So what's the point of defense in this game?

[Blue Ninja]

I've seen all the flaws on defense in the game compared to real life football. Pursuit is at times just horrible. Defenders covering air as I mentioned before. They don't spill the ball carrier correctly, everyone is fearless and even little corners will take on big bruising back face to face and try to make a tackle every time instead of trying to just force him to where the pursuit is coming from or hold him up for the second guy to come strip the ball. You can forget about over-under technique and such except for 2 man under. They definitely don't use the sideline defending against the pass. Pass rusher at the line of scrimmage has no burst off the snap. No clue on how to time the blitz. They show the coverage way too early pre-snap. You can completely forget about the gap assignment or all the technique upfront. 0 or 3 technique, they do the same thing. Can't play match up by having certain receivers be shadowed by certain corners and forced to play sides and etc. Those are just what I can think of on top of my head.

But there are many flaws on offense as well. Lack of double team option at the LOS. Lack of option routes, the ones in the game doesn't even work properly. No hot reads. You see a CB's back so you throw the ball, suddenly he reacts and pick the ball off more often than not. Can't throw the ball away by throwing near the intended receiver to avoid intentional grounding which results in picks or sacks. Too many times 2 or 3 blockers completely miss one defender in an open field. Almost everyone on defense can hit hard and knock the ball out too often. Flankers will get pressed just as effectively as split ends despite a little extra cushion between him and the cover defender. Pump fake or double move doesn't work as much as it should even if it is set up well. PA, although it has improved a bit, still doesn't work the way it should. On deep balls, clearly receivers don't know how to catch the ball at the highest point. They don't adjust to deep balls to shield defenders which result in many under thrown balls. Too often defenders are aware of exactly where the ball is without having to see it even when he's beat on deep routes without receivers extending his arms to reach for the ball. Ball carriers getting sucked into arm tackles or get taken down by his own blockers too often. No ability to find soft spot in zone coverage. OLs doesn't know how many drop backs his QB is taking(specially on quick passes. Too many times I see DTs come through free.). And of course the RT glitch(although it's avoidable for the most part by stepping up but still too effective) and such. I'm sure there more.

I agree with offensive side of the ball is favored in the game over all. But it's not as one sided as many people claim in my opinion. You could be pretty effective on defense. Especially with some tweaks to sliders setting and rules.

[baller7345]

Quote: Originally Posted by Big FN Deal

I don't want to direct this at anyone, so let me ask this in general. To people that claim they are able to play effective realistic defense in M13, would you mind elaborating? IMO, if anyone is referring to doing all manner of presnap adjustments, essentially drawing up whole new plays at the LOS, that is fundamentally unrealistic. I don't pretend or profess to be some deep football strategist but even a layman like myself knows, that the things I see being done for a defense to be effective in M13, is unrealistic. Aside from the preplay adjustments, the switch User control with the ability to override some ratings is unrealistic too. Maybe I am being to technical and I do understand this is a video game but with so many fundamentally unrealistic aspects to playing defense in M13, I just don't get how anyone that is able to be defensively effective, can tout it as being realistically so.

It doesn't help the EA hasn't given us proper concepts or consistently correct concept on both offense and defense. For instance take Smash, its suppose to have the WR running the 7 route cut after 12 yards but a large amount of the Smash concepts in the game cut the route off 2 yards short. This applies to defense too, from simply drawing the concept up wrong (2-4-5 Cross Fire 3 Seam has the ILB crossing in reverse meaning that the crosser supposed to bring pressure as they have it drawn up is running at 2 offensive linemen (the Center and the Tackle)) to having containment rush angles on zone blitzes executed horribly wrong which in return makes them ineffective a lot of the time.

Also due to EA's fear/overreaction of the nano blitz the psychic line play (which includes automatically slide protecting some stock blitzes unless you change an interior rusher to a contain assignment...???) has forced players to play by EAs rules in order to get real life blitz concepts to work (to get your standard overload to work [3 rushers versus the guard and tackle] you have to make sure the center blocks air or some offensive lineman will zip in to block it regardless of the offensive players offensive line calls).

Finally EA has made a game (its been this way for years now) that forces you to be the brains behind all 11 players on the field. You have to micromanage them and tell them what to do if you want them to play their assignment properly. If you want your defender to cover that out route that has been torching you all game you have to tell him to do exactly that, ratings will only take you so far. If he has the ratings to actually do what you tell him then you will see positive results, if he doesn't then he struggles. The players themselves never adjust because the game has a set of techniques that each type of coverage plays when you call it at the play call screen and if you want a different result Madden leaves it up to the user to get their hands dirty and tell their players to do that. All man coverage is playing the inside shoulder by default if you want them to play the outside shoulder then you have to change their shading. 2 Man Under plays a default trail technique while it can play a squat technique if you back off the coverage, Cover 1 and Cover 0 plays play a default bail technique (to avoid a big play) and if you want something else from you're players you have to tell them to do that. EA has made the game so that you as a user has to be the brains of their players, those players may have individual strengths and weaknesses but they won't take advantage of them unless the user tells them to.

[youALREADYknow]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

The biggest point of frustration for me in Madden right now on the defensive side of the ball is the lack of options. There simply aren't enough on defense. To throw out some ideas - I want to be able to easily assign who plays nickel back in my five-DB sets. I want to easily be able to set up third down pressure personnel packages, 3rd down coverage linebackers, and other situational substitutions which right now in-game are reserved for the offensive side of the ball unless one fumbles through the clumsy formation substitutions interface. I want to be able to have my shutdown cornerback trail one particular receiver the entire game. I want to be able to choose if my outside cornerbacks play best-on-best - determining their assigned receivers dynamically as they break the huddle depending on how the offense lines up - or stick to the currently-available weakside/strongside assignments. I want to be able to set who on my front plays weakside and strongside at end and linebacker, rather than just left and right. I want to be able to disguise my coverage pre-snap with a variety of different alignments. I agree with the point that it is possible to play defense on this game if one pays particular attention to the ratings and is familiar with one's opponent. However, I also think that playing defense is harder than it needs to be, because the preparation and presnap options available to users in Madden all favor the offense in their number and utility right now.

+1 to All of the above.

Presnap adjustments are a must in this game, but currently have too much significance because of the lack of other configuration options.

[Inferno2ss]

It is pretty simple, you either get a turnover or you get scored on. No in between with Madden.

[youALREADYknow]

Quote: Originally Posted by Inferno2ss

It is pretty simple, you either get a turnover or you get scored on. No in between with Madden.

Garbage in, garbage out.

Most players play reckless on both sides of the ball instead of conservative and that's what results in the quoted outcome.

There's also no excuse to leave sliders on defaults in Online CCM since we have those options available.

[BTownSlinger]

Quote: Originally Posted by youALREADYknow

Garbage in, garbage out. Most players play reckless on both sides of the ball instead of conservative and that's what results in the quoted outcome. There's also no excuse to leave sliders on defaults in Online CCM since we have those options available.

This.

When was the last time you played someone who realized it's tough to put up points so they took care of the ball and worked for field goal range at times?

If you play to score 6 on every play then yes, you'll either get lucky and score or turn the ball over. Play for first downs, feel the defense out, take a shot down field when it feels right. If you keep getting first downs eventually you'll find yourself in the redzone. You'll also be controlling the clock better than your Hail Mary opponent.

[PacMan3000]

The defense is really flawed in this game. Can we get a Madden game where, when you hit the "jump" button, defenders (and WR's for that matter) consistently always, you know, jump?

In 2013, that is not too much to ask for.

[californ14]

For a solid defense you really do have to micro-manage the whole team....Which online or even against the CPU is impossible, or it seems to me....Maybe the simple fix would be to give defense more time to adjust? But that would remove the ability to "no huddle" or run a fast paced offense which is a part of football too....I guess really EA/Tiburon need to work on making a better defense, as well as offense, by getting the fundamentals correct.....