The Guru is back...I just blasted some dude in Madden 2010 on Xbox LIVE... his gamertag: "dontrun takeit"... He was an average player, a couple of nice plays on offense and defense. But his game lacked the depth necessary to beat high quality opponents on a regular basis. I guess every player has tendencies but disguising those tendencies is the key to victory.Playing online you find all types. Basically it boils down to the passer, the runner, and the mobile quarterback. You should not and can not defend each the same way. Keep in mind that each type has different variations.
Most Madden players aspire to play like Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, but passing is where most fall extremely short in learning the nuances of the game. Timing is key to the passing game. You also have to be able to throw to multiple receivers out of the same formations and plays. If your opponents know where you are going with the ball, they will sit on your route and you will most likely get picked off.
The most common type of passer in the crossing route lover. For instance you are facing some dude using the Eagles. He is killing you with Maclin going one way and Jackson going the other both doing crossing routes. You feel forced to play cover two cause you scared to get beat deep. You still gotta account for Westbrook, Curtis and Celek and pretty much you feel helpless cause there is no way you can defend with man and your zone has to many holes and you cant get to the QB. There are different ways to defend this type of player. If his quarterback is mobile this add another facet to the offense that the defense must account for. This can become pretty annoying especially if your opponents has found a great play where receivers are doing crossing slants at different levels.
A great defense to against this type of player is a Cover 2 Sink. You can find it in all defensive playbooks and in multiple formations. The key to making this defense successful is creating quick pressure. No defense is meant to hold up forever. I will show you how to do this in a future blog. It is a serious topic that deserves a lot of respect because it really makes huge difference in the quality of your game. If you cant wait for that article, ask me about a specific formation and I will get back to you with some ideas.
The next type of passer is the the one who passes to the running back most of the time. This type can become extremely frustrating to defend because of how easy it is to complete big plays to RB's running short routes toward the sidelines out of the backfield. If you try zone the CB is always out of position and will probably miss the tackle on a stronger running back. If you try man your safety or linebacker is always out of position and cant make the play, and then he gets out run by the faster RB. You are in a quandary, what should you do? Extra DB's to get faster, but then you are weak against the run. Also too obvious. A great way to defense the short routes to the RB's and others is DE contain or you can choose you favorite defense and have the DE do a QB contain. If the QB tries to go short to the RB out of the backfield the DE will knock it down or he may pick it off.
The next type of passer can also become extremely frustrating depending on how well they disguise the play. The dreaded screen passer. This opponent user the screen pass with stunning surprise and gashes you for big yards. Whether its wide out screens, RB screens or the worst the PA screen pass, you just cant seem to stop it. The first thing to defending the screen play is to sniff it out. If you suspect a screen line up on that side and use a DE contain on that side or have some in a flat zone on that side. Also sliding you line that way or having them crash that way helps. Usually WR screens occur on the side with the TE. Blitzes are usually bad against screen passes. Man defenses are generally good but be careful.
The next type of passer is the playaction guy. He try to take advantage of the confusion of PA to pass the ball. He is liable to pass it anywhere, but most show a high tendency to throw it to RB's and TE's. Playaction can be hard to defend especially if you opponent is running the ball well. But most playaction plays can be blitzed easily and should be used with caution because the QB is basically retarded during and shortly after the playaction animation sequence. To defend playaction overloaded blitzes are wonderful and so are safety blitzes. Some safety blitzes work well because of the safeties late arrival, if timed right he will arrive at the QB right after the fake.
The last type of passer and the least found in this years version of the game is the vertical passer. Because of changes to the user catch and deep passing aspects of the game throwing the deep ball has become "harder". No more lobs to speedy receivers. No more bombs to Randy Moss beating triple coverage. Throwing down field has become impossible. But is this really the case? No. The passing game has evolved slightly but it is still possible to deep with great efficiency. I can routinely gain 25-30 yards on pass plays that consist of vertical routes. The key to the vertical passing game is timing. First you must have the time to throw the ball down field, so if your opponent is blitzing then you must change the play or have extra blockers. I have at time had eight blockers in a 3 wr 1 te 1 rb shotgun set. Listen up people!!!!!! You can pass down field on Cover 2 ,3 or 4. (This is a gift for people who play with eagles). In the eagles playbook the Philly post is one of the most unstoppable plays in the game. It works against basically any defense except prevent. I use this play once or twice a game for 50-60 yards each time. Those are not RAC yards either. The ball travels 50 yards in the air. Many madden spirits have been broken with this play. Have Jackson run the post and you need about 3-4 sec for him to get even with the safety and then throw it, he is good money. The key is getting the time to let the play develop. Against a three man rush you should have no problems getting time. Against four man rushes and more you have to be nice in the pocket but it can be completed.
Combine the philly post with a couple of other plays out of this formation and you have the makings of an unstoppable offense.
To finish today's lesson I will say this. The best madden player will employ all of the strategies above. Short passing, Screen passing, PA Passing and Vertical passing should all be consistently employed to keep your opponent off balance. Defense should constanly be in attack mode and change up to keep the offense off balance. The best way to disrupt the passing game is to have the QB uncomfortable in the pocket. Also use press coverage sometimes.. not every play.. The key to mess up the opponents timing. Next lesson: Running Tendencies and how to defense them.
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