Complete Madden Noob! Where to start?

Hi there!

I have never owned a Madden game before this year, and just recently picked up the 2011 version for Xbox 360.

I know football. I've played. I've coached. I've fantasy footballed for years.

I need some help with depth chart adjustments, pre-snap adjustments, and audibles for my beloved Bengals. Yes, I realize they are horrible in Madden (73 rating, sheesh) but coming from a defense first mentality in coaching and playing strong safety for years, their defensive starters offer great speed at the cornerback positions, a wildcard playmaker in Pacman Jones at either safety or a kick returner, Keith Rivers and Maualuga backing the line, and Johnson/Odom off the edges. If this game mirrors real football at all, offense doesn't matter much once you learn "the tricks" to get past the opponent's defense.

What I don't know is the game tendencies. What works in real life doesn't work in any games I've tried over the years. I also struggle with memorizing pre-snap controls on both offense and defense.

While I destroy the computer after just a few months with a standard 4-3 defense adjusting my personnel and formations (nickel for 3 + wr, nickel strong for bunch sets of receivers, dime or quarters for deep passing situations etc), I started playing online this month and have been simply trounced by onside-kick to normal kicking to onside audible issues, constant 4th down punt situations always working with the offense on the field, and simply issues with knowing the key pre-snap adjustment controls for the game. Also, I keep having someone pause at like 5 seconds left and my camera just spins. What is that? I seem to lose every time even if I have the lead when that happens.

My good friend's son suggested I come here to gain a little competence at the game. After looking over the playbooks for Marvin Lewis I feel they leave a little to be desired, so I was curious if any of you had any success at all with the tiger stripes with different playbooks. If so, are there a few working strategies for depth chart adjustments, or audibles that are "common knowledge" that will get me started on building my own playbook /audible schemes eventually? I'm not looking for a complete handout of the strategies you've built with blood, sweat, tears, and a metric butt ton of losses. I would however like to know the best way to manipulate coverages via audibles so that I can create some personnel mismatches for instance. All too often my opponent can read my man-coverages and moves his guys around so that I have a linebacker on Jimmy-fast-as-heck-arse and I get burned for six.

Lastly, since I'm such a noob, is there any way to build a playbook from scratch? I'd like to build my high school team's playbook out in the game with a custom team just to see how it works in the silly video game.

Thanks for reading my little novel. Sure, I'm old. I'd like to not suck at what my son calls "the best football game ever" after all the time I've invested in the game outside the screen.

Any tips on where to get started would be appreciated. Feel free to make fun of me all you want if you offer some constructive advice on what can make my stripes a little stronger in pixel land. Lord knows they need it in real life!

Also, if iIm in the wrong forum, I apologize. I look forward to any and all advice, even if you're not old enough to have a beer an old dog can learn quite a bit from the young pups with far more experience in digital football.

Thanks gents and ladies.

Welcome to the site man!

Sorry I don't know much about the Bengals, but I will attempt to share as much knowledge as possible haha.. If you are having trouble with pre snap controls don't sweat it, those will come with repetition and playing more games.. Soon they will be second nature!

The Bengals playbook on offense is not bad at all if you can come up with a solid scheme around Gun Bunch TE.. bunch formations work really well in Madden, especially when used with motion to create pick routes and flooding zone defense.. This may not be really manipulating coverage, but when I come out in Gun Snugs Flip and audible into Gun Split Offset, the left slot receiver will come into the backfield basically to be a tight end (I use the Saints and with Devery Hendersons 98 speed it's pretty lethal) and I can the have Reggie Bush on one side and Henderson on the others, two of the games most deadliest speedsters in the backfield.. This is just a starting point on how to move your offensive weapons around to get you a mismatch, or to get them to run a certain route that may be exclusive to a certain position..

Sorry but their isn't any way to create your own playbook, although this is a feature that many think should be put into the game..

If you ever need any help, feel free to shoot me a private message, or add me on xbox live and we can discuss core concepts and schemes!

My gamertag is Th3 Ac3r

I would start with Sgibs back to the basic videos which can be found on the main madden bible page. Then you need to pick a offensive and defensive scheme. For the Bengals I highly recommend a playbook with 46 in it. The bengals have alot of secondary speed and you want to get it on the field so we come out in the 46 speed package. As far as offense goes thats the easy part. There are many schemes from sgibs video library or right here on the forums. Hit the practice mode and see what fits your style and make it your own. I can tell you one thing though you have come to the right place to get better. I have increased my game exponentially because of these forums and the great madden minds here.

Bengals have one of the tougher defenses in the game. I recommend u use 46 playbook for defense.

I had my depth chart set up like this for them.

RE- Johnson
DT #1 odom
DT #2 pecko
LE Maualuga

Mlb- rivers
lolb-jones
rolb-B johnson

CB
1. hall
2. joeseph
3. jones
4. put ur best speed and man cov combination ( i hadnt looked at bengals in a while so i forgot their personel)

ss Nelson

FS- I used miles. He was tall and good hitpower with moderate speed

Thats how I did my defense and I had a pretty good one with them. But there are toooo many blitzes to list them all on here. The best of the best are on the home page. Pick like 3 or 4 that and practice setting them up, I highly reccomend u use practice mode alot. Rank games are great practice to test ur skill in an actual game.

It takes time to be good at the game so dont get frusturated. When U have questions about anything, Just ask on here. This site gives great feedback daily.

Having a solid football background is a plus. clock management, recongizing defenses and adjusting ur defenses to the offense is key in winning games.

There will be a link below labeld "run d" Use that to help u stop people running the ball against u.

Well U should be good defensively.

Here is a basic scheme for 46 playbook that will get u started in the right direction

1. safe
2. cover 2 hawk
3. cover 1
4. 43 over- smoke mid
5 anthing of ur preference

http://www.maddenbible.com/2011/01/madden-11-tips-why-madden-bible/
Also some Madden TV episodes to start.

Work on finding 3 good audibles, a good base play and solid team. Then 2 defensive plays, one base coverage and 1 blitz you can set up quick. The rest you will pick up

Some things I've found learning on the game and with the help of these forum members.

1) Speed is almost universally the #1 trait. The faster your players get to the ball, the better your odds (or the faster you can run away with the ball).

2) Don't play it like a simulation/real life. It's a video game and there are certain benefits. If you have a fast, agile, quick accelerating player, you can bob and weave around defenders like you can't do in real life and wouldn't think of doing if you were not aware of the possibility.

3) The standard lineups for your team are often not the best for madden play.

4) Not all plays are created equal. It seems that some plays just work better with more regularity than others. You need to find several of them and then set them up in your audibles.

5) Disguise what you're doing on O and D. The more unpredictable you can be and still do what you want, the better you can be. Especially true on defense. If you can make the defense look the same, but stop the run and pass, then you can bring guys from different positions for heat and the O will never know where it's coming from. This means learning what all the defensive shifts are and getting around your players fast to make the manual adjustments. It takes practice - a lot of it, but it pays off big.

6) Get your best personnel on the field. This may mean playing some guys out of position or coming out in a formation to get your personnel and then using an audible to pick your play.

7) The practice field is a good place to get to know your plays, routes, etc. Pick a random play from the defense and you can run your play against a variety of CPU defenses.

Play other people. It will help you get faster as you can see what other people are doing.

9) Spend some time just reading this forum and watching the videos. There is lots and lots of information here.

10) You can purchase a guide/e-book. They show you a series of plays/strategy to use that work together. While it is a sort of shortcut, it can also help you to understand more of what to do by comparing what you think vs what better players are doing.

Also, there is a link in one of these forums/sites that has all the playbooks (O & D) as well as a spreadsheet somebody did that shows the type of plays in each playbook (i.e. how many plays from the I formation or from Shotgun trips, etc.)

Have fun. While there are a lot of legitimate complaints, the game really is quite deep and is a lot of fun more times than it isn't.

Oh - also, create a fantasy team/franchise. It'll help you learn what attributes are worthwhile and which aren't.