What About The Defense?

[splff3000]

It seems like just about every blog that has come out has focused primarily on the offense. Sure things like gameflow and gameplan will work on defense, but they get mentioned kinda like an afterthought. In fact, in one of the previews I read, it said that the defensive side of gameflow/gameplan wasn't working right yet. Likewise, whenever they talk about locomotion, they talk RB's cutting and WR's running routes, never about LB's blitzing or CB's playing coverage or anything like that. What about the defense?

The defense was already underpowered compared to the offense because of all the options on offense and not enough options to counter those on defense. Where's the DB shading? Where are the assignments for individual DB's ie whether a single DB plays press or soft? Where's the depth control for LB's? It looks like defense is going to be an after thought again this year. If you look at the vids you can tell. Now I know the vids are played on rookie or pro or whatever, but look at those vids and tell me if you think the defense will be any different from last year. The offense will be, as they just announce realistic AI blocking for NCAA and Madden. What about Realistic AI Pass Rush or Realistic AI Coverage or Realistic AI Blitzing or realistic AI.......well you get the point.

As I mentioned earlier, gameplan/gameflow will work for the defense but it looks like it will be wholly inadequate. The problem is that real defenses don't call plays solely on formations. They go by tendencies as well. If the offense has been running the ball on every single down all the way down the field, the defense isn't going to come out in a nickle formation just because the offense comes out with 3 WR. They're going to stick to their base formation or even stack the box against the run even though the offense is in 3 WR. This is a problem with defensive gameplan. All it will do is see that the offense has 3 WR's and then pick a play out of the "3 WR" plays. It doesn't take into account the tendencies of the offense, so even though the offense has been running the ball on every down, the gameflow AI may pick a cover 4 or a cover 3 zone or something to protect against the pass because the offense has 3 WR's. What would have been better is if they combined formations with down and distance then you would have a more accurate play chosen for you.

Once again though, the defense get's the shaft. By now, if I have a dominate defense against a dominate offense, I should be able to dictate what happens in a play some of the time. As it is though, a dominate offense is severely more dominate that a dominate defense. It's because the defense always seems like it's an afterthought. What about the defense? I guess we'll have to wait until a defensive player is on the cover of Madden again before the defense get's any kind of attention.

I know there's still a few months until the game release but E3 is in June this year and let's be real, the game never changes that much from E3 to release date. Usually what you see at E3 is very close to what you'll see on release day. If you see a glitch in one of the vids during E3, there's a good chance that it'll be in the game in some form on release day. So, if you look at it like that there's only about a month and a half left. A month and a half left and still nothing specific to the defense. Looks like another year where the defense get's the shaft.

[Exonerated]

Nobody likes defense.

[kmart2180]

I LOVE DEFENSE!!!

[HeavyHitter55]

I don't know what Exonerated is talking about, but I love defense. I love to see and play defensive games. So I entirely agree with you. Last year it was far too easy to put up 30+ points (I even had some games in the 60s) against near All-Madden difficulty on my custom sliders. And on the flip side, my defense would struggle at times. So I would love to see fixed D-line blitzing, DB/WR interaction, etc. Like you said, maybe we need to wait for a defensive player to be back on the cover

[JerseySuave4]

defense? Theres defense in football?

I agree though, defense is an after thought in these games and i dont like the high scoring affairs. Especially being a defensive coordinator myself it bothers me that we really havent gotten a true 3-4 thats real to life. Defensive playbooks should be different from one another because all coaches run different forms of the same defenses with new wrinkles.

[splff3000]

Quote: Originally Posted by JerseySuave4

defense? Theres defense in football? I agree though, defense is an after thought in these games and i dont like the high scoring affairs. Especially being a defensive coordinator myself it bothers me that we really havent gotten a true 3-4 thats real to life. Defensive playbooks should be different from one another because all coaches run different forms of the same defenses with new wrinkles.

This. It seems like we've been playing with the same defensive playbooks for years. Nothing ever changes on defense. I remember watching a Titans game and hearing the announcer say that Jeff fisher said that they don't have a dime defense, so out of curiosity, I went and looked on Madden and sure enough, they had a dime defense. They had the exact same plays as everybody else that uses a 4-3. It's an after thought. It seems like every year the devs claim that they looked at all 32 teams formations or all 32 teams plays or whatever. When, in reality, they looked at all 32 teams offensive formations or all 32 teams offensive plays. You never hear anything about the D. That's another reason why gameplan/gameflow is gonna be messed up on defense. You can't call the real life plays that coaches call on D if you don't have the real life formations and real life plays in the playbook.

[Vaporub83]

What would make programming so difficult from a defensive standpoint is that there are sooooo many variables. Most things a defense does is a reaction to what the offense did. For example: as a DE you get a down block, A) do you sit and wait for something coming back your way. B) stay close on the tackle's hip. C) shuffle down the line to blow up the Power O coming back your way. D) run up field (thinking it is play action). That is 4 different ways to react to one down block. Dependent on which way the DE plays that play that effects the other 10 guys on the field and what their assignments are.

[TheFuture94]

Quote: Originally Posted by kmart2180

I LOVE DEFENSE!!!

QFT