Just got this for 360, but everyone cheats online.

[Phobia]

2 words - Legend Lobby

It balances defense and offense little more. The game is in favor of offense a tad but legend makes it more fair. Plus you also have to look at where you are placing your stars. A defense filled with entire stars will be much harder to score on than one that only has a couple.

My current build I held a guy last night to 9 points. But my offense is lacking which means I must hold offenses because me scoring regularly will be a challenge.

Gold
CB - Rod Woodson
SS - Ronnie Lott

Silver
OLB
MLB
HB - Roger Craig

Bronze
2 Cornerbacks
DE
DT
QB
WR

Offense

WR..............QB
..................HB

Defense
............SS
..................OLB........MLB
CB................DE...DT...........CB.....CB

As you can see by my above build there is things you must think about. First, I play Nickle all game long, it keeps all my stars in the game. If I would play say a 4-3 then I would lose a bronze CB and add a generic linebacker.

I also formation hide this defense into cover 1 most of the time. Because I have the stars to make up the speed difference to get to their designed zones when running cover 2 or cover 3 out of a formation hide of a cover 1.

Also shading receivers inside or outside, bumping key moments, how you slant or twist your line combined with blitzes are all huge factors on defense. So while you might feel as if the defense is under whelming, I promise if you play against a veteran of the game or a good defense you will feel how powerful the defense can be.

The game has a steep learning curve and tons of different intangibles. Stick with the game and just learn learn learn.

[browns99]

Moving your defensive players before the snap helps alot too, I move my corners to the outside more manually before the snap but that will open up the slant and skinny post up, so move your backers more to the middle to try to take the slants away or atleast be in position to make an open field tackle, but you have to get quick at it.

The game is worth learning, if you have a general football understanding you will learn quickly and start to see improvement soon the more you play. One more thing learn to move you de-line to pinch the middle (NOT) stacking them but eliminating alot of the big middle runs, Now for everything you do to try to stop that opens your defense up for other plays that could hurt you so you have to be selective at best and learn your opp play calling.

Good Luck!!

[bdolan33]

Quote: Originally Posted by raiders81tim

Whats with out routes vs man coverage? Anytime I play a man defense my CB gets beat on an out route, which is one of the easiest routes to cover in real life. And if I call zone deep fades destroy it. Which is completely backwards a deep fade vs a zone 3 or 4 would get picked off everytime in real life. I could understand a deep post, put fades are used vs man coverage. I heard alot of good things about this game, but the more I play it the more broken it seems. This is just as bad as Madden, unless I'm missing something. The run game is stupidly overpowered as well. The dog on super glue blocking. It doesn't matter who it is if they get even remotely touched by a blocker they are out of the play which should be the case for all star LBs. It seems the more people you put into the box the more likely it is a huge hole will open up. It's like they complete forgot to employ proper defense. Don't mean to sound like a bitch, but how do you guys play defense? It seems completely broken to me. I've tried it all. I have a deep knowledge of the game, but every logical defense seems to get countered by the most illogical play call.

Its not broken, keep learning. You can shed blocks by learning the bumper techniques, etc.

[raiders81tim]

Quote: Originally Posted by bdolan33

Its not broken, keep learning. You can shed blocks by learning the bumper techniques, etc.

Between 99 hex abusers and brain dead defensive AI this game is unplayable online. The game is broken on the defensive side of the ball, there is no denying it. Alot of offensive plays work far better than they should. Unless you're willing to complete edit the entire play presnap every single snap you're going to get burnt, thats not football.

[simeoncam50]

The out route still give me an issue from time to time but they can be defended without manually adjusting players every play. Yes there are alot of 99 hex users but the game is really fun to play you just have to find decent guys to play against and you will enjoy the game. Legends lobby is good but you do run into the occasional guy who makes the game a bore but keep plugging away it is a fun game.

[raiders81tim]

Quote: Originally Posted by simeoncam50

The out route still give me an issue from time to time but they can be defended without manually adjusting players every play. Yes there are alot of 99 hex users but the game is really fun to play you just have to find decent guys to play against and you will enjoy the game. Legends lobby is good but you do run into the occasional guy who makes the game a bore but keep plugging away it is a fun game.

Yeah I'm learning. The fact i was using man like 50% of the time is what was hurting me. Now that I;ve moved to more zone I'm playing much better D. Only thing that gets me is that nickle stops the run better than 4-6 lol.

[NYG 5]

the problem with defense lies in the overpowered skill players, and overpowered generic linemen. the best linemen in the game are generics, the best WR and CBs are silvers. thats the formula you have to follow to win in this game.

the game arbitratily decides whether or not your defensive line will generate pressure, or if your offensive line will block. therefore, spending picks on these positions isn't worth it, when you know lem barney and ronnie lott and brad van pelt can shut down the passing game on their own. i swear, when i see reggie white playing patty cake with a generic tackle, while a silver corner is raping generic and bronze receivers, it makes me lose faith in the game.

[raiders81tim]

Quote: Originally Posted by NYG 5

the problem with defense lies in the overpowered skill players, and overpowered generic linemen. the best linemen in the game are generics, the best WR and CBs are silvers. thats the formula you have to follow to win in this game. the game arbitratily decides whether or not your defensive line will generate pressure, or if your offensive line will block. therefore, spending picks on these positions isn't worth it, when you know lem barney and ronnie lott and brad van pelt can shut down the passing game on their own. i swear, when i see reggie white playing patty cake with a generic tackle, while a silver corner is raping generic and bronze receivers, it makes me lose faith in the game.

Yeah when I first started playing I was building around the Dline, thinking you always start up front for a good D. Well not so much in this game. Now that I have good LBs and safties my zone coverage is stupid. Van pelt and greg lloyd play like freaking golds.