Offense - Where do you guys look

[reerdo]

Before I begin I hold my hands up, I am rubbish at Madden, I love it but I am rubbish at it and always have been but I want to try and improve myself.

One of the things I struggle with is the amount going on that I need to keep track of so . . .

When you guys are controlling plays as offense where do you dedicate most of your attention to? Do you focus on your hot route? Do you scan across all receivers? Do you focus on the QB?

I am really struggling to take it all in and feel that I am making things worse for myself by having to much to look at and feel like I need to do it all rather than focus on whats important.

[Ueauvan]

im rubbish with the sticks so i play coach mode

[SpectreBugg]

A few suggestions that might help you simplify offense.

1. Pre snap reads: Try to Determine the coverage before you start the play. Are you seeing man coverage? cover 2, cover 3, cover 4, etc?

2. Once you have decided what you are looking at, pick 2 routes that could be open based on the coverage. These are your read 1 and read 2.

3. Know where your dump off is. This is normally a back or TE, or maybe even a receiver on a drag or hitch.

4. Once the ball is snapped, make your reads and get the ball out as quickly as possible. Basically you look at read 1 and throw if open. if not move to read 2 and throw if open. If not then move to dump off. If none of them are open, it's time to get what you can on the ground and slide.

This is the same technique that is used by real teams with young QB's or QB's who are new or struggling with the system. You can even drop it to a 1 read and dump if you need to. And don't forget to run the ball. A good running game, or even the threat of a good running game, can make the passing game 10x easier on you.

Outside of all that, there are plenty of things to work on that can help. Those presnap reads are a big deal. recognizing blitzes, keeping a 3rd eye on the pocket, route timing, etc. All things you can add as you get more comfortable with the system.

[xSABOx]

Presnap - Look at safeties and cornerbacks alignment to see to get a feel for the coverage...

My suggestion isn’t “looking at a spot” it’s to study pass concepts and how ur supposed to read the progressions on them... my favorites are Stick, Mesh, Shallow Cross, Drive and Four Verts. Learn those first and the rest will start to make sense.

[reerdo]

Thanks for the replies and tips. I think I need to pull myself back in and accept that I can't do it all and look to build myself up how you suggested SpectreBugg and minimise my reads before I accept dumping it off or scrambling.

As I have come into watching the NFL more recently I am learning the details of the sport and the game at the same time so I will definitely need to start working on my reading of how defences set up against me.

I guess I need to stop looking at this from the point of view of a game and think what would be done in real life like you stated.

[Aestis]

Along with the pre-snap stuff, once you know which are your first 1-2 routes... this is hard to get used to but a big deal:

Pick preferably 1 or at most 2 key defenders and watch them after you snap the ball, NOT your receivers. Depending on what this key defender does, you should know who's about to be open.

[PhillyPhanatic14]

Depends on the coverage and how the D is aligned for sure, but I find that i naturally look to the left more often then not. I find that I will only throw to the right if I see something in the D before the snap or if there is a route that I am planning to hit over there, otherwise I am only looking left. No clue why this is haha.

[ForUntoOblivionSoar∞]

The safeties are the key both presnap and postsnap. 9 times out of ten after the snap I know exactly what the coverage is based on how the two safeties move, regardless of presnap alignment.

If they come out in a 2-high look, they are showing cover 2 or cover 4, but it could be a robber coverage, cover 6, anything. Watch what they do immediately after the snap (unless you have a screen pass or one read call). If they split up evenly, it’s most likely cover 2, which means the middle of the field deep is going to be vulnerable, and sideline concepts like the smash will be useful. If they drop straight back and are split, you could be looking at cover 4. Usually a dump off in the middle will be open, as well as deep outs if you have a match up advantage vs the corner. Also, usually cover for leaves the flats open for a few yards. Cover 4 will usually handle deep passes, but on the edges you’ll usually have a similar scenario to a cover three: one deep cb and one lb in the flat.

Finally, if one safety goes to the deep middle and the other goes toward the line of scrimmage, you are most likely looking at cover 1 or cover 3. This is called a “closed” middle, and deep posts down the middle are not usually good ideas here. If it’s man, it will come down to matchups, but stay aware of both the lurking safety underneath and the one over top.

I’m not going to go into much more detail since it’s been done here many times, but learn to recognize coverage at least 60% of the time, and learn where the holes are in each. If you do that and two more things, you will be very good on offense.

The additional things:

1: Throw with anticipation. That means, throw before the wr makes his break, and throw to a place that is away from coverage.

2: Build a team with quick and fast wrs. This will help mitigate your struggles with reading a defense. I don’t want to advocate cheese play, but this is one way people who can’t read a defense and have a little success. With speed you can miss a window to throw but still get the ball even if you throw late, because you can either wait for another window or the defender is beaten bad enough that your mistake is minimalized.