Why are zones still crossing across the field?

[Coach Captures]

Same crap as last year. Playing in online CFM and without using any coaching adjustments these zones are coming out of the huddle crossed. I mean come on, it worked years ago and doesn’t now for past couple. Is this a designed broken coverage or just incompetence? Why can’t they just fix it so people can play defense. It’s like EA is so dead set against defense in this game.

Offense- Empty Base Flex/Verts
defense- Dime 23/Cover 6 Show 2

[TheBleedingRed21]

That’s a match zone coverage is why.

EA 100% needs to do better explaining this for people. A simple M icon on match zone coverages in the playcall screen would fix this confusion.

If you want to remove the match and just drop, do triangle (or Y on Xbox) and flick RS up.

[Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheBleedingRed21

That’s a match zone coverage is why. EA 100% needs to do better explaining this for people. A simple M icon on match zone coverages in the playcall screen would fix this confusion. If you want to remove the match and just drop, do triangle (or Y on Xbox) and flick RS up.

This is not a match coverage bug. It's just the one specific play — Dime 3-2 Cover 6 Show 2 — which is bugged. No need to tell people to call off match coverage.

Only the specific play — Dime 3-2 Cover 6 Show 2— is not flipping correctly. The bug triggers, as far as I can tell, against Empty formations when the 3-receiver side is to the offense's righthand side and the 2-receiver side deploys a HB out wide or in the slot by default (no package substitutions).

This bug happens whether Auto-Flip Defensive Play Call is enabled, the play is flipped manually, or the play is called as an audible. Other Cover 6 calls from other formations align correctly and play match as correctly as the game is able to play it. Calling off match coverage won't fix the alignment issue, the defenders still spot-drop to the wrong sides of the field post-snap. EA Sports needs to fix the play; if I were to guess, the baked-in Cover 2 shell for this specific play is the cause of the issue.

The workaround in the meantime is to not use that specific play (Dime 3-2 Cover 6 Show 2) against such Empty sets. Dime 3-2 has Cover 6 Invert, Cover 4 Palms, and Cover 9 available if you want access to split-field match coverage calls from this formation without issues; these plays both align correctly against Gun Empty Base Flex and similar formations. Cover 3 Buzz Match, Cover 3 Match, and Cover 4 Quarters are also available from Dime 3-2 and align correctly if you want full-field match coverage, these all align correctly as well.

Additionally, EA Sports College Football 25 and Madden NFL 25 already added tags for Match coverage plays at the play call screen; these are plainly visible on all Cover 4 Quarters, Cover 4 Palms, Cover 3 Match, and Cover 3 Buzz Match plays. For some reason, however, Cover 6 (all variants) and Cover 9 are all tagged at Zone plays when they do in fact play match coverage.

[NightOwl]

Quote: Originally Posted by Hooe

This is not a match coverage bug. It's just the one specific play — Dime 3-2 Cover 6 Show 2 — which is bugged. No need to tell people to call off match coverage. Only the specific play — Dime 3-2 Cover 6 Show 2— is not flipping correctly. The bug triggers, as far as I can tell, against Empty formations when the 3-receiver side is to the offense's righthand side and the 2-receiver side deploys a HB out wide or in the slot by default (no package substitutions). This bug happens whether Auto-Flip Defensive Play Call is enabled, the play is flipped manually, or the play is called as an audible. Other Cover 6 calls from other formations align correctly and play match as correctly as the game is able to play it. Calling off match coverage won't fix the alignment issue, the defenders still spot-drop to the wrong sides of the field post-snap. EA Sports needs to fix the play; if I were to guess, the baked-in Cover 2 shell for this specific play is the cause of the issue. The workaround in the meantime is to not use that specific play (Dime 3-2 Cover 6 Show 2) against such Empty sets. Dime 3-2 has Cover 6 Invert, Cover 4 Palms, and Cover 9 available if you want access to split-field match coverage calls from this formation without issues; these plays both align correctly against Gun Empty Base Flex and similar formations. Cover 3 Buzz Match, Cover 3 Match, and Cover 4 Quarters are also available from Dime 3-2 and align correctly if you want full-field match coverage, these all align correctly as well. Additionally, EA Sports College Football 25 and Madden NFL 25 already added tags for Match coverage plays at the play call screen; these are plainly visible on all Cover 4 Quarters, Cover 4 Palms, Cover 3 Match, and Cover 3 Buzz Match plays. For some reason, however, Cover 6 (all variants) and Cover 9 are all tagged at Zone plays when they do in fact play match coverage.

I believe they did that (the last part you talked about) because only half of the field is match and the other is straight zone. The colors (which are not significantly different enough imo) are what were supposed to tell us which zones were match and which weren't.

[Richie71]

Does the issue that if you "man align" your zone package, then the players re-align their position, but do not re-align their zone. So you get defenders strafing (not running) across the field to a zone that's 30 yards away from their starting point.



I'll test as soon.

[Richie71]

Of course, they solved the “man align” problem, by removing it.

[Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by Richie71

Of course, they solved the “man align” problem, by removing it.

The coverage shells feature replaced Base Align and Man Align in both Madden 25 and College Football 25.

I believe that the legacy behavior where players will not swap zone assignments regardless of chosen coverage shell still exists. So if you call Cover 3 with a 2 Man shell against Gun Trips TE, your left cornerback will align over the #3 receiver on the trips side as if he were in man coverage but be assigned his default outside deep third away from the trips side as if he never moved.