Defenders Abandoning Assignments

[DeuceDouglas]

Title pretty much says it all. This is something that has become very frustrating to me and I never really had video evidence until now. These were back-to-back games I played and both times you can see the play art pop up before they snap and the defenders do something completely different.

I wouldn't normally have a problem with these if they were rare but these happen very often and both examples are man coverage but when they happen while you're in zone coverage there are giant sections of the field just wide open with really no explanation. Another reason I bring this up is because I'm playing these games on 100 for pass coverage which, theoretically, should mean that coverage is as perfect as it can be.



The first one here if you look at the two MLB's pre-snap, Joe Mays is in a hook zone in the middle of the field and Derrick Johnson is manned up on the halfback coming out of the backfield. For whatever reason, after the ball is snapped Johnson takes it upon himself to account for the middle zone. Had I not recognized it immediately the back would have been wide open for a decent gain.



Again focusing on the middle of the field you can see Mays this time is manned up on the back. At the snap Mays decides "To hell with the play I'm Lawrence Taylor", blitz up the middle and leave the back absolutely uncovered for the big play.

I'd be willing to have some give-and-take with this issue if it didn't happen so frequently with the coverage slider maxed out and the reaction slider nearly maxed out. And as I said these were both man examples but I've also seen instances where I'll be controlling a player in a flat zone and another player on my team will decide that's actually his responsibility and just leave his zone and the middle of the field wide open because I'm apparently supposed to use psychosis to know when my little digital phenoms are going to sabotage a play. I'm not sure if this is just an All-Madden issue but it's frustrating nonetheless.

[tbennett54]

Austin Davis going for 23-24 while throwing for 350+ yards . Pretty sure most of those completions were defenders leaving their man right?

[DeuceDouglas]

Quote: Originally Posted by tbennett54

Austin Davis going for 23-24 while throwing for 350+ yards . Pretty sure most of those completions were defenders leaving their man right?

Maybe not most but at least the one I showed that was actually relevant to the topic.

[oneamongthefence]

Quote: Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas

Title pretty much says it all. This is something that has become very frustrating to me and I never really had video evidence until now. These were back-to-back games I played and both times you can see the play art pop up before they snap and the defenders do something completely different. I wouldn't normally have a problem with these if they were rare but these happen very often and both examples are man coverage but when they happen while you're in zone coverage there are giant sections of the field just wide open with really no explanation. Another reason I bring this up is because I'm playing these games on 100 for pass coverage which, theoretically, should mean that coverage is as perfect as it can be. The first one here if you look at the two MLB's pre-snap, Joe Mays is in a hook zone in the middle of the field and Derrick Johnson is manned up on the halfback coming out of the backfield. For whatever reason, after the ball is snapped Johnson takes it upon himself to account for the middle zone. Had I not recognized it immediately the back would have been wide open for a decent gain. Again focusing on the middle of the field you can see Mays this time is manned up on the back. At the snap Mays decides "To hell with the play I'm Lawrence Taylor", blitz up the middle and leave the back absolutely uncovered for the big play. I'd be willing to have some give-and-take with this issue if it didn't happen so frequently with the coverage slider maxed out and the reaction slider nearly maxed out. And as I said these were both man examples but I've also seen instances where I'll be controlling a player in a flat zone and another player on my team will decide that's actually his responsibility and just leave his zone and the middle of the field wide open because I'm apparently supposed to use psychosis to know when my little digital phenoms are going to sabotage a play. I'm not sure if this is just an All-Madden issue but it's frustrating nonetheless.

I noticed it both on last gen and current gen this year. It seems the players get faked to go one way when there's no reason to. Receiver will cut left but the corner tAkes a step to the right and the receiver is wide open. But it only happens when the user is on defense. No amount of slider changes will help this as I think it's a bug or maybe it was intentional to help cover up the insane amount of sacks so games can actually be competitive against the cpu.

[SolidSquid]

I'm 90% sure it's programmed this way to simulate difficulty and give the user more of a challenge

[RogueHominid]

A big one I see is the defender manned up on a HB/FB leaving his man to blitz.

I think that's fine if the defender has low AWR, as he might think the back is staying in to block. But as a regular occurrence, it's annoying.

[baller7345]

Quote: Originally Posted by Trojan Man

A big one I see is the defender manned up on a HB/FB leaving his man to blitz. I think that's fine if the defender has low AWR, as he might think the back is staying in to block. But as a regular occurrence, it's annoying.

I don't think it has to do with awareness, its simpler than that. If the back blocks then the LB will blitz and it appears that if the back is on a check and release route the LB reads it as if the back blocks and blitzes.

I could be wrong and on it not being tied to awareness but I assume its set up very much like the option routes. They always run the same route against the same coverage in my experience because they know what its going to be. For instance on a on the old run and shoot seam read route the WR will either run a post, dig, or seam route based on the coverage. If its Cover 1 or Cover 3 (MOFC) then they pretty much always run the seam, if its Cover 2 they will run the post and if its Cover 4 they'll run the dig (don't hold me to that one).

I've yet to see anything that tells me awareness plays a role in these kind of decisions, it seems to be hardwired into players.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

Quote: Originally Posted by Trojan Man

A big one I see is the defender manned up on a HB/FB leaving his man to blitz. I think that's fine if the defender has low AWR, as he might think the back is staying in to block. But as a regular occurrence, it's annoying.

That's exactly what's happening in both videos. In the first video, the back steps over and then turns his shoulders upfield for a second, then continues his route. In the second, he takes one step forward, stops, and then runs a quick curl.

The AI is biting outrageously hard on a simple block and release route.

As some have noticed, this only seems to happen to user Ds. I've been convinced for years the AI will deliberately move your players out of the way from time to time in order to create big play. In NCAA once, I tried to run a QB sneak to pick up a 4th and inches on the opponents 38. The center completely ignored the nose tackle and tried to go around him to block a linebacker. The NT basically fired out of his stance right into my QBs chest while the center juked him like a bullfighter.