Tecmo Passing Plays

Ah, Tecmo Passing Plays. There's nothing sweeter than throwing a bomb endzone to endzone. But try to moderate your desire to do this. Humans are not the CPU, they actually do play pass coverage from time to time. Go with many receivers, in many different places...make your opponent work to defend you. Oh yeah, and don't forget to run the ball from time to time.

PASS SLOT 1
Lots of rollouts and playactions here. That's not necessarily a bad thing. For a really balanced offense try to pick something with a few guys shallow here. I personally like to have backs to throw the ball to in emergency situations, but if you're planning on scrambling this is not a necessity. Lots if good passes here. Some of my favorites are ROLL OUT R (4), T PLAY ACTION D (6) and PRO T SCREEN L (7), but all of these are good passes.

PASS SLOT 2
All I have to say is PRO T FLARE D (the fifth one). Two backs two receivers, and a tight end over the middle to hit if the play is picked. I love this play...it is the essence of bread and butter. It is rare that everyone is covered. And if they are that usually means nobody is around to stop you from scrambling. Again, if Pro Set is not your thing there are plenty of other options. The Staggered I play, OFFSET FLARE E, is also really good. It's tough to go wrong, I like a short range West Coast style offense, some people love the deep ball. Go with what's effective for you.

PASS SLOT 3
Lot's of deep balls, a couple of flea-flickers and another nice short-range pro set play. A lot of times the formations you run will dictate what plays you pick. I don't really like the bomb plays, when it's deep enough, one back can cover two fly patterns. Anyway, PRO T FLARE C (7) is the beautiful cousin of Flare D. Picking a shotgun play here to go along with one in the four slot isn't a bad idea either. Flea-flickers, well those I'll leave to you discretion.

PASS SLOT 4
So here it is, your final play. As a rule of thumb, this play is your bomb play. If you go by this guideline, your play of choice should be SHOTGUN XY BOMB (1). It is really the only bomb play that I condone, as it really is difficult to cover all of those receivers, and if they do, odds are scrambling will be open all day. I don't like plays that are the only one that are set up in that particular formation, but REDGUN Z SLANT (8) is kind of cool, because it's one of the few plays where you can hit your number one receiver in stride over the middle. If he's covered, then it's probably by your opponent, and you can hit one of the guys streaking down the sideline...well, usually at least.