Madden 22 defense tips vs CPU

I use the Lions. Through 6 games, I am middle of the pack defensively (12th in the league.)

I normally mix up Cover 1 Cover 2 Man, and Cover 2.Tampa 2. I will watch the personnel that the CPU sends out. If they only have 2 WR, I will call either Cover 1 or Cover 2 Man. If they come out with 3 WR, I will run Cover 2/Tampa 2 out of Nickel. If there are 4 WR I will run out of Dime. If the CPU comes out in an empty set, I will run either Dime or Quarter.

On 3rd down, I will always protect the sticks.

And even though Cover 3 is kinda broke, I will occasionally mix it in, along with a couple Cover 4 plays, just to keep the CPU from figuring out the pattern.

Also, under adjustments, I make sure I have the Allignment set to MAN. That way there is always someone opposite a WR. And I have the CBs "play the receiver" doing this, it seems they knock the ball out of the WR's hands more often than when set to play the ball, or swat the ball.

The biggest key, though, is getting pressure on the QB.

I've recently started a franchise with the Eagles where I try to be as realistic as possible (like I do every year), like I know my roster is not playoff ready and I actually don't mind losing if it's realistic (I actually prefer losing if my team isn't good enough to go to the playoffs and I love drafting), but (All-Madden difficulty) player-cpu gameplay is absolutely broken and All-Pro is laughably easy (or at least it was in M21 when I last played on All-Pro but maybe it has changed?). I know I'm not the best player out there and sure I'll make dumb decisions, but if an entire set of downs on offense is destroyed just by glitches and bugs I get so angry I wanna eat the controller. I've played around with sliders a lot but you can only fix so much before you have to attribute problems to the nature of the game and programming issues. For instance, we don't have a man and a zone coverage slider, so man coverage gets you or the CPU burned everytime and zone is way too hard if you don't intend on cheesing the AI with the broken plays. On offense, I wish there was a fumble slider for QBs separately cause obviously they haven't fixed the issue since M20. I gotta go on a rant here and it's gonna be mostly about playing offense vs CPU... If you wanna skip, I got a couple questions for the community at the bottom.

Players QB: Why the heck can Dean Lowry with 75 speed catch up to Hurts at full speed with 87 speed? The sheer amount of sacks I'm taking cause some defender can catch up to Hurts despite having lower speed than Hurts is un-friggin-believeable, you wouldn't even believe, how angry I can get... Furthermore Hurts has developped pretty nicely in the first year of the rebuild and his throw on the run is at 87, yet for no reason at all he'll miss almost every throw on the run which means when I have to scramble either the defense is in man and screwed or in zone and I get maybe a couple yards on the ground or a pick 6. The same applies for throws under pressure (Hurts rating: 85), where it most certainly is gonna end up badly, and I'm being pressured constantly. Now I know these ratings are not in the 90s but c'mon the discrepancy between throws in clean pockets and the out of structure plays is to big when considering that all the important throwing ratings are in the mid to high 80s. It feels scripted to make it harder on the player when it would be enough to just be realistic cause thats automatic hard mode. The fumbling discrepancy is also killing me, like in the 1st season my starting RBs had three fumbles combined, which is fine and average, but Hurts got stripped almost every game and it's not like he's Danny Dimes fumbling twice a game, but if I go lower on the fumble slider I'll just get rid of fumbles for the RBs at all which is not realistic either...

Player Runs: if RB or QB doesn't matter, some runs work and some don't and so you usually already know if the run is gonna end up good or bad. I don't wanna have to cheese the CPU if I wanna have a RB at north of 4yds a carry, but I just gotta look at the average ypc in the play calling screen and I already know how it's gonna end, so I have to make a decision to if I wanna cheese the CPU or if I handicap myself for the next down. Additionally I think most outside zone or pulling guards runs are broken anyway because the AI is too stupid to block in space which also ruins screens but more on that later. If I started to count the tackles made by the CPU against me over the course of a season, I think the top opposing players racking up tackle counts would be SLCBs. The CPU defense is overreactive to any play anyway and I'm 117% sure the CPU defense knows the play coming at them anyway, but the reaction time on outside zone runs is outstanding which leads to negative average ypc on most outside zone runs in my pb. Now you might say: "then get the run blocking slider up"... well I'm happy enough with inside zone and then the inside zone runs would get outta control and I would just create a new mess instead of fixing the old. We just don't have separate inside and outside run sliders... Another criticism I have are double teams: I run a lot of inside zone (who would've guessed) and the G/C double teams where the guard then moves up to the LB are too slow at disenganging. Every good Madden player knows to start hitting the gas when the hole opens up and not when you get the handoff, but even then I get tackled before I even hit the gas, and Miles Sanders isn't overly fast either (imagine doing this with a 96 speed/accel RB like I had in my M21 franchise). This is another programming issue you can't fix with sliders, although I could live with getting run blocking sliders up for that matter, but even then the AI is too stupid at running to the LB and actually engaging in a block. If they did and the LB insta sheds bc he's the better player, fine by me, but not even touching and just running by the LB and then getting lost is garbage... The CPU being too fast at deciphering my playcall gets me to my next massive criticism...

Player Play-Action: PA is basically useless in Madden, even 65 OVR emergency starters don't fall for it. If I was playing against Luuuuuuke for 17 games a season, I wouldn't be complaining but since he's retired, I play Luuuuuuuke 0 times a season and therefor expect the AI to SOMETIMES fall for it and get a deep bomb out of it or at least a 15 yards crosser behind the LBs, but nooooooope, they already know the routes run and I have to go scramble again and throw an incomplete pass or run for two yards. This game sucks so much. When I fall for PA on defense, the CPU should too at times so that it evens out, but in the past 20 games of my franchise experience, I haven't gotten a single WR behind the defense on PA shots.

Screens, Reverses etc: If CPU or player screen, they are all broken. no way around it. But they are an important part of football and in the new era especially with the WRs turning into RBs after the catch (DJ Moore, Deebo etc). Why can't the AI fall for a reverse? Why are slip screens so definitively broken? Why is the AI too stupid to choose which player to block in space or to block anybody at all? I love me some RPOs here n there, but the AI somehow knows the call cause why would the AI press my WR when they don't press any of my WRs on any other play? I have a big body rookie WR with the best press rating in his absolutely loaded WR draft class (and his name is Slaughter which opens so many avenues for puns) but he won't get pressed on any other snap. At this point I also gotta ask: how in the world are WRs choosing to go behind the CB when having an RPO slant? That should never happen in the history of never ever. When I get pressed and have to run a slant in real life, I find a different release, threaten vertical or to the outside or cut the slant shorter, but I would never cut in behind the CB 7 yards downfield, could throw of the timing or the spacing with the SLWR or the TE...

Player passing: Why on earth are WRs so dumb in this game? I've already gone over the overreactive CPU, but WRs running into each other or the defenders that consistently on every other play drives me insane. It is unbelievable how often this happens, and of course you could argue: "well then stop playing mesh and slants" but I love Airraid offenses and quick passing over the middle is an important part of that. Mesh is used to get the defense players to run into each other and it's usually clear which one is the one running half a yards deeper, but in my gameplay WRs are running into each other and more so into the defenders on any crossing routes. If you can't program it correctly, then at least let them glitch trough each other at that point, bc I time the throw when my guy is clearing traffic within the next few steps (I guess it happens sometimes that you're getting held up irl too, but not that consistently). Another annoying thing is the timing for releases by WRs on bunch looks. I have a couple plays with a drive concept out of bunch, but the drag is released two seconds after the other two guys released and I'm usually under pressure by then and especially when they're blitzing I wanna get rid of the ball quickly to the underneath route. I've already pointed out the overreactive defenders (and this tendency is proved by Matt10s pass coverage sliders for CPU, they're at 15 and below), but I also am pissed by CBs already knowing the routes before the WR has the cut. I know, that some CBs can read that stuff by alignment or release or just from watching tape, but they don't get burned by double moves either which I gotta say, if the CPU does that stuff to my CBs, it's not gonna be the same result. CBs/LBs/Ss are running the routes for my WRs too often. I have Devonta Smith as my #1 and Goedert isn't the worst route runner either... Another problem I have is the 0-100 top speed LBs like to show when a WR runs somewhere near them and seems to get open. LBs seem to be able to warp themselves to the ball if it's in the air and it's driving me insane. Btw in the first 20 games of my Eagles rebuild I had one WR getting behind the defense entirely at all. One play! Every game has 60 snaps on offense, thats 1200 snaps in 20 games and Devonta Smith was able to burn a LB on a mismatch ONCE and I have CPU pass coverage sliders at below 10 already... What do you want me to do? Not even my rookie WR gets enough press snaps where he could burn somebody at the line and even if he did, it probably would be Cover 3 or 4 and he would get 15yds at best if the AI isn't too fast at breaking it up, I can already see it happening...

Pass Blocking: The AI is too stupid to pass block anything. I have Kelce, Brooks and Johnson as C, RG & RT at 89+ OVR. I drafted a 79 OVR hidden dev pass pro LT @ #1 overall in the draft and the only "big" weakness is LG Dickerson at 72 OVR. Nonetheless the AI is too dumb to pass block anything for me. It's not about them losing a 1on1 against a superior player, it's about not even engaging at all. After the first season, my two OTs combined for over 80% of sacks allowed bc they sometimes don't move off the snap and just let the edge rushers run by and sack Hurts in 2 seconds. This was a new issue I didn't know off before this title. A known issue has been the false programming of double teams. A year ago in M21 I had a DT break Strahans sack records off of beating double teams and sacking QBs on slip screens. He had three high quality 1on1 sacks and more than 20 of those AI fuckup sacks. This should not happen at all, yet it continues to be in the game. Now if I go ahead and raise pass block sliders, it doesn't fix the problem bc then it becomes basically impossible for AI DL to sack me on a 1on1 rep. It screws up stats and I wanna stay realistic.

Needless to say I'm pretty pissed about EA being a garbage company and I have a thousand more criticisms of the gameplay alone. Imagine starting a drive off with an inside zone run for -1yds bc your guard didn't move up to the LB, then you're behind the sticks, gonna throw, go with mesh where the ball false incomplete bc the WR got held up and then you're at 3rd&11 and you're forced to throw a dig or post where there's no space in between zones bc the defenders are overly fast at reacting and can warp to the ball or you don't even get the throw off bc your OT just forgot to play and move and engage with the edge rusher. This ruining an entire set of downs stuff happens to me at least twice a game and like what am I supposed to do? Can't EA include a "last play undo"-button in the game to get a chance of going back if the last play was broken? I know it can be abused, but I just wanna have a realistic game and if EA can't put out solid gameplay give me an undo-button man...

Is there anybody who knows how the CPU decides defensive play calling? In M21 it seemed a lot more diverse to me, but in M22 it seems to be Cover 2, 3 & 4 over 80% of snaps, with a slight chance of zone blitzes, but even the Lions, a traditionally man heavy defensive scheme, dialled up only one 0 blitz in the entire game I played yesterday and a couple Cover 1 plays... Is it the new game planning? Is the AI too afraid I might run them over with Hurts bc of his scrambling archetype? Does the CPU know play-calling tendencies? Should I run it 50 times a game so that they start bringing some more pressure to stop it? Do I have to start calling 60% Flood Plays to abuse the zones? I wanna call a diverse set of plays and have them call a healthy mix of zone, man, blitzes and four-man-pressures but the CPU doesn't do many blitzes or man coverage and it gets on my nerves, cause I feel like I'm behind the sticks on every drive and have to use my favorite plays to often to counter the negative results achieved by the cheesy AI.

Also I wanted to know if there's anybody, who plays on All-Pro and has a slider set that makes maybe a lil bit of the cheesy stuff of all-madden-AI go away or at least makes CPU pass coverage acceptable in difficulty and play calling? Do I have to start watching CPU-CPU gameplay because it's the only gameplay where the AI doesn't have to cheese their way to victory? The All-Pro Sliders from Matt10 in M21 were not challenging enough, it is worth to try em out this year?

I'm sorry it's long, but it's so incredibly frustrating and it has been for a few years now. I wanted to write this down because I'm sure I can't be the only one annoyed by the issues and it's overall too many to count at this point. Over the last months I've started to think about if there's any chance another studio could do a vanilla football game thats moddable and focus on more realistic and fun gameplay to get EA to invest more ressources into their game. Madden can be so much fun and it has a good starting base to build on, but EA doesn't do anything about it and the community has to suffer through these horrible titles every year. I'm considering being done with the game completely, it starts to be a waste of time if I'm leaving the game this annoyed everytime. Do I have to be a GM only to make this game fun for me?

PS: Just finished writing the text and heard the news :( Rest in Peace John Madden :(

EDIT: typos

How do you stop the CPU from passing in Madden 22?