D for Damn, you made the little circle bleed with that hit!

That headline is a shoutout to the Play of the Season thus far in Canada A#5:

The dot is bleeding!

OK, so with the Offense wrapped up, its time to talk D.

Unlike Offense, which I think can be compartmentalised a fair bit between the run and the pass, the D really has to work as a cohesive unit. The D AI is also much more complex and versatile, and I think I'll probably try and get an experienced hand as DC to help me out with it.

As mentioned previously, I hope to use a 3-4 as the basis for my defence, and I really hope to try and attack with my defence, focussing more on turnovers than containment.

So far I'm thinking a monster D-Line, with hard charging LBs blitzing a lot in varied packages, supported by aggressive CBs and SS with a mopup FS sounds like a good idea. Of course, the DC I end up with may convince me otherwise, but thats what I'm starting out with in my mind!

Just like on Offense, it all starts with the line. For a 3-4, I am of the opinion the D-Line should be built in a very similar manner to an O-Line, replacing Blocking with Tackling and focusing on occupying the double teams, and making any tackles that come their way, rather than trying to generate a huge amount of pass rush on their own, though I'm certainly not opposed to them sacking the opposition QB!

Thus, my builds for the D-Line are as follows:

Bentose Chunkle

This is the first NT I made, and I actually ended up making a second due to joining a Human team with this chap, the Canberra Crotch Crickets. This being the first contract I'd signed since the new ending on Day 40 contracts came in, I wasn't familiar enough to avoid signing one that went over, and I think the owner is quite new as well. I was completely up front at the start about wanting to go to my own team in the offseason if I got a team, so hopefully I'll be able to organise a release if that happens - I haven't and don't intend to take any money for equipment due to my temporary commitment to the team. If not, I always have a backup plan.

Its been quite interesting playing on the Crickets actually, as unlike my other teams, this one seems predominantly made up of newbies, which is refreshing in a lot of ways, and I enjoy trying to help them out when I think I have some wisdom to impart (don't blink or you'll miss it). Bentose has been doing surprisingly well despite being heavily outlevelled in many games, with his high Strength proving effective even against big double teams thus far.

My backup plan at NT is Bentrel Chunkle:

Bentrel Chunkle

who looks like he'll actually end up higher level than Bentose anyways, as even though I created him later, I didn't boost him out of the gate like I did the rest to ensure consistent playing time and therefore a consistent amount of development across my players.

Both builds are getting Strength right up, then heading for Tackling. Agility will be the next one, which will likely come into play next season.

The Chunkend brothers at DE:

Benter Chunkend
Bentel Chunkend

are building along similar lines, and as yet I haven't really made any attempt to differentiate them to the right or left. I'll probably move from Tackling to Agility earlier on the right to make him a bit more pass rush oriented.