The gap control defense, or, an Ode to Jimmy Johnson

[LBzrule]

Quote: Originally Posted by nuckles2k2

You have no idea how badly I want this.

I see huge complaints if they did it. The biggest one would be EA has taken control out of the users hands. However, it just gets pretty stupid to see guys bring their Safety down on the 2nd level of the defense and still get back and defend a streak on the perimeter. It's just dumb.

[TheShizNo1]

What do you mean by reblitz LB?

[LBzrule]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheShizNo1

What do you mean by reblitz LB?

Hot Blitz. A + Down on the R stick. Reblitz your DL because the default does not have gap control in mind. So you have to do the best you can and re-blitz them to charge straight ahead and then shift them to where you want them to attack. This is why if you have a good NT in 3-4 and do this, your NT will own the run game. Actually if you have anyone good over Center or shading the Center in 3-4 or 4-3 and re-blitz them to man that gap they will almost always win because most of the Centers in the game are weak. I just hate all the micromanaging you have to do.

[TheShizNo1]

Hmmm....ill have to look into this.

[sportyguyfl31]

Great post, and youre spot on correct LBz.

That's why Kris Jenkins was such an anchor for me.

No football game has ever gotten this right..APF made the best stab at it, but you still cant really see it consistantly, unless you manually control the MLB.

IN APF you can key the guard, and flow. If you have a stud DT or even better, 2..you can run free, and pursue sideline to sideline to sideline. If you call a gap stunt, you'll see the DL's run their stunts, and you flow with the play. You dont have to make every single play yourself. You can play your gap/assignment.

In Madden, you have to GO, because there isnt any real gap control. The user has to be good at taking away the running angles by himself, because he cant trust the rest of the front seven to control the LOS and react.

[CreatineKasey]

So, this is the kind of defense that would have DL running with the stretch play down the field horizontally to keep the gaps plugged I think? Pittsburgh does that really well in real life.

Can you expound on how some defenses use DL to control 2 gaps with one player? Is it something where you go head up on the center and just control him so well that you either double the NG and give up the A gap or don't go there at all?

Right now what's inherent in Madden is only the "penetration" attitude on defense I think? I'm just asking for contrast... and to kind of bring light to everyone why what we have right now isn't acceptable for a football sim.

If you had to implement both styles into one defense (which I'm sure is the case in real life depending on the play) could you implement it simply through playart or would you need to have a toggle or something to "switch schemes" from gap to penetration? It'd be pretty easy to implement by having just a button to push to swap the mindset for a play.

I'm obviously no expert on gap control schemes on defense, but I think some of these questions may help round out your argument for average readers like me as to why this would be so great to have in the game.

As far as re-blitzing goes, I almost always have to re-blitz my OLB's because in so many plays they crash in to the OT and can easily get hooked by a TE or blocked head up by the OT. Once they are blitzed straight down, they play their gap much better and contain the formation properly (I think).

Nice write-up!

[LBzrule]

It would be great and the best thing they can do to get a jump start is separate run behavior from coverage behavior. Until they do that, nothing like this is possible.

[Hova57]

Sven great job with this. explained great. it hopefully will help those who don't get responsibilities on defense when they want to manually control