Man, zone or blitz?

[4thQtrStre5S]

Inside runs - Robber or Cover 4
Outside runs - zone with hard flats on outside CB's also Cover 4.
Medium passes - zone with dark purples; cover 3
Long pass - Quarters Man w/ deep safety zones
Red Zone - max zone cover plays like dime and quarters.


These are what I like for just the basic defenses to call.

[Pikesburgh]

Zone blitzes are good if you use them correctly. As a Steelers fan, I love running a 2-4-5 nickel and blitzing Harrison at ROLB. Find the strengths of your team. Like for mine, obviously Harrison is a great pass rusher and bad in coverage due to being slow and just generally being a pass rusher. He's technically a defensive end in that situation, so I basically always rush him. Then I have Shazier, a good coverage linebacker due to his speed, at ILB. So I take my strengths (ROLB pass rusher, speedy ILB) and use them to their strengths.

Then I complicate things here or there, especially in long distance situations. On a distance of over 10 yards, I'll throw in a nice CB blitz, or a stunt blitz. Stunt blitzes are great because they can really confuse the offensive line. The thing I love to do on a stunt blitz in the 2-4-5, is I take the second LB blitzing (the one who waits for the first one to blitz and comes in behind him) and I line him up a few yards back before the play. That way it looks like he's going to play in pass coverage and can sometimes get a free rush on the QB.

Man coverage with 2 safeties covering the deep zone is good when you have an offense that likes to throw the ball downfield. Other times you may want to use it in short yardage situations if you have a decent secondary. Man I'm not really sure about just because I use a lot of zone blitzes and have struggled in Man when I can't get a good pass rush.

Ultimately, the key to a good pass defense is maximizing the strengths of your defense, and minimizing it's weaknesses. If you have good pass rush LBs, you wanna multiply their strengths by doing things like stunt blitzes. If they're good in coverage, you can afford to drop them into coverage. If you have really good safeties against a team that likes to throw deep, drop the safeties into coverage and throw some blitzes at the offense. There's a lot of little things you can do to stop the offense. If the defensive line is really good then you can also afford to run less blitzes and have the D-line cause mayhem while you have 7-8 guys eliminating all the passing windows. It all depends on down, distance, offensive style, and so on.

[OrangeSky]

What if I have crappy cornerbacks, like I do currently on my Eagles franchise? Would i be better off playing zone instead of man?

And if I have solid linebackers, should I blitz them often?

[ForUntoOblivionSoar∞]

Quote: Originally Posted by OrangeSky

What if I have crappy cornerbacks, like I do currently on my Eagles franchise? Would i be better off playing zone instead of man? And if I have solid linebackers, should I blitz them often?

If you are playing against people I would say you need to confuse them into making a mistake, and that usually means mixing up your coverage.

[SamGleesh]

If you're new to football just play on lower difficulties and use coach suggestions to experiment with what works best in certain situations.

Playcalling is going to differ every game based on the personnel of both teams, down and distance, etc..

I blitz a lot on 3rd and long situations or when i am very confident they are running the ball up the middle.
I like to use zones in nickel against 3 or more WRs and man to man against 2 or less simply because it is tough for even the best corners to stick to receivers for long in man coverage on madden 18, and the more receivers they have the quicker someone will get open.

[SamGleesh]

Quote: Originally Posted by OrangeSky

What if I have crappy cornerbacks, like I do currently on my Eagles franchise? Would i be better off playing zone instead of man? And if I have solid linebackers, should I blitz them often?

I would just recommend mixing up your coverages but maybe lean a little more towards whatever coverage your corners excel at, and if they're constantly getting beat send more pressure and different types of blitzes to get the ball out of the QBs hands.