In this Madden Guides Tips breakdown, we look at Defending Four Vertical Passing Concepts. Defending the deep pass has always been a trouble spot for Madden over the years. Although there have been defensive improvements, nothing has been overly consistent for defending vertical passing concepts. There have been more defensive animations added to the games over the years that allow defensive backs to defend against the deep pass. Plus, EA Sports has added several tools to Madden, but the players on offense still can throw deep effectively.
The problem is all it takes is just one deep throw out of four times and its first down or worse yet a touchdown. Often if your opponent has a stud receiver, he will get behind a defender and make some spectacular catch, especially if your opponent has any stick control. This often leads to frustration, because you called the right defense, but yet a receiver somehow comes up with the ball for a big play.
Trust us, we know as we have been on the same end more times that we want to count. In this section of the book, we will show one of the most common deep pass passing concepts in the game, and give an example on how we like to defend it. Please keep in mind, we can't promise this defensive set up will always work, but at least it will give you a fighting chance.
Four Verticals Passing Concept
One of the harder passing plays to defend in football video games over the last few seasons has been the Four Verticals passing concept. This especially holds true when it is run from a trey, trio, or trips formation. A lot of times, the inside receiver gets open as he goes towards the middle of the field. In the breakdown, we want to look at a defense that we like to run that does a solid at defending it.
Plays Used for Breakdown
In the image above, the offense comes out in the Gun Y Off Trips – Four Verticals. This play sends four receivers on verticals routes deep. The receiver that most players will look to throw to is the tight end (A) running a deep vertical route. He is the receiver we will mainly focus on for this breakdown.
The defense called is the Quarters Normal – Cover 4 Drop. This defense drops four defenders in deep zone coverage.
Madden Guides Tip: Other Cover 4 defenses from other formations will work the same way as the Quarters Normal – Cover 4 Drop at least in theory.
Quarters Normal – Cover 4 Drop Setup
As we already mentioned, the tight ends deep vertical route over the middle is what most players look to throw to. This goes for any other four verticals play that has this same pass route. We add some extra attention to that receiver. In Madden 20, there is a quick and effective way to achieve that coverage.
To defend it, we select coverage adjustments, then press A (X).
Next select the receiver running that route, in this case it's A (X).
Next, the coverage screen comes up. There we select spotlight receiver by pressing A (X) one more time.
The tight end is now spotlighted.
Another pre-snap adjustment we make if we have time is hot route the nose tackle in QB Spy.
We do this to take away the delay curl route that is run by the runningback.
Madden Guides Tip: If you have a fast defensive end on your depth chat that is not starting, consider subbing him at the nose tackle position. That way he can defend against the quarterback from taking off.
If we have time, we may call press coverage. This pre-snap adjustment is optional .
The offensive snaps the ball, none of the receivers are coverage. Also, notice the tight end doubled up as he breaks towards the deep middle.
Madden Guides Tip:
By spotlighting the tight end, it prevents the hook curl defenders from coming up to cover the runningback once he goes out on his delay curl route.
In the image above, there still isn't any receiver to throw the ball to as the receivers continue down the field.
The nose tackle should be close to the runningback.
With 9 defenders dropping back in pass coverage, we only have two pass rushers. That is one of the downsides of this defensive setup when defending Four Vertical Passing Concepts.
Madden Guides Tip: Any time Dime, Dollar, and Quarters defensive formations are called, they are highly suspect to the run. Best to call them in obvious passing situations.
Quick Tips for Defending Four Vertical Passing Concepts
- Be sure to check your opponent's receiver ratings and your own defensive backs ratings. If any of your defensive backs are slower than the receivers, they are covering. Try not to leave them in one-on-one coverage. Instead, look to have defenders playing over the top such as Cover 2, Cover 4, Cover 4, or Cover 6.
- As we already stated make sure you have a safety playing over the top. A lot of players find it easier to defend the deep pass by controlling a safety before the snap. A good reason for this is if their opponent uses the pump fake, their safeties don't bite on it.
- Consider taking control of a safety with lowest awareness rating. That way you control him negating his low awareness rating and he won't be susceptible to the pump fake.
- Players may also take control of the fastest safety on the field or even sub in a fast cornerback at safety. The reason they do this is so they cover ground quickly when the ball is in the air.
- If you have stick control, at least knock the pass down while in control of a fast safety.
- Use the ball hawk feature to get defender into position to pick the pass off. This is if you don't have the greatest stick control.
- The most important tip we can give for defending the deep pass is to spend quality time labbing the Hail Mary pass play against the CPU if you don't have a lab partner. This way, the CPU controlled quarterback won't be able to throw any underneath receivers, allowing you time to learn how to defend the deep pass.
Video Breakdown
Final Thoughts
This is just one example of how we like to defend the Four Vertical Passing Concepts.. In future Madden Guides Tips breakdown, we will show other defenses that we like to call to defend other deep passing plays found in the game.
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