The problems with EA’s (Spot Dropping) zone coverage explained

[OrangeBlood]

While many of us hardcore players have begged for pattern reading coverage in recent years EA has decided to stick with spot dropping zone coverage, so what exactly is spot dropping?

On a pass read, pass defenders drop back to a predefined area or landmarks on the field. Now there are two fundamental problems with EA’s spot dropping zone coverage’s, defenders do not break on the ball and they do not gain enough depth.

In real life when defenders are taught how to spot drop the very first thing they must learn how to do is drop to their area while reading the QB’s eyes. Defenders in the game do not do this as there is nothing for them to read and therefore just drop to their area and wait for the ball to be thrown and then react (I’ll get into this more later).

The number one threat to a zone defense is a pass to the intermediate area, thus drop defenders are taught to gain depth. For example, a hook to curl linebacker could have a landmark of 12-14 yards deep. Next time you are in the game take note on the depth of the linebackers drops…8 yards, maybe 10…there is a big difference in those 2 to 4 yards. Think about where you are completing those intermediate routes.

Now, why does EA use spot dropping zones? First of all it’s easy to program: Cover 2 – corners cover flat, outside linebackers to the hash, middle linebacker to the middle and safeties have deep halves. There is nothing to it and thus it’s simple to have the defenders execute these drops time after time after time. There are more eyes on the ball which equals better pursuit and with EA implementing the programming where a defender must be able to see the ball to swat the ball this style of defense works great. Poor throws can easily be intercepted (I’ll get more into this later as well).

All of those positives sound great, right? Well I think with the outcry for pattern reading coverage’s we all know there are negatives as well. The problems with spot dropping zones are that defenders can be stuck covering grass, your defenders are assigned to guard an area and read the quarterback (there’s that again)…not cover a receiver. There are many throwing windows in the defense, ever tried to cover a slant route with a spot dropping zone defense? This style of defense requires a better than average pass rush (another problem with NCAA). Proficient passing teams can tear apart the zones (I think we’ve all seen this) and this style of defense is VERY susceptible to intermediate routes even when the drop defenders gain sufficient depth (most of us are complaining about this, passes over the middle).

To my key issue with spot dropping in NCAA…in real life spot dropping is centered around reading the quarterback’s eyes/shoulders, but what do are digital defenders have to read? Both the human player and CPU can throw to any receiver on the field without making any movement at all with the quarterback (his eyes and shoulders are always straight down the field).

So how did EA get around this? Early on they programmed zone defenders to react the moment you pressed the button to throw to a receiver (remember the first year of next gen). They have since toned down how quickly defenders react but I am certain this is still how zone defenders react to a thrown ball and why balls thrown further down the field and to the outside have more of a chance to have coverage effect the play than balls thrown over the middle, the defenders simply have a longer time to react. Years ago I believe EA was attempting to get away from this type of reaction from the defense with the passing cone but users hated it saying it made the game difficult to play. A passing cone or some sort of double tap on the receiver’s button I believe would solve some of the problems.

Adding another feature to the game aside how do we fix zone coverage today and going forward?

Zone coverage deep down the field and to the outside isn’t really a problem although it could be tweaked some as well. Why is this though? The first reason is obvious: The ball takes longer to get there and thus the defenders have a longer time to react, the second is corners and safeties have much higher zone coverage ratings than do linebackers.

There are two main issues that hinder our digital linebacker’s ability to play effective zone coverage. There is nothing for them to read and the ball gets to them too fast for them to react. Would higher zone coverage ratings help?

Improving the pass rush would help as well, remember one of the negatives of spot dropping coverage is that it requires better than average pass rush? This is one area were offline and online dynasty players have an advantage at least initially over online players (thinking that EA may use live tuning updates to up the pass rush).

The biggest thing that is needed though with the current construction of the game is pattern reading coverage’s. I say the current construction of the game as I do not see the passing cone making a return and I don’t know that EA would ever add a simple passing cone feature by making the user tap the receiver’s button twice to make a throw.

So what exactly is pattern reading coverage?

Rather than the drop defender taking a drop to a landmark and wait for receivers to arrive, pattern match coverage involves taking coverage to the most dangerous threat a defender recognizes in his zone. In this coverage defenders are taught to key certain receivers when they read pass. Usually the #2 receiver to their side, from this receiver’s action, they can diagnose whom the most likely threat to their zone is. Now after a certain point, pattern-match coverage turns into man coverage (it would take another thread to get into all the specifics).

Man coverage is obviously already programmed for the game so all that needs to be programmed is the diagnosis portion of this style of defense. Not being a programmer myself I am unsure on how difficult this would be to program, although diagnosing which offensive threat to pick up in coverage seems akin to diagnosing which defender to block in a zone blocking scheme so maybe there is hope, for next year.

[dalecooper]

Good read. I agree that zone coverage needs some kind of tweak - unless they cheat on the defense's behalf the basic logic will put them out of position on too many throws. Pattern-based coverage would be a good direction to take it. Though I imagine it would confuse a lot of long-time players at first... "Why is my cornerback leaving the flat? That's his area!"

[Sundown2600]

Very good read. It's clear that you have either played or coached the game at some time or another. It's always good to get this sort of insight. Speaking on your point about the passing cone personally I thought that that feature was the single most innovative feature to ever hit the Madden franchise and it is a shame that it was scrapped. It was really nice to see the defense key in on the side of the cone and it was extra nice to suddenly switch to the other side of the field and catch a back in the flat for a nice gain. Maybe EA could implement the cone in a different way because right now zone coverage is not up to par.

Edit: I gave this thread a 5* rating btw. We need more stuff like this around here.

[dalecooper]

To me the problem with the cone is that they were trying to implement a feature that is realistic and appealing to sim-heads, but pretty much destined to be clumsy and annoying in execution. I feel much the same about any hypothetical passing system that doesn't involve hitting a button for a specific receiver - the existing concept isn't at all realistic, but the alternatives all sound like a headache for anybody except the most rabid hardcore gamer AND football fan.

[Sundown2600]

Quote: Originally Posted by dalecooper

To me the problem with the cone is that they were trying to implement a feature that is realistic and appealing to sim-heads, but pretty much destined to be clumsy and annoying in execution. I feel much the same about any hypothetical passing system that doesn't involve hitting a button for a specific receiver - the existing concept isn't at all realistic, but the alternatives all sound like a headache for anybody except the most rabid hardcore gamer AND football fan.

Good points, but there has to be some solution. Maybe have the QB randomly look one way or another during a specific play and have all of this done based on his awareness rating. If he has low awareness have him look to one side of the field most of the time to give the D an advantage, or have him look at the best receiver most of the time. For a QB with high awareness make him more savvy by having him automatically look off safeties or what not. Also you could make a QB with high awareness have more effective pump fakes. Finally, when throws are made towards the opposite side of the field that the QB happened to not be concentrating on give an accuracy penalty based on the QB's abilities. Keep in mind that when all this is happening have the D players react accordingly based on their abilities. I don't know if I explained this clearly, but there has to be a solution to this zone problem.

[michapop9]

I consider myself a rabid hardcore gamer and football fan and see the vision cone as a necessity. However to the more "casual" I can kind of see your point about it being a headache, but will the hardcore always be dissapointed and alienated? Can we at least have some options?? (See my "Vision Cone discussion" in the madden nfl threads)

[dalecooper]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sundown2600

Good points, but there has to be some solution. Maybe have the QB randomly look one way or another during a specific play and have all of this done based on his awareness rating. If he has low awareness have him look to one side of the field most of the time to give the D an advantage, or have him look at the best receiver most of the time. For a QB with high awareness make him more savvy by having him automatically look off safeties or what not. Also you could make a QB with high awareness have more effective pump fakes. Finally, when throws are made towards the opposite side of the field that the QB happened to not be concentrating on give an accuracy penalty based on the QB's abilities. Keep in mind that when all this is happening have the D players react accordingly based on their abilities. I don't know if I explained this clearly, but there has to be a solution to this zone problem.

I was thinking about this myself after I posted. Maybe every play could have a #1 and #2 receiver that the QB automatically looks at, and assess accuracy penalties like you're suggesting at times? You could possibly also change the designated target pre-snap, and maybe assigning hot routes would automatically do that... I don't know. The main issues I see with this kind of system is that 1. it's complicated to program properly and in a subtle fashion (you can't have even the worst QBs throwing badly just because the user likes a receiver who isn't the main target on the play; and you also can't have the safeties running the wrong way based on this and therefore someone else is wide open all the time). And 2. I could see it getting on people's nerves when it's basically something the user doesn't control, that is just happening automatically. People already get frustrated at random bad throws, but you have to have them to make the game realistic at all. This kind of system would be far more pervasive and invasive than one overthrow per fifteen attempts.

What we really need is a headset with eye-scan technology so the defense can just react to whatever your ACTUAL eyes are looking at.

[Brotha2ThaNight]

great post I don't know anything about programming but I do know football and this guy nailed IT