Zone Coverage or Man Coverage?

[Stylez777]

I am curious to know what people think has worked better for them in this game?

I feel Man Coverage works alot better. I've tried to play Zone Coverage but it just seems the AI doesn't apply it effectivley. I have Great DB LB DL coach (99, 90, 85) and my DC is Marvin Lewis. All them have atleast 3 in the preformance stat and my LB DB and DC have the apply effective coverage stat. My head coach has that stat too and has a 4 rating in the preformance stat.

My 2 CB's are both 90 in man and zone coverage, high AWR and play recognition as well as my FS and SS. My LB's are in the 70's for Zone coverage as well and they all have high Play Book Knowledge.

With all that said when playing zone my Safties and LB's hardly react to the ball when thrown. They look to float or just drift to nowhere. The ball will be thrown underneath and they are still floating deeper instead of reacting. Sometimes they'll step up and make a play but it just seems the CPU teams ballhawk alot better then my players. I normally let up about 300+ yards a game and just played the Broncos last night and they had to start some rookie QB who was a 59 rating the guy was god awfule but he threw for 365 yards and 3 TD's. Just no way that should ever happen. If I play Man Coverage though it seems to work alot better and i'll give up less yards. Again I am curious to know how others feel about this. I don't know if there is anything that can be done with the sliders to balance it out a bit (cause i know alot of sliders are bugged out or reversed) any insight on this subject would be great.

[SloeyEZ]

Re: Zone Coverage or Man Coverage?

I am curious to know what people think has worked better for them in this game?

I feel Man Coverage works alot better. I've tried to play Zone Coverage but it just seems the AI doesn't apply it effectivley. I have Great DB LB DL coach (99, 90, 85) and my DC is Marvin Lewis. All them have atleast 3 in the preformance stat and my LB DB and DC have the apply effective coverage stat. My head coach has that stat too and has a 4 rating in the preformance stat.

My 2 CB's are both 90 in man and zone coverage, high AWR and play recognition as well as my FS and SS. My LB's are in the 70's for Zone coverage as well and they all have high Play Book Knowledge.

With all that said when playing zone my Safties and LB's hardly react to the ball when thrown. They look to float or just drift to nowhere. The ball will be thrown underneath and they are still floating deeper instead of reacting. Sometimes they'll step up and make a play but it just seems the CPU teams ballhawk alot better then my players. I normally let up about 300+ yards a game and just played the Broncos last night and they had to start some rookie QB who was a 59 rating the guy was god awfule but he threw for 365 yards and 3 TD's. Just no way that should ever happen. If I play Man Coverage though it seems to work alot better and i'll give up less yards. Again I am curious to know how others feel about this. I don't know if there is anything that can be done with the sliders to balance it out a bit (cause i know alot of sliders are bugged out or reversed) any insight on this subject would be great.

my philosophy in real football and games is to always get the better athletes and play man. zone is for when you are lacking in man power. i don't like zones personally. i believe football is a one on one sport and the better athlete prevails.

[MeSlayer]

Re: Zone Coverage or Man Coverage?

Ive found both work pretty well actually

I seem to be able to dominate average-good teams with man coverage, but against really good teams with the peyton mannings and tom bradys zone blitzes seem to really rattle them

the colts destroyed me in the super bowl until i started calling more zone plays

and vs tom brady in the preseason (yes, i know, its just preseason) i shut him out for a whole half with a variety of zone blitzes

my secondary is honestly better at man coverage, just taking the straight zone-man coverage ratings, but i seem to get better results with zone blitzing against top teams

[adembroski]

Re: Zone Coverage or Man Coverage?

The one you have the athletes for works better. Situations dictate it as well. For example, Man sucks on 3rd and long compared to zone, and Zone sucks on 3rd and 1 compared to man. Even that isn't hard and fast, it depends on what the opponent is doing.

I play more man if I'm not getting a pass rush because playing zone with no rush is suicide. SOMEONE will come open, period. Same with man, but you're more likely to at least have someone around to make the tackle. I'll play zone if I am getting pressure because it'll lead to more turnovers.

[Coredor]

Re: Zone Coverage or Man Coverage?

A balanced approach is the way to go. On first downs I like to run what I'd call vanilla defenses with man. I almost always run a cover 1. You have your 2 best corners out there and the CPU is unlikely to try to torch you deep and you have to worry abou the run. I continue that philosphy on second and medium. It's good for limiting the run which on average will be used a bit over half hte time on first down. Rinse and repeat for 2nd and medium

Now short yardage situations my bread and butter are man blitzes if they are in a 2 receiver set. However be careful what blitzes you use. Take into account if you leave bad matchups on hte edges because then you really can't man blitz. With blitzes always remember the mobility of the qb and blitzes may vary what you need to do.

3rd and long is where it gets interesting. For me I like the zone blitz although I vary other more generic defenses in there because if you run the same one too much you can get torched. If you can afford to allow the short completion and blitz heavy then you will get turnovers and not give up the big play. I love blitzes with 3 men deep and one linebacker lurking zone in the middle. Tons of turnovers this way. Just allow the short completion.

Now the best pass defense in the game is a zone defense when you can get pressure with yoru front 4. There are things you have to keep in mind though. You have to have speed rushers out there. Your fatty defensive linemen are crap. You want penetrators and speed off the edge. Pro bowl type players can be all purpose sometime but generally for this you want an "undersized speed rusher" on at least one side of the ball. Then you want fsater defensive tackles more along hte lines of a Tommy Harris than an Alberty Haynesworth. Sometimes I move one of my big defensive ends inside who can rush the passer better and then put him with my best defensive tackle. Then I have a third down rusher who gets in the game. I really wish there were packages and you didn't have to edit it by the play.

Now to stop hte pass remember to look at the line moves of the play. To get pressure on the quarterback you are going to either want to stunt and overload one side of the line or you are going to want an "edge rush" type of play. If you look at all the cover 2 defenses that Tampa or Indy run that's the difference between them because most of hte coverages are exactly the same. You have to recognize mismatches in the pass protection. Also you have to take into account if the quarterback is faster than your defensive lineman. Then you have to take steps to contain which can be more complicated.

So any way man vanilla for balanced and zone with some manner of getting heat on the quarterback to stop the pass. Zone blitzes are the best for getting turnovers. YOu just have to vary things and know personnel or you could get burnt.

[kcarr]

Re: Zone Coverage or Man Coverage?

In reality I like to mix it up but in zones, pre patch, I havent tried it since the patch, It seemed players didnt respond enough to players being in their zones and wouldnt react to the ball in the air unless it was coming right at them. If they would have been required to like take a step to knock the pass down it was a definate catch. This was with the colts who I think if I remember correctly have a pretty solid zone D playbook and run it pretty well.

[Stylez777]

Re: Zone Coverage or Man Coverage?

I ended up creating my own DEF playbook off the one of the pressure DEF think it was spagnola (the guy form the giants).

I use alot of Man coverage with my safties playing 2 deep with alot of blitzing coming from everywhere. My 3 db all have really good man cover skills so they stick with most WR well. I do have a few zone blitzes that I use in certian situations but overall Man blitzing has been working really well for me