I checked to see if there had been any previous posts about this, didnt find anything. Do the 1-1-3 plays auto Nickel defensive formation play calls? Just had a game where that happened and resulted in two coverage Nickel defenses being used 26 & 14 times, over half the def calls. So far, looking through the defense settings, gameplan, rules, and play log I had for the game, it is the only thing I can see that accounts for it.

Yes. Auto goes something like this depending on your plays:

005, 014, 104 - Quarter/Dime
113, 203 - Nickle
122, 212 - Normal
221, 230, 311 - Goalline

You have two ways to get around this:

1) Rules
2) Depth chart overrides, which doesn't prevent the personnel type from getting called, but keeps your LBs on the field.

Thanks Seth, that's what I thought. Surprised it took me as long as it did to beoome more aware of it. Those auto's can really screw up a gameplan if you dont account for them and cause problems like defensive play overuse.

It's one of the reasons that I mostly use rules for defensive game planning. There are times when I want to stay in base normal against a 113 or 203. There are times when I want to run nickel against the 311. You know those times.

At least with the personnel I have on most of my teams I find that not having any goal line formations in my defensive playbook helps a lot. Then I can keep a lot of my quicker guys and better tacklers in by using overrides or rules.

I go back and forth about this. I'm starting to carry two GL defenses in my playbook. One that I call against runs and one that I call against passes.

That's why when an offense runs 3 wide (1-1-3 and 2-3) you better have enough nickel plays or you'll get stomped. When I notice a mostly passing set offense, I add a rule for 1-1-3, 2-3, and sometimes 2-1-2 to include nickel and dime. Maybe a few other defense personnel. Just a thought. It works for me.