Need Tips for Defense Playcalling

[xCoachDx]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

A few thoughts: - Know your personnel. If your team has edge rushers at OLB, you need to be in 3-4 base defenses and not 4-3 (to the extent that base defense is relevant). If your team has a massive nose tackle with a high strength rating, set him up to draw a double team to grant your other linemen one-on-one matchups. - Know your fronts. Different defensive line configurations aka fronts provide you different advantages and disadvantages. Are you are struggling to stop inside running? Try using Odd or Bear fronts which cover interior linemen and alter the offense’s run blocking schemes. Want to get your DT1 a favorable interior rush matchup? Use Over and Under fronts to change how your DTs align. Want to maximize your edge rush? Call a front with two wide edge rushers. Want to force the offense into a quick passing game or go for a sack? Crowd the line of scrimmage with a double mug look. - Match offensive personnel. This is sort of an extension of the previous point. Very few teams have linebackers of safeties who can keep up with slot receivers. If you don’t have one of those unicorns (ex. Tyrann Mathieu, Lavonte David), stick with matching each wide receiver with a cornerback. - Know the run defenders in your call. With the exceptions of Cover 4 Quarters, Cover 4 Palms, and Cover 6, any player in a deep zone assignment (dark blue) is never looking run first. This can help you stay assignment sound when usering a second-level defender or defensive back. (I think this rule about who is not a run defender extends to any player who is in man coverage on a wide receiver, but I’m not 100% sure of that right now. I’ll check later.) - Understand defensive auto-flip. Madden helpfully ensures that your defensive calls are correctly aligned to the offensive formation via a feature called Defensive Auto-Flip. Generally you will always want to leave this on. Auto Flip will orient your 4-3 and 3-4 formation calls towards the offensive formation run strength (the side with more blockers attached to the formation). Nickel, Dime, and Quarter calls get flipped according to the offensive formation pass strength (the side with more wide receivers detached from the formation). Understanding this concept is particularly helpful in setting up blitzes against unbalanced looks from the offense; if you can send more blitzers at fewer blockers, your blitz is more likely to succeed at affecting the quarterback. - Get familiar with each coverage. Different coverages require different types of players to use effectively. Man vs Zone coverage is obvious; but for example, within zone coverages, probably don’t call Tampa 2 and Cover 2 Sink much if your MLB does not have enough speed to “run the pole” and sink into that deep middle area. - Almost always turn on the Match coverage coaching adjustment. Madden 23 backseated pattern match coverage for… reasons. Every zone call by default is a spot-drop zone unless you enable that coaching adjustment. Unfortunately the spot drop zones are full of holes which are easily exploited by an opponent who has mastered pre-snap reads and tells. You can patch these holes to a certain extent by using the limited implementation of match coverage carried over from Madden 22 and gated by the coaching adjustment. In particular, keep Cover 2 Sink / Tampa 2 / Cover 3 Seam / Cover 3 Buzz Seam in your pocket against balanced passing looks, and Cover 4 Quarters / Cover 6 against unbalanced passing looks.

Thank you for saying so much of what I wanted to say but couldn’t put into any sort of organized thought that would help anyone. Lol