New to Madden.. could use some help

Honestly, the only way to get better is to play really. There's the madden test and virtual trainer, but they don't help much in-game. I suggest going to the madden test and purposely failing it miserably to bring your Madden IQ down. Then it'll start out really easy and adjust the game to your level. Calling plays by play type might also help you out if you don't know playbooks well, and don't be afraid to Ask Madden for playcalling advice either.

Hey its very helpful to me also .. thanks for the info :-)

To be honest good luck dude.. Madden has been around for 20 years now. The learning curve you are facing to play against most people is gonna be very, very steep. That said there really is no secret to learning Madden but just playing.

Pick a middle team and stick with them. Learn the plays, learn the routes, learn what works and what doesnt. What plays you can depend on for yarddarge, and in must do situations like 3rd and 5.

Once you have those basics down, you can move to more advance stuff like using the spin and juke buttons, the hit stick, audibles, blitzs, taking direct control of your LB, DBs and WR while the ball is in the air.

Since this is a tips type of post I also have a question that may help the original poster or other users. How the heck do you play defense? I have no idea what to do when calling plays in defense. Like, I need to wait for the opponent to pick a play before I make my defensive call right? The thing is I don't know which one to pick. Sometimes I just pick the one with lots of arrows or fancy circles everywhere or just simply because I like the name. If someone could provide some tips on that I think my gaming experience with football would change.

P.S. I don't watch a whole lot of football and the only basics I understand are really on the offensive side of the ball.

That part right there is going to be your biggest problem. Some general basics on defense in football would be as follows:

1) Try and predict what play they are going to run next. Offensive plays are either straight up run , straight up pass the ball or sometimes both. Alot of times you can tell by the formation if they are gonna run the ball, or pass or try something tricky.

1a) If they are going to run the ball, a great defense is always 4-3. It gives you 4 defensive linemen (the really big 300+ lb guys at the line of scrimmage, who tackle extremely well but run very slow), 3 line backers (really big guys 250lb+ who tackle very well and run kinda fast), 2 safeties (medium guys 215+ lbs who tackle well and run really fast) and 2 cornerbacks (small guys 170+ lb, who dont tackle well at, but run extremely fast, usually the fastest guys on any team.. and are good for intercepting/knocking down passes/defending recievers). Using a 4-3 is a great package to stop the run because the RB has to get thru 4 lineman, 3 LB's, 2 safeties and 2 very fast cornerbacks.

1b) If they are going to pass the ball. Things can get really complicated here. You can run several different base defensives, but the absolutely best defense against the is dime. You have 7 defenders, a mix of cornerbacks & safeties and are called DB's (defensive backs) and are usually recievers who dont catch very well (thats why they play defense). You still have your 4 lineman at the line of scrimmage. You are basically using your fastest players to intercept or knock down any balls the QB will try and throw to very fast recievers. Using a dime package is a good idea when its like 3rd and 20, because you dont want to give up a big pass play.

1c) If they are going to do both, things actually get a bit easier because most defenses are designed to give you some type of hybrid protection against either the pass or run. These defenses are great for trick plays, play action, sweeps, swings and screen plays. The 3-4 (3 lineman, 4 LBs, 4 DBs) the nickel (4 lineman, 2 LBs, 5 DBs), 4-6 (4 lineman, 6 LBs, 1 DB), cover 2 (mix of lineman/lbs with 2 safeties really far back), cover 3 (same as cover 2 with except 3 safties really far back) and Man to Man (any mix of players designed to match up with specific offensive players) are all hybrid defenses that will protect against both pass and run.


2) After you've picked a defense you need to decide if you are going to play man to man coverage or zone. Man 2 Man is what is says, every defensive player is assigned an offensive player to guard. While it sounds good on paper, most offensive players are more atheletically gifted than defensive players. Man 2 Man is where you risk giving up the biggest passing plays, Man 2 Man is also the best way to stop the run because you always have a defender very very close to every player on the field.

2a) Playing zone is the safest way to play the game. You arent guarding a particular guy, just particular areas around the field. You wont ever get beat by another guy because of atheleticism (meaning you probably also wont ever give up a really big play). But because you arent guarding specific people, you give up alot of small plays. Also because you are stationary facing the QB, instead of chasing some guy around the field.. you see where the QB is looking, where the ball is being thrown and you can be better prepared to intercept it or knock it down. This is why zone defense is where most interceptions will occur. Zone's weakness is that it is least effective against the run, if a guy is stationary and disciplined to remain on one side of the field.. it will take time for him to run all the way to the other side of the field to make a play.


3) Lastly you want to concentrate on pressure on the QB.. and using your safeties effectively. If you want to hurry the QB into making mistakes.. you can blitz. That means you send an extra defender (unsuspectingly) after the QB. You can also use your safties to put pressure on the QB (safety blitz). The safties can double team certain players that have mismatch for the defender or the safties can come up and closer to the line of scrimmage to help stop a great running back (putting 8 or 9 in the box). Lastly the safties can 'hang back' (example Cover 2 defense) and scare the QB away from trying to throw the ball a long distance.

4) Certain rules of thumb:

A DB is gonna have a hard time stopping a running back or tight end. They are just too small to stop them.
A LB is gonna have a hard time guarding a wide reciever or running back in open space, they arent fast enough.
A Lineman is gonna have a hard time stopping anybody who gets past the line of scrimmage. Their job is mainly to plug up holes, not get pushed back, not let anyone get past them and to tackle the QB or RB behind the line of scrimmage.

You want to choose the amount of lineman, amount of LBs and amount of DB's you want on the field.. to match up with the number of RBs, TEs, and WR's that the offense has on the field. It should be atleast 1 Cornerback for every WR. And 1 LB for every RB or TE. You add extra LB's or DB's as you feel are needed. The lineman are always 3 or 4 when marching up the field. And usually 5 lineman when very very close to the goalline.



If I've confused you. Trust me, it gets way quicker than that. Playing defense is usually trying your best not to make a mistake, versus actually stopping another team. The whole point of a defense is really to make the offense make a mistake. Not to absolutely stop them. If you can make an offense make 2 mistakes in a series.. chances are they will have to kick the ball.

If theres pressure on the QB he'll make fast (and hopefully bad) decisions because he panicked. Or double teaming guys will make them fumble or drop easy passes, or even be scared to catch it. Or if a running back cant consistently beyond the line of scrimmage and gain positive yarddarge he will make it tougher for the entire team.

A great option is use the "ask Madden option". Based on what the team has a history of doing best and worse, based on the down and yarddage, and based on who/where your best players are.. the CPU will recommend the best defense for every situation.

Use the "ask Madden option" until you see a series of repetitive suggestions and you become used to those repetitions showing up over and over again. You will not only learn what your best defenses are.. you will learn whens a good time to use and when is a good time not to.

Not to start any controversy, but a 3-4 defense is generally the best run stopping defense, provided the team your using has th LBs to pull it off.

I prefer the 46 myself.

Wow! Thanks for the information. I think it'll really help with my game play. I usually do use "Ask Madden" but I always felt that I was cheating a bit because I would just press a couple of buttons and not know what was going on. I'd rather actually understand it and pick plays myself. Thanks again!

I forgot to add.. anytime you see the offense in a shotgun position or especially with an empty backfield (meaning no one is behind the QB) they are pretty much going to pass the ball. And if they have 5 WR's on the field, expect a big pass play is about to happen and a TD if you are in a run defense.

If you are in a run defense (or have your safeties playin 'up' or aggressively to stop the run).. call an audible immediately. Click X to bring up your audibles before the ball is hiked.. and press Y to call "cover 2". I think that puts you in man to man coverage on the outside, your LB's will zone in the middle and most imporantly puts your 2 safeties far back. You essentially have the whole field covered against a big pass play.

Worse come to worse.. they should only pickup 10-15 yds.. instead of a hail mary TD.




I believe in Madden the basic 4 button audibles are.. press Y (top button for big pass), press A (lowest button for run), press B (right button for straight up man to man *good hybrid D*), press X (left button for cover 3 *another good hybrid D*).

Daekwan, I was interested in the official strategy guide myself to improve my madden skills! Do they really help? I've been looking online and there are tons of websites dedicated to improving your madden strategies even for madden 10 but are costly. I want to be good not god like in this game. Any advice is appreciated. I really appreciate the breakdown you gave. I'm sure your Madden skills are crazy.

I've never bought the manual for any game. That said if you prefer to play with a specific team.. and the manual advises you on what plays they run best or worst (on Off & Def) and the timing routes of those plays. Then by all means go for it.

I'd venture down to Best Buy on Saturday and spend a good half hour reading through the Guide before purchasing it though. You want to make sure its something you'll actually refer too again and again. Not just pull out a few 1 trick pony plays and never use again.

Thanks for the advice!

Come join the AVS league. You will have a great time. I promise you no cheese. You will learn more that way then playing by yourself with the CPU. We have a good bunch of guys here to help you along.

The main thing with this game is figuring out how to stop the pass. Heres some tips.

1. You'll always have a crack at stopping the run as long as you have 4 linemen down in the trenches. So concentrate your formations to pass coverage around that.

2. Dont control the corners. Its really hard to predict what route recievers will take after 5-10 yars and if you guess wrong its going to give up a huge chunk of yardage. This happens more times than not.

3. If you play a safety with a zone coverage assignment stick to it!! Do not let anyone get behind you. You could give up a small chunk of yardage as opposed to a bomb td.

4. If you call for a blitz up the middle always take control of the linebacker. You can create an opening by stunting the dlineman but if the oline reacts to it and clogs up the blitzing lane the ai for the lb's do not adjust. You need to take control of the lb and find an alternate gap to shoot when this happens.

5. When blitzing corners always blitz on the side that allows more room in the flats. This makes the opponent look to get rid of the ball in the other direction. Also make sure your safety is handling the zone on the appropriate side.

6. If you cant get pressure with the front four, which is usually the case, take a d-end and jam a tight end at the line of scrimmage and keep coverage in that zone. You might want to continue to cover that tight end if his route breaks off into the flats. Most people will discover that the ai covering recievers does a great job up until a ball is thrown and the recievers make ridiculous catches. So in an online game if you take the tight end out of the equation (who usually is open on every play in some shape or form) it appears that no one will be open.

7. When faced with two to three tight end sets, spread your linemen out to meet flush with the ends and pull your lb's in the middle. Also bring your secondary in to jam the recievers. If it isnt a run play, i can guarantee you someones going to throw to one of those tight ends and they are too slow to get away after the catch.

Biggest thing you have to get used to is that next year, it's going to be the same.

Wow, that was really helpful and worth posting!

So how does one join this AVS league you speak of? I need to find some folks to play with that understand football and don't quit.

you knew someone was going to say it

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...5#post17027845

If anyone's up for some games, just send me a msg on Live

Some just enjoy being the Debbie Downer.