Is there some secret to mixing up defensive plays? It seems like my top defensive play gets called 15-17 times per game, while the second most gets called maybe 7-8 times per game. Even if I remove the overcalled play for the next game, inevitably a different play will get called excessively instead.

I know the opposing offense gets a boost practicing against a heavily used play, so I'm trying to get more variety. Is this a problem with the defensive coordinator? Is it just random and there isn't anyting you can do about it? Interested what experienced owners can suggest without revealing any major trade secrets. Thanks in advance for any help.

Here is one thing to keep in mind - only plays with blitzes get play overuse penalties. "Base defense" type plays do not get penalized, so it is not a terrible thing that your coach keeps calling the same play, if it is working. Of course, if he keeps calling the same play and you get burned, that's not so good. One thing you can check is in your gameplanning, for each set of sliders, you can click "view plays" and it will show you which plays are more likely to be called in each situation. So you can mess with the sliders to get the plays you want called more to the top, or if you want it more balanced, mess with the sliders to get the proportion more balanced.

Good to know. I seem to get burned a lot on certain blitzes, so I've taken them out of the rotation. Wasn't aware that base defenses didn't get penalized, so that's useful. I have fiddled with the defensive sliders a little, but not really sure what effect it's having. I've been playing this game for nearly a year, but still feel like I'm flying blind when it comes to defensive gameplanning. I always have 30 defensive plays selected, so I figure there had to be enough to pick from. Not really thrilled with my coach's defensive playbook, but I've seemed to pick out the most effective plays in the bag. I'll have to look at the "view plays" section to see if I can prioritize plays, or lower ones that are getting called too often. Back to the lab I guess - thanks for the pointers.