How do you get sacks with OLBs in a 3-4 defense?

[thedude]

Any tips? I'm really having a hard time getting to the quaterback with outside linebackers in a 3-4 scheme. Any help would be appreciated.

[TheDelta]

The only way to get consistent pressure in M12 is to overload. You need to rush either five or six and try to overload your point of attack.

For example, if you take a play out of a base 3-4 where you rush the front 3, the left rush LB and the left ILB, you move and slant the line to the left, move the LBs to the left as well, then you user align the blitzing ILB over the tackle or between tackle and guard (maybe reblitz him). If it works as intended, your front and the ILB will take on the LT, both guards and center and possibly a TE on that side, leaving the LOLB to get in unblocked.

If you rush 5, it's a matter of luck and whether they keep a back in to protect whether you'll actually get there, if you rush 6, you can actually try to overload both ends of the line (Over Storm Brave out of the Nickel sets is great for this, spread the line and set it to edge rush, user align to LBs over the tackles and one DE (or OLB in the 2-4-6 Nickle set) will get in unblocked most of the time. Notice that this of course only works if you have fast CBs that are good at man coverage because if they get beat, there's no help over the top if you rush 6. If it looks like they're going with max protect, I just audible into a regular Cover 3 or Cover 2 Man Under play and trust my coverage.

Again, the key here is overload. You can't rely on your pass rushers to get past the block, because they won't (and yes, that means that Speed and Acceleration are by far the most important attributes for pass rushers, Power and Finesse Moves don't seem to do much in M12), you simply need to create a situation where you outnumber the blockers at the point of attack.

[at23steelers]

Quote: Originally Posted by thedude

Any tips? I'm really having a hard time getting to the quaterback with outside linebackers in a 3-4 scheme. Any help would be appreciated.

What I found out is you need great DE's to have the outside linebackers rush the QB on a consistent basis.

[GameTape]

This is a major flaw with the game, edge rushing is not strong enough. If you adjust the sliders to get more edge pressure, then the interior pass rush is too strong.

We have been working on a roster fix in another thread.

Besides that, as someone mentioned, the only thing you can do is overload blitz.

[baller7345]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheDelta

The only way to get consistent pressure in M12 is to overload. You need to rush either five or six and try to overload your point of attack. For example, if you take a play out of a base 3-4 where you rush the front 3, the left rush LB and the left ILB, you move and slant the line to the left, move the LBs to the left as well, then you user align the blitzing ILB over the tackle or between tackle and guard (maybe reblitz him). If it works as intended, your front and the ILB will take on the LT, both guards and center and possibly a TE on that side, leaving the LOLB to get in unblocked. If you rush 5, it's a matter of luck and whether they keep a back in to protect whether you'll actually get there, if you rush 6, you can actually try to overload both ends of the line (Over Storm Brave out of the Nickel sets is great for this, spread the line and set it to edge rush, user align to LBs over the tackles and one DE (or OLB in the 2-4-6 Nickle set) will get in unblocked most of the time. Notice that this of course only works if you have fast CBs that are good at man coverage because if they get beat, there's no help over the top if you rush 6. If it looks like they're going with max protect, I just audible into a regular Cover 3 or Cover 2 Man Under play and trust my coverage. Again, the key here is overload. You can't rely on your pass rushers to get past the block, because they won't (and yes, that means that Speed and Acceleration are by far the most important attributes for pass rushers, Power and Finesse Moves don't seem to do much in M12), you simply need to create a situation where you outnumber the blockers at the point of attack.

Your making the overload blitz way more complicated than it has to be. Take something like Sam Mike Blast out of 3-4 Odd, it is your base 5 man overload that but with the psychic linemen knowing where every pass rusher is in order for it to get pressure against an unadjusted 5 man line you have to edge rush the line (crash up) there is no need to shift the LB's and crash the line towards that side it isn't that hard. There are some that require more adjusting to actually get the overload but most are a simply line shift or crash. Overloading the B gap for example is as easy as calling one of the "Overload Blitzes" (Overload 3 Seam/Overload Blitz/Overload Roll 1) out of Psycho/1-4-6 while out of 2-4-5 you do actually have to move the RILB so that he actually occupies the player he is supposed to. Another one is FS zone blitz out of 2-3-6 Odd which works great after you shift the LB's to the left so that the RILB sits in the B gap but out of 3-4 Odd the B gap overload works fine with no adjustments. Many times doing what you suggested (the crashing in the same direction you are blitzing) means that the offensive line goes superman and picks it up anyway simply because their is no rusher causing them to pause as they shift over to block the blitzes. Not saying your method doesn't work but I feel it is over complicating matters.

That said as long as you aren't playing on all Madden then you can get consistent pressure by usering a OLB especially if he is elite. Also if you just send 5 guys at the line you get a bunch of 1v1 match ups that means someone is going to win in most cases causing pressure unless its a short pass. It won't happen every play but since the cpu is great at picking up any kind of blitzes this is where most of my sacks against the cpu come from when I'm not either sending 7 or sending a blitz that is essentially a double overload.

I get on average about 1.5 sacks a game with Clay Mathews and 1 with Desmond Bishop and this is with about 90+ % of the blitzes I send getting picked up while playing on all madden. On all pro just user the LB and you should be able to get him through almost every time if it is a good match up.