Defense Can't Stop Anybody

[horrormaster]

After 1.5 seasons, my team is terrible. They have 5 wins so far, 4 of those coming against FCS teams. I picked the worst team for my Dynasty expecting a challenge, but the things that happen are just illogical. Most of these pop-up on default Varsity difficulty as well even if I'm Alabama facing Georgia State.

Out of those 5 wins, 4 were from 2 FCS teams. Those 5 teams that I have beat don't run the hurry up spread option. The other 11 loses have all been against teams that run the spread option. Literally every team (and the other FCS teams) ALL run that same offense that seems to be impossible to stop. I have noticed a couple things happen on every play:

1) Safeties & Corners continue to backpedal until the opponent has already gained 3-5 yards. If a QB scrambles, pitches the ball, or hands it off, they just continue going back until they've already gained a great chunk of yards. On passing plays they literally just stand near the receiver, letting them catch the ball with zero attempts at actually trying to cover them.

2) Linebackers never go after the QB when he runs the ball or running the read option. They simply freeze in place and let him take off gaining any number of yards at will. There are rare occasions when they'll actually move with the option, but it seems like they're stuck on a horizontal plane, never moving forward to pursue. On pass plays it's the same as Safeties & Corners.

3) Psychic A.I. I call a maryland I run on 3rd and 1 with 0 receivers. Their defense is packed in with 6 on the line. I then audible out to a empty gun. The slot runs a fade to the sidelines. Guess what the opponents safety does? Yep, at the snap of the ball he automatically starts moving to the spot where my WR makes his cut on the fade.

[NoleFan]

I call my D using the "Nick Saban" strategy found in the Lessons I learned from Nick Saban thread in the Madden forums. I play coach mode so I don't do the manual coverage and still have success. I also found that keeping my base D on the field against 3 WRs has yielded no fruit. Figured out over the last few games that I needed to match CBs to WRs regarding formation THEN use the Saban principles. Check out the first post in that thread then give it a go.

I play on default All-American by the way!

[TheNinjaGuyDon]

Quote: Originally Posted by horrormaster

After 1.5 seasons, my team is terrible. They have 5 wins so far, 4 of those coming against FCS teams. I picked the worst team for my Dynasty expecting a challenge, but the things that happen are just illogical. Most of these pop-up on default Varsity difficulty as well even if I'm Alabama facing Georgia State. Out of those 5 wins, 4 were from 2 FCS teams. Those 5 teams that I have beat don't run the hurry up spread option. The other 11 loses have all been against teams that run the spread option. Literally every team (and the other FCS teams) ALL run that same offense that seems to be impossible to stop. I have noticed a couple things happen on every play: 1) Safeties & Corners continue to backpedal until the opponent has already gained 3-5 yards. If a QB scrambles, pitches the ball, or hands it off, they just continue going back until they've already gained a great chunk of yards. On passing plays they literally just stand near the receiver, letting them catch the ball with zero attempts at actually trying to cover them. 2) Linebackers never go after the QB when he runs the ball or running the read option. They simply freeze in place and let him take off gaining any number of yards at will. There are rare occasions when they'll actually move with the option, but it seems like they're stuck on a horizontal plane, never moving forward to pursue. On pass plays it's the same as Safeties & Corners. 3) Psychic A.I. I call a maryland I run on 3rd and 1 with 0 receivers. Their defense is packed in with 6 on the line. I then audible out to a empty gun. The slot runs a fade to the sidelines. Guess what the opponents safety does? Yep, at the snap of the ball he automatically starts moving to the spot where my WR makes his cut on the fade.

90 percent of the time I call only 2 plays on defense and lead the nation in scoring defense and while I do give up some passing yards, I and usually also #1 in rush defense as well and #1 in turnovers forced.

If you want some pointers, check out my stream here in a bit. Or watch my 60-0 drumming of FCS West with ASU. One thing to know about D in NCAA or really anything in NCAA, is speed is king. You don't want to put any corners out there under 90 speed, I prefer 93-96. I go after 3 star corners that run no worse than 4.45's to help with that. Don't care about their overall as much, need the speed first.

http://youtube.com/theninjaguydon/live

Should be live here within the next half hour.

[StoneCalf]

Quote: Originally Posted by horrormaster

Those 5 teams that I have beat don't run the hurry up spread option. The other 11 loses have all been against teams that run the spread option. Literally every team (and the other FCS teams) ALL run that same offense that seems to be impossible to stop.

horror, you could consider going to the coaches menu and modify some opposing coaches (all- HC, OC, DC) to "conservative" on the options for "no huddle". I edit all but a couple of the teams in my conference to not run the HUNH offense and my enjoyment of the game has risen tremendously. I still face a up to about four HUNH's teams a year because I don't mess with out of conference teams, but now it's much better since I'm not facing 60 or 70% HUNH offenses which is what if felt like before.

[firesloth]

Scrambling QBs can eat up your defense, esp. on 3rd down. I do two things to stop them.

First, I always set my "QB contain" adjustment option to "aggressive."

Second, when facing a QB that scrambles with regularity, I often call a 3-3-5 Nickel or 3-2-6 Quarter package that includes a blitzing LB. Then I manually run a "hot route" for that LB, making him a QB spy for every play! It seems to me the QBs are sometimes aware of the fact that the LB is spying them, which makes them stay closer to the line of scrimmage, leading to more sacks. When they do take off, my LB can usually grab them before they get too far.

[grdbeavmn]

it's much better since I'm not facing 60 or 70% HUNH offenses which is what if felt like before.

[orangeafroman]

Every month or so, this topic comes up, and the answer never changes. The CPU can complete corner and out routes whenever it wants, no matter how good your DBs are. It will run way too many screens, but convert all the 3rd-and-longs it feels like. You can routinely finish with a great rush D and a terrible pass D. Welcome to NCAA 14.

[Raider1015]

Yeah, it's pretty skewed.

You'll always have by far the best rush defense in the NCAA, because the CPU is too busy hucking up 300+ yards per game, even when you grossly outclass the opponent.

The only way to limit pass yards is to absolutely dominate the line of scrimmage and force a bunch of turnovers. In my sliders, I drop my run defense and improve the CPU's RB ability and blocking just to encourage them to run a LITTLE, and I still massacre their run game.

Still, I've gotten more realistic results since I've started playing more zone-heavy pass defenses with better ball hawking corners. I get a ton of pass breakups per game with all of my defenders playing on top of receivers, especially when I got decent at manually going for swats.