Madden Guide - Lesson 1

A good game to cover some important points about Madden. This game was never in doubt, and really wasn't close to the 20-13 score it ended up being. A late touchdown from QB Grossman (BUCS) to WR Jurevicius (BUCS) occured because of a blown coverage on a 3rd and 13.
Opening Remarks:
Some things you need to know before you begin. The following are absolutely required in order to become a decent player. These aren't really strategies, so much as the basics of winning that you will need to master in order to have a fighting chance. Remember, EVERY GAME, regardless of the talent level (rating system of the players) on the field, your CPU guys won't block as well as theirs, won't cover as well as theirs, and won't react to the ball as well as theirs, thats three basic tenets of playing the game on All-Madden.
The Basics:
1) You must learn to punt. Must not only be good at it, but must be willing to. If you aren't willing to, forget it and just stop because you will never win in All-Madden without punting. You will be down 30 points before you can blink.
2) You must never force a pass over the middle. Without doing this, YOU WILL STILL throw interceptions. I will go over this in a minute, but it will be hard enough throwing to WIDE OPEN guys in All-Madden, much less guys sort of covered, and even less than that, guys over the middle. Your first try at an All-Madden game will likely yield more than 12-14 INTERCEPTIONS by the other team. This is probably required to fully understand all of the stuff I will be describing to you, and you'll get exactly what I am talking about in the passing game once you see the computer behave yourself.
3) You must be willing to run a variety of plays. The computer will learn quickly and destroy your same old shit. There ARE certain tricks you can take advantage of that I will point out to you in the running game that will make it seem, at times, that you can just run the same play over and over. However, mastering 20-40 plays is really the only way you will score consistently.
4) You must learn to avoid play-action passes. Here's the thing: on All-Madden, very rarely will you actually be able to get off the play-fake, set up, and see your reciever icons come up before a DE or an LB is sacking your QB. The thing is, the CPU always knows what play you are running, and will "paddle-peek" so to speak -- in other words, they will usually call a good pass defense when you are passing, a decent run defense when you are running, and a good blitz when you are play-actioning. DOWN AND DISTANCE DOES affect its play calling, but its clearly only about 50-60 percent of its decision making process.
5) You must learn to knock down passes with DBs, and make the catch with your WR manually. This will require practice in the training camp mode. A good amount of it. You will need to learn when to hit L2 in order to knock down low, hard passes in man coverage, how to use L2 to knock down slow, floating passes to the outside, and how to use L2 to knock down the deep ball. It requires great timing, but luckily, it is the same basic skill as you have to learn in order to catch the ball manually with Y button on offense. The main tip: You have to learn to be the first person in the path of the ball to go up and get the pass, WHILE not going up to get the pass to early. Note that I said in the path of the ball, not the people the pass is intended to. If you go up to early, you will swat at nothing and jump at nothing, and the CPU will either intercept it or if they are on offense, they will catch it, and probably outrun everyone to the endzone. Its kind of intimidating. Don't worry though, there are certain things that will work to make it safer than it sounds.

To me, those 5 things are absolutely required. Without them, you're toast 100 percent of the time.

BUT back to today's game, and today's lessons.
Grossman was their QB, and in Madden he is a QB that will complete 80-90 percent of his passes for 250-350 yards in the game without pressure on him. You could play impecable coverage, but it wouldn't matter. His throws are too fast to react to many times, and often times you are better off NOT trying to swat down his passes if he is throwing to a WR one on one on the outside. You're actually better off letting them take the 8-10 yard catch, then hitting L2 after the catch is made with the CB next to the WR, which will make him do a controlled, sure tackle.
However, Deion Branch and Joe Jurevicius were their WRs - who are OKAY but not FAST - and therefore very controllable. FAST WRs with a dominating QB are the toughest to stop in All-Madden, because they will often beat man coverage deep (even 2 or 3 deep man) and they will routinely be open vs. zones.
So how to stop them? Remember the main rules. No. 1. Punt if you have to. No. 2, VARIETY- even on defense.
Now -- to expound.
We know that you need to put PRESSURE on Grossman. If you look at my stat line, he threw for 226 yards and 2 TDs, but he also was sacked 6 TIMES and lost the ball on downs twice. Also, we shut down a drive on the 5 yard line that could've tied the game in the 2nd quarter.
So Blitz? Yes, occasionally. BUT YOU NEED to learn how to get pressure with your front four.
Rule #1 - the diagrammed pass rush routes will work 2% of the time. You NEED to line audible, and do it routinely. With your linemen in a 4-3, lined up head up over their G and Ts, audible to a WIDE PASS RUSH, which will make both ends SPEED rush around and, and then DTs will take 3 technique speed rushes as well. On All-Madden, the biggest problem in rushing the passer is that when they get a chance to block man up, the OL will ALWAYS nullify your rush - you won't bull rush them, and they can bull rush you. This will work occasionally, and is a good idea on 1st and 10 and 2nd and short, because it is a decent way to pressure the pocket WHILE not totally giving up on the run.
THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO RUSH THE PASSER in Madden, on All-Madden, is to only rush 4 men, audible your line to do wide speed rush, and ALSO presnap align your DTs to 3 techniques and your DE's to 7 techniques. This means that your DEs and DTs will spread wide pre-snap, and you will have NO one over the center, and no one over both A gaps(or 1 holes).
Finally, in these rushes, you have to TRUST your DE's, and NOT be one of them -- let the CPU handle it, and use your LBs to cover the pass. You need your own eyes back there, plus...and this is big...
ONLY be a blitzing LB or a DB, NEVER be a DL on All-Madden. You can really only use speed moves effectively, and the CPU will always direct the players at better speed angles on the line that you as a human can. Trust me on this.
Finally -- The blitz -- how and when?
Good times for it:
when they get inside your own 30. Zones and no rush = giving up a TD once this happens. 2nd and short = you will stuff the run, and its a time when the risk is worth the reward ifyou get to the QB 3rd and moderately long = note i said moderately. If its 3rd and 15+ its ACTUALLY BETTER to RUSH 4, play 3 deep man, and take your chances that you will tackle them before they get to the marker, because you will 75% of the time.
HOW TO BLITZ? Glad you asked. First, lets talk about what not to do.
Blitzing 8 -NEVER. Your guys invariably get in each others way - plus on All-Madden, simply running 8 guys at 6 blockers, though logic would say it couldn't not work, usually ends up having 6 guys getting blocked head up, and the other two blitzers two busy tryin gto get through traffic to actually get to the Qb in time, leading to you getting torched.
Blitzing one LB, and slanting the other linemen away from him - NEVER. Each man ends up getting manned up, and like i said, once you get manned up by an All-Madden OL, you are done, no pressure will come of it.
There's two types of Blitzees that can work:
One man, LB or DB, up the middle STUNTING AWAY from your DE or DT slant rushing, OR
Two men blitzing, if outside, then slanting the line towards the outside rusher - if inside, than slanting the linemen AWAY from the inside rusher.
Does that make sense? So for example, if you want to rush the WLB outside, then slant the WE and the WT towards the WLB, effectively making them speed rush and the OL on that side slide protect to the left - THEN, take the WLB and speed rush AROUND all of that. Chances are, you will beat the C (who will try to slide over and protect) and you will have a shot at the QB.
Practice all of this -- FOR NOW - Just try these rushes out, and don't even BE the CB once the ball is thrown, take your lumps and completions, and rely on sacks to stop them. As you get better at knocking down the ball, you will want to pressur ethe QB with the blitz, then switch guys after the ball is released, and learn to hit l2 at the right time to have your CB (usually in man coverage with blitzes) knock down the passes that are generally thrown slightly short of their intended target (when you blitz).
Anyway, as far as on offense, the Bucs have dominating up front people that will HUNT YOUR SCRAMBLING QB DOWN and MAUL him occasionally. So dont just run out of the pocket.
Tip#1: run on 1st and 10.
Tip#2: Motion away from playside, and watch the computer overcompensate.
Tip#3: use the juke key to juke your way outside, dont just sprint as fast as you can out there, because their LBs will disengage their blockers and tackle your ass for a lot shorter gain than if you are patient, hit juke when behind a lead blocker, which will then throw your HB to the open side of the play without allowing the CPU to pursue yet,then once the opening is in front of you, just sprint ahead and get what you can.
Tip#4: As for passing right now. Motion to check if its a zone or a man. If its a man to man, try quick outs by waiting for the wideout to break, throwing a BULLET to him and then once you release the ball, hitting Y to catch it on the intended WR as soon as possible. This, oddly enough, will get your wideout to catch the ball AND stop the CB from cutting in front and picking it. If you dont do that, the CB will cut in front and knock down/INT routinely. -- IF YOU are up against a zone, try quick slants to SE side of the field. The less traffic in front the better. Again, throw a bullet, switch to intended, hit Y to catch, hope for the best. We will talk about other passes later. Move the ball and take your points, sack the QB and punt when you have to. You might not win yet, but youll be close already.....
Game two coming soon....