Madden 10 Tips - Need Help

[LiteJohnny]

Don't flame please, but I'm lost. Mostly defense though. I need some passing and running tips on when, and how to stop them. When do I blitz? When do I play man or zone coverage? I need some good logic and tips. Don't really know how to be specific about it, really. Says it all right there.

I love Madden, but I need to learn how to play defense effectively. Please help.

[marcus82]

gotta be more specific kid. no one is gonna help you with such a generic question.

[Duswim09]

You really need to be able to read what the offense is doing, then use formation audibles/hot routes to change on fly...this well help a lot. Do you watch football at all? This will help a bit. Also depends on what team you are playing.
However, I would say watch for runs early (obviously), 4 d linemen a plus. Answering question regarding blitzing, best to do this when you believe they will be running a long pattern, if they are doing a short pass you will get burned....I like to bring extra men, usually from the outside..SS blitz good to manually use.
That being said, justin tuck is a beast on the giants...especially after the first patch came out, I easily got 25 sacks and season is not even over. (Helped going against rookie RT on redskins) In 2nd year of Franchise.
Hope this helps, and like the other post said, post specifics and will be easier to help you

[Madden Head]

In general, if you are playing the 3-4, which I assume you are becasue you are a Dallas fan, just go to the "Call by play type" menu instead of the "by formation" and look for cover 3 and zone blitz. I can get into detail, but again, using general adivce, 3-4 defensive teams prefer to use the cover three and cover three zone blitzes more than any other fashion. The Patriots over the last decade along with the Ravens, Steelers and Chargers are the best 3-4 teams in the NFL. All of them except the Chargers prefer to use a lot of cover three zone blitzes to apply pressure. The chargers have been a man blizt team, but that is becasue they have really good man coverage corners. Part of the problem isn't just Madden's inability to play man coverage, there just aren't very many good man coverage corners in the NFL honestly. As a result, teams tend to play a lot of zone and zone blitz, but they often do it out of the cover 1 and cover two unlike teams who use the 3-4 base scheme.

So just pick plays of that style and keep in mind the personell they other team has on the field and try to match it most of the time. 1 or 2 WRS mean use your base, 3WRs means you should try nickle and 4 or 5 WRs means you should try dime or quarters. I tend to keep my 3-4 base in agaisnt 3WR sets myself and sometimes even agaisnt 4 wide, but I have a scheme that allows me to do this. It's complicated. It works. It's also sim. It comes from watching Patriots and Steelers games I've recorded over time and watching a lot of ESPN to learn from real life. I love D.