Formation Maze Vol. II

You thought I was done with the Formation Maze. Nah. I am back with another and there might be another in the future. You know me, I am willing to beat a dead horse and I will kick a man whilst he is down. Yes, there isn’t any talk about the games that are going on, I figured let us have the season move a bit before we start making statements about the future. Let us get our first rankings first and then we can dig into the games and make predictions about who is going to win what. But in the meantime, let us get back to the formations.

So, we know the number of coaches per formation for both offense and defense. I figured let us jump into the data bit more and here we are. So, let us look at how many formations coaches run for their teams.

So, it seems like most coaches like running one formation. This should make sense, right? Well I kind of think so. Running only one formation allows for the players to get higher formation I.Qs since they only have to concentrate on one thing. Word on the forums is a higher formation I.Q likely means less penalties against your team. Some coaches as can be seen in the graph above there are some coaches who run more than 1 formation. I think running multiple formations might allow coaches to be more flexible with their gameplans. I hear some saying you can be flexible with 1 formation and you are right, some just like having options like that. I used to run 2 formations but stopped, since my players never had high formation I.Qs to compete against the great programs, I felt. It might have just been me sucking, remember I dropped down a level to learn how to play the game as there is a higher chance of playing more games with the playoffs.

So, we know a lot of the coaches only run 1 formation, how about we look at what formations they are running.

The Pro Set formation is popping out here. Almost half of the coaches who only run a single formation run Pro Set. I Formation is in a distant third place, with Trips sitting in second place. The Notre Dame Box is not getting love on its own, come on guys. Show some love to the formation. All the formations out there get some love from the coaches, which again reaffirms the notion that all formations allow you to win. You just have to pick a formation and make it work for you.

On the defensive side of the ball it seems like most coaches like to run 2 formations. I am guessing they like to do so, so that they have flexibility. I think they dedicate one formation to stopping the run and the other to stopping the pass. I try to run 2 formations myself, I believe it gives me more matchup advantage than just running one. As shown by the graph above there are coaches who only run a single formation, now to me these are super advanced coaches. They can use a single formation to create matchup advantages for themselves, I clearly am not on that level. I need these coaches to teach me how they do it.

Let us look at what formations they are running for those who only run a single formation.

So, most of the coaches who are only running a single formation run the 3-4 formation. I must be doing something right because I also run that formation. Now I just need to figure out how to make it really work for me. Some show love to the 4-3 formation as well. There is a coach who loves that 5-2 and another who is rolling with the Nickel formation. Nobody runs either the 4-4 or the Dime formations. That is sad guys, come on roll the dice with them, and just run them alone. They cannot be that bad, to be your only formations. There are coaches who run them along with other formations. I wonder what scenarios they use them in.

So, now we know a bit more about the distribution of the formations in the game and a bit about me. It was never the plan to let a bit of me out there into the world. Oh well. Now I encourage all the coaches out there to drop some knowledge on how to best use these formations, everyone can always learn something new and sharing the knowledge is key. And for coaches like me, asking questions is what we do, there are no dumb questions. Until the next time take it easy.