Run for your lives men!

OK, with the O-Line sorted, its time to take a look at the players who'll get the most use out of it - the running game. I'm going to include the TE in this post as well.

My idea with the running game has always been primarily power based. I know I know, I can hear some of you rolling your eyes, but I've preferred power since before it became flavour of the month. My preference for builds is to go with what feels right if it were a real player, not to chase temporary metagame trends that will likely get changed soon anyway. My theory, and it seems to have been borne out thus far, is that Bort will tend to make changes to bring things back if they get too far removed from reality.

So with the idea of playing a power running game in mind, the HB build is fairly obvious:

Benvroom StarChunk http://goallineblitz.com/game/player.pl?player_id=795526

Get the strength up, then start the bugger being able to move over the fallen tackle attempts of his enemies. If Benvroom ends up being the backup, the start will definitely be another Powerback, but I'm not opposed to having a different style back as the reserve if Benvroom is the starter.

On the Fullback front we have Bentfull Chunkback:

Bentfull Chunkback

His first aim will be to become a lead blocker for the HB. Once he does that reasonably well, he'll try and branch out into rushing and receiving territory.

My theory with FBs and TE blocking is that the timing of the block and being able to get to the right spot at the right time is more important than making a super effective block. As long as they can hold the defender for that second or two the HB needs to get past them they've done their job far better than some hulking behemoth pancaking players way back out of the play. This mobility has the added effect of being suitable for the other facets of the game, so while both the FB and TE will start out as blockers, both will eventually transition to balanced builds.

The TE will place even less importance on Blocking than the FB, primarily because I think the Blocking SA tree for TEs is rubbish. Run Blocking is of minimal benefit, Pass Blocking is totally useless considering he'll be a receiver, Hands isn't something I want him in a position to need, leaving Get Low too far up the tree to really be useful, and Pancake as an unecessary points sink.

Oh yeah, the build for Bentight Chunkend (are you beginning to see a dreadfully dull pattern in my naming?):

Bentight Chunkend