If you’ve been playing Madden at all recently, chances are you’ve faced the Tight Offset meta. More specifically, the PA Shot Seams meta. Now, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, consider yourself lucky. However, for those in the know, we are going to be breaking down how this works and how to put a stop to it.
Deep Diving into the Smartest Defense in Madden 23
In order to stop this meta and plays/formations like it (gun tight, gun tight slots HB WK, gun tight doubles, etc.), we must first understand the concepts it utilizes in order to expose your man/zone coverage. Generally, your opponent will use a streak and run their deep corner route to the short side of the field in order to beat every type of zone defense.
Furthermore, if you’re in man coverage, they’ll ensure to use a deep man-beating corner route to beat that as well. In order to actually beat this, you have to utilize some sort of match defense. The problem with utilizing the stock variations of match defense is that your opponents can utilize two crossers and intermediate-depth corner routes to beat it very easily. The only true solution is “legacy matching” which allows you to utilize both man, zone, and match coverage to create the ultimate defense against the meta.
Breaking it down
In order to run this defense, you must set your Flat Zones to 25 yards and your Curl Flats to 5 yards. You can run this out of any Cover 4 quarters or Cover 6 defense. Though, if you use Cover 6 only the side with 2 quarters on it can utilize this concept. Since the dollar is currently the best defense in the game and only has Cover 6, I’ll explain the concept with Cover 6 in mind.
Now, to set up this defense, you need to identify where the deep corner may be coming from and align the side with 2 quarters on that side. Usually, this will be on the short side of the field, but the best way to tell is based on formation.
If they’re in tight offset this will be opposite the halfback side of the field, if they’re in Gun-Tight slots or gun tight it will be on the halfback side. Once this is complete, you’re going to put your outside corner in a cloud to stop any short corner routes or crossers. Then you are going to man up your LB on that side of the field to the outside WR on the side we previously identified as the “deep corner route side.” This will activate the legacy matching. The manned-up LB will change the responsibility of the safety in the inside quarter to match the deep corner no matter what. You can adjust any other aspects of this defense to your liking.
Be sure to check out the video above as it illustrates all the details described here. Now, if you’re interested in the advanced way to run these shells to stop the meta in Madden 23 make sure to check out my e-book at https://acemadden.com! For only $9.99, you can unlock the whole website including both of my e-books! Make sure to use code “SWOLO” at checkout for 15% off!
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