 | Using Smart Routes can literally take your offense further in NCAA 09. The goal behind using a Smart Route is to extend a standard route in a particular play to the first down marker. However, in this year's game users can not only extend routes to the first down marker, but they can also extend them PAST the first down marker if the adjustment to the route is made well before the play begins. This means that you can now take a single route and use it as it is shown, extend it to the first down marker, or have it go well beyond the marker to make sure the first down is achieved. The flexibility of turning a single route into three different routes provides the user with plenty of options to find what they're looking for on offense this season. Check it out below as SportsGamer breaks it down! |
Quick Setup
Step 1 - As soon as your team exits the huddle press (360 - Y + receiver's icon + RB / PS3 - Triangle + receiver's icon + R1) to extend the route past the first down marker. If you call for the Smart Route when your receiver has already reached the line of scrimmage the route will only go to the first down marker instead of beyond it.
Step 2 - Wait for your receiver to make his initial break back to the quarterback on his curl route.
Step 3 - Make a high bullet pass by firmly pressing the receiver's icon and holding up on the left analog stick.
NCAA Football 09 - Extending Smart Routes
We exit the huddle with the USC Trojans and immediately begin Smart-Routing both outside receiver's curl routes. The key to being able to change the route to extend past the first down marker is making sure that we call for the Smart Route before our receivers get to the line of scrimmage. Remember, if you call for a Smart Route when your receivers are at the line of scrimmage already the route will only entend to the markler instead of past.
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After we've Smart Routed both outside receiver's curl routes you can now see that they extend about 7 yards past the first down marker. The extra yards downfield provides us with the ability to pick up some nice additional yardage if we need to get in the endzone in a hurry. In the second image our quarterback takes the snap and the play begins to unfold.
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We continue to wait in the pocket until our receivers make their breaks back towards the quarterback. Extending a route past the first down marker may be good if you want to pick up bigger chunks of yardage, but you also need to remember to have plenty of protection in the pocket because it takes a little longer to develop.
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We deliver the pass to the receiver by firmly pressing his icon and holding up on the directional pad to put the ball in a spot that only he can catch. Our receiver is tall and has great inside position on the defender as the ball arrives.
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Our receiver jumps in the air to snatch the ball out of the sky for a quick 20 yard gain that our opponent could do little about.
Conclusion
Giving users as many options as possible to change their receiver's routes is one aspect that should certainly be welcomed by NCAA Football 09 fans. Not every route can be Smart Routed, but the best thing you can do is take the routes that you're already using and see how they work when you extend them past the first down marker. Unfortuantely, the only way to test how successful certain routes are when extending them past the first down marker is to go into a game because in practice mode they don't exit the huddle. Try this technique out for yourself the next time you hit the virtual gridiron.
