Madden 14 NEW Man and Zone Coverage Concept

[shttymcgee]

Quote: Originally Posted by Helios12787

I agree that this is an extremely good idea and I think will enhance a player's ability to create a balanced coverage scheme. It is sometimes hard to tell how well and what area that a linebacker will cover in that purple zone you put him in. With this idea a player would be able to see immediate feedback (without the need of trial and error and numerous games played) in order to decide if there will be sufficient coverage on a certain area. Would also give us a better idea on how to user control our players. It can be hard to determine that specific point where another linebacker will take over his zone and where your coverage responsibilities stop. This can lead to you overextending into someone's zone, leading to your zone having a hole in it, or u leaving a hole in between yours and another player's zone. Hopefully we can see something like this implemented when ratings like man / zone / play recognition / awareness become more of a keystone on how a defensive player reacts and plays.

I disagree with most of your comments. This is not how zone defense should be played. Defenders do not cover zones in zone defense, they cover people.

[Helios12787]

Defenders do cover zones in zone defense .... or it wouldn't differentiate itself from man coverage in the slightest.

We all understand that the way zone is played in Madden isn't completely accurate, but it is still different than them guarding specific players. We don't have that automatic adaptation for certain formations / situations that zone defenses would be ready to adapt to IRL (based on route distribution) but they are still responsible for an area of the field (given that there is a receiver in the area, if not they adapt).

Why do you think Aso was reported to be having so much problem with the Eagles defense. The reason was that they wanted him playing zone coverage at points, which he almost never did with the Raiders.

If zone defense is "defenders covering people, not zones" then why would he have any issue with zone then ....

[scoonie05]

LOL @ defender's don't cover zones in zone defense. Really??

[Helios12787]

Glad I wasn't the only one who thought I'd stepped into the twilight zone when reading his post.

[shttymcgee]

This has been discussed many times by many posters, myself included. I will just use one example to try to explain what I mean. Imagine a 3x1 formation vs a cover 3 defense:

.................................................. ....F............................................. ...
.................................................. .................................................. ...
.....C............................................ ...............................................C..
..........................................W....... ..M.......S................SS.................
......................................E.........1. ........3.......E.................................
......X................................T.....G.... .C...G...T...Y.................................
.................................................. ....Q............................H.............Z.
.................................................. .................................................. ..
.................................................. ....R....................................

SS and W in the flats, M and Sam hook-curl, C's and F deep thirds. That's the way Madden has 3 drawn, without any regards to the deplacement of the receivers. If the the play is a strongside flood, with Z running the takeoff, H on a square out and y to the flats, someone will be open, either the H or the Y, because the SS would have to cover both routes.

Present day zone defenses pattern read and will push their zones and the defenders will relate to specific route distribution. In this case, its for the underneath defenders, specifically the Sam backer. He needs to relate to the eventual #3 receiver, the Y running the flat. Why would he just sit there and cover no one on the hash? What about to the weakside, if you assume the back stays in to protect, you have 3 defenders (W,M, and the CB) to cover just the 1 WR. Why would anyone do that? There's alot more to pattern reading, but thats the gist of it.

Do some teams still spot drop? Yes, but normally only in specific situations and with only some sort of special coverage, like near the goalline.

Do some lower level teams spot drop? Yes. My hs alma mater still plays cover 3 like this and last year in the playoffs gave up close to 500 yds passing in the quarters to a team they were vastly better than and then lost in the semis to a spread team with about half of their talent. Spot dropping is ineffective, period.

So, defenders don't cover areas in zone defense. They cover specific route combinations. If you think I don't know what I'm talking about, fine.

[shttymcgee]

Quote: Originally Posted by Helios12787

Defenders do cover zones in zone defense .... or it wouldn't differentiate itself from man coverage in the slightest. We all understand that the way zone is played in Madden isn't completely accurate, but it is still different than them guarding specific players. We don't have that automatic adaptation for certain formations / situations that zone defenses would be ready to adapt to IRL (based on route distribution) but they are still responsible for an area of the field (given that there is a receiver in the area, if not they adapt). Why do you think Aso was reported to be having so much problem with the Eagles defense. The reason was that they wanted him playing zone coverage at points, which he almost never did with the Raiders. If zone defense is "defenders covering people, not zones" then why would he have any issue with zone then ....

Their most certainly is a difference between zone and man. In man schemes, the defender covers his man whereever he goes. He doesn't have a run fit responsibility. He doesn't care if his "man" switches his outside-inside relationship during the play. He covers him short, deep, inside, outside, etc..

In zone schemes, the defender has more of an if-than rule. If the man i relate to does this, I do A. If he does that, i do B.

And for how any specific player plays, none of us who were not there have any idea. That includes the idiot talking heads on sports shows. Just from casual observance, it's easy to see that the specific techniques that are being taught in Oakland are different than what's being taught in Philly. Next year, you can purchase access to coaching film through the NFL; then you'll be able to notice many differences from scheme to scheme and from team to team.