Tips on how to limit big plays?

[Foxtrot2873]

I've been playing with sliders for a while now, but my biggest issue to this point in that too many points are scored. I feel like the average amount of points I score is right around 30-28 regardless of what team I play as.

I think a lot of it has to do with a high yard-per-play average. I can't quote any numbers but I have a lot of trouble with receivers getting a lot of yardage after the catch both by me and the receiver. A lot of times, the CPU wont throw the football unless the WR is pretty open or is about to get hit. This usually either results in an INT, or a pass to a wide open receiver who gets to run for another 10 yards. The other problem is even if a defender is there, that first guy often isn't able to make the tackle, typically leaving a lot of space for the receiver to run from there.

So everything seems really boom or bust to be honest. Maybe thats how it works in the NFL, but it just seems really easy to get ten yards per play, making the really long drives usually only around five plays.

The big plays really tend to only come in the passing game, unless the running back I'm playing against is having one of those games where he breaks three tackles before scampering off fifty yards like eight times a game.

[mjhyankees]

Quote: Originally Posted by Foxtrot2873

I've been playing with sliders for a while now, but my biggest issue to this point in that too many points are scored. I feel like the average amount of points I score is right around 30-28 regardless of what team I play as. I think a lot of it has to do with a high yard-per-play average. I can't quote any numbers but I have a lot of trouble with receivers getting a lot of yardage after the catch both by me and the receiver. A lot of times, the CPU wont throw the football unless the WR is pretty open or is about to get hit. This usually either results in an INT, or a pass to a wide open receiver who gets to run for another 10 yards. The other problem is even if a defender is there, that first guy often isn't able to make the tackle, typically leaving a lot of space for the receiver to run from there. So everything seems really boom or bust to be honest. Maybe thats how it works in the NFL, but it just seems really easy to get ten yards per play, making the really long drives usually only around five plays. The big plays really tend to only come in the passing game, unless the running back I'm playing against is having one of those games where he breaks three tackles before scampering off fifty yards like eight times a game.

Some of it is skills......don't know how good you are. I had problems missing tackles in the beginning which led to big plays of course.
Here are my thoughts:

1. Play on all madden. Any other level is a scorefest in my opinion...all pro is ridiculously easy.
2. Lower the speed threshold. You'll get varying opinions on what number is best but I use 30 and it reduced big plays alot. Essentially anything that makes your DB's faster will stop big plays for the most part. Lowering threshold makes a bigger difference in speed for fast and slow players.
3. Proper play calling: Blitz alot and you WILL get burned sooner or later. Same if you play a 4-3 when the cpu is in 4 WR sets.....I over play the pass,....rare to have the cpu run the ball a ton of times on me. He may run well but it's rare to have him run more than throw. So I play lots of dime and quarter...but I do look at his formation and if I see 2 TE's im in the base D.
4. Let the cpu control the DB's....many will disagree here but I find the cpu misses less tackles in the open field than I do.....sad to say.

[Foxtrot2873]

Quote: Originally Posted by mjhyankees

Some of it is skills......don't know how good you are. I had problems missing tackles in the beginning which led to big plays of course. Here are my thoughts: 1. Play on all madden. Any other level is a scorefest in my opinion...all pro is ridiculously easy. 2. Lower the speed threshold. You'll get varying opinions on what number is best but I use 30 and it reduced big plays alot. Essentially anything that makes your DB's faster will stop big plays for the most part. Lowering threshold makes a bigger difference in speed for fast and slow players. 3. Proper play calling: Blitz alot and you WILL get burned sooner or later. Same if you play a 4-3 when the cpu is in 4 WR sets.....I over play the pass,....rare to have the cpu run the ball a ton of times on me. He may run well but it's rare to have him run more than throw. So I play lots of dime and quarter...but I do look at his formation and if I see 2 TE's im in the base D. 4. Let the cpu control the DB's....many will disagree here but I find the cpu misses less tackles in the open field than I do.....sad to say.

Thanks, I do most of those but I do tend to try to play the ball in the air more often than not. Also, I'm not sure but maybe I blitz to often. I just feel like I don't get any pressure unless I blitz. I play with the threshold on 0, but do you think 30 would be better?

I have found moderate success by increasing the tackling sliders for both the CPU and the HUM, but I read your post on how to adjust sliders for yourself. I'm not entirely sure about everything thats affected by tackling, but its been producing acceptable tackling for me and has limited big plays to a degree. However, my median scoring is still fairly high, and thats with me sometimes feeling like I'm going easy.

Easily dismantled the Jaguars for a 28-14 victory, with the jaguars getting their final touchdown with like under a minute to go. I got a 14-0 lead early and never looked back. David Garrard threw three int, and my pourous broncos running game was really unstoppable. I might consider lowering run blocking just a little bit, but I already feel like the CPU D-line rips into the backfield way to easily.

But uhh, I'll keep playing with it. Thanks for your help, if you happened to know how often teams blitzed and when that would really help me out in knowing whether it would be appropriate to change something, or if I just need to play less aggressive.

[mjhyankees]

Quote: Originally Posted by Foxtrot2873

Thanks, I do most of those but I do tend to try to play the ball in the air more often than not. Also, I'm not sure but maybe I blitz to often. I just feel like I don't get any pressure unless I blitz. I play with the threshold on 0, but do you think 30 would be better? I have found moderate success by increasing the tackling sliders for both the CPU and the HUM, but I read your post on how to adjust sliders for yourself. I'm not entirely sure about everything thats affected by tackling, but its been producing acceptable tackling for me and has limited big plays to a degree. However, my median scoring is still fairly high, and thats with me sometimes feeling like I'm going easy. Easily dismantled the Jaguars for a 28-14 victory, with the jaguars getting their final touchdown with like under a minute to go. I got a 14-0 lead early and never looked back. David Garrard threw three int, and my pourous broncos running game was really unstoppable. I might consider lowering run blocking just a little bit, but I already feel like the CPU D-line rips into the backfield way to easily. But uhh, I'll keep playing with it. Thanks for your help, if you happened to know how often teams blitzed and when that would really help me out in knowing whether it would be appropriate to change something, or if I just need to play less aggressive.

wow...how often teams blitz.....I don't know if I could access that info somewhere very easily. I know I blitz 33% of the time at most and when I do I prefer zone coverages to man. Also unclear...I'm assuming you are talking about GIVING UP big plays, not getting them.
Do you play on all madden?
At 0 I found it better than 50 but thought that it gave too much advantage to speed guys. Many like it there though. Try 25-30. I've settled in there very comfortably and big plays are far less (still a LITTLE too much for my taste).
ARe they big runs or passes? I tend to give up the big pass. Lowering cpu break tackle helped stop cpu big plays. I had way too many plays where a guy catches a ball over the middle, 3-4 guys hit him and bounce off and away he runs. With my btk so low I still get the power backs running over me...just not every WR as well.
Some guys like the cpu bkt high but I think they are just so advanced that they NEED the cpu RB to be superman.
I'm really happy with it low. To be fair I don't "truck" alot with my guys either. Watch an NFL games, guys don't break 2-3 tackles every play. Most of the time they go down with the first defender who has a solid shot at them.

You also have a quandry similar to Delta and Jarrod. You feel like certain aspects of the game are not realistic with your current games, yet adjusting them may make it too easy for you.

Probably need to just be a bit more conservative on D, both in blitzing and maybe moving your secondary off the line, at least on passing downs. I find it great when the cpu constantly takes long drives on me. I hate him hitting 3-4 big plays too win. I much prefer him to control the ball. So I play NOT to give up the big play.

Post your tackling question on that thread. I'll do my best to answer and others may benefit as well.

Ciao

[Jarodd21]

Yea you might wanna start taking a more conversative approach. More 2 man unders(contain rush the Dline) and Cover 3s out of Dollar defense when u know there passing. Mix it up. Press ur DBs sometimes or let them play off sometimes.. If you keep the CPU confused with your coverage they usually mess up. Also where do you have your tackling at? Let me get a look at your USER rush defense and the CPUs rush offense.

[TheDelta]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jarodd21

If you keep the CPU confused with your coverage they usually mess up.

While I agree with you in principle (although I prefer Cover 1 Fire blitzes to Cover 2 Man Under plays, in man you need to create pressure quickly and a 4 man rush can't do that), I don't think it's even possible to "confuse" the CPU with mixing it up. The CPU cannot be confused, it always just sees what happens, that's why zone blitzes with linemen dropping back into coverage are a bad idea in madden. In reality, you hope that the QB just sees the LB blitzing and thinks he's got a hole to throw a quick slant in, just for the DE to jump the route. But that obviously doesn't work in Madden because you can't "confuse" the CPU like that.

[Jarodd21]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheDelta

While I agree with you in principle (although I prefer Cover 1 Fire blitzes to Cover 2 Man Under plays, in man you need to create pressure quickly and a 4 man rush can't do that), I don't think it's even possible to "confuse" the CPU with mixing it up. The CPU cannot be confused, it always just sees what happens, that's why zone blitzes with linemen dropping back into coverage are a bad idea in madden. In reality, you hope that the QB just sees the LB blitzing and thinks he's got a hole to throw a quick slant in, just for the DE to jump the route. But that obviously doesn't work in Madden because you can't "confuse" the CPU like that.

I think I'm going to start mixing that cover 1 in a little more. I hear you mention that alot. One of my friends like to use that too. But I do like to mix up the coverage as far as pressing and not pressing when I call 2 man under plays. It does seem to confuse the CPU sometimes. I notice if I stay doing the same thing over and over I start to get shredded more. So I'll press sometime and not press. Throw a blitz out there or switch off to cover 3. I don't call cover 2 that much. That's one zone that seems to get punished for a big gain. haha! But its good in the redzone and I don't never call a zone blitz. Certain QBs don't get confused and you pretty much have to hope for the best.. Haha! But I pretty much have a different strategy for certain QBs and for certain offenses I go up against..

[Foxtrot2873]

Quote: Originally Posted by mjhyankees

wow...how often teams blitz.....I don't know if I could access that info somewhere very easily. I know I blitz 33% of the time at most and when I do I prefer zone coverages to man. Also unclear...I'm assuming you are talking about GIVING UP big plays, not getting them. Do you play on all madden? At 0 I found it better than 50 but thought that it gave too much advantage to speed guys. Many like it there though. Try 25-30. I've settled in there very comfortably and big plays are far less (still a LITTLE too much for my taste). ARe they big runs or passes? I tend to give up the big pass. Lowering cpu break tackle helped stop cpu big plays. I had way too many plays where a guy catches a ball over the middle, 3-4 guys hit him and bounce off and away he runs. With my btk so low I still get the power backs running over me...just not every WR as well. Some guys like the cpu bkt high but I think they are just so advanced that they NEED the cpu RB to be superman. I'm really happy with it low. To be fair I don't "truck" alot with my guys either. Watch an NFL games, guys don't break 2-3 tackles every play. Most of the time they go down with the first defender who has a solid shot at them. You also have a quandry similar to Delta and Jarrod. You feel like certain aspects of the game are not realistic with your current games, yet adjusting them may make it too easy for you. Probably need to just be a bit more conservative on D, both in blitzing and maybe moving your secondary off the line, at least on passing downs. I find it great when the cpu constantly takes long drives on me. I hate him hitting 3-4 big plays too win. I much prefer him to control the ball. So I play NOT to give up the big play. Post your tackling question on that thread. I'll do my best to answer and others may benefit as well. Ciao

Not quite sure where you wanted me to post my questions, but I'll answer here and then once I figure it out I'll question there too.

I went out to try and find the answer myself on how often teams blitz. Well, I couldn't find a good answer, but I read an article somewhere (I think it was football outsiders) that mentioned a team blitzed a whole lot more than people considered the team to blitz, and that number was somewhere around 33% according to them. If that holds true, then that means you blitz a lot yourself. However, I don't know how often I blitz, probably right around a third of the time as well. I used to blitz a lot more in man, but now I've gotten back to running a 3-4 where in nickel sets the DE's become OLB, which make zone blitzes a lot more effective so long as I don't drop back DT's.

I with Delta, I don't ever feel like I can confuse the CPU, or trick them into reading my coverage wrong because I'm not sure how much reading of coverage the CPU does. From my brief stint with coach mode, I've felt like there was a definite progression though, where the QB looks to the designated receiver first, then to the next and the next and the next. That's why I think I see a receiver be covered a first, but then get wide open. However the QB doesn't throw the ball because he's already moved on in his progressions. Now while I don't think you can confuse a CPU, the CPU does start to recognize the play call if you continue the same play over and over, and at the very least adjusts to you if you begin to run the ball at nauseam.

I tend to actually get the most big plays, but a lot of times it really depends on the game. Most of the time, I feel like I get several big plays early, and then I end up really playing conservatively and playing nice. the rest. Drag routes over the middle in man coverage can earn me twenty yards if the defender isn't fast. Post routes against cover 2 if I get the protection can be pretty easy to pull off sometimes. (Again, my quarterback and players act differently game by game). Cross routes against cover 3 to a fast player means that if I hit him in the hole, he makes a quick cut up field and the defenders seem to stop for a second and most of the time are left in the dust because of it.

If I give up a big play, its typically in the passing game, but if I get the lead early, I tend to also snag more INT than I feel like I should. the CPU tends to throw more, and I feel like at that point the CPU is more likely to try to force it (especially down field, even early in the game).

So I'm guessing I'm just playing to aggressively with my part on defense, but I still get pretty good D against teams with the Broncos which just feels wrong. But maybe I'm just smarter than Josh McDaniels and company? I think I'll try lowering my WR catch slightly, and test things out in practice mode. If need be, I think I'll raise the CPU INT, or possibly the CPu pass rush. I need to see how much time I'm getting in the pocket. Doesn't feel like much, but I'll see.

I play on all madden with sliders with 0 threshold. Everything is fine but still too many big plays.