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.