Reading the Defense

[Dr Death]

Quote: Originally Posted by Buckeye_Mafia

Another thing, and this is probably old news to people, but the easiest way to figure out if its zone or man coverage is sending a receiver in motion. Two things about that though. First, it takes about 15 seconds to motion and the send the receive back (if you choose to do that). Second, don't just use motion on passing plays because that tips off the defense after a few series. I try to get to the LOS with atleast 25 seconds for motion, line adjustments, and audible/hot routes. Hope this helps...

Have you played NCAA '13 at all??? Because the D shows MAN every play. If you motion, and they're in Cover 3, the CB will follow your X or Z receiver all the way across the field. Of course, EA believes this makes sense and is realistic! LOL

[dubbville]

If you hit man align and say have the safeties back you could perhaps be playing cover 3 or blitzing and disguising that. Be careful trying to read. My defense always looks the same and you never know whos coming or covering who. Motion might work but no one ever does that.

And if you do, a blitz cover 3 2 man under ect... is coming.. its gonna be changed. Just a chess match. I dont know how to play chess though. Checkers anyone?

[CBPodge]

Cover 3 is generally fairly easy to spot, because one safety will be walked up and one will be in the box, but both of the CBs will be dropped deep a fair bit off (8-10 yards, not much further up than the safeties).

For the rest, its much trickier to be sure. I've found that its relatively easy to tell if a specific man is going to be in coverage or blitzing by just looking if they look like they are aligned over a certain man. Whether they are in zone or man, generally a player in coverage is aligned directly over a receiver, whereas a player who is going to be blitzing isn't.

Its easiest to be sure about the safeties (usually pretty easy) and corners (a bit harder), so I tend to read the safeties pre-snap, and then immediately at the snap check the LBs, and figure what their coverage is, because that's very instructive. Say you read that it looks like 2 deep safeties, but you can't be sure whether the corners are in a cover-2 look or a man-2 look. If you see the LBs drop into middle zones, you basically know the CBs are in a cover-2 (whether that's the standard or "sink" version is a bit trickier), whereas if see them look to run with a man in coverage you can be pretty sure the CBs are in man as well. And if you see them looking like they want to murder your QB, you should be able to figure out that you need to get rid of the ball!