My defense does nothing

How did I go from a lockdown defense to a defense that literally cannot do anything? They don't knock out passes, they get 0 pressure, they won't even play their zones anymore. They literally stand there and stare at the guy in their zones. I have dropped from veteran to all star because nobody on my team reacts or does anything they should be able to do. My 89 ovr team is playing like absolute hot garbage and a high school team would play better. They are literally turning their back to the ball carrier. What the hell did this patch do?

I just switched to match coverage and accept the times guys end up wide open because I'll just get burned without it anyways, but at least in match coverage they try to be more efficient and look for work. It's a bit tricky to user match coverage but it's a lot of fun for me.

It's getting super pathetic. I literally cannot do more than setting their zone drops and shading underneath and outside and they still sit there and stare at the guy in the flat

antitwisted said:

I just switched to match coverage and accept the times guys end up wide open because I'll just get burned without it anyways, but at least in match coverage they try to be more efficient and look for work. It's a bit tricky to user match coverage but it's a lot of fun for me.

Mind explaining match coverage to match coverage noob like myself?

SportsPerson94 said:

Mind explaining match coverage to match coverage noob like myself?

It gets pretty complicated and details as well as terminology from system to system. Im a former DB and have even coached DBs (granted most of my experience was before match became so common) and I dont even fully understand it. The simplest one size fits all answer for what it means here is the coverage depends on what the dbs wr does. Its pretty much read and react on the fly and what the offense does will dictate wether you play man or zone.

SquishySoldier21 said:

It gets pretty complicated and details as well as terminology from system to system. Im a former DB and have even coached DBs (granted most of my experience was before match became so common) and I dont even fully understand it. The simplest one size fits all answer for what it means here is the coverage depends on what the dbs wr does. Its pretty much read and react on the fly and what the offense does will dictate wether you play man or zone.

Sounds interesting and it also sounds like it can be a disaster lol

SportsPerson94 said:

Mind explaining match coverage to match coverage noob like myself?

I'll do my best, as a general newb who has dabbled in this. Basically it comes out in zone, but when someone enters the zone, they are SUPPOSED TO man up on them. Note the play "cover 3 match" out of the dollar 3-2 and how the zone is more like light pink, similar to cover 3 seam, and dissimilar to the dark purple of cover 3 sky? The lighter colored zones are match potential plays. So call cover 3 seam, not cover 3 sky. Shading into hard or cloud flats will do strange, random things to it, so avoid it for now.

Anyway, let's say you call cover 4 quarters or palms, with match coverage on, and they go 4 verticals. Great, the blue guys are gonna stay with them...or, they're SUPPOSED TO...notice my emphasis here, as there is always the caveat that EAs code will play inconsistent. Match coverage is no exception whatsoever. They will get burned by screwing this up sometimes. That might sound bad and kinda lame, but it's no different than any other coverage I can afford as an NMS anyways.

Things that cancel out match coverage:

- Setting zone drops to anything but default

-  seemingly shading up or down

- Manning someone up in the same coverage (I plan to test this further but I believe it)

- most important to be aware of, if they come out in a 4x1 formation like empty bunch quads. In other words, anything with 4 non OLs lined up on one side of the QB. 

Now, also, not all types of zones are to man up the whole way. This is why match is a bit more advanced and tricky in real life - it takes thorough understanding of the system and communication to make sure nobody screws up. The seam flat for example, largely chucks the receiver before letting the guys in other zones man up and remains there. But there may be exceptions that pull him off (I think - further testing required on my end to fully verify the behavior). But they don't always 100% stay there because there was a time last night I got off of a drag route expecting the flat to pick him up only to find him wide open because it wasn't even there. 

Match potential plays:

Cover 2/Tampa 2/cover 2 blitz with soft squats

Cover 6/9

Cover 3 seam

Cover 4 quarters or palms

Anything else you would expect with corresponding colors, such as fire zone out of the 46 normal

antitwisted said:

I'll do my best, as a general newb who has dabbled in this. Basically it comes out in zone, but when someone enters the zone, they are SUPPOSED TO man up on them. Note the play "cover 3 match" out of the dollar 3-2 and how the zone is more like light pink, similar to cover 3 seam, and dissimilar to the dark purple of cover 3 sky? The lighter colored zones are match potential plays. So call cover 3 seam, not cover 3 sky. Shading into hard or cloud flats will do strange, random things to it, so avoid it for now.

Anyway, let's say you call cover 4 quarters or palms, with match coverage on, and they go 4 verticals. Great, the blue guys are gonna stay with them...or, they're SUPPOSED TO...notice my emphasis here, as there is always the caveat that EAs code will play inconsistent. Match coverage is no exception whatsoever. They will get burned by screwing this up sometimes. That might sound bad and kinda lame, but it's no different than any other coverage I can afford as an NMS anyways.

Things that cancel out match coverage:

- Setting zone drops to anything but default

-  seemingly shading up or down

- Manning someone up in the same coverage (I plan to test this further but I believe it)

- most important to be aware of, if they come out in a 4x1 formation like empty bunch quads. In other words, anything with 4 non OLs lined up on one side of the QB. 

Now, also, not all types of zones are to man up the whole way. This is why match is a bit more advanced and tricky in real life - it takes thorough understanding of the system and communication to make sure nobody screws up. The seam flat for example, largely chucks the receiver before letting the guys in other zones man up and remains there. But there may be exceptions that pull him off (I think - further testing required on my end to fully verify the behavior). But they don't always 100% stay there because there was a time last night I got off of a drag route expecting the flat to pick him up only to find him wide open because it wasn't even there. 

Match potential plays:

Cover 2/Tampa 2/cover 2 blitz with soft squats

Cover 6/9

Cover 3 seam

Cover 4 quarters or palms

Anything else you would expect with corresponding colors, such as fire zone out of the 46 normal

Hmm ok, thanks for the breakdown. I'm definitely gonna test this next time i play. Sounds very interesting if everybody does the right thing. Appreciate you taking the time to explain it

SportsPerson94 said:

Hmm ok, thanks for the breakdown. I'm definitely gonna test this next time i play. Sounds very interesting if everybody does the right thing. Appreciate you taking the time to explain it

No prob. There definitely are times it gets busted but I'm not entirely sure I was verifying that they weren't in a 4x1 or something. So I gotta test a lot of things out. Match coverage is my thing though, I always liked it. I find pure man coverage frankly boring as hell and pure zone is just kinda garbage this year. So match it is. I'll live and die with it. Or maybe switch it off and on and keep opponents guessing... probably the best play there. Mix it all up.

antitwisted said:

No prob. There definitely are times it gets busted but I'm not entirely sure I was verifying that they weren't in a 4x1 or something. So I gotta test a lot of things out. Match coverage is my thing though, I always liked it. I find pure man coverage frankly boring as hell and pure zone is just kinda garbage this year. So match it is. I'll live and die with it. Or maybe switch it off and on and keep opponents guessing... probably the best play there. Mix it all up.

Yea i mostly use Zone but it's horrendous. I'll definitely add this to my defensive game and see what happens. I get burned either way lol

SportsPerson94 said:

Yea i mostly use Zone but it's horrendous. I'll definitely add this to my defensive game and see what happens. I get burned either way lol

Zone sort of works sometimes but it's terrible and unrealistic how stubborn they are about staying there instead of doing something useful. In match they at least will try to do something... usually.

SportsPerson94 said:

Yea i mostly use Zone but it's horrendous. I'll definitely add this to my defensive game and see what happens. I get burned either way lol

I also forgot to mention, man coverage ratings will 100% matter, so you want guys who can do both ideally. I'm NMS and using Ed Reed/Pinnock at FS, chancellor is my user, fully upgraded Eric Berry in coverage, Teo at MLB, usering Simpson if I'm in standard 4-3 personnel, and my corners are fully upgraded Ramsey with Marcus Peters and I just picked up prime time to give another shot because my last guy (Sherman) kept getting burned. I will say, Marcus Peters is a BEAST of a card so far and I regret nothing there. There are some potential weak links in there but it is what it is.

SquishySoldier21 said:

It gets pretty complicated and details as well as terminology from system to system. Im a former DB and have even coached DBs (granted most of my experience was before match became so common) and I dont even fully understand it. The simplest one size fits all answer for what it means here is the coverage depends on what the dbs wr does. Its pretty much read and react on the fly and what the offense does will dictate wether you play man or zone.

I assume we're talking cover 3/1 rip/Liz match... Alignments depends on WR splits. It's a way of covering 4 verts with 3 deep DBs. If #2 is vertical, the curl/flat player carries him.. If he goes in or out inside of 5 yards, it becomes zone. Simplest answer I can give

antitwisted said:

I also forgot to mention, man coverage ratings will 100% matter, so you want guys who can do both ideally. I'm NMS and using Ed Reed/Pinnock at FS, chancellor is my user, fully upgraded Eric Berry in coverage, Teo at MLB, usering Simpson if I'm in standard 4-3 personnel, and my corners are fully upgraded Ramsey with Marcus Peters and I just picked up prime time to give another shot because my last guy (Sherman) kept getting burned. I will say, Marcus Peters is a BEAST of a card so far and I regret nothing there. There are some potential weak links in there but it is what it is.

So you want good man coverage at fs also? I have Sean Taylor there so idk if that will work. My Sub lbers are Troy and Krause