Madden 16 Defensive Tips: How to Stop HB Toss and FB Dive

Two of the top run plays this year in Madden so far has been the HB Toss and FB Dive, and I will show you one way to defend against it. You will base your defense out of 43 Stack and what I’m going to show you is how the formation and its alignment does most of the work allowing you to use more than one play to stop them both and also show off your user skills.

The plays that will achieve what I’m about to go over are ( Cover 3 Cloud, Cover 3 Sky, 1 Sting Left, LB Zone Blitz, Cover 1 Hole, Cover  1 Robber Press, 1 QB Contain, Cover 4 and OLB Fire Man).

Stopping the toss and dive from I Form and Strong I first starts with how many defenders you have that can get out and meet the pulling guard and fullback around the edge to defend against the toss. The defenders that have to do this are the guys off the line of scrimmage , and in this formation will be the left outside linebacker and strong safety (without these two what we do next doesn’t matter).  The second part is the middle linebacker, who is the key to stopping both plays. Because toss plays develop so fast the oline doesn’t have time to zone block so they reach block their targets and the guy whose job it will be to block the middle linebacker will be the right tackle who were going to exploit. Fullback dives do zone block and they want to clear a hole up the middle, but what we’re going to do is leave the middle linebacker untouched to tackle both.

SETUP

1. Pinch the Defensive Line 

2. Control the middle linebacker (place him to the right of the d tackle)

What ends up happening is if it’s a toss, you’ll use the left end and his blocker to your advantage by using them as a shield to block the right tackle from getting to you so you end up unblocked.

Also versus fb dives, once the ball is snapped you move left and shoot the gap. Because of how the defense is lined up, the offense double teams the wrong d linemen and completely forgets about the middle linebacker allowing you a free shot on the fullback. It’s just a matter of seeing what play is about to happen in time to determine where to go.

Versus twin sets all you have to do is man align the play you pick, so you get the same look as you did vs I Form, Strong I Normal etc.  As long as you have 2 defenders to cover your back on the outside vs the toss you can use many plays with this same setup. Practice and master these Madden 16 Defensive Tips and you’ll be shutting the run down in no time!