defensive help please

[niles08]

I am severly struggling in a CCM I am in to stop the run. I have finally got the TE stopped and am decent at defending the pass. I normally will control the DE, but I am struggling horribly to stop the run. I currently use the "multiple d" playbook as I enjoy having the dollar formation. I would be completely open to changing playbooks, if somebody has a suggestion. I run a 4-3 or 3-4 in obvious running situations and just cant seem to stop the outside run. I gave up 408 yards rushing to Jamal Charles earlier when I had to play the chiefs user, although most of those were on long runs due to my inability to contain the run. I followed that up by giving up 206 to Adrian Peterson. Can somebody please give me some advice on my play calling and who i should control on defense, and what I am doing wrong.

Thank you.

[WildFan22]

Re: defensive help please

I am severly struggling in a CCM I am in to stop the run. I have finally got the TE stopped and am decent at defending the pass. I normally will control the DE, but I am struggling horribly to stop the run. I currently use the "multiple d" playbook as I enjoy having the dollar formation. I would be completely open to changing playbooks, if somebody has a suggestion. I run a 4-3 or 3-4 in obvious running situations and just cant seem to stop the outside run. I gave up 408 yards rushing to Jamal Charles earlier when I had to play the chiefs user, although most of those were on long runs due to my inability to contain the run. I followed that up by giving up 206 to Adrian Peterson. Can somebody please give me some advice on my play calling and who i should control on defense, and what I am doing wrong.

Thank you.

This is how I stopped the outside run cheeser in my league. I used 3-3 or quarters and blitzed my outside CBs. I control the MLB and I move him right behind the DT until they are touching. When the ball is hiked I mirror the RB and blitzing corner helps to slow him down.

I move the MLB closer because the AI seems to have harder time blocking someone from the side then head on. The guy I was playing was unstoppable before I started doing this. He was still able to gain yards but he wasn't ripping off 20-30 yards per rush.

[chris_smith]

Re: defensive help please

I strongly suggest to work on your stamina. Get into some great coaching camp. Also checkout some videos related to your weakness. This will help you in mapping your game.

[Hooe]

Re: defensive help please

When playing in my base defense, I'm always controlling the weakside safety - whichever safety is on the side the defense opposite the tight end. If I see that the play is a pitch, I crash that safety HARD to the outside and try to get between the sideline and the RB; I'm not necessarily trying to make the tackle with the safety, but I want to force the RB back inside towards the rest of my defense, which will be catching up to the play in a moment, at which point a linebacker will have a good opportunity to make a tackle.

Against a back with elite speed like Jamaal Charles or Chris Johnson, it might be necessary to control the strongside safety to do this, as the weakside safety may not be able to get there in time. The idea is the same, though; I want to get further outside than the RB to force him back towards the rest of my defense where he can't as easily break contain.

[niles08]

Re: defensive help please

I have tried 4-3 and 3-4 and have spread the LB's out and just cant seem to get it. Is there a playbook that has the 3-3-5 and dollar formation to go with the 4-3 and 3-4?

[Hooe]

Re: defensive help please

I have tried 4-3 and 3-4 and have spread the LB's out and just cant seem to get it. Is there a playbook that has the 3-3-5 and dollar formation to go with the 4-3 and 3-4?

The 4-3 / 3-4 ought to be sufficient to stop outside runs, and putting more players with poor tackling ratings on the field doesn't seem like the correct approach to me (unless your team happens to have a stable of strong tackling CBs, which I doubt).

I'd look first as to what plays you are calling when you suspect the offense is going to run the football. Calling a Cover 1 or Cover 3, for example, will align your defense pre-snap in a single-high safety look. By the nature of the strong safety being closer to the line of scrimmage, this coverage has a natural strength in run defense. If you are routinely calling Cover 2, that eighth man isn't going to line up in the box by default, putting tremendous strain on your linebackers to make every play. This is fine if you have great LBs, but most teams can't match the 49ers to this end. If you are routinely calling 2 Man coverage, the perimeter players by default are going to turn and run with receivers, and as such they aren't even looking for a run play and that will hurt one's run support; combine that with two high safeties both stepping backwards by default and you get a play I don't like against the run very much.

I'd recommend taking a hard look at your playcalling before you start trying out more exotic "labbed" packages. The biggest thing I've learned about defense this year is that there has to be a known purpose to what one is calling, because on a single given play, a defense can't cover everything, and they must rather look and try to take away what it thinks the offense wants to do the most often and force the offense out of its comfort zone.

[niles08]

Re: defensive help please

When I feel an outside run is coming, I usually will call a cover 3 out of the 4-3 formation. I still have problems with getting it stopped. I will try to control the safety from now on and see what happens. I am just afraid with the cover 3, I bite hard on the run with the safety and there is an open zone out there.

[Hooe]

Re: defensive help please

When I feel an outside run is coming, I usually will call a cover 3 out of the 4-3 formation. I still have problems with getting it stopped. I will try to control the safety from now on and see what happens. I am just afraid with the cover 3, I bite hard on the run with the safety and there is an open zone out there.

Give that a shot. Typically in a Cover 3, the in-the-box safety is going to be playing a hook zone over the middle or a flat zone towards the closest sideline; given Madden's best-on-best logic, this is dependent on the offensive alignment. If you're fearful of getting beat over the top if you take control of the deep safety, try playing as the in-the-box safety first. Again the general strategy is still the same: contain the RB and prevent him from getting to the corner.

[WildFan22]

Re: defensive help please

The 4-3 / 3-4 ought to be sufficient to stop outside runs, and putting more players with poor tackling ratings on the field doesn't seem like the correct approach to me (unless your team happens to have a stable of strong tackling CBs, which I doubt).

I'd look first as to what plays you are calling when you suspect the offense is going to run the football. Calling a Cover 1 or Cover 3, for example, will align your defense pre-snap in a single-high safety look. By the nature of the strong safety being closer to the line of scrimmage, this coverage has a natural strength in run defense. If you are routinely calling Cover 2, that eighth man isn't going to line up in the box by default, putting tremendous strain on your linebackers to make every play. This is fine if you have great LBs, but most teams can't match the 49ers to this end. If you are routinely calling 2 Man coverage, the perimeter players by default are going to turn and run with receivers, and as such they aren't even looking for a run play and that will hurt one's run support; combine that with two high safeties both stepping backwards by default and you get a play I don't like against the run very much.

I'd recommend taking a hard look at your playcalling before you start trying out more exotic "labbed" packages. The biggest thing I've learned about defense this year is that there has to be a known purpose to what one is calling, because on a single given play, a defense can't cover everything, and they must rather look and try to take away what it thinks the offense wants to do the most often and force the offense out of its comfort zone.

Absolutely try 3-4 and 4-3 to try and stop them the right way. My recommendation is for when you can't stop them with normal schemes. The User in our CCM uses Carolina and he runs a Power O to the outside. He has 2-3 free blockers no matter what you do.

[roll2tide]

Re: defensive help please

Try this....look at your play art presnap on defense and see if one or both of your DEs is crashing in. IMO, the slant-in angle that DE's take is way to sharp and makes it easy to seal the edges. On many plays I simply reblitz my DE to have him go straight upfield instead of crashing towards the OG. That little adjustment has made a difference in my run defense.

I run a 3-4 so I don't know if the DEs also do this in the 4-3.

[niles08]

Re: defensive help please

Thanks for all the help guys! I played 2 games last night and am proud to say that I slowed down the run giving up 32 yards on 6 carries and 42 on 13 carries. I simply decided to start controlling the strong side safety in the cover 3 as well as spreading my d line and moving my safety toward the line a bit. This seemed to work well and I forced some obvious passing situations leading to some easy punts/ints.

[WildFan22]

Re: defensive help please

Thanks for all the help guys! I played 2 games last night and am proud to say that I slowed down the run giving up 32 yards on 6 carries and 42 on 13 carries. I simply decided to start controlling the strong side safety in the cover 3 as well as spreading my d line and moving my safety toward the line a bit. This seemed to work well and I forced some obvious passing situations leading to some easy punts/ints.

I'm going to trying the cover 3 the next time I play the Power O cheeser. I play him in two weeks and his last game he had 391 yards on 18 carries....

[MrPromax]

IMO I like to use a 4-3 to stop the run. I leave the line alone and I spread the LB. I also control the mike and bring my SS just inside the box. I also like to fake the where I am sending the heat from. I will bring down mike between any of the interior OL. I basically try to get to the edge before he does md hopefully the CPU fills the gaps.

[Kwazi813]

Re: defensive help please

I usually play the ILB against strong running offenses, switch to SS if I need another defender in the box.

Outside runs are all about keeping contain. Can't over pursue and leave a big cutback lane, but you also can't get beat to the edge. You have to play smart as a LB against the run, you have to know your gap responsibility. You may think you're doing something right by shadowing the RB, but ultimately if you do that and he cuts back into your lane then you failed.

Playing smart LB can really help against the run, and also leave the safety back in coverage. If you still can't stop it then I suggest playing a SS in m2m and 2deep. You can still defend the pass in case of play action, and you get a fast defender right up to the LOS. I usually purposely over pursue with the SS since I'm a free defender with no assigned gap.

Play calling is a big part as well. I've found cover 2 sink works pretty well all around. I don't usually run blitz against speedy RBs because if I guess wrong or miss a tackle he can take it to the house. Try playing a more conservative, bend don't break defense. Most players stick to their favorite runs so by half time you should have a vague idea of what he likes to run out of certain formations. Run cheesers usually collapse once you get a handle on where they like to attack, all cheesers tend to suck once you take away their go to move.

[stingrayvfl]

Re: defensive help please

This run D from the 3-4 works well online against other users and the runs you will encounter.(counters, stretches, power Os, blasts, ect)

3-4 Over, Sting Pinch Zone
1. Globally zone all LBs
2. QB CONTAIN LOLB
3. Man up FS on RB
4. Base Align 2 times
Master these four steps before moving on to steps 5 and 6.
5. Crash D line in
6. Reblitz RE

Play as the FS. If its a run, fly to the ball. The reason you man up on RB as it prevents a false step by animation, also it will help with defensive assist. You own the D gap on left side of screen. If it a pass, you own area of the field between hash marks. Press once in awhile for different looks. I realize when people read posts they might overlook some with 6 steps. You will like this run D, also it is a solid safe pass D as well.