why do people hot route their defense?

1st and foremost i want to say happy holidays to everyone, ok heres my topic: why do a lot of people hot route their defense? to me, hot routing players will put you in a position to where you will gamble a lot of defense, im finding out that and lately have been winning a lot more games without hot routing a lot.the most i hot route now is one player.the other day i played gy who's record was 92-37, pretty good record.he used the eagles i hd the vikings, i shut him down!!!! he conceded in the 3rd quarter because he realized he couldn't scramble with vick nd i shut desheawn down.i had 4 picks off him.but it is in my belief that if you let the play run as it shold be yo will get better results, now don't take this like im saying there's something wrong with the hot routing and fast pressure, heck, ive been killed with that before, but to each his own, i prefer letting the play be as is.i love MB community and its like now, im a defense first guy who dont like to gamble or take risk, because iam highly competitive, i play a lot of unranked games online to experiment, but my record ranked is 39-12. not bad at all. im just throwing it out there, what do you guys think? am I right? or am i wrong to say hot routing is not my cup of tea anymore like that?

hot routing on defense is the same as it is on ofense. i WILL put a defensive end in a flat zone or whatever, just depending on wat my opponents tendancies are. I will houte route on defense probably every play of the game.

right, and i understand you on that note, but ho routing to create a nano blitz, for pressure, thats what im saying, its sacrificing a player and gambling, if you hot routing 5 to 6 guys into a combination of reblitzing,contains, spies and zones at one time.thats too much, youre heavy gambling then.and from experience the BEST elite players will @%@# all over that in a heartbeat, you'd be surprised how good results you get from just keeping it honest.

You have to use hotroutes to create a defense that is unique. Any good player can rip apart any type of stock coverage.

well, from me playing and im a level 5 so far, i only hot route one player every play based on the opponents tendacies, if i select a blitz then i select a blitz, now if that blitz isnt enough and i see the player throwing along the sidelines then i throw in a purple route from a LB or DE.just one hot route, and ive had success with this, my highest streak was a 15 game win streak with this concept.im not disagreeing with yall, im just trying to get get others input on the subject.

You just do what gives you the best chance to win
IMO hot routing is a must to beating better opponents because it helps to adjust.
I'm level 19 online and I would probably lose every game online is I couldn't hot route lol
But if It is working for you keep doing it bruh

jordanl95 wrote:

You just do what gives you the best chance to win

thats why everybody uses the raiders this year.
You have to hot route escaplly how easy O is this year.
A rookie could pick up the sticks and beat a stock D
thanks

yeah congrats on your level 5... but go ahead and play a 3-4 cover 3 against me all game and we'll see how that works out for ya.

Also myself and a lot of the better players use hot routing to creat pressure with 2 or 3 players using hot routs so your "taking a risk... sacraficing a player" doesnt apply to most. hot routs on d give me equal pressure with more players in coverage. Just saying.

but hey man if you found something that the rest of us overlooked good for ya and keep on keepin on.

I would lobe to run stock 43under/over plays but the problem is the 4 man dfault rush can not get pressure in time so it will be easy to move the ball.. Hell 4verts up n down ..

But hey i suck so do your thing..

Madden would be so fun if we could just run stock zone coverage. That's where stick work comes in
I don't really mind it though because I love getting creative on d, I just wish I had the same enthusiasm toward my O

Yea hot routing on defense is no different then a captain like Vilma on defense, telling everyone what to do, or what he see's so all his team mates are in the best position to make a play on defense.

Ant1010 wrote:

Yea hot routing on defense is no different then a captain like Vilma on defense, telling everyone what to do, or what he see's so all his team mates are in the best position to make a play on defense.

Don't bring the saints into this

I use to play vanilla defense all the time just pinching the line, shifter backers at most. With the way the game is this year you have to make adjustments to get better blitz angles and cause confusion. I love to come out in an all out zone play and man up a receiver. Cause confusion = force mistake = WIN.

playing zone and making l bers on the slots makes people so confused lol

Hot routing is a must for defense this year. If you just pick a blitz and leave it as is you will get destroyed by any good player. Like in the NFL, the defense doesn't just come out in a play and just stay there, the make changes. which is why you must hot route.

to each his own, thanx for you all's input, i love these discussions, i love this community.

Can you beqt all madden cpu doing that?

You know, the OP is on to something....

I have hit a wall lately. Frustrated with the game, so I've been searching for new D recently...and some really ABSURD plays that no one uses (crossfire 3 or crossfire man) can be VERY effective with minimal adjustments....running the plays as is can really confuse your opponent as to where the heat MIGHT be coming from...

I'm not saying to always do this...but think about it this way....why, sometimes does the CPU in practice mode have some ODD ways of stopping your quick passes? All it's doing is calling a play and man aligning OR showing blitz in practice mode...it doesn't hot route...

Another thing....it's a quick pass world....I find that you can run blitzes where you send a lot of heat even versus a quick passer, so long as you are covering his receivers at the LOS...for instance...think about a trips left look versus weak blitz 3 out of 3-4 rush/predator....if you leave the play stock...both the LOLB and LILB (looking at the screen) will run over and cover the 2 slot receivers on the left....they are still blitzing....there is a FS in a yellow zone over the top....Now, even though both those slot WRs are going to be open...they won't be IMMEDIATELY...no one in their right mind is going to hike throw to a slot receiver that is covered pre-snap by a defender. Now after the snap, there is a grace period where the QB won't throw....there are a lot of moving parts to a zone blitz. People dropping into coverage, heat from odd angles...is a safety creeping down into a short/flat zone? etc...there are a lot of things to think about when you run stock blitzes and show blitz or man align...


I REALLY LIKE LEAVING 3-4 BLITZES ALONE VERSUS SPREAD SETS....EVEN though a slot receiver is covered pre-snap by a guy you know is blitzing, your opponent doesn't know that! By the time your opponent realizes that the man that covered him pre-snap is rushing the passer, the SS over the top has already picked him up in his zone assignment, or maybe a DE is dropping into a yellow zone....

I have found myself really tinkering with 3-4 stock plays...and it's kind of working...Now, it's not going to win me a MC without me having my own hot routed plays to mix in...but you get the point....

When I see people MANUALLY moving guys into gaps now, I'm simply playing the numbers game:

1. If this is a man blitz that's TRULY coming from the left A gap, then I should slide protect left with a hot read to left flat to my best mismatch, as there will be FEWER guys manned up on the left side of the field and more room to run after a catch. If I guess wrong and it's a bluff, then the DE on the right could come hot....that means I need either a hot read right or a block and release assignment for my RB....

2. If this is a zone blitz that's truly coming from the right side, then I need to slide protect right, maybe leave a back in to block my blindside, and call a flood concept to the right side...or I can always smash the ball down their throat....good luck stopping me with a zone blitz...as all your guys involved in your manually made nano blitz will get picked up by run blocking...and all your guys NOT blitzing have their first step going BACKWARDS...again, have fun...


You get the point....When guys manually stack gaps, it's fairly predictable as to what is coming....play a numbers game and say to yourself "If this blitz I'm reading is REALLY going to come through, then that means THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, and THIS/THIS guy need to be blitzing....that means THIS THIS THIS AND THIS guy are in man coverage and I should attack man coverage with THIS player because the man assigned to him will have to cover more ground on the route..."

You get the point...What I'm saying is that manually tinkering 5 or 6 guys makes my reads easier than if you were to go with an approach that is attacking my tendencies and mixing up the rushers/droppers behind it...My struggles lately have been my Mike Martz attitude towards playcalling. I'm doing what Martz did early in the year when the Bears lost back to back to the Skins and Seahawks...I'm refusing to be flexible on both sides and take whats being given me....

good stuff zan. ive gotten to the point where i line up in almost the same formation everytime putting the same players over the same gaps but theyre doing something different almost every play, causes a lot of confusion and quick pass ints. I only run one stock play and that 46 cover 3 slide the lolb and the fs out to cover the flats and user the safety over the top. its something i mix in from time to time but im not going to be basing my defense off of it

and thats where my success comes from lately stock blitzes.all i do now is optimize my lineup and the pressure takes it course, to answer the question from bahdbwoy, yes i have on more than one occassion beaten the cpu on all madden like that.good stuff zan.

Ryker3 wrote:

You have to use hotroutes to create a defense that is unique. Any good player can rip apart any type of stock coverage.

^^ this!

~Mili