Dungy, Coughlin, Belichick; these are the men that led NFL teams to greatness, snatching Super Bowl victories from their bewildered opponents. On TV, their jobs look simple, just a guy with a clipboard speaking into a microphone, but Electronic Arts' NFL Head Coach 09 gives us a new found appreciation for the depth and complexity that goes into calling a fresh set of downs. There's so much to obsess over, so many little things, that it'll intimidate most players, but for those eager to jump into the playbook, this is the closest they'll probably come to calling a game.
Like Madden NFL 09, the first thing you'll do is select a favorite team, and that's where the similarities end. Sure, there's the option of playing a season and reaching the Super Bowl, but you don't play the quarterback that celebrates the game-winning touchdown. In fact, you have no control over the outcomes of the plays you call. You're the dude on the sidelines, the coach that must do whatever it takes to keep his team together and make all the right moves. You'll select your offense (choices include Gilbride Old School, Lions Ball Control and Patriots Air Strike, among others) and defense (Jags Physical D, Jets 3-4, Jim Johnson Blitz) and make crucial decisions to prep your team for the game. Will you boost your linebackers' abilities, your defensive lineman's confidence or perhaps your wide receiver's confidence? You better choose wisely. There are numerous options and you can only choose three.
From there, Head Coach takes you into the game and things get even more complex. There are a wealth of offensive (Quick Pass, Inside Handoff, Shotgun Pass, Draw, Hail Mary, etc.) and defensive (Deep Zone, Cover 2 Zone, Cover 3 Zone, Man Blitz) plays to select from that you can choose by formation, play type, success (the number of times your team calls it and the percentage of times it works) and through a handy Ask Coach (similar to Ask Madden) option. Then you watch the play unfold, for better or worse.
Throughout the game, you can study depth charts, monitor fatigue, get injury updates and take a risk on a potentially hurt veteran or his inexperienced rookie backup. There's a summary for each drive, a breakdown on which coach has out dueled who and tons more things to examine.
In addition to exhibition, there's a Career mode that spans an entire NFL year, from the draft all the way through preseason, the season and the playoffs. You'll make sure your guys read and understand the playbook, boost their morale, cut the scrubs and hire and fire your staff. The better you do, the more your team wins. Screw up, and your rating plummets, even amongst the fans.
There's also the option to create your own plays. If you choose to make an offensive play, for example, you select from an I formation, Singleback, Gun, Hail Mary or Goal Line. Picking Gun gives you the option to do either Slot Strong TE Flip or Normal Offset WK. From there, you can select any player on the field and change how he reacts once the ball is snapped. Does the quarterback take a one or three step drop? Will you change a receiver's assignment and tell him to do a run block? You'll create plays for weeks and then upload them into the game. You can even upload them into Madden NFL 09.
All of your achievements matter little, though, if you can't beat other coaches online. Thankfully, the game has head-to-head play for two players, as well as leaderboards to see who has the superior coaching acumen.
For us coaching novices, however, the game is daunting and for great reason. EA assumes the player knows something about football or at least has the will to learn on their own, so there's no tutorial, a bizarre decision considering the complexities of the game. And while menus aren't impossible to navigate, there were times when we wondered what things meant or what would happen if we selected a certain feature and watched as it resulted in a turnover.
Excessive loading just makes the experience more annoying, especially since the game isn't as visually detailed as Madden NFL 09. It's not ugly by any means, and EA did a great job capturing the coaches likenesses, but things shouldn't move this sluggish.
For years, we wondered why NFL coaches tossed their clipboards and screamed at players, and now we understand. It sucks calling what seems like a winning play and then watching some idiot fumble the football or commit a stupid penalty. To that end, NFL Head Coach 09 is a great way to peer inside this exciting profession and get a better feeling for the gridiron. Anyone that obsesses over Xs and Os should consider buying it.
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