Getting better at Madden

[supermatt9]

I'm a pretty casual Madden player but I want to be better. I have a pretty firm grasp of all the buttons and moving the sticks, but I am terrible at strategy. I usually walk up to the line and press hike and hope for the best.

Could any of you please post maybe one or two basic things to look for every time you come to the line (on both offense and defense)? Nothing super complex, just some basic things I should be looking at before the ball is snapped. Once I get those mastered I'll move on to more complicated stuff.

Thanks!!

[Carolina Panthers]

Re: Getting better at Madden

on offense look at your match ups like if a line backer is covering a WR. basically look for mismatches and play to your teams strengths such as big recievers in the endzone you might want to look for the endzone fade, power backs pound the ball in finesse backs pitch the ball ect just like real football....I Would give you tips on D but i suck on defense on this game the players never make a tackle for me...

[sammy g]

Re: Getting better at Madden

On offense you can send a reciever in motion to see if the defense is playing a zone or man to man defense. It's really simple and helps you read the defense and somewhat know what to expect after you snap the ball.

[JordanC]

Re: Getting better at Madden

The best advice I can give you that will IMMEDIATELY improve your game is to choose your own plays on defense by formation, after watching how many RB's, TE's, and WR's the defense is coming out with.

It'll pop up in the bottom of the play calling screen.

For me, if they have two TE's or two RB's (with a few exceptions) I assume run. In this, I play 4-3 or 3-4. If they have 3 wide, I go nickel, and 4 wide gets Dime or Dollar, depending on the team.

The defensive formations are set up to counter specific types of plays, and it drives me crazy when people call Cover 3 out of 4-3 to stop the pass and a blitz out of dime to stop the run.

In my experience, the most pass effective play out of 4-3 will still stop the run better than the most run effective play in dime, and vice versa.

Once you actually get your play calling down, then you have to actually execute. In my opinion, MLB or in special cases OLB is the best position to play. I cannot keep up with WR's as DB's, and I don't like the idea of being the last resort as a safety. I will, however, play d-line occasionally, especially with teams like the vikings.

As MLB, I play all-out. While some would definitely say differently, my first instinct is what I do. I almost always bite on play action, and almost always hold back on draws. Its a natural instinct, and typically I can get the quarterback or the rest of my team will help me out enough to make up for it. However, when I guess right, the offense is shattered, often for the entire possession. this remains especially true on multiplayer, as if I blow up an inside run with Patrick Willis a few times early on, I can essentially eliminate that part of the opponent's game from my defensive gameplan.

When in doubt, choose a safe play from a formation you are comfortable with. I like 2 Man Press out of nickel when I have no clue. Another good idea is to find a good zone play with a LB or DB blitzing, and play as that player. blitzing is fun.

Remember, offense wins games, but defense wins championships.

[sammy g]

Re: Getting better at Madden

What JordanC said..
Alot of people just pick a defensive formation, not even thinking about what the offense is lined up in. Just picking the right formation, and starting with that, will immediately help you on the defensive side.
When you get this down, you can then start focusing on what down it is, how many yards the opposing team needs for a first down, etc. It would also help to know the opposing team's tendancies, and what weapons they have on the field..

[Tigers3]

Re: Getting better at Madden

Pay attention to the formations your opponent comes out in on offense, especially on his first drive. Alot of bad players will run only 1 play from a certain formation, so if you catch on to his tendencies on his first drive, you will know what is coming later on.

[slick589]

Re: Getting better at Madden

any tips on manually playing zone d?

[LiquorLogic]

Re: Getting better at Madden

The best advice I can give you that will IMMEDIATELY improve your game is to choose your own plays on defense by formation, after watching how many RB's, TE's, and WR's the defense is coming out with.

It'll pop up in the bottom of the play calling screen.

For me, if they have two TE's or two RB's (with a few exceptions) I assume run. In this, I play 4-3 or 3-4. If they have 3 wide, I go nickel, and 4 wide gets Dime or Dollar, depending on the team.

The defensive formations are set up to counter specific types of plays, and it drives me crazy when people call Cover 3 out of 4-3 to stop the pass and a blitz out of dime to stop the run.

In my experience, the most pass effective play out of 4-3 will still stop the run better than the most run effective play in dime, and vice versa.
Once you actually get your play calling down, then you have to actually execute. In my opinion, MLB or in special cases OLB is the best position to play. I cannot keep up with WR's as DB's, and I don't like the idea of being the last resort as a safety. I will, however, play d-line occasionally, especially with teams like the vikings.

As MLB, I play all-out. While some would definitely say differently, my first instinct is what I do. I almost always bite on play action, and almost always hold back on draws. Its a natural instinct, and typically I can get the quarterback or the rest of my team will help me out enough to make up for it. However, when I guess right, the offense is shattered, often for the entire possession. this remains especially true on multiplayer, as if I blow up an inside run with Patrick Willis a few times early on, I can essentially eliminate that part of the opponent's game from my defensive gameplan.

When in doubt, choose a safe play from a formation you are comfortable with. I like 2 Man Press out of nickel when I have no clue. Another good idea is to find a good zone play with a LB or DB blitzing, and play as that player. blitzing is fun.

Remember, offense wins games, but defense wins championships.

I call cover 3 out of base formations(46, 4-3 or the 3-4) quite frequently. For instance, it's first down and the offense comes out in 11 personnel, that's one back and one tight end, I want to have seven men in the box, maybe eight. If I call a man defense,in base personnel, my SS is matched up one on one with the slot WR and my corners are on left on islands. Cover 3 allows me to manually, or by showing blitz, to put the SS down in the box while having three defenders guarding against anything deep.

[sammy g]

Re: Getting better at Madden

For playing zone defense, you have to make sure you know your zone. You also need to know what your other teammates are supposed to do.

Stay in your zone. If anyone comes close to your zone, make sure you cover them. You also need to make sure you dont "over cover" someone that comes in your zone..

Well, that's what I usually do..Hope I helped

[supermatt9]

Re: Getting better at Madden

Thanks so much for all the helpful advice. I'll try and put some of that to work for me. I have a few questions though...

on offense look at your match ups like if a line backer is covering a WR. basically look for mismatches

THis is great simple advice that's easy to implement. Thanks!!

On offense you can send a reciever in motion to see if the defense is playing a zone or man to man defense. It's really simple and helps you read the defense and somewhat know what to expect after you snap the ball.

Once I know if the defense is in zone or man what do I do then? Do i change my play based on that knowledge? Also - whenever I play online or franchise, the other teams rarely do this. Is it really that helpful?

The best advice I can give you that will IMMEDIATELY improve your game is to choose your own plays on defense by formation, after watching how many RB's, TE's, and WR's the defense is coming out with.

Thanks a lot Jordan. THis is GREAT advice that is pretty easy to follow. Picking plays on defense was always so hard for me. This year I've been letting game flow pick my defense for me. I will definitely try this.

Also - I play MLB the same as you do. All out. Trying to get a little smarter though!

When you get this down, you can then start focusing on what down it is, how many yards the opposing team needs for a first down, etc. It would also help to know the opposing team's tendancies, and what weapons they have on the field..

Thanks sammy. Is there a way when playing in franchise mode to have the game give you a little bit of a breakdown of what kind of stuff the opposing team likes to do? I know you can do scouting reports when playing online, but what about offline franchise? Especially after a few years when the teams are all changed around?

I call cover 3 out of base formations(46, 4-3 or the 3-4) quite frequently. For instance, it's first down and the offense comes out in 11 personnel, that's one back and one tight end, I want to have seven men in the box, maybe eight. If I call a man defense,in base personnel, my SS is matched up one on one with the slot WR and my corners are on left on islands. Cover 3 allows me to manually, or by showing blitz, to put the SS down in the box while having three defenders guarding against anything deep.

This is way too advanced for me. I understand all the terms, but am not smart enough to put into practice. Hopefully someday this will make more sense to me!!

For playing zone defense, you have to make sure you know your zone. You also need to know what your other teammates are supposed to do.

Stay in your zone. If anyone comes close to your zone, make sure you cover them. You also need to make sure you dont "over cover" someone that comes in your zone..

Well, that's what I usually do..Hope I helped

Sammy - thanks for all your help!! If I'm playing MLB in zone, and an open receiver runs through my zone, am I supposed to follow him till the end of the play? Or just while he's in my zone?

Thanks again to everybody. Sorry for all the noob questions. Trying to get as good as the guys who keep beating the crap out of me online!!

[bambam2123]

Re: Getting better at Madden

any good tips for running with steven jackson?

[oneamongthefence]

Re: Getting better at Madden

any good tips for running with steven jackson?

Pound it up the middle and once you get a run game going use playaction. S. Jackson is a beast in goaline and short yardage situations too. Try to limit sing sweeps and tosses as he is slower to accelerate.

[pigdog]

Re: Getting better at Madden

Good thread. One thing that helped me is turning off the playclock. It helps to think about what plays to use instead of just qickly picking a play willy-nilly to avoid the delay of game penalty.
NFL head coach 09 helped me alot in learning the strategy by just focusing on calling the plays.

[sammy g]

Re: Getting better at Madden

I haven't really jumped into franchise mode yet, so I don't know about the scouting and stuff like that

If you're playing MLB in zone, you don't follow the reciever through the entire play cause that's "over covering". You're only supposed to cover them when they're in your zone or really close to your zone.

[LiquorLogic]

Re: Getting better at Madden

This is way too advanced for me. I understand all the terms, but am not smart enough to put into practice. Hopefully someday this will make more sense to me!!

Basically, I don't want the offense to simply spread me out,by bringing in a 3rd WR, only to run the ball in situations where a run and a pass are likely. Cover three allows me to safely put an extra man in the box, and also let's me keep an extra LB in there to play the run without leaving him naked against a WR if the offense decides to pass.