Looking to Improve My Defensive Play Calling

[stinkubus]

Quote: Originally Posted by Trojan Man

Interesting stuff. Is the Mable busted this year? Is there an adjustment to it, if so, that renders it functional?

Mable coverage has never been realistically portrayed in Madden. It's been busted since they've introduced it.

In Madden's Mable coverage everyone plays spot drop zones with three defenders to one sideline looking to shut down any sort of flood. It can't even do this, stock, because of the presence of the curl flat zone. The curl flat won't get to the sideline against outs or corners, and you've already got a hard flat by default, so the only route it's going to play is the curl route.

If shutting down a particular sideline is your goal then I would recommend a hard flat/cloud flat/deep zone combination. You can get this from Mabel by shading down and then shading up to get the curl flat into a cloud flat. Then manually put the defender who started in a hard flat back into that assignment.

Real life Mable is a pattern matching concept for use against trips, but M18's rules for cover 3 match aren't sophisticated enough. Trying to use it leads to absurd outcomes like watching your weakside CB man up and chase a drag route across the field.

You can play a pseudo-Mable coverage by usering the strong side linebacker and freelancing with him based on the offensive concept. There's obviously going to be pitfalls to vacating your zone, so your own play rec and awareness should be 90 or higher before you start trying this consistently.

[RogueHominid]

Ok. So what do you do versus trips, which I take it is where Mable is supposed to shine.

[stinkubus]

Quote: Originally Posted by Trojan Man

Ok. So what do you do versus trips, which I take it is where Mable is supposed to shine.

The cloud flats on the outside are my adjustment because they cover up the corner and out routes that you'd have to take with your user when trying to play Mable. This adjustment doesn't run afoul of "traditional" cover 3 rules because that cloud flat stays as deep as the deepest receiver like 90% of the time against a random bunch/trips play.

There can be reasons you don't want to always use cloud flats, especially against users who can hot route and motion, or maybe the AI is hitting you with one of the few stock plays that can beat a cloud flat to the appropriate side deep. Obviously against open trips you have to worry about the deep sideline to the trips side all the time, as opposed to bunch where you do not. Sometimes you need to use your knowledge of the game and its playbooks to help compensate for Madden's simplistic defenses. Think of this as the result of "film study" if you need the pretense of realism.

So instead we're just going to play a regular cover 3 with hard flats. You can call it in the huddle or you can make it out of hot routes. This time our user will be the strong side MLB instead of the weak side MLB.

The basic idea would be to play any vertical release from the #2 receiver to the trips side and then cover him 1 on 1 on any out breaking routes that won't get picked up by the hard flat. There's no one to cover him if he runs a 10+ yard out or a corner, so you'll have to take it. Don't worry about nuisance routes like the slant hook from Z Spot. It's fine to concede the short completion in most situations if you can make the tackle right away.

In a stock cover 3 you'll have help on any in breaking or deep routes, so you only have to stay with those long enough to pass them off. You can then either return to your zone or go looking for work if the offense isn't threatening that part of the field.

For example, if the offense runs a drive concept you'll stick with the in route through it's vertical stem and just long enough once he cuts to let the other LB take him. Once that happens you attack the drag.

[Godgers12]

Quote: Originally Posted by Billy4NY

Note: I tried searching the forum for something covering this, but was not successful. If there is a thread, link, or document that already exists please point me in that direction and feel free to close this thread. I am an offline CFM solo player and love getting through several seasons each year. However, no matter how hard I try, I find myself running the same 5-8 defensive plays against the CPU (not including goal line and special teams formations). This kind of makes defense stale for me over time and I am looking for some recommendations on 3 easy steps on how to diversify my play call, while still seeing success on the field. For me, it is a balance between true sim football with a wide range of plays and success against the CPU via calling the same plays over and over again. I am sure some of you can relate and I would appreciate any tips before M19 graces us with its release FYI - I plan on using the Atlanta Falcons this year.

Could try ONLY using coach suggestions. I'm an online CFM only player so I call my defense based on what my opponent likes to do with a wrinkle or two tossed in from time to time. But I imagine offline is a bit different seeing as you dont have the human element and tendencies. Also, AI play calling is a bit more unpredictable, then say playing a human who if you have played enough, would know his play call pattern and tendencies in certain situations.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Operation Sports mobile app

[RogueHominid]

This is immensely helpful. I took the C3 Sky Press into practice vs. trips and used those adjustments, while manning the ILB to the trips side and watching the #2 for a vertical. It worked very nicely.

Because I only play the CPU, I don't have to worry about the AI-breaking adjustments that users can do, but I would still like to deepen my knowledge of how the C3 schemes work/don't work in this game so I can call a more intelligent game.

Can you offer any perspective on how you approach a base C3 call from a user perspective when not facing trips? Do you do any similar tweaks to the stock zones, and whom do you control/what do you look for?

[stinkubus]

Quote: Originally Posted by Trojan Man

This is immensely helpful. I took the C3 Sky Press into practice vs. trips and used those adjustments, while manning the ILB to the trips side and watching the #2 for a vertical. It worked very nicely. Because I only play the CPU, I don't have to worry about the AI-breaking adjustments that users can do, but I would still like to deepen my knowledge of how the C3 schemes work/don't work in this game so I can call a more intelligent game. Can you offer any perspective on how you approach a base C3 call from a user perspective when not facing trips? Do you do any similar tweaks to the stock zones, and whom do you control/what do you look for?

I'm more than happy to, but "not trips" encompasses a pretty diverse collection of plays. If you've got specific formation(s) in mind we can go through them, look at the plays which pose the greatest threats, and then start scheming to take those away while trying to remain as sound as possible against the offense's other options.

[RogueHominid]

What are folks' thoughts on press coverage?

After learning that all those C3 press plays don't actually pressed, I was a bit bummed. I'm wondering if press man works well enough to be a viable part of a good defense's strategy. I'm also wondering if any doctoring is necessary to make press man plays more effective, and if press man calls play to ratings such that dominant press corners can dominate receivers with average release ratings consistently.

Conversely, I'm curious to know how folks feel about the efficacy of off man for various types of routes.

The 43 books like JAX and SF have lots of C1 press plays in them, but the 34 books are largely bereft of C1 press plays. If I were to run a 43 D, I could run press man as a base coverage, but if I were to run a 34 D, I'd have to rely on off man. Thoughts on the effectiveness of the latter?