2k3 Defensive Tutorial/Help

[maskedmarvel]

Can anyone tell me where to find a tutorial on NFL 2k3's defensive playbooks?

I understand the basic differences between formations, zone/man, press/cushion coverages. But otherwise, I have no idea when to use, say, a key zone vs. a 2-cloud. I don't know what sort of things the different defensive plays are trying to take away from the offense.

Any help out there?

[richierich]

Re: 2k3 Defensive Tutorial/Help

2-cloud is when your safeties are the only guys in zone defense while everyone else is man-man. That's the only thing I can come up with to help you, LOL because I myself am trying to figure out D too haha.

[richierich]

Re: 2k3 Defensive Tutorial/Help

2-cloud is when your safeties are the only guys in zone defense while everyone else is man-man. That's the only thing I can come up with to help you, LOL because I myself am trying to figure out D too haha.

[Boilerbuzz]

Re: 2k3 Defensive Tutorial/Help

LB probably has a little something on that stuff.

[Boilerbuzz]

Re: 2k3 Defensive Tutorial/Help

LB probably has a little something on that stuff.

[TCrouch]

Re: 2k3 Defensive Tutorial/Help

So much of it depends on your personnel and what your opponent is doing. I find people score most of their points on me in the first few minutes of a game. It takes me a few drives to figure out what's going on; it's not an exact science, unfortunately. A key zone, for instance, works great if you find your opponent running a lot of flat passes or short crossing rounds. I play a base defense the first drive or two, then start shutting down specific ways my opponent is attacking. If you have good cover db's, then cloud 2's are great because you can lock them on a receiver (as you're coming up to the line in man to man, you hold UP on the right thumbstick to get them all into press coverage...exactly backwards of how I thought it should be) and let the safeties give you deep help.

But then you're not even worrying about the run, which is a huge factor. I guess the biggest thing is there's now "great" way to play defense in any situation. You have to feel out your playbook on D, your players, and then you have to figure out your opponent's gameplan. If you can do it by halftime, you're golden.

[TCrouch]

Re: 2k3 Defensive Tutorial/Help

So much of it depends on your personnel and what your opponent is doing. I find people score most of their points on me in the first few minutes of a game. It takes me a few drives to figure out what's going on; it's not an exact science, unfortunately. A key zone, for instance, works great if you find your opponent running a lot of flat passes or short crossing rounds. I play a base defense the first drive or two, then start shutting down specific ways my opponent is attacking. If you have good cover db's, then cloud 2's are great because you can lock them on a receiver (as you're coming up to the line in man to man, you hold UP on the right thumbstick to get them all into press coverage...exactly backwards of how I thought it should be) and let the safeties give you deep help.

But then you're not even worrying about the run, which is a huge factor. I guess the biggest thing is there's now "great" way to play defense in any situation. You have to feel out your playbook on D, your players, and then you have to figure out your opponent's gameplan. If you can do it by halftime, you're golden.

[Kruza]

Some help

Are you guys sure it's "2 Cloud" or "2 Man" you all are referring to?

Anyway... maskedmarvel, you can afford to use more man coverages if most of your defensive backs have the advantage talent-wise over the opposing receivers.

As for being specific about some zone coverages, it's kind of hard to explain without telling the offensive formations you're lining up against, beacuse some zone coverages do not match up well against certain offensive formations (i.e. Cover 2 Soft vs. I Twins formation), and the offense can easily use that factor to his advantage. But I'll try to go over some basic coverage schemes. To keep this explanation simple, I'm only explaining situations where a base D formation (4-3 & 3-4) lines up against I Pro formation.

Basic Cover 2 schemes: "2 Soft," "2 Hard," and "2 Man" - "2 Soft" is the standard zone coverage where the outside cornerbacks stay underneath with all the linebackers, and release thier assignment (usually a WR) to let the safety covering the deep part of the field. "2 Hard" is about the same as "2 Soft", with the only difference being that the CBs jam the receivers before releasing the receiver to the safeties. And in "2 Man," the CBs are in man coverage instead of zone. A CB will go over to cover the WR whenever he lines up in the slot (i.e. Z receiver in the Weak I Twins Formation), unlike for "2 Soft" and "2 Hard." Then there are variations of these plays such as "Weak Blast 2 Hard" ("Weak Blast 2H" on playcalling screen), which is essentially "2 Hard" except that this play has the weak side linebacker on a blitz instead of dropping back, leaving a lot more area of the field for the middle linebacker to cover (and your MLB better be rated good at speed and at coverage in this play). The potential soft spots in the "2 Soft" and "2 Hard" zones are the intermediate areas of the field (behind the LBs and in front of the safeties), and the deep part of the field on the outside (behind the outside CBs). As for "2 Man," you have to find the receiver who has the edge in the play over the CB who's covering him, and try to throw the football to a spot where neither safety is in good position to help out and break up the play.

Cover 3 - The SS moves underneath with the LBs to cover the middle area of the field, while the FS moves over to cover deep centerfield. And both outside CBs backpedal to cover the deep part of respective sides of the field, opening up a potential soft spot on the outside underneath them, where short out routes can expose this. There are also other ways to expose this coverage scheme, but I'm not going to tell you everything I know and do, heh.

Cover 4 - In the standard Cover 4 scheme, the weakside CB stays underneath while the FS rolls over to defend the deep area behind him. The SS rolls over to cover the deep centerfield area, and the strongside CB backpedals to cover the entire side of his field. And since the strongside CB is responsible for watching the deep part of his zone, a short out route to his side can expose a potential soft spot. There are more ways of exposing this coverage too, but I'm not telling. Mwahahahaha! :-P

I don't want this thread to be too long, so I'll stop here. If you have any other specific coverages you have questions for vs. a particular offensive formation, just ask.

Kruza

[Kruza]

Some help

Are you guys sure it's "2 Cloud" or "2 Man" you all are referring to?

Anyway... maskedmarvel, you can afford to use more man coverages if most of your defensive backs have the advantage talent-wise over the opposing receivers.

As for being specific about some zone coverages, it's kind of hard to explain without telling the offensive formations you're lining up against, beacuse some zone coverages do not match up well against certain offensive formations (i.e. Cover 2 Soft vs. I Twins formation), and the offense can easily use that factor to his advantage. But I'll try to go over some basic coverage schemes. To keep this explanation simple, I'm only explaining situations where a base D formation (4-3 & 3-4) lines up against I Pro formation.

Basic Cover 2 schemes: "2 Soft," "2 Hard," and "2 Man" - "2 Soft" is the standard zone coverage where the outside cornerbacks stay underneath with all the linebackers, and release thier assignment (usually a WR) to let the safety covering the deep part of the field. "2 Hard" is about the same as "2 Soft", with the only difference being that the CBs jam the receivers before releasing the receiver to the safeties. And in "2 Man," the CBs are in man coverage instead of zone. A CB will go over to cover the WR whenever he lines up in the slot (i.e. Z receiver in the Weak I Twins Formation), unlike for "2 Soft" and "2 Hard." Then there are variations of these plays such as "Weak Blast 2 Hard" ("Weak Blast 2H" on playcalling screen), which is essentially "2 Hard" except that this play has the weak side linebacker on a blitz instead of dropping back, leaving a lot more area of the field for the middle linebacker to cover (and your MLB better be rated good at speed and at coverage in this play). The potential soft spots in the "2 Soft" and "2 Hard" zones are the intermediate areas of the field (behind the LBs and in front of the safeties), and the deep part of the field on the outside (behind the outside CBs). As for "2 Man," you have to find the receiver who has the edge in the play over the CB who's covering him, and try to throw the football to a spot where neither safety is in good position to help out and break up the play.

Cover 3 - The SS moves underneath with the LBs to cover the middle area of the field, while the FS moves over to cover deep centerfield. And both outside CBs backpedal to cover the deep part of respective sides of the field, opening up a potential soft spot on the outside underneath them, where short out routes can expose this. There are also other ways to expose this coverage scheme, but I'm not going to tell you everything I know and do, heh.

Cover 4 - In the standard Cover 4 scheme, the weakside CB stays underneath while the FS rolls over to defend the deep area behind him. The SS rolls over to cover the deep centerfield area, and the strongside CB backpedals to cover the entire side of his field. And since the strongside CB is responsible for watching the deep part of his zone, a short out route to his side can expose a potential soft spot. There are more ways of exposing this coverage too, but I'm not telling. Mwahahahaha! :-P

I don't want this thread to be too long, so I'll stop here. If you have any other specific coverages you have questions for vs. a particular offensive formation, just ask.

Kruza

[richierich]

Re: Some help

thanks kruza, now I know heh.

[richierich]

Re: Some help

thanks kruza, now I know heh.

[LBzrule]

Re: Some help

Just got home, good Kruza. Also there is no 2 cloud, it is 4 Cloud. But everything Kruza said is correct.

Someone else also mentioned personnel. And let me tell you my friends this is why I like this game so much. It gives you the actual feel of being the coach of "this" particular group of guys and as such, you gotta figure out your strengths and weakness and play toward your strengths and attempt to hide/shield your weaknesses. And as someone said in another thread, alot of people dismiss this game because they are just not accustomed to doing that.

But anyway if you have an offensive line that is not good with pass protection then you need to keep your passing game mostly centered around 90 and a few 50 plays. If your RB doesn't have high Break Tackle but does have good agility and acceleration and pretty good speed, Isolations will not maximize his capabilities, tosses, and sweeps will though. On defense you gotta look at your personnel and ask what is the best way for me to get the most out of these guys in stopping the run and pass? Should I run primarily zone or man? Or should I try running a Zone Blitzing Scheme? Which is easy to set up in this game

It is almost as if you gotta GET TO KNOW the team to get the MOST out of the team. I am in OSOFL right now, and the Seahawks team is my little child kinda LOL!! I didn't think I would be successful with them. But I began to realize the teams strengths on offense and defense and it looks like I am starting to get good with them at the right time. But if you try to play a style that is not suited for your team, you will fall flat on your face. That's basically saying that each team has its OWN A.I and personality in a way and to be successful with that particular team you gotta get to know them or else you will PULL your Hair out. Which is another good thing, when you play with another team that means you gotta look at your coaching philosophy then look at this new group of guys and then try to figure out what to do. Which makes draft picking and FA pickups that much more meaningful. Me LOVES IT!!

[LBzrule]

Re: Some help

Just got home, good Kruza. Also there is no 2 cloud, it is 4 Cloud. But everything Kruza said is correct.

Someone else also mentioned personnel. And let me tell you my friends this is why I like this game so much. It gives you the actual feel of being the coach of "this" particular group of guys and as such, you gotta figure out your strengths and weakness and play toward your strengths and attempt to hide/shield your weaknesses. And as someone said in another thread, alot of people dismiss this game because they are just not accustomed to doing that.

But anyway if you have an offensive line that is not good with pass protection then you need to keep your passing game mostly centered around 90 and a few 50 plays. If your RB doesn't have high Break Tackle but does have good agility and acceleration and pretty good speed, Isolations will not maximize his capabilities, tosses, and sweeps will though. On defense you gotta look at your personnel and ask what is the best way for me to get the most out of these guys in stopping the run and pass? Should I run primarily zone or man? Or should I try running a Zone Blitzing Scheme? Which is easy to set up in this game

It is almost as if you gotta GET TO KNOW the team to get the MOST out of the team. I am in OSOFL right now, and the Seahawks team is my little child kinda LOL!! I didn't think I would be successful with them. But I began to realize the teams strengths on offense and defense and it looks like I am starting to get good with them at the right time. But if you try to play a style that is not suited for your team, you will fall flat on your face. That's basically saying that each team has its OWN A.I and personality in a way and to be successful with that particular team you gotta get to know them or else you will PULL your Hair out. Which is another good thing, when you play with another team that means you gotta look at your coaching philosophy then look at this new group of guys and then try to figure out what to do. Which makes draft picking and FA pickups that much more meaningful. Me LOVES IT!!

[maskedmarvel]

Re: Some help

Thanks to everyone. I'll try to put some of this into practice.

[maskedmarvel]

Re: Some help

Thanks to everyone. I'll try to put some of this into practice.