Man coverage/pass leading

OK so I've been uncharacteristically struggling against man coverage lately.  Midblitz with straight man, or even 2 man under press has been giving me problems.  

It seems like my wrs can have 5 yards of separation, and the ball will always be underthrown or the defender will make a crazy play on an interception.

I was using classic passing before, but switched to placement and accuracy to see if it would help...it hasn't. 

Do I have to free-form?  Highball every pass?  Get better WRs?  I currently have Maserati Marv, Randy Moss, and Hines Ward, with Njoku at TE and Faulk at RB.

DJONES13 said:

OK so I've been uncharacteristically struggling against man coverage lately.  Midblitz with straight man, or even 2 man under press has been giving me problems.  

It seems like my wrs can have 5 yards of separation, and the ball will always be underthrown or the defender will make a crazy play on an interception.

I was using classic passing before, but switched to placement and accuracy to see if it would help...it hasn't. 

Do I have to free-form?  Highball every pass?  Get better WRs?  I currently have Maserati Marv, Randy Moss, and Hines Ward, with Njoku at TE and Faulk at RB.

Man coverage is underrated this year imho. People seem to look at it as either go mid blitz/cover 0 or go zone and ignore other options, but man coverage has shut a lot of stuff down for me when used in tandem with other options. People also have misconceptions about what beats man coverage because of previous versions of madden - slants for example, are NOT normally good against man coverage and they aren't good against it in this one. 

What's good against it? Like anything else, it depends. Cover 1 hole for example, is obviously gonna have the single high look you've seen from cover 3 unless they base aligned or came out in a cover 2 shell. They line up with the outside CBs having INSIDE leverage, and inside coverage having OUTSIDE leverage, as they are typically playing TOWARDS their help. Something I really like about cover 1 is that madden actually codes it pretty well, unlike issues like cloud flats. Cover 2 man typically covers underneath, predicated on the idea that you have help over the top. These can indeed create very narrow windows to throw to, and when opponents expect cover 3 sky or tampa 2, it's pretty disorienting. Especially when a concept like cover 1 robber lines up like cover 2! 

However you can still flood the outside against cover 1, or middle/deep middle against cover 2 man as a general rule. So plays like mesh, corner strike, levels sail, flanker dig, any kind of arches concept etc. Texas routes, zig routes, drag routes and in routes are reliable check downs. Posts, corners or switch routes for beating them deeper when you have time. But WATCH THE LEVERAGE before the snap and exploit the leverage.

Corner routes generally cook man as well as drag routes across the middle. And if there user starts to watch underneath drag routes you can do posts or crossers or have your RB go out on a short out route. Running the ball works against mid blitz quite well.

antitwisted said:

Man coverage is underrated this year imho. People seem to look at it as either go mid blitz/cover 0 or go zone and ignore other options, but man coverage has shut a lot of stuff down for me when used in tandem with other options. People also have misconceptions about what beats man coverage because of previous versions of madden - slants for example, are NOT normally good against man coverage and they aren't good against it in this one. 

What's good against it? Like anything else, it depends. Cover 1 hole for example, is obviously gonna have the single high look you've seen from cover 3 unless they base aligned or came out in a cover 2 shell. They line up with the outside CBs having INSIDE leverage, and inside coverage having OUTSIDE leverage, as they are typically playing TOWARDS their help. Something I really like about cover 1 is that madden actually codes it pretty well, unlike issues like cloud flats. Cover 2 man typically covers underneath, predicated on the idea that you have help over the top. These can indeed create very narrow windows to throw to, and when opponents expect cover 3 sky or tampa 2, it's pretty disorienting. Especially when a concept like cover 1 robber lines up like cover 2! 

However you can still flood the outside against cover 1, or middle/deep middle against cover 2 man as a general rule. So plays like mesh, corner strike, levels sail, flanker dig, any kind of arches concept etc. Texas routes, zig routes, drag routes and in routes are reliable check downs. Posts, corners or switch routes for beating them deeper when you have time. But WATCH THE LEVERAGE before the snap and exploit the leverage.

This is great advice, mesh is a def a go to play against man unless you need a lot of yards

AZCARDS said:

This is great advice, mesh is a def a go to play against man unless you need a lot of yards

But if they happen to shade inside and underneath on a receiver running a drag it SHOULD still be covered. But like any other defense, you can't, and you don't, know what everyone is doing and this issue is agnostic of coverage schemes. It's about how you want to work with limited information available and understanding potential weaknesses created by your solutions to problems. Just like offense, the defense has many ways to adjust. Also in madden, they aren't guaranteed to be programmed properly or reliably either, rofl.

antitwisted said:

But if they happen to shade inside and underneath on a receiver running a drag it SHOULD still be covered. But like any other defense, you can't, and you don't, know what everyone is doing and this issue is agnostic of coverage schemes. It's about how you want to work with limited information available and understanding potential weaknesses created by your solutions to problems. Just like offense, the defense has many ways to adjust. Also in madden, they aren't guaranteed to be programmed properly or reliably either, rofl.

Im running poverty wide receivers so pressed man playing under meath gives me problems because the underneath routes aren’t open and my receivers get caught up with when I high ball anything.

SosaChamberlain said:

Im running poverty wide receivers so pressed man playing under meath gives me problems because the underneath routes aren’t open and my receivers get caught up with when I high ball anything.

Why though? I'm NMS and I've still ended up with pretty goodish WRs. I pulled Nabers as my Campus Heroes reward from doing the solos so that was a lucky pull. Upgraded Hines Ward. 84 GT Jeudy was one of my BND rewards at one point and he's pretty good. 83 Garrett Wilson from watching that first MCS event. So even as NMS, Christian Watson is my 5th WR and even then I'd play 81 Engram over him anyway. You could get 83 Brian Thomas as a budget beast or maybe 75 Worthy if you haven't already.

antitwisted said:

Why though? I'm NMS and I've still ended up with pretty goodish WRs. I pulled Nabers as my Campus Heroes reward from doing the solos so that was a lucky pull. Upgraded Hines Ward. 84 GT Jeudy was one of my BND rewards at one point and he's pretty good. 83 Garrett Wilson from watching that first MCS event. So even as NMS, Christian Watson is my 5th WR and even then I'd play 81 Engram over him anyway. You could get 83 Brian Thomas as a budget beast or maybe 75 Worthy if you haven't already.

all my BND pulls are the bare minimum. i’m running Hines Ward, Watson and Agholor

SosaChamberlain said:

all my BND pulls are the bare minimum. i’m running Hines Ward, Watson and Agholor

You could at least upgrade Watson and Agholor and spend a little bit of coin on it. Ignore OVR and just take the more important stats. 83 and 85 speed are too slow at this point and tbh I didn't really like that Watson card and was glad to replace him when I could. He just felt really slow and sluggish to me. If I were you I'd legit put in 83 Brian Thomas and 75 Worthy over those two.

antitwisted said:

You could at least upgrade Watson and Agholor and spend a little bit of coin on it. Ignore OVR and just take the more important stats. 83 and 85 speed are too slow at this point and tbh I didn't really like that Watson card and was glad to replace him when I could. He just felt really slow and sluggish to me. If I were you I'd legit put in 83 Brian Thomas and 75 Worthy over those two.

They’ll have to make do until I get my RP packs and 84 Puka. (fingers crossed) I swear Agholor has plot armor because he catches everything thru contact.

SosaChamberlain said:

They’ll have to make do until I get my RP packs and 84 Puka. (fingers crossed) I swear Agholor has plot armor because he catches everything thru contact.

Another alternative, a bit off meta - have you considered stuff like gun wing stack, gun wing slot, gun ace (gun with 2 TE basically)? I do this sometimes and have Manhertz block against people who spam mid blitz. That way I have CMC still running routes. This concept of 12 personnel might be one way you can make this work for a while. I like how it's off meta but effectively a soft counter to the meta, in theory.

antitwisted said:

Man coverage is underrated this year imho. People seem to look at it as either go mid blitz/cover 0 or go zone and ignore other options, but man coverage has shut a lot of stuff down for me when used in tandem with other options. People also have misconceptions about what beats man coverage because of previous versions of madden - slants for example, are NOT normally good against man coverage and they aren't good against it in this one. 

What's good against it? Like anything else, it depends. Cover 1 hole for example, is obviously gonna have the single high look you've seen from cover 3 unless they base aligned or came out in a cover 2 shell. They line up with the outside CBs having INSIDE leverage, and inside coverage having OUTSIDE leverage, as they are typically playing TOWARDS their help. Something I really like about cover 1 is that madden actually codes it pretty well, unlike issues like cloud flats. Cover 2 man typically covers underneath, predicated on the idea that you have help over the top. These can indeed create very narrow windows to throw to, and when opponents expect cover 3 sky or tampa 2, it's pretty disorienting. Especially when a concept like cover 1 robber lines up like cover 2! 

However you can still flood the outside against cover 1, or middle/deep middle against cover 2 man as a general rule. So plays like mesh, corner strike, levels sail, flanker dig, any kind of arches concept etc. Texas routes, zig routes, drag routes and in routes are reliable check downs. Posts, corners or switch routes for beating them deeper when you have time. But WATCH THE LEVERAGE before the snap and exploit the leverage.

Beautiful. I love how strategic madden is the chess match within it.

antitwisted said:

Another alternative, a bit off meta - have you considered stuff like gun wing stack, gun wing slot, gun ace (gun with 2 TE basically)? I do this sometimes and have Manhertz block against people who spam mid blitz. That way I have CMC still running routes. This concept of 12 personnel might be one way you can make this work for a while. I like how it's off meta but effectively a soft counter to the meta, in theory.

Ravens have something with a 2 TE set with double post and a wheel route that I really like. The wheel surprisingly gets clamped by man but is great for getting behind zone drops.

antitwisted said:

Man coverage is underrated this year imho. People seem to look at it as either go mid blitz/cover 0 or go zone and ignore other options, but man coverage has shut a lot of stuff down for me when used in tandem with other options. People also have misconceptions about what beats man coverage because of previous versions of madden - slants for example, are NOT normally good against man coverage and they aren't good against it in this one. 

What's good against it? Like anything else, it depends. Cover 1 hole for example, is obviously gonna have the single high look you've seen from cover 3 unless they base aligned or came out in a cover 2 shell. They line up with the outside CBs having INSIDE leverage, and inside coverage having OUTSIDE leverage, as they are typically playing TOWARDS their help. Something I really like about cover 1 is that madden actually codes it pretty well, unlike issues like cloud flats. Cover 2 man typically covers underneath, predicated on the idea that you have help over the top. These can indeed create very narrow windows to throw to, and when opponents expect cover 3 sky or tampa 2, it's pretty disorienting. Especially when a concept like cover 1 robber lines up like cover 2! 

However you can still flood the outside against cover 1, or middle/deep middle against cover 2 man as a general rule. So plays like mesh, corner strike, levels sail, flanker dig, any kind of arches concept etc. Texas routes, zig routes, drag routes and in routes are reliable check downs. Posts, corners or switch routes for beating them deeper when you have time. But WATCH THE LEVERAGE before the snap and exploit the leverage.

Man coverage isn’t underrated it’s the meta