I am incredibly bad at pass defense NCAA 14 (Need help/tips)

[Tha_Mac]

Quote: Originally Posted by canes21

When it comes to football games I always have 10x better defenses than my offenses. The guy I play with in my OD's and Franchises in Madden always has the opposite problem. In 14 we ran with custom Heisman sliders with the goal of making a 9-3 season feel like an accomplishment. Every win was supposed to feel like it was earned. We wanted sliders that made winning your division in your conference a feat and we achieved it. We went 10 years deep into the most recent franchise where we were our favorite teams(Miami and Mizzou) and it took me 3 or 4 years to finally win the ACC and he won it in year 1, but then struggled to make the SEC championship the next few years. Eventually I made a couple title runs because we didn't realize the AI didn't try and keep their players from going pro, so we were rolling with 98 overall teams loaded with seniors compared to the AI have 93 overall teams with sophomore and juniors. Once we started letting all our players go pro we started coming back down to earth and the wins were harder to come by. So now onto what you were wanting help with. My style of defense when I play NCAA is always 4-3(yet in Madden I run a 3-4 the majority of the time), so I will focus on my 4-3 defenses I run. For players I go for DE's that are pure pass rushers DT's that are pure run stoppers OLB's that are balanced MLB's that are run stoppers CB's that are coverage S's that can be anything Now for play calling I am a big believer in attacking the offense. I am not afraid to send more rushers than players in coverage and risk the completion. I am not afraid to leave my guys on islands multiple times throughout the game. I don't really use man or zone more than the other on a consistent basis. I see what is working at the time and use it. When I use man defense I am not afraid to leave my guys on an island. If I see the offense has 3 WRs out there, I will comfortably let my CB's all stay in man, send both LBs and a safety and more times than not see a hurried throw that is off target just because I overload one side of the line and with the speed I like to have on defense, the pass rush is there by the time the QB plants his back foot on a drop back. If I see a TE or one WR is beating his man more so than the other players, I will still amp up the pressure, but instead of also sending the extra safety or LB, I will switch between them in double teaming that player from different angles. So one play the safety will help over top and then the next play the LB might be helping from the inside. You need to pay attention to where they are beating you at the most. When I run zone I also mix it up. When I bring the pressure, I am never afraid to focus on the middle and flats and give up the deep ball because I believe with a successful pass rush, the deep ball will never have time to develop and with taking away the middle and flats, the QB has no hot read to fall back on safely. If I am playing against a team with a good offensive line, then that is when I start taking away the deep ball. I will call a lot of 3 deep zones, cover the middle, and bring heat as well and give up the flats because my team speed will close quickly. I will never give up the middle of the field in any zone though. That is the one area I never risk giving up. My defense might be too aggressive for you, but with the players I consistently get out of Florida it works just like it did with Miami from the 80's through the Shannon years. Of course Golden has since switched to a conservative 3-4 which doesn't work with Florida kids. That is another topic though. Overall where I am weaker on the offensive side of the ball I have focused on what my tendencies are and that has influenced my defensive ways. That is why I am not afraid to bring pressure and give up the deep ball because I know when I am on offense and see an overload I look for the short hot read. Since I focus on taking that away, I feel like my defenses will cause havoc and turnovers and they tend to do so. I may get beat here and there for a big pass, but that generally doesn't happen as I sometimes pick the faster guy over the better coverage guy if it isn't a big decrease in ability. And since I press a huge amount of time, if they do get beat, they generally are fast enough to recover and prevent TD's. I may give up a big 1st down, but I hardly ever give up huge TD passes thank to my speed and recovery by my DBs and the pressure making it next to impossible for a pass to perfectly lead a WR down field. So basically my defense is attack attack attack and trust your defensive backs to hold their own. And one last note, if you are getting beat consistently over the middle by the TE, then either play a man and let a safety or LB play a zone right over the middle. Don't be afraid to also have your guys away from their zones presnap. I am never afraid to have a guy be right on the DE's back when his zone is behind the other LB because him moving after the snap across field allows him to take away any inside routes at the time, it will confuse the QB a good amount of times, and his zone won't be open as other players will be running through it as well to get to theirs. I know my defense is very risky and a lot of you all may keep away from attacking so much and risking guys out of position, but I really have had plenty of success and in a dynasty where our sliders ended up favoring the CPU offense by a huge margin, I still had a top 15 defense in probably 8 of the 10 years compared to him only having one in his title run.

I would totally destroy your defense if I ever played you.

[orangeafroman]

Oh yeah, well my dad could beat up your dad! Grrr!


I will always be #1 in the country in rush defense, running man and zone, and always suck in pass defense because the game is broken crap.

[canes21]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tha_Mac

I would totally destroy your defense if I ever played you.

That's cool.

[96Bucs]

The game is rigged to make passing against you easy. The main problems with pass defense you see are defenders lined up against WR/TE on the opposite side of the field, TE who get open down the seems every single time and WR are always open when they run out routes to the sidelines. Even with the most realistic sliders and very good defensive players I still give up 200yds passing a game and I always give up one TD a game. No matter what I call or do, the computer always has that one drive that I can't stop.


Here are my tips to slow them down.


1. Have your CB with the best ACC/AWR combo play the slot WR. Slot WR are the hardest to cover and should be a priority to shut down especially on 3rd downs. My #1CB is 3rd on my depth chart for this reason.


2. Experiment with the nickel defense. My defense is hybrid in that I have equal 3-4, 4-3 and 3-3-5 defenses. But where my defense shines is my nickel packages. I am usually winning within the 1st quarter and this forces my opponent to pass. I usually see 3+ WR from the end of the 1st quarter on. In order to counter this I have 5 different personnel schemes for my nickel. 4-2-5, 3-3-5, 2-4-5, 1-5-5, and a 3-3-5 with 4 LB's. I try to pick one group for a series and after 5 series I will know which group does best against my opponent. From there I will continue to run that nickel package and only change it when certain players get tired.


3. Choose your defense based on your players strengths. Don't be a bone head and always run a 3-4 when you have terrible LB's or a 4-3 when you have 3 great safeties. Each year you should evaluate your players strengths and adjust your defensive scheme based on them.


4. Recruit CBs as much as possible. Having at least 3 CBs that can start is what your goal should be. If you are weak then they will always spread you out. Get coverage LBs that have high ACC/AWR/ZCV. They will help cut down on those pesky slant patterns that always get completed when your opponent needs a 1st down. Don't worry about stopping the run, after a few series you should be leading and only worrying about the pass. There are a few teams that excel at the run (Alabama, Miami, GT, OSU) but most teams are pass heavy, even that bad ones. And the good running teams will abandon the run if you get ahead.


5. Lastly, understand that no matter what you do, the game is rigged towards the passing game. Play either the MLB or a good Dlineman and hope for the best.

[orangeafroman]

Yeah, so basically, when it comes to the broken pass defense system, just deal with it. There's no fix. DBs with 95+ man ratings can't cover corner or out routes. It's a bad joke.

[BrOkan ArrOh]

What is the best scheme for playing online?

I have found that the greater % of online players - are no huddle spread offenses with a few exceptions..... I use QUARTER MAN(spy mlb) alot, and it seems to work sometimes when I shuffle the look of my safeties.

However, some plays I'm getting torched.

I'm not looking to get shutouts - I just would like to know some tips/schemes/plays that can put a cap on my opps. passing attack.

[Isura]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tha_Mac

I would totally destroy your defense if I ever played you.

This adds nothing. The community here is more concerned with getting a realistic and fair game from the CPU than crushing 12 year olds online. So I appreciate the in-depth strategy posts.