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).