Five Coaching Decisions to Make You a Better Madden Player

[RaychelSnr]

The unfortunate truth for most of us is that, for the most part, we won't be...

Written By: Ben Vollmer

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[ggsimmonds]

I can vouch for #5.

In my circle of friends I'm the best Madden player, and our games tend to follow the same story. It starts close before I pull away late. There are two reasons for this:
1. Most guys do the same thing over and over, and if a play fails the first time its called they never call it again. So once I get their tendencies down I start getting easy stops and they are lost.
2. My style of play is to methodically drive down the field 5-7 yards at a time. They get the ball back down and feel like they have to respond, so they force things and try to get the points back ASAP. An interception can quickly cause a snowball effect. Then later in the game once I have your tendencies down I start attacking your defense deep.

Don't just call good plays, have a gameplan of how/where you want to attack the other team. Don't abandon that gameplan just because the other guy took more than 5 minutes off the clock on a TD scoring drive.

[dj illmatic]

I wholeheartedly disagree with number 2. That is the absolute worst advice, IMO. I annually make it into the top 800 each year, and regularly beat opponents in the top 20. The reason I don't climb higher in rank is more due to playing other games, and not having the time to invest in climbing the rank ladder. I'm successful year after year by doing the same three things. Run the ball, run the ball some more, and if they stop it, run the ball again. Most people give up on the run if you stop it a couple of times. However, by continuing to run the ball, most times I eventually break a big one, it sets up play action, and if nothing else I'm less likely to turn it over.*

The second thing I do is try my best not to give up the big play on defense. I try and force my opponent to take as many plays as possible to drive down the field. I'm confident that at some point they'll make a mistake I can capitalize on. My biggest key is I kick FG's or punt when applicable. I rarely go for it on 4th down. No matter how tempting it may be, I take the 3 points or punt and rely on my second key. I win so many games by stopping people on 4th down, and getting great field position. I've settled for a FG when I was down multiple scores even though I was tempted, because I felt like I needed a TD to get back in the game. I can't tell you how many times I've ended up winning those same games by a FG or less.*

[dj illmatic]

I wholeheartedly disagree with number 2. That is the absolute worst advice, IMO. I annually make it into the top 800 each year, and regularly beat opponents in the top 20. The reason I don't climb higher in rank is more due to playing other games, and not having the time to invest in climbing the rank ladder. I'm successful year after year by doing the same three things. Run the ball, run the ball some more, and if they stop it, run the ball again. Most people give up on the run if you stop it a couple of times. However, by continuing to run the ball, most times I eventually break a big one, it sets up play action, and if nothing else I'm less likely to turn it over.*

The second thing I do is try my best not to give up the big play on defense. I try and force my opponent to take as many plays as possible to drive down the field. I'm confident that at some point they'll make a mistake I can capitalize on. My biggest key is I kick FG's or punt when applicable. I rarely go for it on 4th down. No matter how tempting it may be, I take the 3 points or punt and rely on my second key. I win so many games by stopping people on 4th down, and getting great field position. I've settled for a FG when I was down multiple scores even though I was tempted, because I felt like I needed a TD to get back in the game. I can't tell you how many times I've ended up winning those same games by a FG or less.*

[ggsimmonds]

Quote: Originally Posted by dj illmatic

I wholeheartedly disagree with number 2. That is the absolute worst advice, IMO. I annually make it into the top 800 each year, and regularly beat opponents in the top 20. The reason I don't climb higher in rank is more due to playing other games, and not having the time to invest in climbing the rank ladder. I'm successful year after year by doing the same three things. Run the ball, run the ball some more, and if they stop it, run the ball again. Most people give up on the run if you stop it a couple of times. However, by continuing to run the ball, most times I eventually break a big one, it sets up play action, and if nothing else I'm less likely to turn it over.* The second thing I do is try my best not to give up the big play on defense. I try and force my opponent to take as many plays as possible to drive down the field. I'm confident that at some point they'll make a mistake I can capitalize on. My biggest key is I kick FG's or punt when applicable. I rarely go for it on 4th down. No matter how tempting it may be, I take the 3 points or punt and rely on my second key. I win so many games by stopping people on 4th down, and getting great field position. I've settled for a FG when I was down multiple scores even though I was tempted, because I felt like I needed a TD to get back in the game. I can't tell you how many times I've ended up winning those same games by a FG or less.*

I think they could have given more context for going for it.

Its situational though. 4th and three from your opponents 40? Go for it.
Same distance from your 40? Punt.

Much of the decision making depends on the specifics of the game so that its hard to present general advice in this area.

[CM Hooe]

Having looked at the analytics pretty closely, teams basically should be going for it on 4th and 3 or less once they cross their own 45 yard line. Further, unless you are inside your own 15 yard line, mathematically speaking you should go for it on 4th and 1 every time.

NFL head coaches are conservative to a fault; they don't want to make a mistake with an aggressive play call which fails, so they defer the result of the game to their opponent's offense. This approach actively hurts teams and costs them games. Look no further than this season's Week 3 game between the Patriots and Texans for a great example of this. The Texans passed up 4th and 1 in the red zone in the closing moments of the game in favor of a field goal, which turned possession over to the Patriots and allowed Tom Brady to march right down the field and score a game-winning touchdown. If the Texans convert the 4th down by gaining 1 yard, they run down the clock and win the game.

[dj illmatic]

I'm still punting or kicking the FG in most situations. I play conservative as hell, and it works for me. I win a lot of my games, and when I do lose it's almost always within one score. More to the point a lot of my wins come from capitalizing on those who have the "always go for it" mentality.*

[misterkrabz]

Quote: Originally Posted by dj illmatic

I wholeheartedly disagree with number 2. That is the absolute worst advice, IMO.......I rarely go for it on 4th down. No matter how tempting it may be, I take the 3 points or punt and rely on my second key. I win so many games by stopping people on 4th down, and getting great field position. I've settled for a FG when I was down multiple scores even though I was tempted, because I felt like I needed a TD to get back in the game. I can't tell you how many times I've ended up winning those same games by a FG or less.*

Totally agree here. The games I win (many are forced rage quits) are always against people routinely go for it on 4th down (and fail). When I'm on defense, I would prefer they go for it as opposed to kick/punt. I almost always punt on 4th and ALWAYS take the 3 when I'm in range.

The only times I go for it on 4th is when my opponent has shown he cannot user-stop a drag or inside zone run and it's 4th and under 5.

I just laugh and smile when a dude goes for it on 4th and 10+ on his end of the field....because I know the rage quit is coming.