How to Throw in Retro Bowl: Passing, Routes and the Two-Minute Drill

Retro Bowl's passing game is one gesture, and most people learn it in the first drive: drag back, release, the ball goes. Getting good at it is a different thing. This is what the arrow is actually telling you, how to use the routes you are given, and how to run a two-minute drill that ends in points.

The throw

When your quarterback has the ball, click or touch and pull back. An arrow appears from the ball. Its direction is where the ball will go and its length is how hard it will be thrown. A short drag is a touch pass that floats and can be caught by a receiver running toward you; a long drag is a bullet that gets there before the defender does but is harder to catch on the run. Release to throw.

The ball goes where you aimed, not to the receiver. Lead him: aim a little ahead of a receiver running away from you, and a little behind one coming back toward the line. The first few interceptions everyone throws are passes aimed at the receiver's current position.

Moving receivers

Before the throw you can drag any receiver to redraw his route. This is the most useful control in the game and the one nobody is told about. A curl route against a defense playing off the line becomes a go route with one drag; a receiver bracketed by two defenders can be pulled across the field into space. Do it every play, even when the default routes look fine, because the defense reacts to the route it sees and not the one you drew.

Reading the defense

• Defenders playing deep: throw short and take the yards. Five-yard completions move the chains, and the defense will creep up.
• Defenders pressed on the line: the deep ball is on. Redraw a route to go, take a long drag and throw it early.
• Pressure on the quarterback: if your line is weak you have less than two seconds. Throw the first open receiver rather than waiting for the best one.
• Nothing open: tap to run. A quarterback scramble for six yards beats a sack every time.

The running game

Tap or click on a play where the quarterback holds the ball and he takes off. Steer with the mouse or finger and flick sideways to juke. Runs work best on short yardage and against a defense that has been beaten deep twice, because the safeties will be backing up. Keep the runs to a handful a game; the passing game is where Retro Bowl scores.

The two-minute drill

The clock stops on an incompletion, a catch that ends out of bounds and at the two-minute warning. It runs on a completion in the field of play and on a run. So when you need points with the clock against you:

1. Draw routes toward the sideline so a catch can end out of bounds.
2. Throw quick and short. A ten-yard completion out of bounds is worth more than a twenty-yard one in the middle of the field.
3. Do not run unless the run scores. A tackle in bounds burns twenty seconds you do not have.
4. Know your kicker's range. Once the ball is inside it, a field goal is a decision you can make on the next play rather than a hope.

Kicking

Field goals, punts and kick-offs are a drag upward on the ball. The direction of the drag is the direction of the kick, so a slight angle counts. Field goals from inside 40 yards are almost automatic with a decent kicker; from 50 they depend on his power rating, which is why a kicker with power belongs on every roster.