I will not take credit for this little discovery, that goes to SECElite3. In his thread,
http://www.operationsports.com/forum...lease-try.html, he lowers the slider settings for both teams to a point where more random, realistic play is likely to follow. After trying these for 2 dynasty games, I can report that zone defenses finally have caught up to man defenses.
This isn't a slider thread necessarily. It's an honest evaluation of the problem EA caused and how to fix it. The man coverage plays were always going to trump the zone coverage plays because of reaction time, defender route running, etc. Zones were terrible, because the QB and WR's, in order to keep up with the psychic DB's, had to be crisp as well. Zones don't call for DB's to recognize route running, so the perfected routes we have all been relying on were always successful against zones.
But change how accurate the QB's and WR's are, and things change. Defenders can now settle into zones and have a greatly increased chance of making big hits, batting down balls, or making sure tackles because the receivers are now slowed down or off balance when reaching for a thrown ball.
Since defenders in zone coverage don't react fast enough normally, altering the sliders rebalances things to the point where there's no significant advantage to always calling man coverage plays. Sure, there are times where you still call man coverage, but on sure running plays, the defenders in zones often won't get suction blocked as soon, freeing them up to make moves towards the ballcarrier. Further, the effect of reducing the man coverage dominance helps when playing against the CPU, considering the CPU calls more zone coverage plays by default. You now get a truer, and more reasonable gameplay experience.
But this is my opinion. What's yours?