Some College Football Defense Do's & Don'ts

[Collegefbfan]

So, I never played football and just started watching it in 1999. So, in all of my playing NCAA football video games, I never came close to one-tenth mastering the defense part of the game. In all of my research, I just now found out to not base align and press when playing zone. It takes secondary out of place. I would have never known that. You have any other do's and don'ts for playing defense?

[SilverBullet19]

Re: Some College Football Defense Do's & Don'ts

DO

-use the strafe feature to line up a tackle, it helps avoid over pursuit

-cover the QB on read options as a user

-On true options, angle your pursuit right in front of the QB. It triggers him to pitch and if you angle it right you'll be right on the path to tackle the RB for a loss

-Against option teams like Army, Navy and GT, don't be afraid to blitz the safeties. It helps load the box against the run

-try to strip the ball when there are other defenders to clean up if you miss the tackle

DON'T

-Don't let your safety line up on a man across the field from him or against a receiver in man coverage. Keep them on TE or RB's, and make sure they're not trying to cover from across formation (for example, your FS assigned to a man on the SS side of the field). If you're in this situation, either flip the play or audible to zone coverage

-Only "guess play" on 3rd and long (guess "pass," obviously). Otherwise, the risk is far greater than the reward

-Don't bring more than 6 rushers on a blitz, ESPECIALLY on 3rd and long... the screen will burn you bad. Only way around this is to user control a man to cover the RB, and you better not miss the tackle

-Never blitz a DB from the wide side of the field

-Don't run man-to-man without at least some sort of help over the top, whether it's 2 deep or just 1 over the top... have SOMETHING there

-Don't use the hit stick too much, it can lead to broken tackles. I've missed many would be 3 yard losses going for the showy hit



That's all that comes to mind for now. I hope it helps!

[Collegefbfan]

Re: Some College Football Defense Do's & Don'ts

Hey SilverBullet... thanks. Can you or someone else that might want to share how to strafe? What's the button process and which player is best to do it with?
Many thanks again.

[Von Dozier]

Re: Some College Football Defense Do's & Don'ts

-Only "guess play" on 3rd and long (guess "pass," obviously). Otherwise, the risk is far greater than the reward

-Don't bring more than 6 rushers on a blitz, ESPECIALLY on 3rd and long... the screen will burn you bad. Only way around this is to user control a man to cover the RB, and you better not miss the tackle

-I remember a long time ago someone anecdotally saying that the "guess play" feature when guessing a pass can actually hurt your defense more than help it. I've never really used it since then. Does it work fine for you?

-I ALWAYS make sure to cover the flats on 3rd and longs, and guess the direction they're screening by which side the RB is lined up on (lined up left, going left, right, going right). Of course, not every team does this though. People like to chalk that up to slider craziness or something, but it's simply the way that team is wired to call plays from its playbook. Not every team does it, so me preparing for it can also burn me.

[SilverBullet19]

Re: Some College Football Defense Do's & Don'ts

Hey SilverBullet... thanks. Can you or someone else that might want to share how to strafe? What's the button process and which player is best to do it with?

Many thanks again.

I can’t think of which button it is because it’s so instinctual at this point lol. I THINK it’s L2 or R1-2? It should be in the controls section if you look it up in the menu.

What it basically does is square you to the line, and you shuffle one way or another. That way if the runner cuts back, you just shuffle back instead of over pursuing. Try it out in practice.

-I remember a long time ago someone anecdotally saying that the "guess play" feature when guessing a pass can actually hurt your defense more than help it. I've never really used it since then. Does it work fine for you?



-I ALWAYS make sure to cover the flats on 3rd and longs, and guess the direction they're screening by which side the RB is lined up on (lined up left, going left, right, going right). Of course, not every team does this though. People like to chalk that up to slider craziness or something, but it's simply the way that team is wired to call plays from its playbook. Not every team does it, so me preparing for it can also burn me.

Personally I’ve only ever used it on 3rd and long to guess pass. It seems to bump the pass rush a bit to get pressure, not sure how much it actually does for coverage.

I’ve been burned a lot on anything other than a blatantly obvious passing down. If you guess pass on a run, you’re screwed. If you guess run wrong (because it’s left/middle/right), you’re toast. So in that sense, it does hurt you more than help.

I agree with the idea of covering the flats, a very good point



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[muchacho]

Re: Some College Football Defense Do's & Don'ts

Strafe is your left trigger/back button. It does wonders to help you. Sprint is your enemy, unless you see an opening or are chasing someone.


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[xToXiCxSAVAGEx]

Re: Some College Football Defense Do's & Don'ts

Let the cpu make the first movement. The game knows what the CPU is doing better than you do right off the bat. That being said, there's always certain exceptions. I always play MLB unless the option is burning me.

On third and long, the CPU runs four verts or RB screens like 75% of the time.

Learning what each coverage's strengths and weaknesses is important as well. When you know how to beat your own defense and figure out some of the patterns your opponent is displaying, you can start calling plays/audibles based on the looks you're getting versus what down and distance.

Defense is broken in NCAA a lot of the times. CPU pass offense is often overpowered and the run game is underpowered. Accept losing and the fact that you might get beat in the pass game. Accept that the opponent is trying to beat you just like you're trying to beat them. It'll make losing easier and make winning feel sweeter.


Okay, now that I've finished rambling, here are some tips.

Cover 2 is designed to stop short passes. It leaves corner routes and seam routes exposed.

Cover 3 is designed to stop deep passes. It often leaves underneath open.

Cover 4 is designed to stop deep passes and corners but leaves underneath open. Cover 4 can work when your opponent is third and long.

Man is designed for pressure. It's got the biggest risk vs. reward. If you have good corners, you can press and get pressure, but you can also get burned badly.

Ultimately what you do is based on how good you are at recognizing patterns.

[osubucki6]

Re: Some College Football Defense Do's & Don'ts

While I have some people here...how does everyone stop Stick? I don’t have the CPU run screens and 4 beers on me a ton (4 verts hardly ever). Instead they’ll come out in trips and I know instantly it’ll be stick. Even though I know what the play is I can’t stop it because I can’t user defend two outs on one side of the field and a slant in the middle and my zones do basically nothing for me. In Madden it’s easy because you can quick adjust players into hard flats. In NCAA you have to click over to them to put them in flat zones, and you have to get lucky to not get quickhiked while on your CB AND for them to actually play the out routes at the same time. For me, it’s kryptonite along with the option.

[Collegefbfan]

Re: Some College Football Defense Do's & Don'ts

Thanks for all these. I am playing defense with the 3-3-5 and liking it so far. I think I have auto strafe turned on in controls. The thing is I don't know what beats what until some were listed above. If I see 4 WR, I play cover 4 in my 3-3-5. If I see 3 WR, I play cover 3 sink, etc. I do change it up a lot. What I really hate is having my opponent in 3rd and 8-16 yards and they get the first down. How do you put players in a blue zone? Or is it purple zones?

[xToXiCxSAVAGEx]

Re: Some College Football Defense Do's & Don'ts

Stick is hard to stop. There are a couple of approaches you can take. One is to get pressure. If they're gonna beat you anyway, at least try and take it away.

Another is cover 2 with a flat and buzz zone. But, often the slant is open and if it's covered, there's no pressure so one of the out routes will start running down field. Since I user the MLB, I try to bait the QB to throw to the TE. It doesn't always work, but I think it's the least damaging option outside of the RB checkdown.

[SilverBullet19]

Re: Some College Football Defense Do's & Don'ts

Thanks for all these. I am playing defense with the 3-3-5 and liking it so far. I think I have auto strafe turned on in controls. The thing is I don't know what beats what until some were listed above. If I see 4 WR, I play cover 4 in my 3-3-5. If I see 3 WR, I play cover 3 sink, etc. I do change it up a lot. What I really hate is having my opponent in 3rd and 8-16 yards and they get the first down. How do you put players in a blue zone? Or is it purple zones?

I’d recommend changing it up. 3 WR should not automatically go to cover 3 and 4 should not automatically be cover 4. To some extent, the cpu does adapt. So if you keep running the same defense the cpu will start to pick it apart.

So try some other coverages, cover 6 is good. Even just changing up what type of cover 3 helps. Do some blitzes and try out things


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[FWCoog24]

Re: Some College Football Defense Do's & Don'ts

DO


DON'T

-Don't let your safety line up on a man across the field from him or against a receiver in man coverage. Keep them on TE or RB's, and make sure they're not trying to cover from across formation (for example, your FS assigned to a man on the SS side of the field). If you're in this situation, either flip the play or audible to zone coverage

I hate this. NCAA 10 had an option for defense to match up. Unless I have just completely missed it, no way to automatically do it. When I started playing this is what killed me the most because its a guaranteed completion. Same with a LB on one side covering the TE on the other, if its an out or corner route, easy completion against you.

[SilverBullet19]

Re: Some College Football Defense Do's & Don'ts

I hate this. NCAA 10 had an option for defense to match up. Unless I have just completely missed it, no way to automatically do it. When I started playing this is what killed me the most because its a guaranteed completion. Same with a LB on one side covering the TE on the other, if its an out or corner route, easy completion against you.

Yeah, man-align adjustment used to make them either switch or line up right on the guy. Now I think it’s base-align or something, but it literally makes it so the defenders don’t move. It became a pointless adjustment


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[Collegefbfan]

Re: Some College Football Defense Do's & Don'ts

I keep hearing base align on YouTube. How do you do it on PS3?

[Mozatta]

Re: Some College Football Defense Do's & Don'ts

Thanks for all these. I am playing defense with the 3-3-5 and liking it so far. I think I have auto strafe turned on in controls. The thing is I don't know what beats what until some were listed above. If I see 4 WR, I play cover 4 in my 3-3-5. If I see 3 WR, I play cover 3 sink, etc. I do change it up a lot. What I really hate is having my opponent in 3rd and 8-16 yards and they get the first down. How do you put players in a blue zone? Or is it purple zones?

I run the 3-3-5 and rarely use Cover 3 or Cover 4. It’s insanely easy to beat those coverages with shallow crosses and slants. I mix it up with Man and Cover 2 with blitz’ heavily sprinkled in.