Bottleneck META

mberezoski said:

Put a WR with route tech on a crosser, and put your RB on a Texas route, ideally going in opposite directions. Both  break man coverage, and  their user can only pick one to take away. Typically most players take the crosser because it is deeper and they leave the texas route wide open for a massive gain.

only problem with this is if they properly set up the cover 0 blitz you'll need to block your RB and that slot post takes too long to develop. The blitz is crazy and often gets 2 unblocked rushers.

peatrick said:

Well, if you can trust EA's own Tips and Tricks, here's what it says for the description:

Now, universal coverage in my opinion, is it's easily the best defensive X factor. It is if you can activate it, it is outside shade. Inside shade, one step ahead. Short route KO, medium route KO, deep route KO, flat Zone KO, mid zone KO and deep out zone KO. It is nine abilities built into one X factor at once. It literally knocks every ball out. If they make any type of contact anywhere on the field, it's going to limit. If you man them up on somebody, it's going to limit a wide receiver's ability to actually get separation. It is actually insane.

source: https://www.ea.com/games/madden-nfl/madden-nfl-24/tips-and-tricks/best-defensive-x-factor-abilities-madden-nfl-24

Have you personally experienced this? or are we just relying on this description? because When i set up my defense I didn't use OSA expecting my UC to get better coverage. After they kept getting cooked by any WR with RT on them I added OSA, and now the only receiver consistently cooking me is the Marvin Harrison Jr.

Also, it just doesn't make sense for them to make a crazy OP x-factor that would make both shutdown, and zone hawk completely unusable. It would make the most sense for zone hawk to get all zone ko's plus break on ball, shutdown to get all man ko's plus OSA, and universal coverage to get all kos without the benefit of OSA/Zone reactions. That's just my theory, no matter how many times I hear UC includes OSA I just don't believe it based on my experiences with running 1 vs running both.

TheNickSix said:

only problem with this is if they properly set up the cover 0 blitz you'll need to block your RB and that slot post takes too long to develop. The blitz is crazy and often gets 2 unblocked rushers.

Come out in strong close, and block your TE and FB, and you are golden.

mberezoski said:

Come out in strong close, and block your TE and FB, and you are golden.

Bold, I saw civil using more 2 TE sets because you can’t press TEs

I've been workshopping this with the setup I outlined in the initial post. I think my favorite setup is to use Universal Coverage on Ward with the Charge Up - Bottleneck and Persistent. This limits me to only one other Charge Up - Reinforcement (and Hutchinson), but it gives me complete flexibility to rotate between my classic zone scheme and this man press scheme. I've found relying solely on man is too sweaty/stressful given you occasionally get torched.

In this hybrid scheme, I've also used a 0 ap zone player like Ryan Clark that I'll sub in at slot CB when running zone. Is this a tell? Sure, but they dont know my personnel until they're already at the line of scrimmage.

TheNickSix said:

Bold, I saw civil using more 2 TE sets because you can’t press TEs

It works man well man. After the second drive, the "man demons" either quit or switch back to zone, because it only takes like two to three plays to score on cover zero with that scheme.

I don’t watch YouTube or follow the META but it seems I have been pretty much running this setup the same way on my own. Only difference is am using passive UC on Ward with Charge Up Bottleneck.

I’m not the best player and I don’t have as much time to play as lot of you but I’m finding that it’s way too easy to burn Man Coverage. Definitely have to mix this in with some zone. I’ve found myself reverting to mostly zone after getting burned once or twice in a game.

TheNickSix said:

Have you personally experienced this? or are we just relying on this description? because When i set up my defense I didn't use OSA expecting my UC to get better coverage. After they kept getting cooked by any WR with RT on them I added OSA, and now the only receiver consistently cooking me is the Marvin Harrison Jr.

Also, it just doesn't make sense for them to make a crazy OP x-factor that would make both shutdown, and zone hawk completely unusable. It would make the most sense for zone hawk to get all zone ko's plus break on ball, shutdown to get all man ko's plus OSA, and universal coverage to get all kos without the benefit of OSA/Zone reactions. That's just my theory, no matter how many times I hear UC includes OSA I just don't believe it based on my experiences with running 1 vs running both.

I mean, i cannot prove with absolute certainty that Universal Coverage contains OSA from my PS5 console, i do not have the ability to inspect actual lines of code in the sense that a data miner could pull database ability descriptions, etc. but Universal Coverage tends to run the routes for my opponent, although I only lasted a day or two trying to convert back to the Man Press / Bottleneck meta before reverting to Zone.  Man is great against most average (i.e. incompetent) opponents, but anyone with even basic knowledge of the game will find enough ways to consistently beat Man Press (even with Bottleneck) that it was hardly worth the hassle for me.  Definitely shuts down all the casuals, though.

I believe you are probably just noticing how inconsistent Man defense is, which isn't really a result of OSA (or lack thereof), it's simply the nature of the beast.  When it works, Man Press is fantastic, but there's so many ways to defeat it.  Stock TexASS route will absolutely cook most Man schemes and force an opponent to USER defend.

But yes, i would say i tend to believe the description, that OSA is baked into Universal Coverage.

peatrick said:

I mean, i cannot prove with absolute certainty that Universal Coverage contains OSA from my PS5 console, i do not have the ability to inspect actual lines of code in the sense that a data miner could pull database ability descriptions, etc. but Universal Coverage tends to run the routes for my opponent, although I only lasted a day or two trying to convert back to the Man Press / Bottleneck meta before reverting to Zone.  Man is great against most average (i.e. incompetent) opponents, but anyone with even basic knowledge of the game will find enough ways to consistently beat Man Press (even with Bottleneck) that it was hardly worth the hassle for me.  Definitely shuts down all the casuals, though.

I believe you are probably just noticing how inconsistent Man defense is, which isn't really a result of OSA (or lack thereof), it's simply the nature of the beast.  When it works, Man Press is fantastic, but there's so many ways to defeat it.  Stock TexASS route will absolutely cook most Man schemes and force an opponent to USER defend.

But yes, i would say i tend to believe the description, that OSA is baked into Universal Coverage.

I’m just saying, when you run both it’s more consisten, and ward gets 94 ability buckets so it’s not like you can’t afford to use both

I haven’t seen a person mention the most important part… have to individually shade the DBs…

Counters…

335 Cub - Slide towards their slide & Double Team edge. Step up into pocket.

335 odd - Slide left

Double Me, Max Security, & RAC’em all get the beat press animation. Need to go get Lamb, Moore, & Engram. All have it baked on.

Spread them out, to many bodies in one area is not good

SwaggyPJ2 said:

Try out the different Man Coverage & Man Zone schemes & see what works also having another CB with Universal X-Factor or Bottleneck if they have most of the Man KO’s they can equip it helps with filling in the last piece you need 

my personal scheme is a Man Zone Coverage with 2 CB’s playing FS & SS up top 

 then my actual FS & SS as a SubLB to cover the TE & RB 

& my 3 CB’s covering the WR’s 

but what helps me use this without blitzing is my D-Line creates a fuck ton of pressure so the QB either gets sacked or throws an incomplete 

I have 2 baked in UF on the edges & 1 Blitz x-factor & 1 Momentum X-factor as my DT’s so the O-Line never gains resistance points the whole game & its an easy D-Line shed everytime

How is playing like this fun at this point in the year lmao

Yxhziii said:

How is playing like this fun at this point in the year lmao

I always play man coverage been doing it for the longest it just gets better with time CLAMP CITYYYY

Breakluna said:

I think you might want OSA on Samuel as well. My understanding is you do not get reaction benefits from OSA with reinforcement.

If you have enough bottleneck players you can honestly get away with running cover 2 man with a good pass rush against some players. Good cpu blitzes can be decent as well but if you can work in a good meta blitz calls that's going to be even better since some cpu blitzes still give your opponent enough time to get the ball out to a wr in single coverage.

You need to check if your opponent has 1 or more of the following Ceedee Lamb, Evan Engram, or Herman Moore. With their xfactors they can beat the bottleneck press and potentially make a catch over a KO if you leave them in single coverage

Now I know why I've been killing this new bottleneck Meta. My giant TT has all three Plus Marvin Harrison Jr.

doncoyleone said:

Appreciate all the thoughts. Every time I run into the bottleneck META, I just run the cheese RB swing routes and rotate between slinging it and pounding it with Perry. They usually quit out because their one dimensional scheme can’t adjust. Highly recommend the spread playbook in this META backdrop.

Lol yeah. Same offense I run.