#madden tips

1) Up by 4 but with my opponent on my 7 yard line and 5:52 left in the game I needed a critical stop.  

I noticed my opponent passed over the middle a lot so I put one of my linemen in a QB Spy coverage which you do by selecting the lineman and calling a coverage audible before the snap.  It causes the lineman to drop back over the middle and hang out.  He's not really covering an area or a receiver, more watching for the QB.  But the effect of this coverage is to add another defender over the middle although it does take one guy away from the rush.

In the video above you can see this with the yellow zone around one of my linemen.  He drops back, this delays the throw and leads to my linebacker making the interception.

On the goal line, I can't ask for more than that.

2) 4th and 4, 1:51 left in the game, I'm still up by 4 and my opponent is on my 22 yard line.  He decides to go for it since a field goal does him no good.  For me it's ok if his receiver catches the ball, but I have to keep him short of the first down markers.

There's a coverage in Madden called "Protect the Sticks." On Xbox you do this by pressing "Y" and then "Y" again before the ball is snapped.  This puts your secondary along the first down line.  In the video above you can see my secondary drop to wait along the red line, this is the first down line.

My opponent hit a crossing receiver who caught the ball just short of the first down marker and, rather than gaining any yardage upfield, two of my defenders converged to stop the receiver dead in his tracks.  Turnover on downs!

One thing to note, I feel that protect the sticks coverage can leave you vulnerable to deep passes.  If the receiver runs past the first down marker it feels to me that the defender won't follow him.  Instead he'll sit on the first down line.  Ideally you want the defender to sit on the first down line unless there is a receiver in his zone behind him.  I'm not 100% sure if this issue exists, it just kind of feels like it does.

3) I'm still up by 4, 49 seconds left in the game, my opponent is on my 45 yard line and driving.

Here I thought he might throw a short pass underneath the coverage.  He'd done it a number of times and it was working on this drive.  These passes don't get much yardage but they do move the offense downfield and are hard to defend.

So, I called "Underneath" coverage.  This is another one of those defensive audibles you call before the snap of the ball.  This coverage is exactly what it sounds like.  The defenders are supposed to play underneath the receivers.  Underneath coverage does leave you vulnerable to a lofted medium or deep pass.  To combat those you can call an "Over The Top" coverage.  "Inside" and "Outside" coverages are also available to suit your needs.

As the video above shows, underneath coverage was the right choice.  My cornerback jumps under the receiver running the out route, picks off the ball and takes it to the house.

So I had to toss this last video in there.  Nothing revolutionary, just a deep interception to end the game.

The only thing I'd say about it is I ran a Cover 3 Zone defense and it's probably better to run a Cover 3 Man defense in this situation.  Both defense will put three defenders in deep zones to cover the left, middle and right deeps.  The advantage of the Cover 3 Man is you'll also get whatever defender is manned up on the receiver covering as well since they won't drop the receiver off as the receiver exits the defenders zone.  In this case I ended up with two defenders there anyway, but in a Cover 3 Zone that's not guaranteed.

Play Experimentation

I noticed I tend to veer off script when playing the computer. Rather than sticking to my gameplan I often toss in a few things. Whether it's a running play I've never tried or an attempt at a new blitz. On the one hand this is dangerous as it seems to lead to big plays for my opponent. On the other hand I need to experiment to get better, find new ways to win. How do I solve this? Well, after looking around the internet and watching This Week in Madden, I think the answer is "labbing".

Labbing is a term in the Madden community that refers to going into practice mode and trying a play over and over again until you get it right or realize it's a bad play. So essentially you do all your experimentation in the lab and only use trusted plays in games. Sounds kind of like real football, huh.

Lost Concentration

I feel more "in zone" when playing a human. My nerves are up, I feel a bit tense and more alert. I tend to really pay attention. This isn't the case against a CPU opponent. It just doesn't feel as...important.

The reality is both games carry the same weight in my Madden league so why is it I lose concentration? Obviously something about a human opponent drives me . In fact, I feel similar emotions when playing a non-league / one off head-to-head game against a human. But why this is so and how to improve my concentration against the CPU I'm not sure.  Any Madden psychologists out there?

Difficulty Identifying Defensie Front

I've spent a lot of time learning to identify a Cover 2 vs a Cover 3 vs a Cover 1 and so forth.  In fact, I've gotten pretty good at it.  However, I noticed I have a hard time identifying if it's a 3 - 4, 4 - 3, Nickel or something else.  The reason is not that I don't know the difference.  I know these very well.  Rather, the reason is two fold:

One: Most defense don't come out in stock formations.  They may be in a 3 - 4 but have one LB up on the line.  Or they may be in a Nickel but have one defensive back crowding the end.  In real football a QB would easily be able to tell if a player was a corner, linebacker, defensive end or something else.  The QB knows the opponents numbers, studies who they are and can see how big or small the player is.  But...

Two: In Madden it's hard to tell the difference between one player and another.  Yes, a defensive lineman will look different than a corner but a linebacker could look like a defensive lineman or a safety.  A safety can look like a corner or a linebacker and a corner could be a safety or even a small linebacker.  It's just much harder to tell.

Now, why is it important to distinguish between all these formations?  Well, because the formations help you determine your audibles.  Should you switch to a run or maybe a pass?  The defensive formation and personnel dictates this.  It's much easier to make the correct audible decision, if to audible at all, if you can easily discern this.

So one thing I need to do is get better at reading the defensive formations.  Are there any Madden tricks to this?  I'm not sure, but if you know I'd love to hear it.

Parting Thoughts

I have a league game this week and I'll report back on that one too.  I'm going to try to get some practice in beforehand.  Try to "lab" a bit and work on all these issues.  Also, If you're interested, I broadcast my league games here: No Public Parking on Twitch.

Despite all the research I've done, I didn't employ what I learned.  This is both a result of not committing it to memory and also not practicing.

I couldn't pressure the QB.

Most of my blitzes sent five guys, sometimes six, at the QB.  I went back, looked at the replays and discovered my opponent almost always had at least five linemen and a running back blocking.  Thus my defenders were left to beat their man one-on-one rather than having an unblocked blitzer.  My players couldn't do this.

I couldn't stop the run.

This made play-action very effective.  There were several times my defense was completely faked out by the play action which left receivers wide open.

His offensive line dominated.

This I believe was largely a result of him having very good linemen.  Admittedly I have two defensive tackles rated in the 90s and two defensive ends rated in the mid 80s.  I thought this would make my line formidable but no, they dominated me and it led to most of my troubles.

How to Fix It

Learn to get pressure on he QB quickly.

As in real football, if you can get pressure on the QB you can win.  If you can't, it will be a long day.  I'm not sure how to do this yet but I expect some internet sleuthing while lead me to the promised land!

Practice.  Practice.  Practice.

I need to commit what I've learned to memory so it becomes second nature.

Know my playbook better.

I play with the Giants (the are my favorite team!) but I don't know their playbook well.  I found myself either calling the same play frequently or scrolling endlessly through menus looking for something. One way to fix this might be to call plays by concept rather than formation. I generally know what concept I want, I also know what formation, but I don't know where to find the combination of the two.  Calling plays by concept could help with this.

Master defensive shifts.

By this I don't mean audibles (although that's helpful too) but rather the menus that let you blitz specific players, crash the defensive line left, spy the QB and so on.  I know these exist and I generally know when I'd want to use them, but I don't know the menu systems well enough to quickly find the change I'm looking for.

Final Thoughts

I'm planning on practicing a bit more.  I also believe playing online head-to-head matches will be a big boon.  In the few I've played I encountered a ton of different play styles.  Sometimes I won, sometimes I had no idea what to do and sometimes I knew what to do but couldn't figure out how to call it.