Offense - NE Playbook - Shotgun - Normal Flex WK - WR Flip

These plays are in the NE playbook in Madden 10 for the Xbox 360 and are listed as follows: 

Formation - Alignement - Personnel - Play

I always try to keep my personnel the same across all my plays so my opponent can't tell what play is coming simply how many WR's, TE's or RB's are in the formation and to keep my best players on the field.

Shotgun - Normal Flex Wk - WR Flip - Pats Drag

This play is ideally used as a change up when playing an aggressive man defense.


On the snap you are either going to hit you WR in motion (receiver X) or you RB (receiver Y).  Against man, one of these guys is going to be open and if by some miracle they are both covered you can wait for receiver B to break in.  The beauty of this route combination is receiver LB turns into a blocker for your RB (receiver X) and your other WR (receiver B) turns into a blocker for your motioning WR (receiver X).  The motion, crossing pattern and potential blockers downfield make this a great play against man.  


If it's zone you'll often still get the motion WR (receiver X) or the RB (receiver Y) open, but be careful with timing...it's a lot easier to throw a pick.  You're slot receiver (receiver LB) will often come open once he breaks up the field.  In a worse case you can wait for your TE to clear the short zones and gun it to him in front of the safeties (actually works surprisingly well, but takes perfect timing).


Shotgun - Normal Flex Wk - WR Flip - Pats Corner

This play work great after running the Pats Drag play above a few times and getting your opponent to switch to zone.


Against zone, the slot receiver (LB) will pull the safety deep leaving your motioning WR (X) open on the sidelines for a big play.  The other WR (B) should also be open because the underneath zone defenders will move to cover your TE (A) and leave a hole in the zone behind them to hit the WR (B) as he break in.  In a worse case you can wait for the RB (Y) to release to the flat and the zones should have drifted far enough down field for a decent gain.


Against Man, you can hit either you TE (A) or WR (B) as they break to the middle of the field.  

Shotgun - Normal Flex Wk - WR Flip - Corner Strike

This play is run very similar to the one above, but doesn't have the motion and has different backside options.

Against zone, the slot receiver (LB) should pull the safety deep leaving your WR (X) open on the sidelines for a big play.  The TE (A) should also get open because the flat zone defender will move inside following the WR (B) leaving a big hole in the flat for the TE (A), but your goal against zone is to flood the left side of the field with the WR, Slot and RB.  One of these should be open.

Against Man, you want to hit your TE (A) or RB (Y) quickly.


Expert Tip:  As with all plays (particularly against man) if catch your opponent moving defenders to where your players are going to be (i.e. moving guys into the flats on this play).  All you need to do is hot route the TE (A) to a slant and the RB (Y) to a drag (he'll cross the formation.  Both of them will be wide open.

Shotgun - Normal Flex Wk - WR Flip - Slot Post

This play is a great to work with the corner strike  above.  Almost impossible to stop with good timing.


Against Zone, the slot receiver (LB) is your primary target and will usually be open either immediately or after clearing the underneath zone.  If your opponent begins covering him manually or spotlighting him so the defense follows him then your TE (A) and WR (X) start opening up.  The only other option the defense has is to drop move to a zone that doesn't have a flat defender and your RB (Y) is going to be wide open with blockers in front.  If you run this a few times you'll see the one of these 4 guys is open every time and it's pretty easy to identify who.


Against Man you can hit the RB almost immediately.  However, if there's no blitz you can wait to see if your slot receiver (LB) comes open and if he doesn't you can hit your TE (A) crossing the formation.  The slot receiver (LB) will give you a bigger play, but if the safety is lurking in the middle you can always check down to the TE (A).

Offense - NE Playbook - Shotgun - DBLS Wing

These plays are in the NE playbook in Madden 10 for the Xbox 360 and are listed as follows: 

Formation - Alignement - Personnel - Play

I always try to keep my personnel the same across all my plays so my opponent can't tell what play is coming simply how many WR's, TE's or RB's are in the formation and to keep my best players on the field.

I purposefully skipped and don't use plays from the Doubles formation because I think all the best plays from that formation are also in DBLS Wing TE and DBLS Wing TE has 3 or 4 additional plays.  The same plays in the normal Doubles formation are just as good.

Shotgun - DBLS Wing TE - Normal - Slot Screen

This play is great when used in the right situation.  It works against zone or man, but you really want to hit it against a zone D with a blitz.

You need to hot route both your TE and WR to slant routes (A and B receivers).  When you hike the ball all you need to do is watch the nearest defender to your slot receiver (LB).  If the defender backs away from your slot receiver it's zone...game on...throw LB the ball just before the defensive end hits your QB and you should have a big gainer (maybe even a TD if your blockers do a good job).  If the defender moves towards your slot receiver it's man, just throw to A or B.  I'd hit A first as he's less likely to get jammed or have a safety intercept the pass, but if you've already run the play and your opponent is looking for the pass to the TE (or there is no safety help) a quick slant to B can go for a huge gain.

Expert tip:  I prefer to use this play sparingly as it's great for big plays but won't take too long for someone to figure out.  Ideally it will be 2nd and short on my side of the 50 yard line or a crucial third down. 

Shotgun - DBLS Wing TE - Normal - FL Screen

Again, you want to try to hit this play against zone, but particularly cover 3 when the CB over your target WR (receiver B) backs-up on the snap into a deep zone.  If you get this D, this pass is a big play waiting to happen...simply throw it to B.

However, if you get man or a Cover 2 where the CB over your target steps-up the play takes a little finesse.  In either situation you can still throw to B, but you HAVE TO make sure the CB gets blocked other wise you'll be tackled immediately for a loss, the ball will be batted down or worse, it will be a pick 6 the other way.

If you get man, you can always throw the slant to LB, and if it's cover 2 you should be able to still throw the screen because there's less guys trying to break it up then there are in zone.

Expert Tip: As with all pass plays trying to go to the flats, watch your opponent putting the DE to QB contain.  If they do, the DE will be standing right in between you and your intended receiver.

Shotgun - DBLS Wing TE - Normal - Inside Cross

I love this play.  If you want to eat up an aggressive man D, this is your play.  Just keep running it anytime you need yards.


You need to hot route receiver LB to a vertical route.  However, receiver A you should only hot route if once you've seen how your opponent will defend this play after they've seen it.


Against a normal man D, you RB (receiver Y) is going to be wide open in the flat almost immediately.  Throw it to him and receiver A turns into a nice down field blocker.  Once you've run this play though, you're opponent might start moving the guy covering Y to the flat to stop this play (or controlling someone else and trying to stop it).  This is when you hot route your TE (receiver A) to the slant.  He'll catch it with two blockers in front of him...money.


Ideally you want to run this play versus a man D, but you can't pick what your opponent will do.  If you get a zone you still have options.  In most zones the vertical route from the slot (receiver LB) will open up almost immediately as the nearest defender moves outside of him towards the sideline.  You must make the read and throw the pass fast otherwise the safety of inside LB will break up the play...but it's a great pass with TD potential because you're receiver only has to beat the safety to the open field.  If he's covered you can look for your TE (receiver A) if he hasn't been hot routed as he moves away from the inside zone defender and towards the safety (again, this is a tight throw but can be a huge gain).  Since both the first two options are throws that need perfect timing, you can always dump it off to your WR (receiver B) on the hitch route.  Against zone, he should be sitting there wide open.


Expert Tip:  If you're opponent is blitzing the house and playing Man behind it you can throw the ball immediately on the snap to your motioning WR (receiver B) for a long TD.  He should catch it as he's moving away from the line of scrimmage and be gone TD.  However, if it's not a full blitz or it's mistimed it could be a pick and you can't hot route your TE (he picks the CB covering your WR as he leaves the line).  I love this play, but I still throw the occasional pick when I try this option.

Shotgun - DBLS Wing TE - Normal - Inside Cross

This play is great if your opponent is running zone coverages without much of a rush.  It takes a little time to develop can be a big play.


All you need to do is hot route your running back to a vertical route and wait for the middle safety do follow your TE (receiver A) to the left.  The safety on the right should be preoccupied with your WR (receiver B) leaving your RB (receiver Y) open down the right hash mark.


If the route is covered or it's man coverage you should still have one of your other two receivers open (X or LB) crossing the field.


Expert Tip:  If you opponent is rushing three guys or less and dropping everyone else into zone you can hot route both outside WR's (receiver X and B) to vertical routes which will get the RB (receiver Y) even more open.


Shotgun - DBLS Wing TE - Normal - DBL Cross

 This play is great because you don't have to do anything and it works against almost all defenses (you just have to make the read).


Receiver B is usually open against most D's as long as you throw the ball just after he makes his break to the inside.  If your opponent see this though they may spotlight that receiver in the future and the safety will be in position to intercept the pass.


Usually, I prefer to go to my RB (receiver Y) or the other WR (receiver X) against zone coverages.  Y is either open immediately or has to swing around the flat zone coverage for a much bigger play (it just takes longer).  X is usually open right when he makes his break because the inside zone defender will follow LB across the formation leaving a big gap in the zone for X to break into.  Against a blitzing zone usually LB or A are open.


Against man, the running back in the flat (receiver Y) is a good bet or the WR deep (receiver B), but if you can buy a little time in the pocket you want to hit the TE (receiver A).  All the defenders are being pulled to the right and if he beats his man there's only a safety to out run for TD.


Using these 5 plays in rotation will keep the defense guessing and you should be able to make consistent first downs, occasional big plays, score more touchdowns and win more games.

Offense - NE Playbook - Shotgun - Split Slot

I'm going to post a series of plays from the NE Patriots playbook in Madden 10 that I believe can be used to attack almost any D and win more games.

I'm going to start in the Shotgun formation and work my way down the different shotgun alignments, choosing the best few plays in each, and giving my hot route changes to make the plays more effective.

I'll try to describe everything, but if something doesn't make sense, post a comment and clarify.

First, I always try to have my formation 3WR, 1TE, 1RB so the defense can't tell what's coming just from the personnel package. I'll list every play by formation - alignment - personnel package to achieve the desired result of every play looking the same when your opponent sees the personnel package.

Shotgun - Split Slot - TE backfield - 689 Hook


The goal of this play is to attack cover 2 or cover 3 deep. Hot route your Y reciever (which should be your TE now) to a verticel route and your LB reciever to block right. This route will take a few seconds, but if your opponent is not blitzing heavy, you'll get a big play down the middle.

If it's cover 2, once A clears the short zone defenders he'll be wide open. B and X force the safeties wide because their routes imply deep pressure before A breaks into the middle.

If it's cover 3, once Y clears the short zone he'll be almost wide open...you will get him wide open if you throw the ball to the right. B takes the right deep zone with him up the sidelines and A pushes the deep middle zone defender to the left leaving a nice hole for Y to catch the ball on the right hand side of his right (why you should push the ball right when throwing it).

Shotgun - Split Slot - TE Backfield - Corner Strike

The goal of this play is to attack man when your opponent likes to blitz a lot or cover 2. I've found most players seem to play more cover 2 in the red zone and this is one of my favorite plays to score with.

If you expect man...especially with a blitz...you can easily throw this route to either flat (LB or Y) for a quick gain. You can also block with LB and hit A over the middle for a bigger gain because you're WR's (X and B) have pulled all the defenders to the sidelines.

If you expect cover 2, just block with LB and watch the right side of the field. Without hot routing A or B the safety on the right side will have to cover both routes and as soon as B breaks out...hit him for an easy big gainer. However, the problem with this route is that against cover 3 you can leave yourself without an open receiver and forced to throw into coverage or take a sack. To prevent this you can send receiver A on a vertical route...this should take the safety with him and open up receiver B even against Cover 3. Or, you can switch receiver A to a drag route and B should still get open against cover 2 (just not as wide open) and you have A as your bail out option against cover 3.

Expert tip: If you run this play a few times, or throw to the WR running the B route a lot during the game, your opponent will Spotlight him and the safety will follow him over making a pass to receiver B difficult to complete. This is great news because now if you hot route A to a vertical route he'll run right by the D for a fairly easy deep completion. You just have to watch for the Safety following B to the right in a cover 2 zone and it's there for the taking.

Defense - Changing D's without Changing looks

Most good players can diagnose your base D before the snap unless you disguise it.

You can always make pre-snap adjustments and change the look of any base D (a base D is any play you can call in Madden). But, even then, you can only do so much, and if you keep running the same D, even with adjustments, unless you are incredible on the stick, will eventually get picked apart.

The key is to run multiple D's out of the same formation and keep them changing at key times.

I start with a 3-4 cover 3 D. But will often run man, cover 2 or some variation of the 3 basic D's. The key is to control the same guys in different D's (a dead give away if you control the safety in man, the LB in cover 3 and a D-lineman in cover 2). The other key is picking "show blitz" in the presnap menu (Triangle and left stick left). This will disguise many different D's and make them look more alike presnap. You can also more your D-line or LB's left/right to change their positions or press your DB's, but the key is to keep it changing.

You must force your opponent to recognize the D after the snap rather than before...this will lead to mistakes, turnovers, and wins.

Defense - Win the turnover battle, Win the game

Playing great D and holdings guys to punts is great, but you're likely to end up with more changes in possesion due to turnovers than punts in a game of Madden. Get a turnover or two more than your opponent and you should win the game.

The keys to turnovers are changing your D out of the same formation to cover the pass your opponent is throwing most ofter in different situations and on any completion taking control of the nearest guy and hitsticking him...you can easily cause 2 fumbles in every game.

As mentioned in the previous post, I start out in cover 3. I'll often end up blitzing my outside backers and giving up the flat zones. I figure completions in those zones, unless it's to screen passes, won't hurt me too bad and I'll get pressure on the QB. Usually your opponent will figure this out. When your sure he has, and is killing you in the flats, switch to cover 2. You still blitz your outside backers, but your corners stay put and cover the flats...if he throws it to the flats again, you got a 50/5o shot at getting a pick 6. You can also change your DE's to QB contain and they'll create a big obstacle in passing to the flats (if they're athletic, they might pick it as well), but if your opponent sees you doing this, he should just run it and your toast.

Anytime you get a chance to hitstick your opponent, do it. Even if it means surrendering a couple yards. You're odds of creating fumble increase dramatically. Just get used to the timing of it...you can hit stick really early and your defender will automatically track down the ball carrier for the hit (it's annoying when your on offense because they can even go right through a blocker).

When you're running zones, your opponent will often start throwing over the middle, but under the zone on short crossing or curl routes. Pre-snap change one of your defenders in the area where these passes are likely to go QB spy. The defender will stay short and often your opponent won't read it fast enough (you can also use a linemen, but you open yourself up to the run).

Lastly, giving up big plays hurts, but blitzing the QB occasionally and trying to cover the back-end can lead to a lot of turnovers. The QB is much more likely to fumble and will often throw picks when he's hit while throwing. As mentioned previously, I like to run a 3-4 D, blitz all the LBs (RB and right stick down on the controller), then set my right middle backer to QB spy (A and right stick left on the controller) then controller the safety responsible for the middle deep zone and try to prevent anything short on the other side of the field...but always watching the deep middle (you're counting on your 6 rushers getting to the QB before a WR can beat you deep in the middle).

Any blitz where you can bring 6+ rushers and prevent a big play is worth running from time to time because it will shut down most runs, catch your opponent off guard if you're primarily running safe zones, and can cause many turnovers.

Defense - Foundation of Championships

We've all heard it, "Defense wins Championships". In Madden 2010, it's way easier to play solid defense and compete in every game you play then master offense and get in track meet with a good opponent.

I believe in starting every game conservative, figuring out tendencies, and adjusting. The keys:

1. play a conservative zone D to start, cover 3 out of a 3-4 base D is my standard.

2. keep everything in front of you and know where you're biggest weaknesses are. In cover three it's the mid range pass up the sidelines, the screen and the perfectly timed deep pass up the hash marks.

3. I like to control the outside line backer on the the side I feel is exposed the most...usually either the strong side (TE side), or the RB side in a shotgun formation, or the side overloaded with WR's. I immediately push my linebacker towards the sideline on the snap (lots of guys know the computer doesn't get out there fast enough and will just throw immediately to the flat against cover 3). If it's a screen, you're in position to press the receiver, you've likely already taken away the pass to the flat and now you're watching for a WR running a wheel route up the sideline...if you see that, you must chase him down....he is the intended receiver. (the wheel route is just like for a RB, the WR starts out parallel to the line of scrimmage and then turns up the sideline...this route can kill a lot of zone D's...you often have to manually defend against it).

4. Once you figure out your opponents tendencies you adjust. If he's killing your zone passing, start blitzing different linebackers (one of my favorites, is to bring all the backers accept one, manually setting him QB spy, and taking control of the middle deep safety in in a short zone to watch for the quick pass). This will usually cause problems because good zone passers rely on reading the D, which a heavy blitz limits.

If they are killing you running, it usually helps to switch to a cover 2 so your corners are up, blitzing the outside backers, controlling on middle backer and putting the other one to cover where ever their outlet pass is (any running team will run a quick pass out of the same formation once their favorite running play gets stopped a couple times....usually they have one target in mind....after seeing it once, adjust someone to cover that zone).

5. Occasionally, you'll play someone who can kill a zone but is terrible against man....always worth a try, especially with a blitz, but be prepared to give up a big play. Man can easily be beat without a lot of experience to properly align guys pre-snap.

That's a good start, and in many games you'll hardly have to do anything else. However, if you want to win against the best, there is a lot more you'll need to master.