8-man TheoryAs you expect, with only 8 men on the field instead of 11, some of the aspects of the game are changed. Now, as some say, 8 man games can turn into "track with pads", with scores like 70-68, or 61-40. However, defense is not a lost art. You can still prevent scores. You just have to know what defensive scheme is best for you. Offense is not as straightforward as you would expect, with defenses keying well on mainstream offenses like the spread and the pro. One of my personal favorites is the I-formation, but I'll save that for the Offensive column. Special teams are a bit of a lost art in 8 man though, and I think that's a shame. If you take the time, and the effort, special teams can win games for you.
|
Offense |
With 8 men on the field, you can still run all the offenses that you can in 11 man, and many teams that convert from 11 man to 8 man make the mistake of not taking 8 man offenses seriously. The scary thing for defenses is, many offenses that no one thinks are still viable, are great in 8 man. The thing you have to remember is this: play whatever offense suites your team. If you would like to stay mainstream, do it. Run the spread, or the I, or the pro. It doesn't matter. You can also run the Single Wing, or an offense of your own invention. There are many different ways to set up your offense.
|
Defense |
If you walk into 8 man thinking playing defense is exactly the same as 11 man, you're wrong and you're going to get an unpleasant surprise. You can't expect to run the same exact defensive schemes as if you were in an 11 man game. Especially if you play your games on an 11 man field, where you only have 8 people to cover a 100 yards of turf. You have to do some stuff to cover your turf. If you are a transfer team, coming from 11 man to 8 man, for whatever reason, you can sometimes run a defense similar to the one you ran, and sometimes you get burned for doing it. Say you ran a 4-3 in 11 man, unless you run different schemes, you won't get far. A 3-3 defense run in 8 man expects your MLB to just go around and make every single tackle on the field. You have to abridge your old defense a bit. Just bear these things in mind.
|
Special Teams
|
A lost art in any form of the game, with less and less time being used in practice to support the 3rd side of the ball. There are 3 sides to any football game, and a lot of teams only recognize 2 of these. When you stay a player starts BOTH ways, you forget a very important "way", in special teams. Players don't value special teams starts, but special teams wins games. Cliche, I know. Sorry. It's the truth. You won't find many teams kicking field goals, or punting, or kicking-off well in 8-man. If you do these things well, you can seize the game's destiny.
|