Defensive assistance needed badly!

[UofMTigerFan]

Full disclosure: I am relatively new to the Madden franchise but have spent years playing the College game. Also, I am an older gamer with diminishing stick skills but understand defensive schemes and concepts.

I play on Xbox 360 and play as the Titans. I generally run 3-4 with man cover or cover 2 under. I will switch to nickel once the other player establishes that it is going to be a pass fest.

Here are my problems:

1.) Covering backs out of the backfield with my linebackers. The flats are eating me alive as well as the wheel routes. I spit the backers and even take the OL to contain but with no pressure the back gets open with relative ease. This is by far my biggest source of frustration.

2.) Pressure- feast or famine here. I get ZERO pressure with my front four. Got any suggestions?

3.) Interceptions- Many times I get to the ball, press Y and my DB or LB simply drop the ball. What would you suggest I do differently short of picking a better team?

Any defensive alignment, suggestions, or comments are greatly appreciated. I am getting discouraged watching the Chiefs dismantle my Titans with little impunity.

[R3NEGADE]

Welcome to madden 25 thats just how this game plays. You have to keep your o on the field to keep theirs off of it.

[Herbn]

@Renegade: He asks for help and that's the best you can come up with? Way to be completely useless.

The game will never play exactly how you want/think it should out of the box. You're going to have to tweak a few things under the hood. The answer to all of your problems starts (and probably ends) with the sliders.

There's a section for sliders on here, so look around there and find a set that you think is suitable to your skill level/style. You're likely going to have to tweak those even further to get them to a point where the game plays how you want it to.

1. Turn up PD reaction time and pass coverage. Also, if you're playing cover 2, then control one of the safeties and double team the back or cut his route off.
2. Turn CPU pass blocking down.
3. Turn up player interceptions.

Also, you need to switch up your defensive calls. You don't want to be too predictable.

[seahawks13]

Quote: Originally Posted by UofMTigerFan

Full disclosure: I am relatively new to the Madden franchise but have spent years playing the College game. Also, I am an older gamer with diminishing stick skills but understand defensive schemes and concepts. I play on Xbox 360 and play as the Titans. I generally run 3-4 with man cover or cover 2 under. I will switch to nickel once the other player establishes that it is going to be a pass fest. Here are my problems: 1.) Covering backs out of the backfield with my linebackers. The flats are eating me alive as well as the wheel routes. I spit the backers and even take the OL to contain but with no pressure the back gets open with relative ease. This is by far my biggest source of frustration. 2.) Pressure- feast or famine here. I get ZERO pressure with my front four. Got any suggestions? 3.) Interceptions- Many times I get to the ball, press Y and my DB or LB simply drop the ball. What would you suggest I do differently short of picking a better team? Any defensive alignment, suggestions, or comments are greatly appreciated. I am getting discouraged watching the Chiefs dismantle my Titans with little impunity.

1) Cover 2 would be probably be the best. Or really any zone with a CB covering the flat. The best way I've found to stop a pass is to time the hit on the receiver. Most HB's catch in traffic is low, so if you're guy is close enough to the HB as he is about to catch it, they will drop it.

2) Most successful blitzes in M25 and all Maddens against the computer is favoring one side. Find a blitz that favors the left or right. Then shift your D-Line out or towards that side. Then manually use one of the LB's to either find the open gap or to occupy one of the linemen to allow the MLB or OLB through the hole.

3) Yah this is unfortunate. There is a timing with the Y button, you need to hold it down well before the ball arrives. However this will not cure it 100%, there are just simply not a whole lot of interceptions unless you get a DB will a high catch rating. You'd have to ugprade them with the XP as your progress though the season.

Good luck.

[R3NEGADE]

Quote: Originally Posted by Herbn

snip

Missed that he's on franchise my awesome advice was directed to playing H2H

[nekolas]

Quote: Originally Posted by UofMTigerFan

play as the Titans. I generally run 3-4 with man cover or cover 2 under. 1.) Covering backs out of the backfield with my linebackers. The flats are eating me alive as well as the wheel routes. I spit the backers and even take the OL to contain but with no pressure the back gets open with relative ease. This is by far my biggest source of frustration. 2.) Pressure- feast or famine here. I get ZERO pressure with my front four. Got any suggestions? 3.) Interceptions- Many times I get to the ball, press Y and my DB or LB simply drop the ball. What would you suggest I do differently short of picking a better team? Any defensive alignment, suggestions, or comments are greatly appreciated. I am getting discouraged watching the Chiefs dismantle my Titans with little impunity.

I know you mention suggestions of not picking another team, but I just have to throw it out there that Titans for now very much is not a great defensive madden team IMO. And it seems offense to some extend is quite easier in M25, so you will obviously have some trouble on D, at least against okay madden players

1) With that being said, I personally would almost never run man coverage in 3-4. TEs already have an incredible easy time when covered by a LB, so often I would actually like to have a CB on their #1 TE (especially if he is a fast one). And if the other team comes out with minimum 3 WRs, then I will definitely never run man cov in 3-4 and let a LB cover an WR. I also refrain from cover 2 as well, as that often allows for an easy 10-20 yards on streak routes, and a TD if the safety on top is slow and bad at pursuit. When I man D, I often control the guy covering the HB, and manual cover him on his route (allows for quick reaction on screens too), and if he stays blocking you can use it as extra cover on middle or TE.

2) So far not much to do. It seems they made sacking numbers with only front 3 or 4 somewhat more "realistic" in numbers. So you now have to blitz to get fast pressure, and 3 or 4 mostly only works for coverage sacks. So if you dont have good coverage, 4 guys only will not get you many sacks. It is dangerous because it is a risk to send the blitz, can allow for a long TD over the middle in man cov blitz, and easy first down on zone blitz if read correctly. In online franchise you can kind of make the risk smaller by fx upping man cover on your safeties and stuff. I have yet to test it, but for online franchise you could probably also make a beasty DL to get good pressure without blitz. I had a 90+ str/spd/acc/power move DE in M13 which allowed for it, but yeah, dont know yet if it will work in M25

3) M25 seems to make user INTs drop more compared to M13, again probably to make it more "realistic" statistically. Not much to do then to keep trying for it. Even with good catching DBs like thomas, sherman and browner on hawks, they often drop picks

^all comments are just my personal opinion, but hope it maybe can help you

[UofMTigerFan]

Thanks all for the tips. I plan on trying some of them tonight.

One final question, would you consider changing the defensive front and/or playbooks? if so, what formation would you choose and whose playbook?

[friscob]

Quote: Originally Posted by UofMTigerFan

Here are my problems: 1.) Covering backs out of the backfield with my linebackers. The flats are eating me alive as well as the wheel routes. I spit the backers and even take the OL to contain but with no pressure the back gets open with relative ease. This is by far my biggest source of frustration. 2.) Pressure- feast or famine here. I get ZERO pressure with my front four. Got any suggestions? 3.) Interceptions- Many times I get to the ball, press Y and my DB or LB simply drop the ball. What would you suggest I do differently short of picking a better team? Any defensive alignment, suggestions, or comments are greatly appreciated. I am getting discouraged watching the Chiefs dismantle my Titans with little impunity.

1. My base D is cover 3 out of the 3-4. User control the SS who watches the flats. Getting a LB in man coverage against a back is almost always bad news unless it's an elite LB like Willis, Kuechley, etc. Just try and keep every play in front of you and force the offense to put together a long drive. Every defense has its weaknesses but by running this and controlling the SS you can have an 8th man in the box every play as well as take away half the field for passes.

2. Dual edge pressure out of the 3-4 works great if you have good OLB's. There are lots of good blitzes like this. Pinch cover 0 is a high risk/high reward blitz and gap press out of the solid 3-4 work really well.

3. This bothers me too. There are lots of times where i'm in perfect position but he won't do anything.

Oh and from one Zou fan to another... heartbreaking loss