Lost my confidence

[Franchise408]

So I'm feeling kind of stuck with Madden right now - sort of hopeless.

I'm in a 32 man league, and it's been great fun. Last year's game was my first year in it, and we get through about 5 seasons. I started with the Cardinals, but started the 2nd season with the 49ers and finished it out with them. I didn't legitimately make the playoffs once. What I mean by that is - technically, I did make the playoffs our final year. But because the release of Madden 25 was approaching, we simulated about half the season to get to the playoffs. So I got into the playoffs in a season that was halfway simmed, and went one and done. The slight confidence boost was that I was doing really well in the games that I had played.

Then comes Madden 25. Before we officially kicked off our league, we had a little community scrimmage tournament, which I won. It wasn't a bracket, but points were given for wins compared to games played, and overall I had one of the higher win percentages. It gave me a confidence boost going into the season.

We started the year, and of course I'm the 49ers again. Season starts slow, a 3 game losing streak followed a win in the season opener, but I was able to bounce back and get myself back into the mix as one of the top teams in the league.

Statistically, I was great. I had the #1 rushing offense in our league. I was the highest scoring team in the NFC, 2nd highest scoring team in the entire league, and an overall top 5 offense. While my passing game was a bit more lackluster, it was still efficient, I had well over a 2:1 TD:INT ratio, and with Colin Kaepernick I had the highest QB rating of all long term starters in the league.

But I finished 9-7, missed the playoffs, and had a 2-4 division record.

And that's what makes me feel "helpless", as described in the title. When I look at what needs improvement, obviously there's always room, but there's not much better I could have done. Top 5 offense, top rushing offense, 2nd highest scoring team, and a top rated passer.

Obviously, the problem would have to come on defense. Which was my problem. Despite having the 49ers, my defense was horrible.

And I don't know how to fix it. In even the least little bit. We play in a pretty casual league. We're competitive, but casual. We don't freestyle or tourney style game. We try to be sim, but not hardcore sim nazi's. A casual sim league.

But I don't know how to fix my defense. Even when I'm trying to be smart, and even when I AM smart and call the right plays, and even have my defenders in the right place, it seems like I don't get the breaks.

I'll have a defensive back undercut a route, but the ball goes through / past the defender, and into the receiver. I had an instance where I forced a fumble, with about 5 of my players around the ball, and not one opponent, but none of my players made an attempt to grab the ball, either just stood there or ran around in circles, until an opponent got it. I lost that game and got knocked out of the playoffs in what ended up being a one possession game. My defenders don't react when they are in perfect position to make a play on the ball.

My run defense was awesome. But my passing defense was about worst in the league, and I know with the 49ers I should be better than that. I can't generate a pass rush even with the high rated players I have, a blitz is just a death sentence to get beat deep.

I'm literally at a loss right now. Nobody in my division ended worse than 9-7. By far the best division in our league. I feel like I'm playing by a different set of rules than my division opponents. They OWN me. Like I said, I barely went 2-4 in the division. And it's usually because I can't get a damned stop to save my life.

I'm at a loss - does anyone know of some good defensive schemes or strategies that work? Because I don't wanna go through another year of never making a playoff appearance.

[plurMADN3SS]

Awareness and play recognition make your players play smarter and don't allow you to always have to worry about what the other 10 players on your side of the field are doing. They will have their hands in the right place, they will make the right route and/or route read, take the right angle to the ball etc. etc. everyone gets caught up in speed, hit power, man coverage and those "glamour" stats, but a smart team of players is gonna make your job a lot easier


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JaymeeAwesome]

Do you let the AI control your D or do you play one of the positions?

[Franchise408]

Quote: Originally Posted by plurMADN3SS

Awareness and play recognition make your players play smarter and don't allow you to always have to worry about what the other 10 players on your side of the field are doing. They will have their hands in the right place, they will make the right route and/or route read, take the right angle to the ball etc. etc. everyone gets caught up in speed, hit power, man coverage and those "glamour" stats, but a smart team of players is gonna make your job a lot easier Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Does it really work that way? I've heard a few different theories to that, from what you're saying, across the board to awareness doesn't matter.

If it does work, then I will certainly work towards pumping awareness.

Quote: Originally Posted by jaymee13

Do you let the AI control your D or do you play one of the positions?

I play one of the positions. Typically, I play a safety. In the case of the 49ers, Eric Reid. He has high enough agility and acceleration that I can use him to switch directions and cover receivers that come open. I've made plays doing this, and given up plays I otherwise wouldn't have doing this, but when I give up the big play, I own that and can't blame the game.

I traded for Charles Woodson before our season started and let the AI control him since he's good enough that I can trust the AI controlled Woodson. The results were he led the league in INT's on the year.

And once the ball is in the air, I typically swap to the defender in coverage to try and make a play on the ball.

For the record, I did get into the playoffs. How, I don't know. The Vikings had the best conference record of all the 9-7 teams that were contending, but for some reason it gave me the playoff spot.

[ATLBrayden]

The playbook you use can have a huge impact on how you play also. I tried playing with the Steelers defensive book and struggled greatly, then the next game I went back to my traditional Seahawks book and dominated because I knew what to use. Study the game and learn what works best for you. I usually go 11-5 in all of my CFM but have maxed out at 13-3, both of these records pretty much guaranteeing a playoff spot.

Also, you may already know this, but see what formation your opponent is in before you call your plays. If your opponent is in 3TE, 2 RB set you don't want to be in a dime look because you need your LBs on the field to stop the run.

If your opponent is in 5WR set you don't want to be in a nickel look because if they have quality receivers your LBs are going to struggle in coverage unless they're rated highly.

Mix up the game with different calls, use zone and man coverage, make sure to adjust coverage such as putting short blue CBs into a curl to flat route to provide better coverage in the flats, or leave them in short blue to help with the screen. (Here's what I mean with short blue, forgot the coverage name, but the two outermost CBs are in it: http://madden-school.americanmicropu...ver-2-nano.png)

Also, cover key players on the offense. If you're playing a team with Jimmy Graham, don't let your linebacker go one-on-one with him because he'll never win. Instead, bring a Safety up and have him double cover JG.
One way you can effectively double cover an opponent is move up the original defender so he is in press coverage (ex: the Linebacker), and put the secondary defender 10 yards back to cover him from snap to release (ex: the Safety).

Does the offense have a scrambling QB? Put at least one player into a QB Spy call, you could also send another into a QB Contain call which helps if the QB has some speed.

If the opponent has a serious receiving core, don't send both Safeties into double coverage, because that leaves the one-on-one deep ball wide open, and if they have a player like Desean Jackson or Percy Harvin they'll be sure to hit it.

Here's a link I saved to help me out:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Madden/comme...hought/cc2jvzq

Edit: And remember, these are real people you're playing against so don't get to down about losing, 9-7 is still a winning record even if it isn't a playoff record. With 9-7 you're two, heck maybe even one game away from making the playoffs, you're RIGHT THERE on the verge of making it man.
Edit 2: If you DO make it into the playoffs with a 9-7 record (which I saw you did), that's great. Don't forget that you are playing THE best of the best in the playoffs, so even making it there is a feat in itself.

[Franchise408]

Thanks Braden, appreciate that post and some good stuff in there. A lot of it I do do already, but it's worth looking at.

And yea I did get into the playoffs, although I don't think I was supposed to as I didn't have the best conference record of all the teams fighting for that final spot. I think Madden used the wrong tie breakers to put me in. But at the very least, I legitimized my spot by winning my wild card round game, so that was a bit of a confidence booster. Especially since I beat someone who I've never been able to beat in league play going back to last year.

Next up I'll be facing one of our league's best owners in the Bears. That's definitely going to be a challenge for me.

And, although despite not being the proper team to get into the playoffs, a part of me happily accepts it because I feel I got jobbed during the season. One opponent, I had beaten, but our game disconnected late in the 4th quarter (I can assure you it wasn't my opponent's doing), and I gave him the courtesy of a complete restart, which he won. That same opponent didn't give me the same courtesy later in the year when we played again, and we disconnected with him ahead this time. So I feel like I lost out on a game that I should have had.

But my lost confidence comes mostly from my division. It's the best division in our league, nobody finished worse than 9-7, I was only 2-4 in the division, and a couple of the other 9-7's in the division had some games on auto pilot that they lost because the CPU controlled them. If they didn't have auto pilot games, I don't come anywhere close to getting into the playoffs in this division.

[cq.noble]

This isn't a perfect "fix" for your defense, and I don't know all of your house rules, some may call it cheese but IMHO it isn't. Mostly on account of you see college and pro teams (high school teams for that matter) do it every single week, and that is; control the clock.

As a lifelong Colts fan (born and raised in Indy) teams (the smart ones anyway) always tried to beat Peyton Manning by keeping him off the field. In fact during those glory years it was about the only way to beat him.

But what they did was take advantage of the Colts awful run D and shove it down our throats, waiting until 01 on the play clock to snap the ball, every time.

If you lead the league in rushing and your O is top 5, you shouldn't have a problem controlling time of possession. IF you control TOP, and have a high scoring % on drives it does a few things, namely it makes the other team one dimensional. They will have to pass to try to win. Also it ultimately keeps the games closer. If you have a couple drives that end with FG's instead of TD's but you've eaten 20 minutes of the 1st half off the clock it means that the other guy's chances to score have dropped off a cliff.

On the other hand if you kick the same 2 field goals but you take a total of 5 minutes of the 1st half to do it, you're giving the other team all the time in the world to do anything they want to do and more opportunities to score.

Another benefit is that you can better control who has the ball last. If you eat clock, the score is likely to be closer and if it comes down to the last drive, with your top 5 O, I would feel better with them on the field than any defense anyway.

This is an easy way to improve your defense without actually improving any of your defense.

Implement some of the things the guys above me said and try going into games with a solid, simple game plan and don't abandon it until it becomes obvious that you have to.

PS. I also like to set the tone early. I like to receive the opening kick. Most of the time my opponents are so frustrated/impatient they throw three straight deep passes and give it right back.

[ajra21]

I do this. I try to have one quarter in which my opponent doesn't touch the ball. I've perfected the 12 minute, 80 yard drive. It isn't "cheesing", it's a skill.