Madden NFL 10 Blog: 2nd Title Update Preliminary Details

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by baseballsim

The flats don't work even if you don't blitz. If I play cover 3 and someone dumps the ball to the flats they will more than likely get a good gain unless I user a DE to cover that side.

Generally, the linebackers aren't fast enough to get over to their outside flat zones. Play Cover 2 and you'll do a much better job taking away the flats.

[baseballsim]

There's a problem with the flats in Cover 2 and Cover 3 - I thought. It's the blue zone.

[BroMontana82]

For post patch, do we know if anything is being done to address the CPU all out blitz? Also, what about more realistic play calling - there needs to be less passing.

Yes, we can adjust the Coach Sliders but in order to do this, you need to control all of the teams...which eliminates CPU trades. That leads to my last question...if we do control all of the teams and then switch everything such as signing FAs to the CPU except for 1 team, will there be a fix so that the CPU makes trades??

[Valdarez]

Did they disable the comments on this blog? It has 0 comments last time I checked.

[Tick32]

Quote: Originally Posted by Swingking77

Quite frankly, I think everything works fine... Where I think the problem lies for nearly every single guy that I've played online with the flats, screen, and slants, is that none of these guys knows how to play proper defence. I've now played at least 15 guys who do nothing but monster blitz every single play... So to counter I run slants and screens. That's just basic football... If the blitzing were less effective, people would result to playing proper D and other players would likely end up playing other plays then the screen and slant routes... Vikings, Cowboys, Giants, Ravens + Mixed D at the selection screen = blitz crazy guys who don't know D other then the blitz, which = smart players playing the screen and slants. Guess what, if you look at the Eagles in the playoffs for the past three years, they've been beat every single time by these plays because they played stupid blitzing D almost all of the time... I just hope that if they address the flats that they don't make it impossible for players to get away from the cheese that is monster blitz because a blitzing LB will now know to break off his blitz to cover the flats... Everyone wants sim football. Myself for one, am overjoyed at this year's game thus far. But guess what, sim means getting beat if you only use one play against guys who know football's basic rules of play...

well i run cover 3's and 2's and the flats are always open. and also they need to fix the pursuit angles in the patch. ive won 3 games recently on defense alone. i felt like the 2000 ravens. 6 touchdowns and only 1 was on offense. becuz its to ez to return picks for touchdowns, becuz the offense takes the worst angles ever. Also regarding the cover 3 issue. I recently asked my bro to let me borrow is ESPN 2K5. i tried throwing to flats on cover 3. if it wasnt block, it was picked off every time. Which is how madden should be.

[STLRams]

Wow I can't believe the 2nd Madden patch isn't out yet. 2K just submitted a patch to Sony/MS about a week maybe 2weeks ago and that patch is already about to come out tomorrow. What's up approving the Madden10 2nd patch.

[Swingking77]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tick32

well i run cover 3's and 2's and the flats are always open. and also they need to fix the pursuit angles in the patch. ive won 3 games recently on defense alone. i felt like the 2000 ravens. 6 touchdowns and only 1 was on offense. becuz its to ez to return picks for touchdowns, becuz the offense takes the worst angles ever. Also regarding the cover 3 issue. I recently asked my bro to let me borrow is ESPN 2K5. i tried throwing to flats on cover 3. if it wasnt block, it was picked off every time. Which is how madden should be.

Alright... Just to make things clear, cover 2 only refers to where the safeties play. They play 2 deep zones. Cover 3 means that you're now releasing a DB to play a 3rd deep zone... None of these mean that you should have anyone in the flats, so saying the generic cover 2 and cover 3 will stop the flats is false. The Cover 2 and Cover three are simply terms used to describe the safety play. As an example look at the generic Cover 2 in the 43, you'll notice that the two DBs are playing a flats zone, somewhat, and they should be playing a press, which to the best of my knowledge, it looks as though they are. This should slow down a screen just fine, it does for me and I generally play as a DE or DT to start. But it doesn't STOP it, it slows it down. Cover 2 Man Press works better to stop the screen, but it leaves the WRs a bit less covered.

Then if we go to a generic Cover 3, we see that the DBs are now dropping out into deeper zones, while the LBs cover the flats somewhat. The problem is that these are LBs and not generally the best cover guys, so it's a toss up if it works or not... The best bet to beat the screen is Man Press, or Cover 2 with the additional press before the snap. That and being aware enough to know that if it looks like you're getting to the QB to easy that you're getting set up for a screen should be all you need.

After that, there are all kind of containment plays in the 43 defence... I think most playbooks have over 30 plays in there. The containment options are all there, but you have to know your playbook to know what works and what doesn't...

But to simply throw out Cover 2 and Cover 3 is rather funny since they're just generic terms used to again describe the Safety play. As an example, you can have the Dime Cover 2, where the flats are covered, or you can have the Buccs/Bears Cover 2 with the MLB dropping back into a deep zone. But in the end, they're all cover two plays because of the safety play... Just like Quarters means that All DBs are dropping back splitting the secondary into 4 parts...

So with all of that being said, a known issue with the 2k series was that the screen passes didn't work at all since the only way you could get the ball to your back was to lob the ball to him... Trust me on this one, if you look up my other posts you'll see that I'm a huge 2K5 fan, but I admit where there were issues in the game. And when you add in the fact that the screens didn't work, and that they set up their cover 2 a little different, it isn't even a fair issue to discuss.

This entire "screens plays work too well" is all spurred from people playing poor D and exploiting the insane blitz plays in this game, resulting in players simply throwing short... End of story on that... If there were things that could be done against the blitz other then short passes then players would do it, but if you do anything more then slants and screens you get sacked... A lot of the time I see online guys play blitz for two or three downs and expect that like magic, the only time they play a zone or man, they're going to get what they're after. It's a joke and shows how many players rely on the blitz... Because 9/10 if you play against a player who doesn't know how to counter the blitz you're getting your sack. Logic like that results in players expecting that 9/10 times that they play a zone they'll stop everything that comes their way which isn't sim or realistic... It's just sad.

I'm not a huge Madden guy... I'm no genious, but I know football.

P.S. Also, as an issue for the 2K5, 2K allowed you to move your DBs in or out, as well as up or back, which would help, but that's not in this game, so it can't be used as a fix for this year...

[ZoneKIller]

Quote: Originally Posted by Swingking77

Alright... Just to make things clear, cover 2 only refers to where the safeties play. They play 2 deep zones. Cover 3 means that you're now releasing a DB to play a 3rd deep zone... None of these mean that you should have anyone in the flats, so saying the generic cover 2 and cover 3 will stop the flats is false. The Cover 2 and Cover three are simply terms used to describe the safety play. As an example look at the generic Cover 2 in the 43, you'll notice that the two DBs are playing a flats zone, somewhat, and they should be playing a press, which to the best of my knowledge, it looks as though they are. This should slow down a screen just fine, it does for me and I generally play as a DE or DT to start. But it doesn't STOP it, it slows it down. Cover 2 Man Press works better to stop the screen, but it leaves the WRs a bit less covered. Then if we go to a generic Cover 3, we see that the DBs are now dropping out into deeper zones, while the LBs cover the flats somewhat. The problem is that these are LBs and not generally the best cover guys, so it's a toss up if it works or not... The best bet to beat the screen is Man Press, or Cover 2 with the additional press before the snap. That and being aware enough to know that if it looks like you're getting to the QB to easy that you're getting set up for a screen should be all you need. After that, there are all kind of containment plays in the 43 defence... I think most playbooks have over 30 plays in there. The containment options are all there, but you have to know your playbook to know what works and what doesn't... But to simply throw out Cover 2 and Cover 3 is rather funny since they're just generic terms used to again describe the Safety play. As an example, you can have the Dime Cover 2, where the flats are covered, or you can have the Buccs/Bears Cover 2 with the MLB dropping back into a deep zone. But in the end, they're all cover two plays because of the safety play... Just like Quarters means that All DBs are dropping back splitting the secondary into 4 parts... So with all of that being said, a known issue with the 2k series was that the screen passes didn't work at all since the only way you could get the ball to your back was to lob the ball to him... Trust me on this one, if you look up my other posts you'll see that I'm a huge 2K5 fan, but I admit where there were issues in the game. And when you add in the fact that the screens didn't work, and that they set up their cover 2 a little different, it isn't even a fair issue to discuss. This entire "screens plays work too well" is all spurred from people playing poor D and exploiting the insane blitz plays in this game, resulting in players simply throwing short... End of story on that... If there were things that could be done against the blitz other then short passes then players would do it, but if you do anything more then slants and screens you get sacked... A lot of the time I see online guys play blitz for two or three downs and expect that like magic, the only time they play a zone or man, they're going to get what they're after is a joke and shows how many players rely on the blitz... Because 9/10 if you play against a player who doesn't know how to counter the blitz you're getting your sack. Logic like that results in players expecting that 9/10 times that they play a zone they'll stop everything that comes their way which isn't sim or realistic... It's just sad.

Thank You.

+10