Being aware of what you are doing wrong and fixing simple mistakes is the first step to becoming a better and more successful Madden 23 player. Madden has some similarities to real life football but as most of you have realized, Madden isn’t real life.
Having high football IQ is a huge plus in Madden, but it surely does not reign supreme over having a high Madden IQ.
Combine both a high Madden IQ and football IQ, you will be an unstoppable force. So you need to measure your Madden game off your Madden abilities, not only your football knowledge.
That is where our team of pro Madden players come in. Our goal is to enhance your Madden knowledge and show you how a lot of concepts tie into real football so you can reach the level you deserve to be at.
Here are the four fundamental Madden 23 mistakes you MUST be aware of:
4 Mistakes Players Make When Starting Out In Madden 23
1. You Keep Comparing Madden to Real Life Football
But Manu, you just said “a lot of Madden concepts tie into real football”. That is true.
When I cover how to conceptually beat cover 2, cover 3, and cover 4 in my route combo development and spacing course, I utilize a lot of real life concepts such as verticals to beat cover 2, flood concepts to take advantage of a solo defender, the curl-flat concept to beat cover 4, etc.
However, please do not compare EVERY aspect of Madden to real life football. “Oh, this would’ve never got open in real life, this blocker would have blocked the DT instead of the DE in real life.”
Remember, Madden 23 is a video game. It will never fully replicate what is happening in real life. Unlike other games, there are 22 players on the screen at one time and only a couple players can be “user-controlled” so that leaves the rest to the AI.
When there are 20 players on the field controlled by a computer there are going to be errors. It is an unfortunate reality check for passionate football fans who desire an authentic experience, but you have to accept it for what it is.
Can EA create a better game? 100%. Are they slow to fix long standing issues sometimes? Very much so.
However, if you truly desire to get better, you can do so by accepting the game for what it is and learning the “Madden language”.
If you want to tap into your Madden IQ to avoid more Madden 23 mistakes, you can get started here with “4 Tips Every Beginner Must Know”.
2. You Don’t Have a Proven System In Place
How do you decide what plays to call? Why are you calling the plays that you do? What is your reasoning for the adjustments you made?
Are you calling plays or adjustments at random?
The truth is 99% of players playing online right now will not be able to give a competitive level competent answer to those first three questions.
And none of it is your fault. Madden is probably the most complex game out there to pick up and play.
It is daunting to load up Madden and see playbooks with 300+ plays in them. Then you can’t forget the never ending wave of controls to know just so you can get started.
It is a lot to take in yet there are no resources to guide you. The “skills trainer” in Madden has been far out-dated for years.
Then you may go on Youtube to find money plays but you aren’t learning the necessary skills and concepts to carry out those “money plays” at a high level.
The pros have a proven system of concepts in place to know when to call what plays, what makes a play effective, when to call what plays in certain situations, why to make certain adjustments in specific situations, and how to create their own effective schemes.
Once you know what the pros know, you will be lightyears ahead of your friends and rivals, you will dominate online h2h, you will have the competency to compete for money with the best, AND have the creative tools to problem solve and adjust on the fly. ‘
3. You Are Neglecting The Key Skill Aspects Of Madden
The skill aspects of Madden are surface level skills such as reads, stickwork, user ability, and pocket presence.
Surface level skills are skills that anybody that plays Madden can notice.
Your buddy will probably recognize if your reads are not smooth because you are throwing picks in double coverage or that your stickwork is lacking because you are running into the back of your lineman on open lanes.
If you never address these issues, it will be impossible for you to reach your full potential in Madden 23, and you’ll keep making simple mistakes. It is very irritating and deflating to constantly make mistakes that cost you games.
For a lot of us, those down Madden days can even ruin our mood for the rest of the day. Wouldn’t it be nice to play Madden with confidence?
To go into any game knowing that you will demolish your opponent no matter how many “cheese” plays or glitches they seem to have. Be able to maneuver the pocket with such swagger that any blitz or blockshed is just outside noise with zero impact on your ability to complete that wide open pass down the field?
To be able to be as lost on defense as a seven year old at Disney after getting separated from his parents for an ENTIRE game, but you have the ability to be in three different places simultaneously with your user like the “Flash” from the superhero movies to create that game altering turnover?
What about being able to juke and jive oncoming defenders with the lightning quick stickwork of a 16 year old Fornite pro. Or how about the ability to read the field through the lenses of a Tom Brady on a game winning drive down four with the season on the line.
You can learn more here to get complete “ebooks” on these skills: https://themaddenacademy.com/madden-training-camp.
78 beginners have become competitive in 30 days with these skill ebooks.
4. You Don’t See the High Level Chess Match
This is the aspect of the game your buddies won’t see or understand. Nor will 99% of players playing online right now. I am sure you have heard others say before “Oh those pros just run one play all game.
They only know how to manipulate the broken aspects of the game. They aren’t even good.” At the surface, it may seem like what the pros are doing is simple because all you can see is the playart on the screen, not their thought process from the start to end of a game.
Unlike many other games, Madden is 90% mental. What you see on the pros screen is a poor representation of how much mental effort is being exerted on a play to play basis.
Before the snap on offense, I am reading each individual defender on the field. If that outside cornerback lines up inside my wide receiver, there’s a good chance it will be man coverage on that play. Or if that slot cornerback lines up to the left of my slot wide receiver, that is a “tell” that is it Cover 3 or Cover 2, not match coverage.
“But Manu, isn’t that football IQ?”
What I just discussed are “tells” unique to Madden, but some of it is football IQ.
For example, seeing only a solo high safety is a tell that the defense is in cover 1 or cover 3 which is something you could learn from a high school football coach. However, there are an onslaught of “tells” unique to Madden that you MUST learn or you will be at a major competitive disadvantage versus someone who knows the “tells”.
Once you learn the “tells” though, you just leapfrogged 99% of Madden players. It is easy to grasp once told, but the truth is, many players including you will refuse to believe that Madden is that in-depth even after reading this. So you will skip over game-changing guidance that could have saved you from a lot of stressful times trying to figure out how your opponent always got the same player wide open or completely guessing as to what adjustments or play to go with next.
I only briefly touched on what goes on before the snap in this section too. Do not get me started on how during the play if I see the outside corner and safety on one half of the field rotate to a certain part of the field, I know it’s “x” coverage, so I know for the next play what areas of the field will be open if they call “x” coverage again.
But what if your opponent does not call “x” coverage again? I could hurl a million “what if” questions at you but now you should have a somewhat basic level understanding of the chess match or strategic work that goes into Madden.
It’s a lot deeper than “Oh he can just call one play and win” or “That pro is trash, he just spams glitches”.
You can learn here “How To Play Offense In Madden 23”: https://themaddenacademy.com/2022/07/avoid-interceptions-double-your-passing-yards Or “How To Get Better At Defense Overnight”: https://themaddenacademy.com/2022/02/madden-22-defensive-tip-best-coverage-strategy