• Use Enhanced Blitzes to increase the number of sacks you get by hooking up the standard blitz plays to make them more deadly. We'll show you how to take the stock blitzes and make them more effective.
  
  
• Defend against Offensive "Money Plays" - we are constantly receiving requests for help in defending against certain offensive "money " plays that players take advantage of in online play. We break them down for you, showing you how to run them yourself and defeat them with powerful defensive strategies.
  
  
• Player & Team Specific Strategies - this season the Filmroom will be packed with much more Team specific strategies. Over the course of the season, we break down each team and give you key roster moves that will make your team more effective.
  
  
• Light up the Scoreboard with "Money Plays" - are you being shut down on offense? We'll show you how to exploit weaknesses on the field bust the defense wide open.

Each week includes 3 Current Gen (Xbox/PS2/PC)

--plus--

4 Next Gen
(Xbox 360 & PS3) Breakdowns

Current Gen Sample (click here for Next Gen Sample)

by: Big B

I will go over the Sluggo route and the plays that has this route with others. What I want to do this year is try to build your awareness up and get a nice foundation for you. This will be the playbook that I will do along with two others this year.

Now that me and Squeeze are working together in the filmroom together for CG you will get an EMB personal lab session. We will both show and work on things for you to help get your game to the point where you can walk away and do what is needed in order to get your game to that next level. Now let's hit the field.

This is a basic play that allow you to attack man and zone. Now if you face heat also it's a great play. Now before you get into formation shifting and route pulling...you need to understand routes. I hate it when you have guys that live for the short cuts instead of building solid fundamentals. That's route running. Now when a new game comes out you need to lab the new routes that are given to you. The Sluggo route kills man and zone. Man it allows you to get inside and on zone the defender walks away. I like this play because it reminds me of the Comet play that was in Pitt. playbook. This was the most used money play during that time. It was so hot EA changed it. This play gives you that comet pass feel all over again.

Now what I did was added a curl extended for my backside read. This is also my quick pass route. Now all of these routes are quick passing routes. The thing is that when you have a backside read in your progression it has to be one that will come open once you do your check downs. Like a slant in this case wouldn't work. It would open before the Sluggo and maybe the streak. The flats are still popping as well this year. Now let's take a moment here. Now this is the same game for the past 3 years. So what has been working is still working. Now many people hate the NG and praised this version. Let's not get it twisted it's the same game. So some of the same info in some write-ups may appear. We will try to avoid this as much as we can. I just wanted to get to that before we go any further.

Here your reads are as follows. Now you have the flat. middle, and outside progression here.

This is the flats. This is on your 1st drop back.

This is one of your middle reads.

This is your other middle reads.

Now this is your outside read. I want to walk you threw this real quick.

You see here that SE is working to get outside. Now because EA messed with the AI last year you will see the DB work to get inside way to aggressively. Use this to your advantage. The key to defense is selective aggression. To have the defense aggressive all game long is really stupid. You need selective aggression to keep people off balanced. Meaning if you mix up your looks, press coverage, and movement the offense can't be proactive. You want them to be reactive. You want the offense to wait and then make a move. This delay may allow you to get coverage sacks or turnovers from force passes/disturb timing.

You see that by working too hard to get inside messed this defender up in his assignment.

Now it allows me to click on and make the jet pack. This route is sick. You can hit it on the cut, the move up, and once the player drives towards the corner of the end zone.

This is an overview of this play vs. heat.

You can see that this "c" route is also a jet pack route and it kills heat. This was why HB circles was so hot back in the days. The route killed anyone who brought that wood.

Now if I had a TE as FB this would be even better. Now look at Floyd in the left hand corner. Now a pump fake and throw would had been an easy 6 points. That Sluggo route is mean and will be one of the most used routes this year.

Closing this play is what you should be looking for in plays. You want plays that have many options. You don't need motion, route pulling, or formation shifting. This play with FB dive and another play could be used as a solid base. This is what tourney players are looking for. This is the 1st of my second write-up this week. Now for part 2.

Next Gen Sample

by: LBZRules

This past week Madden was released. The Monday prior to release I was sitting out on my porch reading Coaching the Multiple 4-3 Defense by Dennis Harris. I sat and read for maybe five minutes and began to wipe my brow. Two minutes later I could no longer concentrate on reading.

All I could think about is the temperature. In my mind I said, this heat is oppressive. Let me go back inside. It was 99 degrees that day. Well the heat in Madden this year is exactly the same way. It is hot, fast and oppressive. Unlike my day in which I folded up my chair and went back inside, we will have to face this heat. So I want to begin the year by looking at some ways of staying cool in the midst of all the heat.

Let's begin by looking at a set up for a heat play. Let's look at 3-4 Solid Trio Sky. This is a nice zone blitz that can really bring the wood. I will showcase it here. So take this and add it to your defense even though that's not what this article is about.

One way to set this blitz up is to pinch the defensive line. Then shift the linebackers to the left.

On the snap the defense will get some good A gap heat by the Left Inside Linebacker.

He gets to the QB for the sack.

Another way to set this blitz up is to pinch the defensive line. Then, pinch the linebackers.

The defense brings the same heat.

The Left Inside Linebacker gets to the QB for the sack. I want you to remember the two set ups for this blitz because we are about to hurt this blitz.

One of the first things that can be done to deal with the blistering heat is to run the football. Run early and run often. As I posted on the board, one of the ways to really make someone that sends a great deal of heat get angry is to run the football and beat the heat. The reason why this is possible is because to get heat, guys must play players out of position to deal with certain things. In Madden and NCAA at times you can get away by being out of position against the pass because you can use a Safety and make up for it by running all over the field. But if you are out of place against the run then you are in for a world of hurt. Today I want to look at a Counter play that in my eyes was the best run play on the game last year and this year it is still as effective. In our league last year Afrodamus ran this play and led the league in rushing.

Today's play is Singleback Big HB Counter Trap. This play is only in a handful of playbooks - Ravens, Bears, Colts, Jags, Redskins (the Skins book has a plethora of these type of runs). This play features a pulling guard and a pulling TE.

Now let's look at this run play versus setup #1. The Dline is pinched and the linebackers are pinched.

I am running this flipped. So I motion the pulling TE to the left. Once he gets behind the pulling guard, I hike the football.

Now we have a pulling Guard and a pulling TE to kick out the left side.

The pulling TE picks up the first defender that shows face.

Now we still have a pulling guard that we follow up the field.

He makes a block on the on coming Safety.

Our Flanker chop blocks the CB and keeps him out of the play. This is one of the great things about this run play. The receivers are not running up the field they are looking to block early. If you have a set of good blocking receivers they will chop block the CB's the majority of the time.

Notice the first tackler does not touch the HB until I have him fifteen yards up the field. The defense gambled on the blitz and we ran away from it.

HB Willis McGahee is finally brought down after a big gain on the play.

Let's look at this run against the second setup. You can even run right into the blitz and still pick up major yardage. This time I take the left TE and motion him to the right.

Once he reaches the outside hip of the Guard, I hike the football.

The blitzing defenders all get trapped inside. I now have a TE and Guard pulling out in front.

The TE picks up the Safety.

The Guard picks up a defender pursuing from inside.

The flanker does a good job on the CB on the outside.

Once outside I turn it on.

Keep running until ...

... I can't run anymore.

Notice in both setups I gained a huge chuck of yardage. This is a play that you will want to practice time and time again. At least 15 minutes a day until it is like the back of your hand. It is a good play to run against the blitz. There are some blitzes out there that might give it trouble but they are not of the gut blitz variety, at least not from what I've seen.