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.

Re: defensive help please
 

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Re: defensive help please
 

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.