man coverage help

I play press cover 2 man because I have 4 bottlenecks but lately it seems like my corners (especially ttj and bowers) are getting cooked. My dbs are bowers, philips, terrel, horn, and ttj (all 99 tts)

AMH09 said:

I play press cover 2 man because I have 4 bottlenecks but lately it seems like my corners (especially ttj and bowers) are getting cooked. My dbs are bowers, philips, terrel, horn, and ttj (all 99 tts)

It's not really you, straight up Man coverage has been ridiculously inconsistent, especially against all the receivers with baked on abilities that can insta-beat the Man Press attempts, even (or especially) against Bottleneck corners.  Not much else you can do, beyond trying to work in some Zone to mix it up.  Highly recommend playing lots of Cover 4 (often shaded down).

These are the three abilities which have a chance to insta-win the Man Press attempts; Double Me, RAC `em Up & Max Security -- wish i could tell you how or why the game is coded this way, but it's just the way it is.  Nobody truly knows, probably not even anyone currently at EA.  If you see opponents with these, i would not count on your Bottleneck working, at least not consistently.  Drags, Corners, Zigs / Return routes, soooo many stock routes give significant problems to Man coverage.  Not that Zone is going to be much better, but at least have a chance to put your guys in position to make a play on the ball, assuming everyone has Universal Coverage, or appropriate Zone KOs.  Without these, yer DBs simply won't react in time.

peatrick said:

It's not really you, straight up Man coverage has been ridiculously inconsistent, especially against all the receivers with baked on abilities that can insta-beat the Man Press attempts, even (or especially) against Bottleneck corners.  Not much else you can do, beyond trying to work in some Zone to mix it up.  Highly recommend playing lots of Cover 4 (often shaded down).

These are the three abilities which have a chance to insta-win the Man Press attempts; Double Me, RAC `em Up & Max Security -- wish i could tell you how or why the game is coded this way, but it's just the way it is.  Nobody truly knows, probably not even anyone currently at EA.  If you see opponents with these, i would not count on your Bottleneck working, at least not consistently.  Drags, Corners, Zigs / Return routes, soooo many stock routes give significant problems to Man coverage.  Not that Zone is going to be much better, but at least have a chance to put your guys in position to make a play on the ball, assuming everyone has Universal Coverage, or appropriate Zone KOs.  Without these, yer DBs simply won't react in time.

ok, so if I were to run cover 4, would I run a specific scheme or play of it? Also should I switch up my dbs? what tips do you have for me If I were to switch up to a zone

AMH09 said:

ok, so if I were to run cover 4, would I run a specific scheme or play of it? Also should I switch up my dbs? what tips do you have for me If I were to switch up to a zone

I have no idea what defensive playbook you are comfortable with, but i run a ton of Cover 4 Drop, from NE Pats playbook.  Shading down will turn those purple zones into Light Blue (Hard Flats), which you can then use your coaching adjustments to manually set the depth.  I prefer starting out with ~15 yard Hard Flats and 10 yard Hook Curls and then allowing my opponent to dictate what we do from there.  Force your opponent to demonstrate they can beat a simple, shaded down, Cover 4.  If they cannot, keep running it.  All game if you have to.

When it comes to heavier run formations, same/similar setup (Cover 4 Quarters) but from either 3-4 Odd (for the loop blitzing linebacker) or 4-3 Even 6-1.  To set up the 3-4 Odd loop blitz, you shift your LBs to the right, have the loop blitzer (Pat Tillman is fantastic, or the free Pat McAfee MLB, a small, faster player model, so they can sneak through tiny gaps in blocking) zoom through the middle, an ideal starting location is where your USER (the other MLB1) would be, roughly that default location... then you can hover over the line with your USER to lure the attention away from the Center/Guard, before dropping back into coverage.

Same thing, shade down with Even 6-1 and go nuts.  Cover 3 Match and Cover 2 are just asking to get bombed deep, so be careful with those, but can be nice to mix in and change things up.

peatrick said:

I have no idea what defensive playbook you are comfortable with, but i run a ton of Cover 4 Drop, from NE Pats playbook.  Shading down will turn those purple zones into Light Blue (Hard Flats), which you can then use your coaching adjustments to manually set the depth.  I prefer starting out with ~15 yard Hard Flats and 10 yard Hook Curls and then allowing my opponent to dictate what we do from there.  Force your opponent to demonstrate they can beat a simple, shaded down, Cover 4.  If they cannot, keep running it.  All game if you have to.

When it comes to heavier run formations, same/similar setup (Cover 4 Quarters) but from either 3-4 Odd (for the loop blitzing linebacker) or 4-3 Even 6-1.  To set up the 3-4 Odd loop blitz, you shift your LBs to the right, have the loop blitzer (Pat Tillman is fantastic, or the free Pat McAfee MLB, a small, faster player model, so they can sneak through tiny gaps in blocking) zoom through the middle, an ideal starting location is where your USER (the other MLB1) would be, roughly that default location... then you can hover over the line with your USER to lure the attention away from the Center/Guard, before dropping back into coverage.

Same thing, shade down with Even 6-1 and go nuts.  Cover 3 Match and Cover 2 are just asking to get bombed deep, so be careful with those, but can be nice to mix in and change things up.

do you think my dbs work or should I switch up