Madden 2005 help needed

[tomster2300]

Hey,

I'm needing some defensive coaching in Madden 2005 (not 2006). I've searched the net and I know there's some madden exclusive sites out there, but the only good ones are subscription only and I'm cheap.

I'm fine on offense, but I'm confused on what defensive plays to call in what situations. I basically play man-to-man and match up defenders with receivers most of the time. If I know they're going to throw I'll put two safeties (and a few linemen sometimes) in deep zone coverage, or if it's a run I'll keep them in man-to-man. I don't know when I should play zone or when I should keep man-to-man though. I often get burned with the short pass to the middle when it's 3rd and long and I have everyone deep - even if I play some guys in zone in the middle I still get beat the majority of the time).

I play with the Falcons, and my offense is fine (and no, I dont just scramble Vick - well sometimes I do ). I'm currently playing the Dolphins on All-Madden in the Super Bowl - 15 min. quarters (trying to keep it realistic). I keep having to restart because even though I can keep a lead for a half, I end up blowing it in the end. I played through the Franchise up until the last three games on All-Pro, but was dominating that offensively, so I switched up the difficulty. Now I see that I need defense like never before, and I just can't master it for some reason.

Offensively, I generate a bunch of points, but I don't truely know when to call which plays when. I have trouble reading a blitz, and I dont know which plays to audible to (or set to audible in the first place) to be able to defend against it.

I need help, and hopefully there is somebody out there with enough Madden 2005 (or football in general) knowledge to help me.

Thanks,

Tommy

[tomster2300]

Nobody knows anything about football? Anyone know of any forums which still talk about Madden 2005, or have discussions about it archived? I found an archive of Madden 2005 on www.maddenauthority.com but there is nothing useful left - the only threads were made while waiting for 2006 to come out it seems.

Thanks.

[tigstah]

go to maddenmania.com
register its free.
then start a threat on where u need help.
or football-freaks.com is a nice place also...in fact i would go there first.

[tomster2300]

Thank you for the help, I will go to both now.

[Med]

I'm not going to claim to be that great at Madden, but here's some things that have helped me out.

Set up your audibles. This helps you adjust on the fly if you see that the defense is setting up a zone or blitz. I set up a short pass, long pass, run straight up the middle, and a run to the right/left (HB Toss seems to work well for Atlanta, stay away from using the FB, he sucks). Just figure out which plays work well for you. This also helps if you're playing with somebody who is watching what you pick (see below) so that you can pick a long pass, and then switch to a run to catch them off guard.

Watch what your opponent picks. I used to pick a random defensive play, and then let the computer pick it's offense. I learned not to do that pretty fast. Once you get used to what plays are under what formations, wait to see what the computer picks. Since there's only 3 plays per screen, you can usually get an idea of what the coputer is going to run, since most screens are 2/3 run or 2/3 passing. Then pick the appropriate defensive play. Be sure to set up your audibles for defense too.

If I'm ever not sure what the offense is playing, Atlanta has a few zone blitzes that work well, and a few QB spy plays as well.

Don't know if that helps any.