3-4 defense question.

[Soonerfan14]

Hello all, thank you for reading. I understand the proponents of a 3-4 defense pretty well. Your run stuff nose guard. Your stronger DE or even more versatile balanced ones, pass rushing lbs who can cover a bit and quick sure tackling inside backers. Now what I don't get it how it translates to play calling on madden, I've tried and tried in offline ccs to master it, but I never could. Now I'm in a online league with a team that has good 3-4 players but I can't seem to get it to work right for me, and I'm lost on many downs in which type of formations and plays I should call. If someone who is knows a bit on the 3-4 could share some words of wisdom, I'd r much obliged. You can pm me I you want or comment here. Thanks everyone!

[PGaither84]

In real football, gap control is essential. In Madden, there isn't any true gap control, though there is some basic gap fill logic for the linebackers that you can see in action on replays, but it is just that:- Basic.

There certainly isn't any 2-gapping by the defensive line in Madden. The closest you can get to true gap assignments is to pretend you are teaching a 4-3 defensive style of one gap and call alignments that match. The following is from Monte Kiffen's 1987 Vikings 4-3 Defense.




Take all of this information and just imagine you are using 34 personnel. I'll even help you with your imagination by using MSPaint to make a couple changes to the letter identifications.


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So, at his point we have discussed gap control from a 43 defense, and how to apply it despite Madden's limitations while using 34 personnel. Now let us talk about our coverage calls. The following is from Bill Belichick's 1985 NY Giants 34 defensive playbook. Notice how familiar the alignments are




Now that we understand Rita and Linda calls, we can take a closer look at our playbook art.





Well, as a madden player, that can look a little confusing. After all, that is how we play in real life, but not how we play in Madden. So, let's use MSPaint to flip all of this.





Ah, that's better. Now, let us take all of this complicated NFL jargon and explanations and try to simplify it for Madden:



4-3


3-4



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Yes, in summary, what I am telling you to do is to call this Cover 3 and Cover 1 plays a lot. Get really good at them. Understand your pre-snap assignments, make sure your players are aligned the best they can be against any given formation, be ready to flip or adjust the defense accordingly (Rita/Linda calls), and execute.

I personally like to stay in my base 4-3/3-4 defense even against 3WRs and just call Cover 3 Buzz:

4-3


3-4


This keeps the numbers in your favor with 7 in the box against a 6 man offensive alignment. You are also showing a pre-snap Middle of the Field Open (MoFO) look, which suggests Cover 2, but is really another cover three shell.

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Honestly, defense is a joke in Madden and any good offensive player online will rip you apart. I am darn good at defense on Madden and even I have a hard time containing the best players online. I just have to take risks, time my blitzes, and play as sharp as possible.

Offline, I tend to just play coach mode and not user control anyone after the snap. I like pretending I am the coach and once the ball is snapped, it is up to the team to execute. I try to draft and sign free agent talent that fits my scheme and auto-progress players. I take my lumps and move on to the next play and the next game when I lose. I know my scheme is sound, but the execution can be sloppy at times. Some of that is the AI, some of that is the individual player ratings. For example, the 49ers starting defense is brutal, while the back ups in pre-season games get destroyed at times. Ratings matter. Having talent matters. I like that. You can only scheme so much, eventually you need players to execute that scheme.

[Soonerfan14]

You sir are amazing

[Dj_MyTime]

My advice is a little simpler, identify what you want your approach to be on defense, aggressive, bend don't break etc.

Determine what you want to take away the short game, the deep game, the run etc. Find your self some good 3rd and pass blitzes, 3-4 FS blitz (flip it to have SS blitzing, crash DL) I'll throw out there as a bone.

Spend a lot of time in practice mode experiment with flipping the D, line-stunts w/ blitzes behind them, look for ways to free up rushers by occupying defenders while only rushing five to maintain good coverage on the back-end.

Also I cannot emphasize enough that user control of a MLB or S is a must to really take your defense to the next level. You really only need a handful of base plays, Cov2/3/Cloud 2-3 good blitzes on 3rd downs, and hot zones/re-blitzing defenders from base zones to keep people off balance.

[PGaither84]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dj_MyTime

My advice is a little simpler, identify what you want your approach to be on defense, aggressive, bend don't break etc. Determine what you want to take away the short game, the deep game, the run etc. Find your self some good 3rd and pass blitzes, 3-4 FS blitz (flip it to have SS blitzing, crash DL) I'll throw out there as a bone. Spend a lot of time in practice mode experiment with flipping the D, line-stunts w/ blitzes behind them, look for ways to free up rushers by occupying defenders while only rushing five to maintain good coverage on the back-end. Also I cannot emphasize enough that user control of a MLB or S is a must to really take your defense to the next level. You really only need a handful of base plays, Cov2/3/Cloud 2-3 good blitzes on 3rd downs, and hot zones/re-blitzing defenders from base zones to keep people off balance.

Yes, good post. That is pretty much all defense is at any level, but I was trying to explain the why, and use real NFL playbooks to do so. understanding assignments and adjustment calls will help people make informed decisions as to when & why to make those calls... and when & why to audible.

There was a great video that I wish I had downloaded beofre it got taken down where in 2011 Eli manning was preparing for a regular season game against the 49ers, who they would go on to face in the NFCC game later that year and win in a nail bitter. It was part of NFL films "Turning point" or what ever. Eli explained that the 49ers defense under Vic fangio rarely did anything exotic or special, they were just coached up to be consistent and tackle well. they just beat you straight up. That defense in real life pretty much just played cover 2 and cover one and bracketed the WR on the single side. They relied on their front 7 to stop the run game and almost never blitzed. Willis and bowman flew around like defensive backs and could blanket tight ends and backs coming out of the back field. In the 2012 NFCC against the Falcons, Bowman was all over Roddy White stopping the 4th down try and sending the 49ers to the Super Bowl. In that video, the NFL Network showed that it wasn't the Giants perperation in that regular season was the turning point, as they were hoping by following Eli, but rather the 49ers film study. the 49ers defense knew a specific 3rd down route combination the Giants love. Near the end of the first half, the 49ers saw it coming, tried to jump it but didn't quite get in position to make the stop. In the 4th quarter, the situation came up again and this time I think it was Willis who did get the right jump and swatted the pass away, jumping the route before Eli even started to throw. The point of this being that even in the NFL defense isn't as complicated as some people think. The difference is that Madden is more like action figures crashing into each other than real professional athletes playing complicated chess matches of movements and guessing games with twitch reaction times.

As I have said before, learning more about football, the better you will get at Madden... up to a limit. You will eventually hit a wall where madden cannot keep up with real football and you have to dumb everything down and lower your expectations.

EA care more about an arbitrary definition of "fun" over the quality and depth of their game. The more competitive you get at madden, the fewer real life principles matter.