triple option) or even a WR (slot option). It is all designed around pounding the ball with the inside run and then attacking an overaggressive defense that overcompensates in attempt to shut your base run game down.
Screens and Bubbles
Once you establish the ground game and add in the option, your opponent is likely to start bringing an extra defender into the box. They might try blitzing off the edge or even sending a cornerback to corral the QB should he keep the ball. This is when you dip into your tool box and pull out your screens and bubbles.
Screen plays and bubbles are considered “constraint” plays. They are designed to keep the defense honest and prevent them from stacking the box and bringing extra pressure to stop the run. Again, the primary objective is to pound the football. So use your constraint plays to keep the defense spread out and the middle of the field open.
In Madden 15 bubble screens did not work well so you were forced to use WR screens. However, in real life, Kelly and most spread offenses want to utilize the bubble. The reason being is that with the bubble, your outside WRs can get leverage on their blocking assignments. This creates running room for your inside (bubble) receiver on the outside.
The one thing that most people don’t realize with the bubble though (and regular WR screens to a degree) is that you are looking for a numbers advantage. Many users get caught up in seeing a CB lined up off the line and think, “hey, he’s got space, lets hit the screen”. That can be an effective strategy and can give you a decent gain sometimes. However, the Chip Kelly offense isn’t about marginal mismatches. Kelly wants to attack you at your weakest point. So, he wants to run bubbles when he has a numbers advantage on the outside.
For example, say you come out in a 3 x 1 formation (three WRs on one side and one on the other). This is a common formation for running bubbles in Kelly’s offense. If the defense comes out with only two defenders lined across from those three WRs, the QB will often audible to a bubble to exploit that mismatch. That allows the other two WRs to wall off their defenders and create running room to the outside for the bubble receiver. Usually he is in a one-on-one situation with the safety (if there is one to that side) and it can often go for a big gain. Once you complete a bubble for a 15+ yard gain, your opponent will think long and hard about not keeping proper numbers to the outside and loading up to stop the run. Which again, goes back to what you want to do, pound the ball with the inside zone, dive, etc.
Play Action
Now that you’ve established the run and stretched the defense with screens, its time to light them up with passes over the middle. A defense that is getting pounded with runs, options and screens is going to play a lot of short zones to try and contain what you try to throw at it. That’s when you pull out your big guns and start shooting missiles at their secondary. Each of the three concepts mentioned before use either the inside run or a fake of the inside run to get the defense to bite. They’ve seen you run it repeatedly and will automatically think something short when they see the fake handoff to the HB. The LBs will usually bite up a step or two and that’s when you hit them with a deep cross over the middle.
The cross was one of the easiest routes to complete in Madden 15 and it was especially lethal after being set up by a power run game and play action. While we certainly hope the coverage is better this year, it will still be an effective strategy, especially in this offense. You can (and should) also work in the deep in trailing the cross and the opposite streak depending on what the defense gives you. However, the cross is your most likely ally with the linebackers playing up to stop the short run or pass.
Four Verticals
Ahh yes, that ‘v’ word. Four verts has had a lot of negative pub around the sim community and rightfully so. It has worked far too well in certain versions of NCAA and Madden and still does to some degree. However, most guys have absolutely no idea how to defend it.
That gets magnified even further when they are sitting in a Cover 2 shell and playing under coverage. They are just asking you, and you should oblige, with beating them deep over the top with four verts. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating running four verts on every drive. As with every play in this offense, it is a situational tool. But if you have done your job setting up the run and using your constraint plays, four verts is going to allow you to hit a few big plays in the passing game. And the defense (hopefully) will try to adjust by playing more Cover 4 and man defenses. Then you start the cycle over and start pounding it up the middle, spreading the defense out and BOOM, back to the air you go. Rinse, repeat, dominate.
Implications on Sim Play
As I mentioned, the Eagles playbook was mostly, and rightfully so, considered cheesy last year. The shotgun running game was far too overpowered. As was the read option. EA has said they have focused on making pursuit angles better and keeping the option more balanced. Let’s hope that is true.
Should there (and there likely will be) some flaws in the defense in Madden 16, here is what you can do to keep your game sim while also enjoying one of the most exciting offenses in the game:
Be diverse in your play calling. Just because Kelly could (conceivably) just run inside zones all day doesn’t mean you should. As with any offense, you should mix things up and try to set up your opponent. Run a couple of off tackle plays from the same formation and then drop a counter on them. Use slants and levels on 2nd and 3rd and short. Mix in some deep outs and curl routes to keep the defense guessing.
Don’t abuse the same formations or plays. There are 20 some shotgun formations in the Eagles playbook. Use them. You don’t have to use all of them, but most of them. Slants and crossers are great yardage gainers but so are quick outs and flat plays. Screens can be deadly, but even the Eagles don’t complete more than about four per game on average.
You have plenty of tools in the tool box and a great blueprint for how to use them. Find 6-8 running concepts and 8-12 passing concepts that you like and can execute and then figure out which formations have them. Perfect them and you will be an unstoppable beast that even the best sim players will have difficulty defending.
Sign up to join our Madden 17 leagues here
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