I cannot play good pass defense this year... is it me?
 

I've been firmly in the "I won't buy" camp this year, but decided to give the game a chance with the trial and free weekend.

I am getting absolutely shredded on defense and can't figure out why. Haven't had much time to experiment with various teams yet, but here's what I'm experiencing.

Doing offline CFM on all pro (sim mode) with the Cowboys. I'm currently playing the Browns and their passing attack is unstoppable. I'm getting Lawrence or Griffin in Mayfield's face nearly every dropback very quickly. But my CBs keep giving up quick, short to intermediate yardage. No matter what coverage, cover 2, 3, 6, 4, palms, man, press, loose, Baker Mayfield always gets the ball to a receiver wide open right off the line. Thought it was just OBJ but when he went down with injury it kept happening. I finally forced an incomplete incompletion in the 3rd quarter and it felt like I'd won a Super Bowl.

Is it me? I know the Cowboys secondary is rated lower this year, but they shouldn't be this dramatically bad... especially on All Pro, and especially with my pass rush. Is it the roster (I signed Earl Thomas to start next to Woods)? I tweaked the sliders to lower QB accuracy, raise pass coverage, but no luck.

Is it the game? I skimmed the forum and haven't seen any topics about this.

I wish I could explain where the defense breaks down, but it's happening on every. single. play. Usually for quick passes in the first second and a half of the play, but sometimes downfield too.

I don't think I'll figure out if the game is worth the buy before my trial ends because my pass d is that awful. I know 19 and 20 had unrealistic QB completion percentages, but I cannot keep Mayfield below 90% no matter how many times I play this game. It's driving me crazy, especially considering Dak's in-game accuracy has been all over the place (that's unique to this year--my pass offense is usually quite good and I stay aware of pressure, throwing with feet set, etc)

Can anyone help me figure out what's going wrong? Anybody else experiencing this?

Re: I cannot play good pass defense this year... is it me?
 

Out of curiosity...do you play a no switch defense? The reason I ask is because what you have described here is exactly what I had witnessed during the beta, and now I'm experiencing the same thing in the trial version I downloaded.

There simply is no defense in this game, I had started a game using my Steelers in their Monday night matchup against the G-Men, and at the half (I quit out of disgust) the score was Pitt-31 and the Giants-21.

I was on AP default also....it's like the defense is slower than the CPU Offense, and the sliders are so unresponsive as far as the defense goes it's comical.

Trust me, It's nothing you're doing that's wrong based on what you've mentioned...as like I mentioned their was no defense in the beta, and it seems to have carried over into the full game.

Re: I cannot play good pass defense this year... is it me?
 

No you aren't the only one. It's tough. I have tried different settings with different teams with man or zone just like yourself and nothing seems to work. I don't think its a robo qb problem because the passes I'm seeing completed are wide open throws that most qb's would make 9 out of 10 times.

They definitely need to tighten up coverage and have cpu qb's make bad decisions and bad throws once in a while. I can't remember the last time i actually saw the cpu throw a bad ball.

Re: I cannot play good pass defense this year... is it me?
 

If you have gone through the slider part of the forums you would see that the pass defense for the user is bad this year, really bad. I complain all the time really, but I would suggest looking at Matt’s slider set, he has a AP and AM set that is really good and kinda helps fix the pass defense problem.

But I’m in the same boat as you

Re: I cannot play good pass defense this year... is it me?
 

Trust me...you guys aren’t the only ones experiencing this problem. I’ve been playing Madden for almost 30 years and I’ve never seen anything this alarming. No matter what I do, the CPU has wide open receivers. This must be tuned and fixed, as I’m already losing interest in this game.


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Re: I cannot play good pass defense this year... is it me?
 

I run exclusively cover 1 in passing situations. The CPU doesn't go deep very much. It brings a safety down and covers up the middle some. Or you can user a safety to take away the middle.

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Re: I cannot play good pass defense this year... is it me?
 

So far it's my opinion that all the spot drop zones are pretty much worthless against the CPU for a few reasons.

On the ratings front, all the linebackers have had their coverage ratings nuked. They also have lower Change Of Direction ratings. So on top of being across-the-board worse in zone in the first place (with a few notable exceptions), linebackers also are more sluggish to move once their AI tells them it's time to react; they simply don't have twitch reflexes anymore. On passing downs, if you don't have great cover linebackers, get them off the field. Play dime or put a safety in at nickel outside linebacker instead, especially to take away the TE quick out the CPU loves to throw.

On the CPU quarterbacking front, my impression of the CPU read-coverage AI is that it is very quick to identify and throw to the first open read without consideration of depth unless it needs a certain line to gain on a later down. You've got to make the CPU hold on to the ball longer, and with how porous spot drop zones are right now, I can't imagine playing effective defense against the CPU with Cover 3 Sky (based on my experience, a lot of people when playing defense in Madden just dial up Cover 3 Sky repeatedly and call it a day).

In addition, on All Madden, I don't think I have seen the CPU roll a clean-pocket inaccurate pass dice roll, regardless of player ratings or game style. So if you're playing on All Madden, there's that to contend with as well; getting pressure on the QB is paramount if you want to force inaccurate passes.

I would recommend calling more pattern-matching coverages and also learning the pattern matching rules yourself so you can confidently user players in the back end of your defense and help your AI teammates out. You have to force the CPU quarterback to hold on to the ball to buy time for your pass rushers to beat blocks. The coverages you want to consider are Cover 2 Sink (vs 2x2 pass sets), Cover 3 Match / Cover 3 Buzz Match (vs 2x2 pass sets), Cover 4 Quarters, Cover 4 Palms, Cover 6, and Cover 9. Knowing which guys you can safely hot route into blitzes while calling these coverages is also extremely helpful.

On the flip side of things, my brother is having a fair amount of success playing lots of press-man (Cover 1 Hole / Robber, Cover 2 Man). He's using the Rams and has Jalen Ramsey at his disposal, along with three good pass rushers, which all helps. He users Aaron Donald most of the time, who, well, is Aaron Donald so he just bulldozes pass blockers sometimes.

Re: I cannot play good pass defense this year... is it me?
 

I play no switch on AP default sim and only give up about 150 passing yards and less than 50 rushing a game.