Street Week is now in session. Do you ever return to a game you used to play as a child and you remember it being difficult? Sometimes old games seemed difficult because we played them as children and we were incapable of developing skills. But sometimes the game is just hard or broken. NFL Street can be a pretty difficult game due to all the nonsense that occurs, like when the computer decides to intercept every single pass when you're beating them by 28 points. I can blame the game all I want, but if my team is trash then I must commit self-player-hate. After playing this game for longer than anyone should, I have some strategies from the street-verse that I wish I knew when I started. Let's get it.

First of all, you should know what each attribute does before setting the stats on your players. All attributes range from 0-20 points, 0 being sad and 20 being most excellent. As far as I know, a player's efficiency in something is pretty worthless or mediocre until you get it around the 12-13 point area. So your QB won't be a above-average passer until he has a least 14 points in passing. If you really want to get in-depth, check out this magnificent general strategy page from back when IGN made sense. Here are the attributes and how to distribute points:

Passing: Speed and accuracy of passes. What were you expecting? Quarter backs (QBs) need high passing so you can launch the rock like an ICBM. You can put mild passing points into your running back (RB) for a few trick plays in which the RB throws, but I don't think it's really worth it.

Speed: How fast those legs travel. I suggest all players be speedy. Mike Vick is fast, and he gets much more accomplished than the tractor that is Drew Bledsoe. Try to give everyone at least 10-12 Speed points minimum. The higher the better, if you ask me. Yes, even your linemen. Ensure you're focusing high speed to RBs, wide receivers (WRs), and defensive backs (DBs). These are the chain-movers on offense. As I said earlier, a high-speed QB will come in handy and will take pressure off of your linemen if they can't block for food.

Blocking: The ability to block, buster. Offensive linemen (OLs) and defensive linemen (DLs) will need excellent blocking to keep enemy linemen at bay so you can do your thing. However, I've learned that putting some mid-high blocking in my linebacker (LB) and my receivers have added mileage to my running plays, as they keep the enemy from tackling me.

Agility: Agility decides how high you jump and how well you spin/juke/jump. Ankles beware, you're in for a tear. You want high agility for your receivers, which are WRs and DBs, and also your RB can have agility if you wish. Mine probably has about 12 agility, but he doesn't do any of that fancy sauce, he just turbos and stiff arms until he hits the endzone. Believe it or not, your linemen will benefit from having moderate agility points.

Catching: There are those who grip and those who drop. Catching dictates which one you are. Receivers need high catching and RBs as well if you want to successfully pass to them. Nobody else needs catching.

Run Power: How well you break tackles. If I may recommend, bloat run power on your RB. Watch the fools fall, watch as Hines Ward breaks his frail bones against your meathead Frankenstein monster. This makes the game very, very entertaining.

Carrying: How well you hold onto the ball. Whoever is going to touch the ball needs great carrying. Think QBs, RBs, receivers, and maybe some points for your linebacker if they prove adept at intercepting. Nothing worse than intercepting the ball and fumbling on the rebound. Up the carrying on your players if they are fumbling a lot.

Tackling: How well you tackle. All players should have solid tackling, as all players play defense in this chaotic rendition of professional football. Defense (and sometimes luck) wins games, as I'm sure any NFL Street veteran will tell you.

Coverage: Coverage is how perceptive your players are to the ball in midair, meaning coverage affects how well your players defend against passing plays. So high coverage will yield more successful interceptions and it will help prevent the enemy from scoring on their first play of a drive, which happens a lot if you're not careful. Receivers and anyone operating as a safety should have high coverage. Try putting some coverage into your LB if you need extra coverage against pass plays.

D-Moves: The ability to get through blockers. Essential attribute for linemen so they can bumrush and sack the enemy passer, and I actually put some D-Moves into my QB because he's a speedy sucker and I like watching him slam through the offensive LB. I like to play as my linemen on defense because I'm worried I'll interfere with the passing mentality of the boys in the backfield. And sacking is just so fun.

Although size is not an attribute, it does cost development points to modify the height and weight of players, which leads me to believe that size does affect performance. To test this, in my most recent playthough I didn't alter the the height or weight of my OL. His name is Player4. He is the default size of 6"2, and weighs 160 pounds. I'm delighted to say that nobody gets past Player4, so based on this you shouldn't have to modify your linemen to be huge if you want them to succeed as mobile walls. However, it's possible that heavier players might be slightly slower than leaner players regardless of speed.

Now that you understand the attributes, I'd like to discuss some strategies I've heard and have tried for NFL Challenge mode. Personally, I like to make the experience as human as possible and make a balanced team with everyone having their specialties, but also not neglecting the importance of a great defense. My team feels like I know them and they just wanna have fun. We're not perfect, but we get things done. We defeated the Legends, and that's all that matters at the end of the day. I don't really like to throw that many passes in this game because I throw frequent interceptions, so I've structured my offense around my RB Clint Maddox. His run power is at 19 and it's not uncommon for him to break two tackles in a row on most plays. He also has 19 speed, so he's not as fast as Randy Moss, but he's a reliable meat-tank and gets the job done.

There is another strategy though, and it's a little too extra for my attention span. One strategy is to keep all of your development points and make one God player who is maxed out in as many stats as possible, then work on recruiting professional NFL players from your team. I've never tried this because recruiting an NFL player costs 760 tokens, and you get refills of 800, so you'll run out quick if you try that. But I'm tempted just so I can see what it's like. I do remember when I was younger I made my QB the God player, but I didn't recruit any NFL players, so I had one great player who could outrun and out-maneuver everyone, but the rest of my teammates were essentially zombies who could block. My childish brain had the right idea, but did not execute it to its maximum potential. Still beat the Legends, though.

The IGN fellow who made that strategy guide is or was more of an expert than I am on this game, and he has one player on his squad who is just a body, probably to prepare for the fact that you can recruit an NFL Legend onto your team, thus rendering at least one of your characters obsolete. My LB is the weakest link, so I got Lawrence Taylor, but I still use Boss Meadows because I love him and he loves the game.

I've wondered if, and this would be risky, throwing out the traditional 7 positions structure and just going all-in on rushing offense. I'm talking no QB, just a team of various fast, hardy and agile RBs with maybe some fast linemen who can carry, so you can just pitch the ball whenever you get tackled and truck a convoy to the endzone. Perhaps I'll toy with that after my God player complex. I can come back next year with another street week and touch on this, but next year will probably be about NFL Street 2. That's all for today. Gotta jet. Stay tuned or don't, this is mainly for me and the enjoyment of one other person as far as I know.