NFL Head Coach 09

Just to add to the above post, the preseason DOES count, and the defining moment has to be successful (i.e. convert on 4th down).

I used the Colts and made multiple saves prior to preseason game 1 against the Lions. The Lions are good because even Manning can run against their D-line successfully. If I won the toss, I would receive and then after the kickoff, ran Goal Line Q-Sneak until I got the ball to the 43-46 yard line. If I overshot or lost the toss I would quit/restart. Wait for the clock to run down (Use Settings to turn the play clock off and have the quarter time set to 1 minute), then when you are 4th and long and 3 or less seconds hit the timeout (back) button. I would also use the Special Teams: Kneel and Special Teams: Spike in order to make sure I was on 4th down or to start/stop the clock. It will give you and instant Defining Moment. Choose the Hail Mary, then the 3rd option on the right. It will convert 75% of the time or so. As stated, your receiver MUST catch the ball, if not, quit and restart. He doesn't need to score, and you don't have to win.

At the start of the 2nd half, super sim to the end of the game. Win or lose, at the box score make sure to Quick Save, and choose ALL. YOU HAVE TO SAVE THE PROFILE. Load up a new save and replay the Lions again another 19 times.

The achievement will unlock on the 20th successful Defining Moment as the 3rd quarter begins. It pops in the game, not after the game is over.

VERY IMPORTANT!!

Just to add to the two methods above, it is very important, regardless of what team you choose to go for this pain in the ass achievement, that you continue into the 3rd quarter until it shows the outcome of your "defining moment." Several times while I was attempting this, I would complete the moment as time expired and then I would jump to supersim as soon as the 3rd quarter began. DON'T DO THIS!!! Manually choose to kickoff or receive, whichever you are doing, and then the outcome of the moment should pop up as soon as the kickoff has been completed.

This doesn't happen all the time but it did happen enough to me that I think it deserved a mention. My achievement popped as soon as I saw the outcome. It took probably 40+ tries, but like I mentioned, at first I wasn't waiting to see the result.

*EDIT* I might also add that you use a team that's not quite so good like the Rams. You get a positive outcome regardless of if the receiver catches the ball or not. And with the Rams, they won't catch it a majority of the time. I used the Colts a lot at first and they always caught it, but the initial decision is partially negative because their approval is already very high. With a crappy team, it's positive all the way regardless.

Try to choose a throwing play that gets you a lot of yardage and you are close to the sideline. My play was the 52 Double Smash in the Patriots playbook. Once you get to about the 20 or so, throw the ball short across the middle and try to get the ball within the 10. If you are close to the 10 or on the 9 or so, just do a QB Sneak to get even closer. Then just spike the ball until 4th down and you should get the option. If you are on the 1 yard line, I would suggest kneeling because the field goal will be a lot easier and less of an angle and if you throw for the touchdown, the receivers will not be as close to the back of the endzone. The defining moment will not appear everytime. If you are nearing the end of the 3rd quarter and the time is still running down, wait until the 4th quarter because you will have more of a chance for the defining moment to happen. And same goes with the end of the 1st quarter. You can also get defining moments for being down by 7 or less points and you can either punt or go for it, when you are on defense you can either blitz or go zone coverage (I'm not sure when this one happens exactly) but these defining moments are a lot harder to set up.

It is easiest to start a career as the Patriots or Colts so all of the Defining Moments occur in one career. (I saved my profile after everyone that I got so the achievement either counts all from one career, all that you've gotten, or the ones in your profile.) You can do the games at any length that you want but I would suggest doing them at 1 minute quarters and try to get at least 1 every game. If you win enough to make it to the playoffs then make sure you get at least one in each game and win to get to the Super Bowl. Play the Super Bowl at 5 minute quarters so you can get more than one and hopefully get the achievement that game but I had about 22 after the Super Bowl and didn't get it but like I said earlier, my game might be a little glitched. If you don't get the achievement, just sim the off-season and you should develop your coaches skills around the plays that you use all the time (i.e. you should make your catching abilities better). Don't bother playing any preseason games or not because I'm not sure if those count. Then just keep trying and keep track of how many you have. If you do not get one during a game and the game is about to end, just quit the game and you won't have to exit the career or anything, you will be able to start the game right up again like nothing ever happened (your approval stays the same as it was when you quit the game though).

Ok! I am gonna try to make this one easier for everyone! The other guides were too complicated for me and one of them did not work. I never managed to get a defining moment in the beginning of the game from 43/47 yards. There are one defining moment that is actually much more easy to get. It does require you to finish the whole game. I am writing this very detailed in case there are more people like myself who are not known to the sport. Well, here is what you want to do!

1. Choose colts and simulate to first match for the preseason. Make at least one save before the match that you never save on until you have this achievement.

EDIT: Rams might be a MUCH better choice because regarding to another guide for this you succeed with your hail mary pass or not you will get your positive outcome for the defining moment. However I did get negative stats when they did not catch the ball so I am not sure. Perhaps you get a positive outcome for just getting the defining moment using rams? Because when I got that using rams the first message that told me about the defining moment gave me some + stats to my coach but with colts it always gave me a negative. Perhaps the first one count as well. Just bringing this up. If it does you should use rams.

2. Press start and go to settings! Change the time for each quarter to just 1 minute. And also change the clock to off. That way you can manipulate the time and just let the time run out. Making this easier for you!

3. The coin toss is not important but it is better to be the one to kick so you can retaliate if they score during the 3rd/4th quarter.
Your goal is to get to overtime! 0-0 in score but they might score on you and you will have to try to even it and score yourself if they do. But since you can manipulate the time and just let the timer run out for one of the quarters you most likely only have to get the ball from them one time during the whole game before overtime. And if they score you might be able to score as well to make it even. Also to make it easier you can press A to choose play/strategy and just let the timer run to get to the next quarter. This will make it easier to reach overtime.

For everyone used to NFL and know the game very well scroll down to were I describe the defining moment that is easiest to trigger. I do mention another trigger here though.

If you need 3 points to catch up on them, your goal is to get close enough so you can choose the strategy called field goal. (It can be found under specials). Then you might not want to choose Q-sneak because that strategy just slowly get you closer to their field. Instead try out different strategies.

You might not know the sport so well! Still have the game and want to complete it! Because of that I will be more detailed.

When you are on attack! You have the ball after they have kicked it. (The receiver after the coin toss).
Choose any of the 4 strategies when they kick the ball or just press B to skip picking in order to speed things up. There are things like steel plays coming up sometimes and many other things. I just always ignored everything by pressing the B-button. (Except play call to pick a strategy for attack and the defining moments pop ups that might be needed to watch or at least get the game to show).

To more easily keep the ball without advancing too much on the field you want to choose Q-sneak attack. It can be found in two spots but I will describe one of the spots were you pick it.

So press A-to play call and then choose formation followed by goal line and on the bottom of the list if you press up once you will find the strategy called Q-sneak. Pick that and the quarterback will try to sneak up on their side. If you manage to get stopped by the other team in the 2nd or 4th quarter you can get lucky and be able to find another defining moment. However I very rarely managed to get this defining moment and I am not sure if it was because I was too close to their field. But this is a bonus defining moment you could go for. The risk of trying to go for this one is that you might fail to keep the ball and they might score and you will fail to get to overtime for the defining moment this guide aim for. But I want to still mention this one so you have another one to attempt.

So if you look at the upper right when choosing strategies you will see if the timer is running or not. And to make it stop press back button for a timeout. You only have a few to use so use them when you feel that you want the timer to stop. On the right of the timer you will see what attempt you are on. You have up to 4 to reach their line which starts 10 yards away. You get more attempts if you manage to reach that line before 4 attempts are gone. If you fail you have to punt the ball away to the other team.

You then see how many yards are left to reach their line. If it says 1 you might be able to get a defining moment. In order to trigger this one I believe you have to reach the 1 yard away on attempt 1. But I am not sure! And then it only triggers if you still are 1 yard away on attempt 4.
To reach attempt 4 easily you want to choose special strategy and then spike ball. This makes your team drop the ball on purpose on the ground and you loose one attempt. So when it says 4th attempt and 1 you might get the trigger for a defining moment to happen. You will easily know if this happens since the game will zoom in on your coach and the screen will turn a bit grey.

If that happens you have a chance to get progress towards this achievement! If that happens you want to pick Q-sneak that is found under goal line strategies. Choose formation/goal line and then Q-sneak on the bottom of the list. You only have to pass the line with the quarter back just 1 yard away to succeed with this defining moment.

Further down I will describe what you want to do for the more easy defining moment that can occur during overtime.

On defence:

When on defence there are many strategies to choose from but this achievement and game was so extremely boring so most of the times I got lazy and always let the game pick a strategy for me on defence by pressing the B-button whenever the game asked me. But sometimes the timer will go but you want the ball from them. In order to make the clock tick again you can be able to call for a timeout and the timer will stop. This is good for when they just stand there with the ball letting the timer run out when they have a lead and you need to score.

I did notice however that the strategy under goal line on the bottom called jam cover 1 was very good. So try to use that!

To call for a timeout press the back button! You only have a few so use them wisely. When you have the ball you can abuse the timeouts to stop the clock from advancing. That is good when you are running out of time and need more time to do what you want to achieve.

The goal in defence is to make the other team not advance those 10 yards. (The line you see in front of them). If they don´t manage to do this in 3 attempts they will on the 4th and last attempt decide to kick the ball away to you instead of risking to fail a 4th time were you would get the ball on that spot. (You would start closer to their goal making it easier to score for you). So they will choose the strategy punt to kick the ball to your side.

This is what you want to get the ball from them to make it into overtime! Also this is what you want if you lose the coin toss going to overtime.

The easiest defining moment to trigger:

The good thing with this one is that it always seem to trigger as long you are not too close to their field.

If you manage to go to overtime you really want to win the coin toss!

If you do choose to receiver the ball! (You can sometimes be lucky that the other team choose to kick but it does not happen often).

If you get to be the one that kicks the ball, then you can still get this defining moment if you manage to make them loose the ball to you and you have enough time left on the clock and are close enough to your field. I got the defining moment to trigger with 17 seconds left but it wont work if you don´t have enough time left so you really want to win the coin toss and abuse the timeouts when they have the ball so there will be enough times and make sure that they reach the middle of the field before you overtake the ball on too many failed attempts. (15 seconds left was not enough).

If you are the receiver you will get the ball from the other team and what you want to do now is to choose special and then spike ball. Do this 3 times so it will say 4th attempt on the upper right. (The first number were it could say 4th & 10 on IND and how far away you are from their goal).

When it says 4th attempt and if there is enough time left in the overtime you will get a defining moment to trigger because you are risking loosing the ball to them if you fail the 4th attempt and it is overtime. (Does not work if you are too close to their goal. I was at either 49 or 48 yards away from their goal and that was ok but at 42 it was not).

You know that you got a defining moment to trigger when the game zoom in on your coach and the game turn a bit grey. Now choose GO FOR IT and then when you get to pick a strategy choose one of the three HAIL MARY which will make your team try to pass the ball to someone further ahead. If your player manage to catch the ball you have gotten yourself a defining moment. You need 20 of these for the achievement. (It is so annoying when your team does not manage to catch the ball and all is for nothing or when your team somehow manage to score a touch down after they kick the ball to you).

You can go for another defining moment here! If there is enough time and you get close enough to their field. Not sure how close it has to be. First I thought 20-30 yards away was ok. Then I did not get one when I was at 11 yards. Changed the text here but then when I had within the 10 yards I did not get a defining moment. So this one is not certain just like most of these.

If you get this defining moment you don´t want to choose the top choice to go for a field goal. Instead you want to go for the bottom choice to do a touchdown. That would give the approval for a successful defining moment counting for this achievement. I don´t know which strategy is the best but a quick pass should be the better one. (I discovered this first nearing the end of this grind so I have only tried this a few times but it works and will give you another chance for a defining moment).

EDIT: I want to add one more thing! The last defining moment I did when I got the achievement was when I started to use rams. I was behind 0-3 in the last quarter and I reached the middle of the field. It was my 4th down and I got a defining moment. So this is something you could also try and perhaps get two of these in each game. I wish I had discovered this sooner.

When the match is over BE SURE TO SAVE TO PROFILE.

To do so press down on the left analog. Then scroll to the right so the game says save to profile. Do this and you have banked the defining moment. I also manually saved to one save each time but I doubt that do you any good. Just don´t overwrite the save you use for these attempts.

Another thing I want to add is that I did not get the achievement when I should. I had to do about 3 more defining moments. And I believe this is because when you do the overtime defining moment and score a touchdown the game ends and you wont have enough time to get the defining moment success. Very bad indeed! But this does not happen often but still so frustrating. Also try to view them each time when the pop up message show because this might be needed.

Now re-load the save you did before and have another go at this.
Repeat this enough times until the achievement unlocks.

This is a very tedious and boring achievement.

If you know that you will fail you can press start during a match and quit the game. You then don´t have to re load the save for another attempt.

Good luck everyone that attempts this one!