Man Coverage, Leverage, Nuances

[RogueHominid]

Like my other thread on match coverage, I wanted to start one on man coverage to learn more about the nuances of it and its use in Madden.

I watched an old Saban video last week where he said 1 rat or 1 hole was the best defense in ball and he went on to defend the view. I’m not sure if he still holds that view or not, but it was compelling.

Then I watched a video by Thinking Man Football on quarters that basically stared w/ saying if you can run 2 man under or 1 man, DO THAT…zone is for everyone who can’t, which is most folks.

I see that getting 4 good MCVG CBS is not easy, but if you could get 4 guys who could play man, would it be a preferable base strategy with some blitzing than a pattern match zone strategy in terms of overall effectiveness?

With the match zones there’s all these rules and checks, and I know with man that leverage is key. Doe Madden take the nuances of man into account, and can anyone shed light on some of the subletleies of 1 and 2 man as a major coverage vs the CPU on AM?

And are the folks here who can point me down a C1 rabbit hole that will also translate into begetter use of M2M in Madden (I.e., when to use it and how, when not to and why?).

Any thoughts or engagement are appreciated.

[RentonT09]

Yes the various Man coverages have stock shading for example Cover 2 man is shaded inside AND underneath.

You can globally shade everyone overtop/underneath/outside/inside.

You individually shade WR’s left/right.

You can defend certain routes well with shading.

For example if you press and shade underneath and outside you can stop corner routes getting open.

There’s a lot to it become a master but can definitely base a defense out of Cover 1. I’m trying to copy real life Cowboys in my franchise and am basing out of Cover 1 and Cover 3 match. With some Cover 2 invert, Cover 2, Cover 1 robber, Cover 3 buzz match, and also a bit of quarters.

[RogueHominid]

OK, cool, so the shading options in the pre play controls work as you’d expect? That’s great to hear.

It’s also great to hear that certain coverages have leverage built into them.

Thanks for the response!

[IlluminatusUIUC]

Quote: Originally Posted by RogueHominid

OK, cool, so the shading options in the pre play controls work as you’d expect? That’s great to hear. It’s also great to hear that certain coverages have leverage built into them. Thanks for the response!

Does anyone know if they changed how shading worked on zone calls? In past maddens, shading a play with Match rules would revert it to a spot drop.

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by IlluminatusUIUC

Does anyone know if they changed how shading worked on zone calls? In past maddens, shading a play with Match rules would revert it to a spot drop.

The last I heard about shading in match was that it would revert match to spot drop as well…not sure how long ago that was, but I do remember that.

[TON1C]

This is a great thread and I’m excited to learn more as well. Been a football fan for a long time but since I never played I never used to look for or know much about little things like this.

In my franchise I’m going to be focusing on man coverage so this is perfect. My reasoning is my goal is to win a Super Bowl, to do so you have to beat good teams, most good teams have elite QBs, and elite QBs will absolutely shred zone defenses and pick you apart.

Whereas if you can play good man coverage, you allow your pass rush to generate pressure and force the QB to make a decision. Will also be focusing on my pass rush to make sure my CBs don’t have to cover too long. But as far as CBs go, I’m going to build a team around playing mostly man with some press man as well.

[RogueHominid]

This is my thinking as well, having seen the best QBs murder me in my match zone schemes—it seems to me like the answer vs. them is to man up and send pressure, if possible, so I’m going to try to build towards that scheme over time.

I like basing out of the 34 when trying to move this direction, too, since I can gin up the rush from way more directions and use more players, and I don’t necessarily have to have super elite EDGE guys to manufacture pressure, though that helps.

Excited to learn more here as well, so hopefully the coach types will jump in and break some stuff down!

[Fours]

Nice to see people curious about football, not metas.

Cover 1 - man assignments play outside leverage, "funneling" routes to zone help in the middle, deep safety will play at depth of deepest route, underneath zone/robber will be active on the ball, looking to jump slants, crossers, in's.

Crosser kill C1 by flooding free release targets into the shallow zone, and outside receivers will almost always have space on hitches as the corners don't have enough help to be aggressive. If a corner gets beat on an outside release, it's a potential 6.

Cover 2 man was covered well by someone else here inside leverage, aggressive on breaks as you always have help over top. Only thing to note is that you'll give up a light box with 2 safeties high so vunerable to run. Also can be beaten with outside releasing flood concepts like flood, stick, sail, and screens.

Any version of cover 0 will(should) never allow inside release, so hard inside leverage, and you dare the QB to drop a dime outside over the shoulder under pressure.