Alright, Well, For You Folks That Want to Succeed on Defense, You Don't Have to Cheat

You don't have to incessantly Mid Blitz, or Hover, or a half-dozen other things that are clearly exploits. If you want to beat 50% of the exploit runners consistently, just work the pre-play menu drop depths. A lot of the guys that get the cheap passes for big yards are running their plays on the assumption of open areas not covered by stock zones. Once you change drop depths, you take away those one-read passes that are otherwise consistently open for cheap yards. I've been able to make quite a few stands against goal line and two-point conversions, and you just need to make sure that you're not giving up cheap yards underneath or position between the safeties and the linebackers. Know when to spread out safeties, when to drop depths, and know what you're trying to counter.

I don't have a formula for you; you have to change it up.

When your opponent starts going with hurry-up, you'll be locked into your drop depths against the quick-snaps, so don't get too cute or go overboard trying to kill one play.

To the greater number of you Cheaters, you can't read defenses at all. Not one bit. You can only read in advance what Madden's programming will do. The moment things start moving, you don't have a clue. One of you threw into quadruple coverage, and the game rewarded you with a swatted pass that would have easily been grabbed in the NFL. I'm starting to figure you out. I'll never be MCS caliber, but you won't get easy wins off me now.

At least until Madden 27, when EA will screw everything up against with a couple slider tweaks and a new feature.

Zone stems are a skill gap.  Learn to do then quickly so you can survive no huddle and really catch people off guard

But why would cheesers do something that requires skill/ thinking? all they care about is feeling the dopamine of a "win". They dont care about actually playing the game

Moderator Sevein131 said:

Zone stems are a skill gap.  Learn to do then quickly so you can survive no huddle and really catch people off guard

I have just over four seconds between an audible from a no-huddle lineup and the snap. I have to:

1) Identify the formation and the potential plays
2) Choose my alignment and coverage scheme from a very short list of alternatives
3) Make my adjustments

And that's four seconds if the connection is good; if there's significant latency, there's not enough time for more than a second or third adjustment.

Skill gap? Seriously? At some point, making adjustments under these conditions is not a true skill gap, but a roll of the dice. Don't dignify Cheaters by suggesting defenses have a legitimate opportunity to make any sort of cerebral counter to this abusive crap.

phatalerror said:

I have just over four seconds between an audible from a no-huddle lineup and the snap. I have to:

1) Identify the formation and the potential plays
2) Choose my alignment and coverage scheme from a very short list of alternatives
3) Make my adjustments

And that's four seconds if the connection is good; if there's significant latency, there's not enough time for more than a second or third adjustment.

Skill gap? Seriously? At some point, making adjustments under these conditions is not a true skill gap, but a roll of the dice. Don't dignify Cheaters by suggesting defenses have a legitimate opportunity to make any sort of cerebral counter to this abusive crap.

It’s definitely a skill gap. Why can other people learn to adjust quickly but you can’t?

droblunts313 said:

It’s definitely a skill gap. Why can other people learn to adjust quickly but you can’t?

How many people are winning games against users who start the game by:

• Setting audibles of their four favorite complementary cheat plays
• Running to the line and...
> Quick-snapping, or,
> Glitchy hot-route combo, or,
> Audibling to another cheat play, and...
>> Quick-snapping, or,
>> Glitchy hot-route combo
• Repeat

???

It's like you play against only low-level cheaters with only one cheat play under their hat. It's like, you cheat your way into championship after championship, and never run into legitimate glitchers.

Why are you here? You're entrenched in your philosophy of Cheat and Win Because That's What We're Dealt, and despite the fact that guys like you ruin the experience for eh-ver-ee-one, you keep trying to justify it by suggesting that it takes very little skill to beat this no-skill one-read press-the-button crap.

This is another main reason I only play squads. Another user is an effective stop gap for cheese, they can cover what I can't and vice versa

might not be a bad way to filter YouTube kids from good meta players, but good meta players will almost certainly just make a read and throw complete passes

elmango30 said:

might not be a bad way to filter YouTube kids from good meta players, but good meta players will almost certainly just make a read and throw complete passes

Dude, the whole point of this thread was that most players aren't making football reads. You don't throw into quadruple coverage on a "read". Many of the guys I'm beating are throwing up picks running autopilot plays that always work unless you adjust zone drops. In my wins against the better players, they are taking sacks because they're smart enough to not throw to their first two gimme reads, but have no clue where to look thereafter. About half of the losses in the OT Event came on RNG: A dropped pick, or a miracle catch given up.

You give way too much credit to players who are winning with very little technical knowledge about football, and only an intricate familiarity with how Madden tends to place defenders in the wrong place, and then to make them unresponsive to the movements of offensive players. Everyone's saying how defense hardly exists this year. Well, I'm just finding that I have to babysit this nonsense more than I should have to, but when my drop selections cover my opponent's scheme, most of my opponents fall apart. These are people that were shredding me with crossers and flats passes two weeks ago, but now they are absolutely impotent on offense.

phatalerror said:

Dude, the whole point of this thread was that most players aren't making football reads. You don't throw into quadruple coverage on a "read". Many of the guys I'm beating are throwing up picks running autopilot plays that always work unless you adjust zone drops. In my wins against the better players, they are taking sacks because they're smart enough to not throw to their first two gimme reads, but have no clue where to look thereafter. About half of the losses in the OT Event came on RNG: A dropped pick, or a miracle catch given up.

You give way too much credit to players who are winning with very little technical knowledge about football, and only an intricate familiarity with how Madden tends to place defenders in the wrong place, and then to make them unresponsive to the movements of offensive players. Everyone's saying how defense hardly exists this year. Well, I'm just finding that I have to babysit this nonsense more than I should have to, but when my drop selections cover my opponent's scheme, most of my opponents fall apart. These are people that were shredding me with crossers and flats passes two weeks ago, but now they are absolutely impotent on offense.

Right, my point is that there is a large portion of meta players who *are* doing this. The bunch x nasty people range from quite bad but following a YouTube video to quite good players who use the best plays possible

elmango30 said:

Right, my point is that there is a large portion of meta players who *are* doing this. The bunch x nasty people range from quite bad but following a YouTube video to quite good players who use the best plays possible

Well, when the "quite bad" people are giving me fits because:

1) Stock coverages are obviously vulnerable and ineffective, and
2) I guessed wrong twice in a string of six plays

There's clearly something wrong with the game.

elmango30 said:

Right, my point is that there is a large portion of meta players who *are* doing this. The bunch x nasty people range from quite bad but following a YouTube video to quite good players who use the best plays possible

Keywords “best plays possible” not “smartest” or anything legitimate. 

Theres a reason 90% of the community runs this same shit. They’re glitch plays period. EA stated over a decade ago that football was “too hard” for the average player, so they’ve gone more arcade mode. Hence MUT

phatalerror said:

Well, when the "quite bad" people are giving me fits because:

1) Stock coverages are obviously vulnerable and ineffective, and
2) I guessed wrong twice in a string of six plays

There's clearly something wrong with the game.

I mean, some plays are gonna be better than others. They’re quite bad, they know what plays are good

Thugnificent said:

Keywords “best plays possible” not “smartest” or anything legitimate. 

Theres a reason 90% of the community runs this same shit. They’re glitch plays period. EA stated over a decade ago that football was “too hard” for the average player, so they’ve gone more arcade mode. Hence MUT

what. do you think all plays should be equally good? Having the best plays possible is a normal way to phrase that