Talk Fantasy Football

How good is Pass Block?

I was thinking of taking it on my Wood Elf Catchers.

Has anyone tried it much? How often did you get to use it?

Geoff.

Generally Pass block is good for stopping your opponent throwing the ball near the pass blocker, rather than generating interceptions. If you aren't in a TZ you've got a 4/9 chance of making the interception so few will risk it.

SLOBB is very elf heavy, so you'll get much more passive use from it than normal (by that I mean effecting your opponent's play by either making them pass somewhere else or take some countering strategy to prevent you using PB - like blitzing that player).

In general I think it's a skill you'll only pick as 3rd or 4th and even then only when your league is crammed full of teams that need to pass. As a wood elf team ask yourself: how many times does my opponent pass against me? Usually the answer will be "almost never" since most opponents (even skaven) will try to play the clock and beat you down rather then play fast and make passes.
Personally I think it works better to invest in shadowing or diving tackle since these skills are usefull against any team, whether they'll pass or not and both on offence as on defense.

Separate but related rules question:

Can you use the 3 pass block squares to stand up?

I think the answer would be yes as long as it takes the player so he is in a lane of the pass or puts his/her tackle zone on the thrower or reciever. Activating the tackle zone is probably usefull if the player is already in postion.

Skipper

Skipper wrote:I think the answer would be yes as long as it takes the player so he is in a lane of the pass or puts his/her tackle zone on the thrower or reciever. Activating the tackle zone is probably usefull if the player is already in postion.

Skipper

Actually I think the answer is no since a player can only stand up at the start of his action and pass block is a skill use, not an action.

I think Pass Block is a great late selection on a Wood or (especially) Pro Elf Catcher, once you've got some other stuff to go along with it. Kick deep, and if you can't blitz the ball carrier, all you need to do is cut him off and he won't be able to throw downfield. Winning with elves means (ideally) never letting the cage form. Sometimes this is out of your control, but usually if you have the Kick skill it takes a turn to get the ball and a turn to get it into the cage without passing. if you're really aggressive at stopping this, you can usually force a pass attempt. If the oppo can't build a lane, he'll have no such luck.

As I said before, it's better on Pro Elves, as Nerves of Steel and ST3 are very good under these circumstances.

TuernRedvenom wrote:Actually I think the answer is no since a player can only stand up at the start of his action and pass block is a skill use, not an action.

The correct answer.

I mostly coach speed teams like Skaven, Woodelves and Humans, and find passblock incredibly useful in generating turnovers off the kickoff, especially against power teams. And really, if you're playing finesse vs power you should be generating your turnovers in the first turn after the kickoff.

Generally, I have passblock on my 2 defensive catchers and kick to a position whereby I can use the passblockers to charge downfield from the wings to threaten a passblock action on the backfield player &/or any viable midfield ballcarriers.

1 passblocker right in front of the thrower to threaten the TZ on the passer & one in an interception position is usually a good play. Even if they never get a chance to use the skill, the threat narrows down your opponent's options.

The benefit of passblock is not only does it cover a larger area than 1-man-with-tacklezone but it allows you to keep your catchers out of TZs meaning they can't be blocked out of the play without burning a blitz. This also highlights the point of having more than 1.

TuernRedvenom wrote:

Skipper wrote:I think the answer would be yes as long as it takes the player so he is in a lane of the pass or puts his/her tackle zone on the thrower or reciever. Activating the tackle zone is probably usefull if the player is already in postion.

Skipper

Actually I think the answer is no since a player can only stand up at the start of his action and pass block is a skill use, not an action.

Thanks all. Yes it does quite clearly state this in the knockdowns section.