How To Win With A Bad Quarterback

There are a ton of teams that are left unused in Madden or Ncaa Football and after polling a sample of players one of the biggest reasons why is that they would have to play with a bad Quarterback.

Believe me guys I have been thereas well. My favorite team is the Atlanta Falcons, and there was no tougher year for me than the Madden 2008 season. Of course if you havent caught on by now that was the year that the entire dog fighting incedent went down.

After the EA Sports Madden Development Team took Michael Vick off of the roster I was left between Joey Harrington, Chris Redman, and Bryon Leftwitch. Not a group of studs is it? But I managed to get by with those guys, and I passed the ball effectivly doing it. Heres what you need to focus on to get you a win while using a bad quarterback


Know Your Quarterbacks Arm
Knowing what passes your Quarterback can and cannot throw is very important towards winning with a bad quarterback. You must get into practice mode and work on throwing every route. YES EVERY ROUTE!

You need to see if you can or cant throw a route, or if you have to make accommodations to make that throw work. See if he can throw decently while on the move. See how deep he can throw the ball. Go over everything diligently. Once you have don't this you can customize what you do passing wise around what your quarterback does well, and you can mask his weaknesses.


Protection
Your Quarterback cant complete passes off his backside can he?

No he cant.......I somehow have the feeling that one or two of you said that he could.

You must always make sure you have protection in place, not only because you cant throw a pass from your backside (although that is a very good reason). But because throwing while moving hurts your accuracy. You want to be as stationary as possible while attempting a pass. And as you would expect its pretty hard to be stationary when you are running for your life


Throw To Open Receivers
I know that "throw to open receivers" sounds like a no brainer. Trust me guys it is not a no brainer. People try to "throw the receivers open" instead of "throwing to open receivers"

Whats the difference?

Well its quite simple. Throwing to open receivers means that the throw you are making is going to a receiver who has open room to catch the ball. A receiver who has nothing that can impede the catch. A receiver who will not take an immedate hit once a reception is made.

Now throwing a wide receiver open is almost the opposite. Your throw is what will make the receiver open. Your throw leads the receiver to open space instead of him already being in open space and making the throw. Ususally the throw is a tight fit.

Why does this matter?

It matters because if you try top throw a wide receiver open with a bad quarterback the pass has a high chance of being a bad pass. And a bad pass around a crowd of defensive backs could be going the other way quickly.  If the wide receiver is open already than an inaccurate pass wont hurt much.




Put Players Around Him That Can Catch What Is Thrown
Pretty simple concept guys. Since your quarterback cant throw amazingly well you need to put guys on the field who can catch the ball when it does get to the target.

I know that its "all the rage" to get as much speed on the field as you can. But guys you have to think about how that effects the balance of the offense.

Are those receivers too fast? Are they out running the quarterbacks arm? If so then they are not needed.

 I remember back in Madden 2008 while using the Atlanta Falcons I had to choose between Chris Redman and Byron Leftwitch.

Chris Redman was a little bit more accurate than Byron was. But Byron Leftwitch's arm was out of this world. He had 98 throw power. He sounds like the obvious fit right? WRONG. The falcons fastest wide receiver that year was 94 speed. He couldnt really get down the field, so starting Leftwitch would be a waste. I started Chris Redman and gained two points of accuracy.

Also it would be a shame if your bum of a quarterback threw the perfect ball only to have your fast but no hands wide receiver drop the ball. Get guys on the field who can catch the ball. It will benefit your quarterback.


Have A Good Run Game
There is nothing more beneficial to a passing game than a good run game. What a good run game does is puts the defenses focus on stopping the run thus putting your not so great quarterback in the back of their mind. You benefit because the defense would be more set up to defend the run and less equip to defend the pass. You can gain that one step on the defensive back that allows a less than stellar pass to get to the target.

There you go guys, you now have the tools at your disposal to win with a bad quarterback. Now go out there and make Tim Tebow look like Tom Brady!!!

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What You Need To Be Watching During A Football Game

Since you are here on this blog I know for a fact that you guys at least like football (most love it). And many of you want to take your Madden NFL; NCAA Football games as far as it can go. But what most people do not realize is that by looking at football
Thursdays (High School Junior Varsity Football)
Fridays (High School Varsity Football)
Saturday (College Football)
Sunday (NFL Football)
You can analyze those games to better your own game and this is what you need to be looking at

Offense

Formations
You can use the previous knowledge of the opposing defense to get a good take on how the offense has decided to attack them. Formations are probably the most interesting thing to look at
Do the New England Patriots want to spread the Pittsburgh Steelers out to attack the coverage deficiencies of the safeties?
Do the Atlanta Falcons come out in big formations to get the Philadelphia Eagles out of their strength nickel formations?
You can learn some information that can assist you in the most crucial times in a game. If the defense is doing something you do not like you can think back to how_____________ handled it when _____________ did ____________. Formations are very interesting and helpful


Protections
Analyze what the offense does to protect the quarterback.
How many guys are in blocking in a normal play?
How do they handle 3rd downs?
Do they use Wide receiver or Halfback screens?
Do they use the tight end to chip the defensive end before running a route? (that is a blue delay route)


How Do They Handle The Box?
The box is the area from tight end to tight end about eight yards deep. Defenses look to stack the box with defenders to stop the offenses running game. Offenses have to find ways to get defenders out of the box.
Do they use the uncovered theory?
Do they use play action passes?
DO they use horizontal passing concepts?


Weird Personnel
Does a team come out in a 5 wide receiver formation using two tight ends and a running back? Do you think it looks cool? If yes USE IT YOURSELF!!!!!

You guys would be so surprised how many of my crazy ideas spur from seeing a football game or doing research

Defense

How The Defense Lines Up To Offensive Formations
This is by far the most important thing to look at as far as the defense . Alignment is the first step to playing defense, and leverage is key. If you can pick up anything in this regard it can help you achieve better leverage to your defensive formations.


Defensive Play Calls On Down And Distance 
You should be paying attention to what coverage’s and formations the defense is calling on 1st down, 2nd down and 3rd down.
WHY?
You can learn a thing or two. If you know the Bears are normally pretty much a Tampa Two defense it can be interesting to see if they blitz from that coverage or go to another coverage. Are they going to a cover 4 to trick the offense?
Do they come out in heavy formations to match the offense’s formation or are they calling personnel by down and distance?
These are things that you can grab and plug into your madden nfl game with a little work.


Blitz ratio
I know that you probably won’t be sitting there with a pen and a pad writing down Blitz…coverage…coverage…blitz
I’m not expecting you to do so because god only knows that I do not. But you do need to get a loose estament of how much they blitz if you want to replicate that type of defense. Not only that, it could be any team on television. But you can see how the Colts play against the Packers (just a quick example)

Blitzes In General
Are the defense doing anything specific to get the pressure on the quarterback? If you see so write it down and try it out in the video game.

Personnel
What is the defensive personnel in regards to the offensive personnel?

DO the New Your Jets stay in their base 3-4 defense vs the Baltimore Ravens spread personnel? Does it work? If so find out why it is working, and if you can try to replicate it in video games if you can.

Conclusion 

There it is guys, What You Need To Be Watching During A Football Game. There is a lot to be learned by just paying attention to what you see on your TV screen, do not watch but PAY ATTENTION!!!!.
I know that it has assisted me a ton and spurred quite a bit of my crazy thoughts.

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The Passing Route Combo Database

The Passing Route Combo Database is the first database that holds every route combo that can be used in Madden NFL Football, Ncaa Football, as well as in real life. This database is not complete as is, it probably will never be complete. It will be updated regularly to account for more route combos.

This database is a tool for madden players to use to get the most out of their offensive formations

Enjoy


Check Back Regularly For More Route Combos

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Mesh

Quick Outs

Post - Corner Route Combo (Fork)

Post - Wheel Route Combo

Slant - Flat Route Combo

Smash Route Combo

Spacing Route Combo

Seam Curl Route Combo

Seam - Deep Out Route Combo

Drive Route Combo

Follow Route Combo

Curl Flats Route Combo

Four Verticals Route Combo

Madden 12 Tips: Near Pro Man or Zone Read

Near Pro is a pretty good formation to run. It is a very balanced formation, decent passing with a great run game.

But the reason why you are here (hopefully) is to see how to read man or zone without motioning your outside Wide receivers in madden 12.

For this example I am using the near pro formation inside of the west coast playbook.

What you will be doing is motioning your fullback to the right. You will be looking at the linebackers movement. If zone coverage the linebackers will not move at all or it will be a calm/un rushed sliding motion. If man coverage the linebackers will move abruptly to the right. It will be very noticeable.

So that is how you can read man or zone coverage without motioning your outside wide receivers.

How you can use it
You can call a play and do the fullback motion. After you read man or zone you can hot route your players to attack that coverage

Now I used this out of the west coast playbook and the formations that it can be used from are near pro and split backs pro. I am sure that you can use it from other formations. Just play around with fullback,running back, tight end, slot receiver motions out of every formation in your playbook and you will find them

JUST WATCH HOW THE LINEBACKERS REACT TO THE MOTION!!!!

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