47 Gap? Zampese Offense?

[BigDaddyCool]

I'm trying to assign some playbooks for my All-Inclusive mod to the classic teams and I'm trying to figure out which would be the most appropriate playbook for the 84 Rams. Obviously I'm looking for a Zampese-type offense that includes a version of '47 Gap'. I'm looking for any of the default '08 Playbooks that might have something like that, or any custom playbooks that are out there than could be recommended for use as a substitute.

From the New York Times article about Dickerson breaking O.J.'s record:

"This basic play - ''Just about every team in the league has it,'' said Robinson - illustrates what can be done with a power back like Dickerson.

The Rams lined up in their standard double tight-end formation, with Mike Barber the tight end on the left and David Hill on the right; Ron Brown and Henry Ellard, the wide receivers, also to the left and right; Dickerson the single running back in an I formation behind the quarterback, Jeff Kemp.

Both the left tackle, Irv Pankey, and the left guard, Kent Hill, pulled out and ran to the right directing the flow of the play. The right side of the line blocked down to its left and the handoff went from Kemp to Dickerson.

The runner swept wide to the right, then cut back behind Pankey and Hill, the lead blockers, and went up the field for the 9-yard gain.

''An off-tackle power play, that's all it is,'' said Robinson. ''Eighty-five percent of the time we make good yardage from it. The pulling guard and tackle give us strength at the point of attack.

''The key block comes from the tight end on the right side. David Hill, a good blocker, blocks down on the defensive end and drives him to the inside. That opens up the running lane for Dickerson.''

[AaronS]

I've tried this in Madden with mixed success.

The suction blocking in the game doesn't allow for this to play out as you described. The LT usually gets stuck on the first guy he runs in to, and that's usually not the widest guy coming at the ball carrier (as it should be).. so then the pulling G is pretty much useless as he isn't fast enough to get around the edge.

.. basically, if you can't make a free tackler miss, you're out of luck.

[BigDaddyCool]

I also remember Dickerson describing how he was able to get the play to work better. In his "A Football Life" film he was talking to Marcus Allen about '47 Gap' and described some of the problems they were having with it. Basically Dickerson was so fast that at first he was outrunning his pulling blockers before the play could develop. So what he started doing was taking a step to his left before taking off right to give his blockers a head start.

So in the end what the play ends up being is a Counter play. The problem I see with Counter plays in the Singleback formation is that the defense is able to Bull rush the play and you end up losing 3-4 yards before it gets going. I've had some limited success when you put one TE in motion so that you have 2 TE's lining up on the side you run to.