Best Zone Defense?

TheChamp22 said:

Gridiron Gameplans?

Yeah… i’ve always been a cover 2 guy so getting that wrinkle has made my scheme stronger.

it’s the perfect counter to the tight meta, needs to be in everyones pocket

GGerz said:

Yeah… i’ve always been a cover 2 guy so getting that wrinkle has made my scheme stronger.

it’s the perfect counter to the tight meta, needs to be in everyones pocket

Yeah I run it a decent amount, more of a quarters palms and cover 6 guy myself. IC3 against the tight meta is great though.

TheChamp22 said:

Yeah I run it a decent amount, more of a quarters palms and cover 6 guy myself. IC3 against the tight meta is great though.

I’m a cover 4 person when in match

GGerz said:

I’m a cover 4 person when in match

me too mostly, cover 6 is really good against the tight meta though... all the weakside corner routes and stuff it brackets them and plays the out route underneath.

TheChamp22 said:

there's a bunch of good stuff on youtube as far as the rules sets go against all the different formations (guys like Zan, King Reggie, Civil). 

I'd recommend running it out of big nickel over g so you have all the different match plays (quarters, palms, cover 6/9). If you are willing to learn and make mistakes to start than it really is the best defense, and over time you'll learn what you like against each specific formation.

Any tips for abilities? I only use 4ap on my Dline atm but it’s pretty flexible.

heffitos said:

Any tips for abilities? I only use 4ap on my Dline atm but it’s pretty flexible.

for sure!

I use 2ap on my Dline, just one DON ET stack jsut in case I play no edge protector, and your guys still shed edge protectors easy with that stack. Only secure protectors hold them. And then all free abilities across the rest of the line ( I’m in big nickel so 4 D linemen). 
secondary abilities you want as many free pick artists as possible, along with deep out zone KO on all safeties and outside CBs (4 players). Then I run mid zone on my safeties as well and flat zone on my outside CBs and slot cb. 
so it’s 2ap per CB for the deep out flat zone pick artist stack and 2ap per safety for deep out mid zone and pick artist. Then flat zone pick artist slot cb is 1ap. then I use a flat zone on one of my sublbs, but you can use you extra Ap on pass rush if you want. The corner and safeties stacks are the most important for this scheme, especially the deep out part, because match plays some man without help on deep routes depending on the route combo, so you need to be able to not get beat over the top by knocking those throws out.   

right now my secondary is Bradberry and Mills at safety (most important position in match), and Porter and Woolen on the outside. Warden plays the slot for me with his X factor, he’s kinda crazy so worth using your flex AP on if you have the coin for him. Honey badger also a beast in the slot.

hope all that helps!

TheChamp22 said:

for sure!

I use 2ap on my Dline, just one DON ET stack jsut in case I play no edge protector, and your guys still shed edge protectors easy with that stack. Only secure protectors hold them. And then all free abilities across the rest of the line ( I’m in big nickel so 4 D linemen). 
secondary abilities you want as many free pick artists as possible, along with deep out zone KO on all safeties and outside CBs (4 players). Then I run mid zone on my safeties as well and flat zone on my outside CBs and slot cb. 
so it’s 2ap per CB for the deep out flat zone pick artist stack and 2ap per safety for deep out mid zone and pick artist. Then flat zone pick artist slot cb is 1ap. then I use a flat zone on one of my sublbs, but you can use you extra Ap on pass rush if you want. The corner and safeties stacks are the most important for this scheme, especially the deep out part, because match plays some man without help on deep routes depending on the route combo, so you need to be able to not get beat over the top by knocking those throws out.   

right now my secondary is Bradberry and Mills at safety (most important position in match), and Porter and Woolen on the outside. Warden plays the slot for me with his X factor, he’s kinda crazy so worth using your flex AP on if you have the coin for him. Honey badger also a beast in the slot.

hope all that helps!

holy

thank you so much bro

idk if it matters but my secondary is: CBs are Haynes, Porter, Champ, Charles Woodson, and then Lott and Hendricks at safeties with Reed and Rod Martin at SubLb

My dline is:

Warren Sapp, Gravedigger, Barno, MadMaxx

heffitos said:

holy

thank you so much bro

idk if it matters but my secondary is: CBs are Haynes, Porter, Champ, Charles Woodson, and then Lott and Hendricks at safeties with Reed and Rod Martin at SubLb

My dline is:

Warren Sapp, Gravedigger, Barno, MadMaxx

yeah no problem!

I'd recommend not using Hendricks at safety because his man coverage is low, and match uses both man, zone and play rec/awr.  Your safeties are the most important position in this defense so I put my best guys there. Ted is fine in the box. Rod is really good. Porter should play outside with the stack and maybe sell haynes and get bradberry or Rodney harrison to play the other cb spot. Champ and woodson are good at safety but I'd move woodson to the slot and sell Lott to get a faster safety.

TheChamp22 said:

yeah no problem!

I'd recommend not using Hendricks at safety because his man coverage is low, and match uses both man, zone and play rec/awr.  Your safeties are the most important position in this defense so I put my best guys there. Ted is fine in the box. Rod is really good. Porter should play outside with the stack and maybe sell haynes and get bradberry or Rodney harrison to play the other cb spot. Champ and woodson are good at safety but I'd move woodson to the slot and sell Lott to get a faster safety.

Who do you think I should sell the most? I’m currently at 51/50 Raiders TT, although if I switch some stuff around it could be 52/50.

I go with Cover 4 the most to keep from getting burnt deep. However, I will change it up based on what my opponents are doing.  I feel like Cover 2 leaves corner routes open and is easy to bomb.  Cover 3 leaves the seams wide open and your user can only cover one side.

mubby33 said:

I go with Cover 4 the most to keep from getting burnt deep. However, I will change it up based on what my opponents are doing.  I feel like Cover 2 leaves corner routes open and is easy to bomb.  Cover 3 leaves the seams wide open and your user can only cover one side.

I struggle when I run cover 4 because it doesn’t cover hard flats, sometimes I’ll try to switch the seam flats to hard flats but it usually takes too much time pre-snap.

heffitos said:

I struggle when I run cover 4 because it doesn’t cover hard flats, sometimes I’ll try to switch the seam flats to hard flats but it usually takes too much time pre-snap.

That is the tricky part, unless you run man something will always be open.  I try to play the bend dont break approach.  Im pretty confident I can grind out drives with my offense, I just have to make sure not to give up a one play TD to my opponent on defense.  I try to mix up my coverages in hopes my opponent makes a bad read and throws it to some place that is covered.  Try finiding a formation that maximizes your players, nickle, dime, quarters or whatever and try to come up with 3 or 4 plays to run out of one formation to try and fool your opponet.

heffitos said:

Who do you think I should sell the most? I’m currently at 51/50 Raiders TT, although if I switch some stuff around it could be 52/50.

ok you got a theme team, that makes a big difference. Keep Woodson at safety then if he has 97 speed, and move Hendricks into the box. Porter still on the outside and champ can be your other safety. 

The tough part is what to do with Lott and Haynes, both don't get any zone KO's but you need the chems from them I assume. You could play Haynes in the slot with just pick artist. Lott doesn't get any good free abilities, and Ed reed is 2ap for deep out and pick artist.

TheChamp22 said:

ok you got a theme team, that makes a big difference. Keep Woodson at safety then if he has 97 speed, and move Hendricks into the box. Porter still on the outside and champ can be your other safety. 

The tough part is what to do with Lott and Haynes, both don't get any zone KO's but you need the chems from them I assume. You could play Haynes in the slot with just pick artist. Lott doesn't get any good free abilities, and Ed reed is 2ap for deep out and pick artist.

Lott gets 0ap Crusher and 1ap DOZKO, that’s useless in a cover 3/4 though, I believe. I could sell Haynes but he plays good for me even in zone, although he goes for a lot, I could buy just about anybody else.