Am i the ONly guy who plays ZONE consistanly?

just read FF post...

Of course i have noticed that MAN DEFENSE dominates defensive philophy on this game... BUT i make a genuine HONEST EFFORT TO MIX UP MY DEFENSE - I CAN LEGITIMATELY SAY THAT I PLAY 65%-70% ZONE DEFENSE - and my record is far from HORRIBLE (but maybe thats why i havent won a SB - i need to play exclusively man!) LOL!

I have noticed blainethemono play a fair amount of ZONE - but does any1 else have ZONE defense as key component of their defensive philophy??? BTW - PLAYN PREVENT DEFENSE AT THE END OF A HALF doesnt count as "fair amount of zone" LOL!

I try to mix in some zone coverage, probably 60-40 man usually, but I'll go as far as 80-20 man or 70-30 zone depending on the matchup and the league (in some leagues my secondary is better at zone).

i love playing zone. i play zone on running situations and if ppl use alot of crossing routes i do. i usually play more man if im able to blitz. i say 50-50 or at the most 60-40. man zone combos work very well of course so those dont count lol (not talking about 2 man under)

I came from Lobby play - All-Pro level - zone was useless - and it was so stupid - I hated it.

But playing here - if I play man all the time guys like Dominator would chew me alive. I need to mix it up or I get killed by HB passes and crossing routes. But if you play a guy intent on throwing slants and deep posts, corners - you gotta play 2 man under cause even a cover 3 can't cover those. It's so dumb though.

cover 3 with 2 adjustments is a nightmare lol trust me expecially if u have good stick. straight up cover 3 of course gets tore up

I play a fair amount of zone as well.... especially when the crossing routes are eating me alive.
But you can't just click on Cover 3, and expect that coverage to work, you need to make some adjustments pre-snap for it to be successful.

bigbuddah wrote:cover 3 with 2 adjustments is a nightmare lol trust me expecially if u have good stick. straight up cover 3 of course gets tore up

I don't know those adjustments and I stink with the stick. I'd like to learn them though.....

from who i've seen post that i've played, greener, buddah and blaine (havent played sam or shane yet) they all mix it up on D when logically applicable and its a fun challenge to try and read their defense. on the other hand, i've had MANY games lately with people using man...usually 2 man under the entire game. snore...hell, even the last couple lobby guys i played varied it up a little, but its not against the rules to only run D play all game so no worries. guys with 3 or 4 shutdown corners can literally run 2 man under all game and make the route cuts before even the best wr's, so i can't blame em...just the crap programming. i liked defense last year, each type of coverage had vulnerabilities. so if someone bitches about my double slants with double drags i'm not taking blame lol.

Man coverage is not that serious... There are two ways of beating it, crossing routes being one way...

How can guys even tell if they are playing man or zone? You can actually tell this before throwing the ball.. Maybe that is what i am doing wrong

ill be the first to admit.. im 100% man coverage.. i never run 2 man under... i either run a double something where im double covering 1 or 2 wrs in a 3 wr set or if its 4 wr set then i like to play an cover 1 or do something with doubling on a wr/te depending on which person my opponent likes to throw to... and if they come out 5 wr ill just have everyone 1v1 and a deep safety...

thats the way i always played from the beginning and not going to change it.. and if people saw the sick defense i had in ez lg yr 1 people would understand y i love man defense.. but ill go ahead and tell u who i had.. 4 starting cbs D.REVIS, A.TALIB, A.CROMARTIE, DEREK COX..
FS ANTREL ROLLE, DARREN SHARPER.. SS KENNY PHILLIPS.. now u tell me a reason why i should run zone coverage with that starting lineup in yr 1.. i made the playoffs and to the divisional rd..

I used to run zone almost exclusively, but about a month or 2 after I joined I realized that usually the people I was losing to were almost always running man, sometimes with press coverage and blitzes, so I've slowly been trying to switch all my teams to be able to play man. I still mix it up some, but I definitely run more man than zone now.

No secret that I run man. But it's rarely only base 2 man under...although the changes I make aren't really anything drastic. Partly because my fingers are too big to make several adjustments without fucking stuff up or getting caught on a lineman when the ball is snapped, which sucks. However, I don't press, and I don't think it's all the AI's doing as far as my defense being good. Almost all the plays that are made are made by me. Last season in DW I had 3 guys that were top 10 in the league, 2 of which are my safeties that I manually control. I got 20+ picks between the 2 of them, and I'd say 17 of them were user picks. If I sat there in base 2 man under and did nothing user-wise I'd get ripped apart.

I also used to run zone when I first got to the group, and get dominated by the deep ball and something else that kills zones that I won't discuss. Playing Jmo, my safeties were constantly letting guys behind them for big plays, so I gave that up. Granted, they were all base zones, but again, I lack the finger dexterity to create my own coverages and blitzing schemes in the 5-10 seconds I have pre-snap.

I also don't use 2 man under 100% of the time. I'd say it's like 65% 35% with the 35% being comprised of 25% blitzes, and 10% zone coverage. I think that's a pretty solid ratio given that people's run/pass ratio is much worse than that

To be honest, I'd prefer to play against a cover 1-based defense. Granted this is mostly playing with my Titans in DW's league and I'm stacked with speed at receiver. With enough time, and the right routes, you can chew a man defense to pieces. And it's getting easier to beat the press with a few pre-snap adjustments.

I LOVE running the zone. But you've got to be able to get some pressure on the QB, and you've got to mix it up. I agree that with a few adjustments a cover 3, or even a cover 2 can become really tough to through through. I've turned Syd'Quan Thompson into a superstar with the variety of zones that I run. He's 92 zone coverage, and my other CB, Glover Quinn Jr. is 86, with Reed and Polamalu at Safety and the mixture of blitzes I run, those four in any sort of zone is dangerous. It's really all about who you have. If I had guys like Revis (who steve smith SMOKED albeit in a loss) I'm sure I'd adapt to a man-based D too. Really, I haven't noticed an overwhelming difference in how much I see either one.

first off the only thing prevent defense does is prevent you from winning.

on another note... i came into this year playing zone a good 90% of the time atleast. then through the first seasons of kight and dw i noticed i was getting schooled over and over again. i was forced to change my defensive playbook and i labbed in ranked games til i found a defense i liked. I also came into this year usering my left end and in all my leagues i was averaging over 15 sacks a season with the players i usered. in one league i got 27 sacks with ernie sims at left end all of that from a base 4-3, in mostly cover 2/3 and occasionally some zone blitzes. last year i had one of the toughest run defenses and even though i run man now about 90% of the time i still have what could be consider the best run defense in mg. i now user my mlb and am now actually winning games and getting alot more interceptions.

you can't play zone without good user skill, period...and that leaves a lot potential for error. the defenders won't do it for you like they do in man, so its only logical the safest bet is to play man and draft great corners. personally, i'm stubborn and will forever and always play zone, because i live for the user pick...but its nice to know if i need man for a blitz or whatnot it isn't totally broken like it was in 09. on all madden its almost overkill though, at least from what i've seen (i'll refrain from posting a video example)...but all pro isn't as bad which is why i've actually enjoyed playing lobby games a lot more than online franchise ones lately. people try to run one D all game and get burned, and fast...i've been lucky my last 3 opponents have actually played all really sim style ball and it was fun. i find that if i avoid the people who switch right over to the raiders i'll get a decent game, even referred a couple guys over to this site afterwards when they said it was nice to play a sim style game.

falconfansince81 wrote:you can't play zone without good user skill, period...and that leaves a lot potential for error. the defenders won't do it for you like they do in man, so its only logical the safest bet is to play man and draft great corners. personally, i'm stubborn and will forever and always play zone, because i live for the user pick...but its nice to know if i need man for a blitz or whatnot it isn't totally broken like it was in 09. on all madden its almost overkill though, at least from what i've seen (i'll refrain from posting a video example)...but all pro isn't as bad which is why i've actually enjoyed playing lobby games a lot more than online franchise ones lately. people try to run one D all game and get burned, and fast...i've been lucky my last 3 opponents have actually played all really sim style ball and it was fun. i find that if i avoid the people who switch right over to the raiders i'll get a decent game, even referred a couple guys over to this site afterwards when they said it was nice to play a sim style game.

I know this is off topic, but what would the other differences be if we ran a league on all pro? I've never really played on All-pro enough to notice

All-pro negates some of the CPUs dominance on D, especially the run stuffing and psychic cornerbacks. Makes it easier to play offense, and rewards user skill more. I think zone is much more valuable on All-Pro.

phantomshark wrote:All-pro negates some of the CPUs dominance on D, especially the run stuffing and psychic cornerbacks. Makes it easier to play offense, and rewards user skill more. I think zone is much more valuable on All-Pro.

+1

def noticed this from playin in lobbys recently, game doesn't feel as 'scripted' i guess. but PRE-patch is preferred all madden...idk what the hell patch 5 did but it just doesn't feel right anymore :/ specially power running...

Yeah, I prefer All-Pro since the last patch, they definitely threw off the competitive balance in All-Madden, the backers fill the holes too quick which basically means outside runs only. Not counting how sickly effective man coverage is, I should not be able to shut down anyone's passing game with a 71 ovr as my best corner (which happens in another league).

ezweightloss wrote:first off the only thing prevent defense does is prevent you from winning.
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biggest misconception cliche in the game...

I mostly run zone.

I like to mix it up, a little bit of everything depending on what works against opp. Sometimes zone doesnt work because i always seem to miss int and give up big plays but in man some of my guys just get burned. So try give different looks all the time.

I like using zone most of the time... 1st quarter i study the Opponent see how they play then play them Zone most of the Game..