How to Improve Defensively?

peatrick said:

For sure, I got mine "fully" (for now) maxed to uhhh 94 I think. Whatever we can purchase from Season Tickets store, but sadly that MZKO bucket is still locked. It's still extremely rare, especially on CBs. One of the weakest position groups in the entire game, but DEF get a couple MZKO onto both Safeties, as well. I prefer it over even Deep Zone KOs, until we get the one that covers both in + out. 

Good luck! Even 6-1, 3-4 Odd & Dime 1-4 (Dollar) are some of my favorite formations. I was using Vikings defense at the start of the year, but NE Pats is fantastic, it's got all the above formations and more. These forums are a great place to keep learning, so many people have taught me a TON about this ever evolving, buggy ass mess of a game. Keep the questions coming, but let us know if anything works out well for you. I'm staying in Cover 4 a lot and try to keep everything under me, hoping to force a mistake.

do you show blitz and what buttons to do that ?? When you shade how do you shade and why? I’ve been primarily shading underneath. I qb contain but it doesn’t seem to work near as well as last year with that stupid rollout to the right kills me do you literally have to user someone to guard that? DK metcalf gets multiple picks a game

peatrick said:

Honestly, the best thing that happened to my defense all year was to get a bunch of MZKOs on the field.  Nothing else really seems to help.  Even more than the knock-out portion of this ability, it's the "improved reaction time" that everyone seems to sleep on.  No amount of pass catching abilities will help if our DBs aren't in position to even make a play on the ball.

It's now feasible to get at least four of these all around the outside, then still have a bit of wiggle room to run a couple D-line abilities, such as DoN.  Kam Chancellor is fairly cheap, the new Malcom Jenkins from last weekend, then Marlon Humphrey and Carlton Davis (he's pricey, but you might be able to build his set) are all fantastic options, IMO.  Eventually there will be more.  Here's my current list i'm pulling from: https://www.mut.gg/players/?market=5&abilities=10476-x-x-discount&positions=17%2C18%2C19

OR if you prefer to run more linebackers, that's entirely possible, as well.  Why not both?  Good luck, we're all right there with ya.  Defense is exceptionally difficult this year, especially after all the Zero Chill discounted ability buckets melted.

Do you think that better D is zone with KOs rather than man with KOs? 

I'm currently working to improve my D and then I should adjust my lineup and abilities accordingly.

DjNysus said:

I show blitz all the time when I'm actually in a deep dropback zone. Basically it's like running press coverage without having to deal with any penalty if their release is better than your press stat

I only show blitz inside my own 30 because they’re still liable to get burnt on the outside when pressed from a base align

Be a good User. So many players are throwing to the guy they decided on pre-snap no matte what. Take that one away and they're screwed.

DjNysus said:

I can't verify because obviously I only have my perspective, but I do feel like the game will favor you with random moments more often if you play more realistically.   

And what I mean by realistically is actually play field position and time of possession properly and not spam and not always go for it on fourth down. 

I can't tell you the amount of fumbles I've forced... Or that have happened to me within one or two plays of a punt

I feel the same way. I noticed it when i kick a field goal instead of going for it on 4th down. i often get a turnover on the next drive. Also end of the half, when people the player thrown a hail mary that results in a pick. That player loses momentum on the second half.

How do you show blitz?

I play a bend don't break style, I'll give you 3-4 yards underneath all the way to the red zone, more often than not it's 3 or a pick in that area. As long as you're not getting beat deep you'll be fine.

SosaChamberlain said:

I only show blitz inside my own 30 because they’re still liable to get burnt on the outside when pressed from a base align

Showing blitz is not pressing your DbS will not try to hold them up within 5 yd. They will run with them from the jump at least from my experience

peatrick said:

For sure, I got mine "fully" (for now) maxed to uhhh 94 I think. Whatever we can purchase from Season Tickets store, but sadly that MZKO bucket is still locked. It's still extremely rare, especially on CBs. One of the weakest position groups in the entire game, but DEF get a couple MZKO onto both Safeties, as well. I prefer it over even Deep Zone KOs, until we get the one that covers both in + out. 

Good luck! Even 6-1, 3-4 Odd & Dime 1-4 (Dollar) are some of my favorite formations. I was using Vikings defense at the start of the year, but NE Pats is fantastic, it's got all the above formations and more. These forums are a great place to keep learning, so many people have taught me a TON about this ever evolving, buggy ass mess of a game. Keep the questions coming, but let us know if anything works out well for you. I'm staying in Cover 4 a lot and try to keep everything under me, hoping to force a mistake.

In pats book I run a lot of cover 3 from the dime 2-3 formation and audible to the cover 6, they don't adjust much so it still shows cover 3 shell and you'll get a ton of picks from the zones. 4 yards max underneath and lbs are low enough to stop the run

Bauer93 said:

do you show blitz and what buttons to do that ?? When you shade how do you shade and why? I’ve been primarily shading underneath. I qb contain but it doesn’t seem to work near as well as last year with that stupid rollout to the right kills me do you literally have to user someone to guard that? DK metcalf gets multiple picks a game

I typically come out in the play Double Safety Go (which automatically walks both Safeties down into the box, to help defend against quick passes to the Seam/Streaks, etc. as well as to fill their run fits, in case i'm playing against a toter).  I quickly audible over to the desired play, usually something liek Cover 4 Drop or whatever.  HOWEVER, you can manually try to do this if you "show blitz" as per your question.  On PlayStation, that's uhhh Triangle, followed by R1 i believe.  Sorry, it's so automatic at this point i don't even know what buttons i'm mashing half the time.

I will often shade underneath, but it depends.  Match coverage gets burned far too often, so turning those Seam Flats (purple zones) into Hard Flats or even Cloud Flats does help avoid this.  You can go ham on this stuff, making quite a lot of minor adjustments to a basic Cover 4 Drop play.

Orkku said:

Do you think that better D is zone with KOs rather than man with KOs? 

I'm currently working to improve my D and then I should adjust my lineup and abilities accordingly.

Absolutely, both types of KOs got nerfed this year, but Man KOs are not worth the AP, imo -- they're quite bad this year, although my experience is fairly limited.  I've been tinkering with Devin Witherspoon and his 1AP Mid Route KO and it's hardly been worth the 1AP.  My advice to EVERYONE is to get at least four Mid Zone KOs on the field, both outside corners and deep safeties, while we work towards getting back to Zero Chill, where i had 8-9+ MZKO running around all the darn time.

Rather than chasing specific players, i prefer to think of it as matching abilities to areas of the field.  I know i want discounted MZKO on my FS, which cards are available to fit that?  That's just my personal approach, but it has been tremendously helpful to my team building efforts.

peatrick said:

Absolutely, both types of KOs got nerfed this year, but Man KOs are not worth the AP, imo -- they're quite bad this year, although my experience is fairly limited.  I've been tinkering with Devin Witherspoon and his 1AP Mid Route KO and it's hardly been worth the 1AP.  My advice to EVERYONE is to get at least four Mid Zone KOs on the field, both outside corners and deep safeties, while we work towards getting back to Zero Chill, where i had 8-9+ MZKO running around all the darn time.

Rather than chasing specific players, i prefer to think of it as matching abilities to areas of the field.  I know i want discounted MZKO on my FS, which cards are available to fit that?  That's just my personal approach, but it has been tremendously helpful to my team building efforts.

So you would rather add four players with MZKOs that entire secondary with pick artist? There is so much information that I have problems to choose.

d2xmut said:

I feel like I can read defenses well enough to make decent playcalls, especially IN THIS CLIMATE. But I feel like I'm lacking defensively. What are some skill tips that can help me outside of using meta coverages and plays? I have good enough players, and my user game is solid, but I feel like I can be better.

Literally play offense on defense. If you can make pre play reads on O, you do the same on D. "If I was this guy, this is what id be putting on the field" and then try and stuff that. the more you play, the more you realize patterns and you can stop things

Orkku said:

So you would rather add four players with MZKOs that entire secondary with pick artist? There is so much information that I have problems to choose.

Great question -- YES, absolutely.  Nearly everyone in the community is going to tell you "due to the sheer amount of dropped / swatted picks, you should add Pick or LurkArtist abilities."  I'm sure these people mean well, but they're quite frankly, wrong and wasting your AP.  Fine by me, i love playing against a half dozen Pick Artist defenders, it basically means they have no impactful abilities i need to stress about, allowing me to move up and down the field, essentially at will.

I am here to tell you, even WITH PA or LA, you're still going to drop (and swat) tons of wide open picks, thereby making this a HUGE waste of ability points.  Don't just take my word for it, look at this Abilities Tier Chart: https://www.mut.gg/abilities/

Which appears as "elite" (meaning, THE best abilities in the game) versus which appear merely as "gold" tier.  Now let me define for you Mid Zone KO:

Defenders with this ability force more catch knockouts and react quicker in any mid-field zone coverage, less than 20 yards from the LoS inside the numbers and 10-20 outside.

The knock-out component of these abilities is very nice and all, definitely a game-changer, but even more impactful is the improved reaction time.  Without these abilities, are DBs simply will not be in position to make a play on the ball, thereby negating any Pick or LurkArtist.  Once you get appropriate KOs, yer defenders all of a sudden get eyes in the back of their helmets.  There is no question, MZKOs over Pick Artist.