About Man Coverage

If I go against someone with a fairly decent team, my receivers are always locked up in man. I'm talking stuck to them like glue, never run into one another type coverage. They are usually stuck on the press too. It feels like I'm facing all bottlenecks and universals. I know to use various formations, concepts, short in/route tech, etc. But no matter what I do, they are stuck on them. I can only complete by pass leading.

From my understanding, route comitting and shading are what makes coverage good. So there's no way they can guess which way EVERY receiver is going to run and if it's a deep or shorter route. I've used man with OSA and knockouts while route committing correctly and still I don't get that type of coverage. Usually my guys still get burnt or run into each other leaving someone wide open.

So instead of saying the game is screwing me, I wonder..is there some secret to this i'm missing? Like for perfect man coverage. Because there are games where they are right with my receivers all game no matter what I run.

There are routes that naturally tend to get separation and beat man coverage. Slants and drags, mesh concepts, and so on, naturally tend to beat defenders that aren't shaded where they need to be to stay with the receiver. Bunch alignments can also wreak havoc with man assignments, creating natural rubs that can lead to receivers running free. Or that's how football normally works. If you're running these kinds of routes and plays and still getting blanketed, it seems unlikely that you're getting nothing but Bad RNG.

The answer is, unfortunately, that you're not running the glitchy plays that burn man coverage. If you're not cheating, you're not going to win against solid lineups when you're getting an unhealthy helping of Bad RNG.

I run man and am decently successful with it though I don’t press. Guys like Deion will get smoked at the line enough as it is. Like @phatalerror mentioned, those man beater routes and more importantly, the formations like bunch/pre snap adjustments to generate those chips in the secondary are what will free guys up on crossers. I wish I could tell you the recipe to keeping your man coverage in tact but really it’s all about adjustments to what they’re doing…. Often times after giving up some big plays or even a score or two. 

I will say that while I’ll call man, I will always adjust to have some guys in zone and I will definitely tweak safety depths and widths as well as flats etc based on what’s being run. I’ll also always have my rpo pass key on conservative as I’m confident in my lbs and line to stop the run (unless it’s one of those pricks direct snapping/diving for little 5 yard chunks all game behind max vanguards which I ran into last night).  

key to make it work beyond just a lightning round of pre snap adjustments every play is just user to take away the crosser or tight end that they’ll typically try to hit usually on the weak side and if you’ve got good abilities and speed, your ai players should be in the vicinity to click on to blow it up. 

Basically it’s not about guessing every route like you said, it’s more about guessing one route that should usually win the down for you. And with kids running the same shit every game, you can start to identify them pretty easily and know which route to account for. 

Also if your guys are clipping each other, adjust your flats etc and try spreading your LBs. if there’s time, sometimes I’ll drag a db or two back a couple steps too. And stay alert with your user in that sometimes crossing in between a defender and their assignment will make them dumb as shit even if you don’t make any contact. If you make contact, make it count though and hold their ass as long as you can before drawing a flag.

I appreciate the replies. I get what you guys saying. There's a route in Trips TE Flex like that. Even it gets locked up at times. It is rng at times but I might need to change playbooks up. Still in the Eagles and it wins me enough games. I do make plenty of adjustments, motions, formations but it might be best to open up the playbook and do some testing in practice.

Adding zones to my man coverage using linemen is something I've been trying and it helps with mesh concepts. 

Once again, thanks for the information. I'll do some more testing and try out some new routes/plays.