The "Dreaded" Manual Blitz

[Red Ronin]

I've found that if you manually bring a Safety up to the line, on the side opposite your opponents' tight end, it loosens up the middle a bit for your Defensive Linemen. They will apply more pressure and get to the QB more often on their own from that point on.
Similarly, if you leave the safety deep, around ten yards off the line of scrimmage, but just cheat to the side of the field where a sweep, toss or screen is flowing, the CPU Defenders are more likely to chase down a running back. That is, by placing your safety in a particular lane or column on the field, the rest of your Defenders will spy the same area in a gang tackle containment means, almost as if you are operating them on remote control. I don't know if this would be considered an AI exploit or not. I guess it depends upon your point of view.


Red Ronin

[Tsao]

Quote: Originally Posted by l0ngj0n

LBz, I've been reading your stuff since the madden 2002 days. Could you share this D you mentioned above?

Sounds like he's talking about the 5-2 inside blitz where both inside linebackers blitz the A gaps to either side of the middle DT. If you do a "show blitz" shift, you get five defenders (3 DTs and 2 LBs) rushing three blockers (the center and both guards), so one of the linebackers pretty much always comes free straight up the middle, which can lead to sacks even on three step drops.

It's really effective and a little annoying, because you can't get your guards to block down to stop that linebacker from coming up the middle. (Obviously that'd make it easier for the outside DTs to get pressure, but at least the quarterback would have an extra quarter second or so.) Like LBz said, though, it can definitely be beat. Getting the ball outside really quickly on tosses or swing passes puts the halfback pretty much one-on-one against a safety.

[Sven Draconian]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tsao

Sounds like he's talking about the 5-2 inside blitz where both inside linebackers blitz the A gaps to either side of the middle DT. If you do a "show blitz" shift, you get five defenders (3 DTs and 2 LBs) rushing three blockers (the center and both guards), so one of the linebackers pretty much always comes free straight up the middle, which can lead to sacks even on three step drops. It's really effective and a little annoying, because you can't get your guards to block down to stop that linebacker from coming up the middle. (Obviously that'd make it easier for the outside DTs to get pressure, but at least the quarterback would have an extra quarter second or so.) Like LBz said, though, it can definitely be beat. Getting the ball outside really quickly on tosses or swing passes puts the halfback pretty much one-on-one against a safety.

Or just motion your TE and snap it when he's at A-gap.