When I played football in high school, we had a defensive formation we used sparingly that didn't use CBs. We used it only when we were almost absolutely sure they would run up the middle (short yardage and goal line situations). On the off chance that the offense decided to pass, the OLB's needed to drop back into coverage and the DE's dropped back to cover the flats.
I'm not going to say it was an effective defense, and again, it was used sparingly, but to say that a defense without CB's is unrealistic is untrue.
The limitations of this game require that a formation (offense or defense) be used through out the entire game. While this is unrealistic, I do think it's understandable since it would be difficult to plan for every situation in every possible game, and then require the managers to make plans the same way.
Can this game be improved? Absolutely, there's no doubt there. I don't think anybody, Admins included, would say otherwise.
Will it be improved? Probably not. While there may be a few tweaks here or there, they will most likely be cosmetic in nature as they have been in the past.
Does that make the game unplayable? No. Some of us have been playing a very long time. I don't see myself giving up on the game anytime soon. I accept the game for what it is and have tried to learn how to play it based on what it can do and not what I think it should do.

When I played football in high school, we had a defensive formation we used sparingly that didn't use CBs. We used it only when we were almost absolutely sure they would run up the middle (short yardage and goal line situations). On the off chance that the offense decided to pass, the OLB's needed to drop back into coverage and the DE's dropped back to cover the flats.
I'm not going to say it was an effective defense, and again, it was used sparingly, but to say that a defense without CB's is unrealistic is untrue.
The limitations of this game require that a formation (offense or defense) be used through out the entire game. While this is unrealistic, I do think it's understandable since it would be difficult to plan for every situation in every possible game, and then require the managers to make plans the same way.
Can this game be improved? Absolutely, there's no doubt there. I don't think anybody, Admins included, would say otherwise.
Will it be improved? Probably not. While there may be a few tweaks here or there, they will most likely be cosmetic in nature as they have been in the past.
Does that make the game unplayable? No. Some of us have been playing a very long time. I don't see myself giving up on the game anytime soon. I accept the game for what it is and have tried to learn how to play it based on what it can do and not what I think it should do.

None of what you said is actual football strategies. Which is the entire point of this thread. Your statement further proves my point. Sure there are "grid-iron strategies", but they aren't football strategies. Your strategy is basically manipulating the code of the engine, and NOT related to football.

Combine this with the ramped up homefield advantage and you now have a disaster of a game engine. It has now become nearly impossible to even win at the home of mediocre teams.