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Adjusting your zone safeties wider can help prevent the deep ball.
By the time Moss gets as deep as Fauria on the field and our safety recognizes the threat, he will have to make up so
much ground that it makes it near impossible for us to make a play on the ball. The ball has left the quarterback's hand
and all our defender can do now is watch. Moss will not only beats his man-to-man coverage, but he will also beat the
deep safety for an easy six points.
To change things up, let's try applying the same coverage on the outside, but we've used the coverage audible on the
deep safeties to move their zones out wider. Moving your safeties' zones out wider will leave you slightly exposed up the
seam, but this area of the field is much tougher to attack deep.
In this configuration, the safety turns and runs up the field instead of sliding. The sliding action that our safety went into
the first time we ran the play cost us valuable deep coverage on the right side of the field. The fact that our safety is
now running as he commits first to the tight end allows our defender to make up the lost ground much easier when the
ball is finally thrown. The safety again bites on the tight end because he is the receiver currently the deepest downfield.
With the wider zones implemented, our safety recognizes Moss as he gets deeper on the field and he is in better position
to try to make a play this time. The ball is easily swatted away by the strong safety.
Learning even the smallest adjustments to make in Madden 08 will continue to take your game to the highest level. One
quick adjustment like the one shown in this example can be the difference in a game.
Containing the Tight End
By: Kyle Cooper
There are really only two main routes that you should account for when attempting to defend against the tight end.
Those two routes are the post route and the corner route. There are many other ways to utilize the tight end in the
passing game, but these two routes will consistently do the most damage. In this article, we're going to take a look at a
couple quick adjustments that can be made to better defend against an opponent who likes to go to their tight end.
In our accompanying screenshot, Tony Gonzalez (Quick, Possession, and Hands Receiver weapons) of the Kansas City
Chiefs is running a corner route. This route is difficult to defend because the angle at which Gonzalez breaks towards the
sideline will create extra separation from the defender. The alternate--a post route--is difficult to defend against because
a simple high pass will typically send the tight end into a leaping animation as he catches the ball over the defender. The
key to slowing down both of these routes is to try to find some ways to put defenders underneath of these routes.
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