Trying to get a defensive stop in Madden NFL 24 ranges from incredibly difficult to downright impossible at times. It can be intensely frustrating when you are doing everything right on offense, but can’t seem to make the plays on defense to put your opponent away. Well, Manju from The Madden Academy is back with the secrets to defending one of the most popular formations in Madden NFL 24.
Bengal Tights
Today’s tips are focused on defending the Shotgun Tight Slots HB Wk formation, also referred to as Bengals Tight. This formation is incredibly popular, despite only being available in the Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, and Miami Dolphins playbooks. Let’s start by identifying why this formation is so popular.
First, blitzes against this formation are more difficult to execute. Blitzing defenders often bump into the tight aligned receivers. This throws them off and gives the QB an extra second to find the open guy. This formation also has two great quick snap plays. These are plays where you don’t need to make any adjustments. This lets you snap the ball quickly before your opponent can make their adjustments. Finally, there are multiple routes in this formation that get behind 30 yard zone drops. This is the deepest setting you can set your zone drops to, so being able to get behind them gives you tons of big play potential.
Exploiting the Weaknesses
Despite these advantages, no formation is without its flaws. Bengals Tight has two key flaws that you can exploit. First, quarters coverage can be used to take away to stock post routes from this formation. Second, this formation makes it very difficult to use corner routes on the TE side of the field.
Since you know it is hard to attack deep down the field on the TE side of the field, you know the TE and the receiver on that side are not attacking deep. They will likely run short routes, or run their deep routes towards the opposite side of the field. If you use a Cover 6 shell coverage, adding a cloud flat zone to the two receiver side can almost eliminate this possibility.
Next, you need to anticipate how your opponent will react to how you are covering their favorite formation. In the example shown above, you are dropping 8 players into coverage. This means your opponent will probably come out in a 5 wide formation since you haven’t been bringing much pressure. Being able to adjust to a high pass rush defense will allow you to counter this maneuver and stay one step ahead of your opponent’s adjustments.