By my avatar I think its obvious Im a Brit, but did live in Arizona for a couple of years. My football knowledge is pretty good, especially compared to your average person outside the US. But saying that Ive never played the game and was wondering if there was anywhere online I could get further information about formations.

For example I know the basics such as nickel, dime on defense and on offence the I Formation is self explanatory as is shotgun but I have a hard time remembering where plays are in my playbook and I think it would be easier if I knew what I was looking for - Im just looking for some info on things that you guys learn in high school because you play the game - Snugs ????? I have no idea what that means ? There are others like that that unless they are mentioned during commentary on a Sunday I have never heard of them

Any help would be appreciated

Snugs is a 4WR set that has two WR on each side. It's in the Oakland playbook. [Hard to Explain]

Snugs Flip is another 4WR set that has two WR on each side. It's in the Denver playbook.

Snugs:
...X OO[x]OO X...
X.....................X
...........Q...H.......



Snugs Flip:
.X...OO[x]OO...X
....X..............X...
...........Q...H.......

Q = QB, H = RB

I don't know why they call it snugs.. probably because they are so close together.. it's snuggly LOL



You'll see formations like "Y-Trips HB Wk" The RB will be on the left, there will be a TE on the LOS on the right, then two WRs OFF the LOS on the right to form the Trips. [LOS =Line of Scrimmage.]

You can make Strong formations by motioning your FB right in some I-Form formations.. I think you already knew that..

In Madden, I-Form / Strong are typically better run formations than Weak.. There's just something about weak formations.. they never have any solid runs in them that DONT have auto-motion.

You can wiki American football and find some useful information. I moved over to the US when I was young, but never played football, so I'm in a similar boat.

I don't think the actual play names have anything to do with the set. To make things easier on yourself, choose a few plays and just use them. Pick plays that can beat man, zone or both and give you some variety. Once you're familiar with them, then you could move onto another set of plays or another playbook.

Thanks for the replies.

There are a few more which Im not sure of (cant remember without cranking the old PS3 up) - just thought it would be easier for me and less hassle for you guys if I didnt have to keep asking

Sting and predator are 2 terms which come to mind off the top of my head

lol i think when people are thinking of what to call defensive formations. they just play scrabble and take the words off of the board and add 3-4 infront of it.

I'm assuming you are referring the defensive formation 3-4 Predator, or as it is called in the NYJ playbook, 3-4 Rush. It is arguably the best 3-4 formation, and while it is not as successful/dominant as last year due to the decline of A-Gap nanos, it is still very good. "Sting" brings to mind the play Sting Pinch Zone from the 3-4 Over formation, a great blitz and run stopper. It also has a man-coverage counterpart called Sting Pinch.

Sting because it hurts the QB when thy run that play

I'm with xHHx_JayNizz - there is no "sting" play outside of that specific one. It's not like when you say it's a 3-4 defense. That has a meaning. You can say it's a shotgun formation and it means something. Past that, when you get into individual plays, they don't really mean anything to everybody.

Take the mesh play for example. About all you can get out of it is that two players will come cross close together (mesh) to try and get a natural pick and get one of them open.

Terms like A, B & C gap refer to a specific space. There are types of routes (drag, corner, streak, etc.) that are common terms.

Thanks for all the help - Im not really a rookie as the post may have sugested but just unaware of some of the terms. The terms Im unaware of seem to have no real meaning anyway so its not a problem.