Attention Defensive Gurus!! I need your help!!

[AuburnAlumni]

How in God's name do you stop.....

A. HITCH ROUTES!! Seem to be an automatic 5-9 yards every single time.

B. Ace Bunch quick pass play to the sideline (receiver seems to ALWAYS be open as he streaks diagonally towards the wide side of the field. Again...seems to be an automatic 6 yards every time.

Help! I've gotten beat basically by two plays in my last two games and it is driving me insane. I've tried 3-4, 4-3, Nickel, Dime, zone, man, tight coverage, loose coverage, on a boat, on a moat, on a goat, with Green Eggs and Ham, etc.

[SnakeEyez]

In regards to the hitch/curl routes, there's zone blitz named "Raider 2" or something like that out of the 4-3 which will help neutralize the hook zones for the slot receivers.. the DE's drop into the hook zones as the LBs blitz. It's a quality play.

Trying to contain the hitch/curl to the outside is a bit harder.. "Cover 2 Max" out of the Nickel works ok if you pick the right side because one of the DE's drop into the flat zone under the CBs deeper coverage.. thus taking away the short stuff.

Is this a human opponent that's killing you with these? It sounds like it for you to be so frustrated...

I have a buddy who's deadly with the short pass game too.. damn hook routes can be tricky to stop.

[SnakeEyez]

One more thing.. what position do you control on defense?

[AuburnAlumni]

I always control the DT in 3-4...and the DT on the right side of the screen in 4 man fronts.

It's a human. I'll try that "Raider 2" play. Do you have any effective defenses for those Ace Bunch quick passes to sidelines (similar to "arrow" pass plays)?

[grismosw]

Quote:

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AuburnAlumni said:
I always control the DT in 3-4...and the DT on the right side of the screen in 4 man fronts.

It's a human. I'll try that "Raider 2" play. Do you have any effective defenses for those Ace Bunch quick passes to sidelines (similar to "arrow" pass plays)?

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I'd probably try a zone defense, there are some were your LB will cover that area and have a CB over the top to protect him. For the most part this seems to work.

[SnakeEyez]

Yeah, Grim is probably right on that.. some of the cover 3 schemes have a safety or LBer drifting into the flat that may help contain those routes. You're talking about the kinda slant out looking stuff by the inside slot receiver eh? It's tough to slow that down because you can't bump'em.

Auburn, if you can ever become comfortable with playing as a MLB you can pick alot of "Spy" plays and then freelance. This way you can basically try to the stop the curl/hitch yourself as well, especially if you have a pretty good idea of what the plays are that he's running. I'm sure you've seen some of the stuff out of certain formations by now. You can do a little of that with the SS too, but there's more freedom with a freelancing MLB.. and I remember there being more spy plays for backers too. Just don't do it unless your assignment in the play is to spy, otherwise you might be leaving your zone responsibility or man assignment wide open.

I hope you can beat this guy

[mazhirui]

SnakeEyez, are you one of the SoCal folks that root for USC and are now Bengals fans since they drafted Carson Palmer? I live in Cincinnati, had a friend move out to LA and mentioned that he sees a lot of Bengals merchandise there. Or perhaps you're simply another transplant like my buddy?

[SnakeEyez]

Nah, I live in NorCal actually.

I used to have some family that lived in Ohio when I was a kid.. I spent a couple summers and a Christmas out there and just sort of took an interest in the team.. been following them ever since.

Got to see a game at the old Riverfront stadium and another in LA when Boomer was still on the team in the early 90's (when the Raiders were still in LA.)

Carson is hopefully the real deal.. cuz Kitna's taking us no where beyond .500