Defense

[osubucki6]

I got NCAA 14 the day it was released. It was basically the only game I played for two full years up until I traded in my XBox 360 for a One, and traded in NCAA for Madden. Despite playing this much, probably 90% of my time has been spent as an offensive coordinator, so I've barely played defense. Even then, the bulk of my time playing defense came with a teambuilder school with 99's everywhere and no sliders, basically trying to get as many pick 6's as I could.

So when I did move to Madden and started playing online, I was a little behind. I usered a defensive end, something you can't get away with if you want to be a high level player. I eventually picked up usering a LB and eventually got, at least in my opinion, really good. Defense actually became my strong suit. I ran what most people would consider "cheesy nano blitzes" quite a bit, but actually played best in a coverage defense where my user LB forced my opponent to make tough reads.

So playing Madden for 3 years and then coming back to NCAA in the last month has been yet another difficult transition. I went back to my offensive roots and for the first 5 years in my dynasty, I orchestrated a high powered offense. And then, I got my first head coaching gig at Rice. Looking at the roster, there wasn't a lot to work with. A few decent HBs, a QB with some speed but nothing crazy, a good FB, some big WR's with good blocking, a good run blocking OL. The obvious offense for me? The option. The offense I ran in high school despite having a noodle arm. Unfortunately, this also requires me to slow down a bit and I'm not going to have nearly as explosive of an offense.

And so now, I need a solid defense. And if this game played like Madden, I wouldn't have an issue. But it doesn't. The AI isn't going to throw at my user. There are hardly any flat zones in this game. QB spies don't work. The CPU relies way too heavily on scrambling, screens, and verticals. I played my first game at Rice (against an FCS opponent) and won 30-17. That was including the opening kickoff I returned for a TD. I wasn't in danger of losing the game, and even if I was I wouldn't have been upset. What upset me was the CPU going 19-27 (most of those incompletions came late in the game, down multiple scores, trying to force a comeback. I boxed their run game (28 carries for 52 yards) but a lot of those were sacks.



This right here, is an INT (or maybe it's dropped) any day of the week in Madden, even without clicking on. Instead my guy fails to react and it's a completion.



This? My QB spy failing to react to the QB running. No way to send him (to my knowledge this game is missing this feature as well as playmaker on offense, if not I would love to know) so instead of doing his job he just sits there, doesn't engage once the QB does scramble, and gets run right by.



My defender FINALLY breaks on a pass. My defender finally reacts to the ball when I click on and press Y. And the ball glitches through his hands, and is caught for a walk in TD.

Now this post isn't to complain about the game. It's 5 years old, things have changed, it's not a big deal. I just want to know how everyone else deals with it, and how everyone else plays defense.
-What coaching adjustments do you use?
-What sliders?
-Who do you user control?
-Do you make adjustments to opponents coaching philosophy sliders?
-What plays do you call?
-Do you click on to make the tackle/get an INT, or do you leave it to the CPU?

How do I play defense effectively because at this rate I'm going to end the season with the most sacks ever, but 0 INT's and having no enjoyment playing defense.

[jkits]

First off, welcome back to NCAA brotha..

I feel that in the last 3 years the community has dissected this game to no end, including myself. But from all the digging and tweaking, i think we've managed to find interesting ways in keeping the game fresh.

1.) Sliders:
You definitely need a solid slider set. Not sure if you prefer more sim/realistic gameplay & stats, or not. Either way, you need the "feel" of the game to at least be to your liking. Matt10's sliders are great, and my sliders J-Kits sliders are great as well. We both designed them individually to reflect the game of football from the ground up.

Matt10 Sliders
https://forums.operationsports.com/f...t-sliders.html

J-Kits Sliders
https://forums.operationsports.com/f...-official.html

2.) Understanding what certain settings affect in gameplay:
For instance, when i was making my slider set, one of the settings i tested was the offensive/defensivePass Interference penalty slider from Zero to 100. When set to Zero, players hardly every go for diving catches, or leaping catches in traffic. When set to 100, players will sacrifice their bodies more toward making the catch. That is jump high in the air, diving, and even running into the defender to go after the ball aggressively. This can change what you see during pass coverage, as well as WR/DB interactions. Adjustments like this can possibly begin overhauling your experience..

What sliders and settings are you using?..What coverages do you play on defense?

Hope this helps some

[Mjphillips]

You might also want to think about removing those plays the cpu relies on from their playbook. I took out the hb screen and the read options so they won't always use it on 3rd down. That helps a ton in keeping the games competitive. And I don't "cheese" the game. I don't run the same plays over and over. I actually remove cheese plays from my own playbooks also.

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[osubucki6]

Quote: Originally Posted by jkits

First off, welcome back to NCAA brotha.. I feel that in the last 3 years the community has dissected this game to no end, including myself. But from all the digging and tweaking, i think we've managed to find interesting ways in keeping the game fresh. 1.) Sliders: What sliders and settings are you using?..What coverages do you play on defense? Hope this helps some

I definitely agree sliders are a must. I began my dynasty running your set but switched to the community sliders in year 4 to get higher RB ability and lower min speed threshold. Both sets have played very well for me but I like speed to matter a lot (so I'm not a fan of low RBA and high min speed). '

Coaching adjustment wise I was running everything on aggressive except for tackling and big hitting. It didn't seem to work how I thought it would. I would rather get burnt deep because I have tighter zones than I would get dink and dunked all the way down field when my players should be playing underneath. For me this is my number one complaint because I've grown accustomed to having flat zones on the field every play with the option to take away drags.

As far as playcalling, I'm in the 335 book. Because that was my first game in it, and because you're only given what seemed like less than 10 seconds to call plays, I can't give an in-depth breakdown of what I was trying to run. Most of it early on was coverage, zone D, a lot of cover 3 and cover 2. I was trying to occasionally mix in blitzes and man much like I would in Madden. In the 4th quarter though I switched to exclusively running Dollar Cover 2 Man and spying my blitzing LB while user rushing. This is all I could do to stop the screen and scrambling, and just get a chance at an INT.

I know changing the coaching philosophy of opponents used to be a big idea on here for getting rid of screens and repetitive playcalling. Did it ever get nailed down? Playing an FCS school it doesn't matter because you can't adjust them anyways, but if I can get rid of it the rest of the year I see no issues that would possibly cause me to restart yet another dynasty like I'm currently worried about.

[JakeReaves]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mjphillips

You might also want to think about removing those plays the cpu relies on from their playbook. I took out the hb screen and the read options so they won't always use it on 3rd down. That helps a ton in keeping the games competitive. And I don't "cheese" the game. I don't run the same plays over and over. I actually remove cheese plays from my own playbooks also. Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk

To take that further, I let Corso call every play offensively and defensively. It's the most frustratingly fun thing you can do. He will lose you games and he will challenge you to overcome his incompetence. Like I said, you may throw a controller when it's 3rd and inches in the ACC title game and he calls a rollout to the short side of the field with the TE not even releasing, but damn it's challenging.

[ugagsu]

Like others have said, play with sliders. There are certain ones that affect gameplay significantly and some not at all. Also, I believe the individual player ratings influence more than the overall. Having defensive players with higher awareness and speed will help. I believe a defensive player with awareness in the 90s should be able to read and react pretty good. However, if his speed is 75 and a WR Speed is 90 you can bet on the receiver winning that matchup more often than not. Overall rating is overrated. Ignore it and look at the individual attributes ratings

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[ugagsu]

I'm fine with the cpu passing as long as I have a tough run defense. If the cpu is gonna beat me they sure as hell ain't gonna run it down my throat. They're gonna have to pass to beat me. If they can more power to them

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[ugagsu]

And I ain't gonna let no bitch scrambling qb run on me either.

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