Attacking Quarter 3 Deep Defense?

[NuJerseyDevil]

I'm played some guy the other day that sat in quarter 3 deep defense the whole game. He had the Steelers I had Philly. I use the West Coast playbook with no Shotgun sets. He was only a level 5 and I was really struggling to move the ball on him. The crazy part was.... I COULDNT RUN THE BALL ON HIM!! That was so fake I couldnt believe it. If I ran an I-form normal dive or slam I would get 2-3 yards at the most against QUARTER 3 DEEP DEFENSE???? Someone please explain how to attack this style of defense because I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

[jerseyjay14]

I'm played some guy the other day that sat in quarter 3 deep defense the whole game. He had the Steelers I had Philly. I use the West Coast playbook with no Shotgun sets. He was only a level 5 and I was really struggling to move the ball on him. The crazy part was.... I COULDNT RUN THE BALL ON HIM!! That was so fake I couldnt believe it. If I ran an I-form normal dive or slam I would get 2-3 yards at the most against QUARTER 3 DEEP DEFENSE???? Someone please explain how to attack this style of defense because I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

running out of a big set is probably a bad idea... it will only draw everyone into the middle creating a logjam and quarter has the speed to chase down runs to the outside...

instead, run out of singleback 4 WR. this will keep the defense spreadout where you can take advantage of the fact that there are only 3 defensive lineman and 1 LB. having 4 wr will leave just 5 guys in the box... 1 CB, 1 LB, and 3 lineman. this is an excellent matchup for your 5 olineman. just run simple dives and this will gash the quarters 3 deep defense.

Don't get caught up in the fact that it is quarters and you should be able to run... yes there are 3 dbs in place of 3 lbs... but those are still real nfl defenders... not just scarecrows out there. if they get in the way they will still slow you down and make plays. 8 or 9 men in the box is going to be tough on regardless of what formation it is defensively.... running is about having more blockers at the point of attack.... spread them out with singleback 4 wr and get that numbers mismatch

[pitbull]

yeah I had this bullsht happen to me too. Iuse the SB Big- HB Slam. he ran Dime all game thow. He didn't have an answer to it, had like 10 yards a pop. He also ran a quaters on me also, not 3 deep, and I ran I Form Twin TE- HB Blast and got a 30 yard TD. As you can see he was a bum, but it worked. A FB Dive might work too, it really should.

[jerseyjay14]

here, this is what i mean take a look at the matchup when you run singleback 4 wr:

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k204/jamaster14/spread.jpg

by stpreading it out you have 5 o-lineman with just 4 men in the box(5 if they bring down the CB). 3 lineman, an just 1 LB. if you run a dive ti should be at least 4 or 5 yards.

now take a look at i form big:
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k204/jamaster14/iformstrong-1.jpg

notice how here there is quite a bit more traffic in the middle? you now have 7 defenders in the box. yes you do also have 7 blockers but the chances of somone getting in, along with more traffic, makes it a bit more difficult to run on. you no longer have more blockers then defenders at the point of attack, and a sweep, which is probably a good call based on alignment, is more lkely to be run down with the speed with all those cbs on the left edge.

edit: if you have the formation, a FB dive out of any I-form 3 wr formation will be even more effective, especiall vs that 3 man line. wether its strong i 3 wr, weak i 3 wr, or i form 3 wr they should all be very successful.

go into practice mode... make the CPU play 2 man under or 3 man under out of quarter 3 deep... then run singleback 4 wr and run a dive and you will see what i am talking about... dont use speed burst just run through one of the gaping holes

[NuJerseyDevil]

haha thanks jay!! He was frustrating the hell out of me in that defense. I stayed in base I form and strong I form all game and couldnt do anything on him. I KNEW I shoulda put more WR's on the field THEN run the ball!! It makes sense!! Jay what playbook do you use mostly? I dont understand why the west coast playbook doesn't have I form 3 WR and Singleback tight?? That would really help for 08 Madden I'd be even more deadly on offense.

[starburst220]

since he was doing quarter 3 zone, you should just send stallworth deep and log it to him, steelers first cb has 89 speed so it should burn him really bad, deep balls are the weakness to zone coverage no matter what deep zone coverage you have your reciever will always have 2-3 steps.
and just try i form 2 wr, or i form 3 wr and just do hb blasts just get 7-10 yards

[maddenballer05]

The problem with quarters as always is that the MLB will often come thru untouched via the A gap and stop your RB for a 1 yard loss. The LG and RG flat out ignroe the MLB many times and run past him trying to get to the safeties.

Sometimes if you slide protect to the middle they will be better at blocking the MLB, but its still hit or miss.

Another problem with quarters is that they tackle too well against big bruising backs. I have Brandon Jacobs who is 240 lb, 97 BTK bruiser. He should be falling forward at least 3 yards after every contact with a small DB, but this doesnt happen as nearly as often as it should. Far too often a 160lb DB will stop him right in his tracks.

[jerseyjay14]

haha thanks jay!! He was frustrating the hell out of me in that defense. I stayed in base I form and strong I form all game and couldnt do anything on him. I KNEW I shoulda put more WR's on the field THEN run the ball!! It makes sense!! Jay what playbook do you use mostly? I dont understand why the west coast playbook doesn't have I form 3 WR and Singleback tight?? That would really help for 08 Madden I'd be even more deadly on offense.


i use chicago (which has i form 3 wr and strong i 3 wr) as well as Gb..which has neither.

i wouldnt run out of 4 wr tight, id gow ith normal 4wr and spread it out

[jerseyjay14]

since he was doing quarter 3 zone, you should just send stallworth deep and log it to him, steelers first cb has 89 speed so it should burn him really bad, deep balls are the weakness to zone coverage no matter what deep zone coverage you have your reciever will always have 2-3 steps.
and just try i form 2 wr, or i form 3 wr and just do hb blasts just get 7-10 yards

this is pretty poor information.

[starburst220]

hows it bad information? go deep with stallworth when he does quarter 3

[BOOBOOSD]

Spread it out like Jay said. HB/FB Dives, Slams, and HB Sprints. ;) The FB Dive should work nice out of a set like I-Form/Weak-I/Strong-I-3WR, try motioning out the HB also when you do it to clear out more space around the middle. Singleback-4Wide, Singleback-Normal, Singleback-SlotStrong, Singleback-TripsBunch. With formations like SlotStrong/TripsBunch, you should be able to force the defense to account for the 3 recievers on one side especially if their in man under coverage, thus opening up runs to the opposite side. A play like HB Sprint can work well out of TripsBunch especially if you run opposite of the Bunch. Also use formation shifts to get them to re-adjust if they start compensating with D-line shifts/LB shifts.

[jerseyjay14]

hows it bad information? go deep with stallworth when he does quarter 3

not all zones are easy to beat deep, especiall quarters 3 deep if its cover 3 or 4. not to mention if he is playing over the top manually with one of the safties...

you say zone like all zones are the same. chucking up a deep ball to stallworth with 2 or 3 guys deep waiting for it doesnt do anyone much good

[NuJerseyDevil]

The problem with quarters as always is that the MLB will often come thru untouched via the A gap and stop your RB for a 1 yard loss. The LG and RG flat out ignroe the MLB many times and run past him trying to get to the safeties.

Sometimes if you slide protect to the middle they will be better at blocking the MLB, but its still hit or miss.

Another problem with quarters is that they tackle too well against big bruising backs. I have Brandon Jacobs who is 240 lb, 97 BTK bruiser. He should be falling forward at least 3 yards after every contact with a small DB, but this doesnt happen as nearly as often as it should. Far too often a 160lb DB will stop him right in his tracks.

EXACTLY!!! I could NOT run the ball on this dude and he was in quarter defense!!!!!!! EA Sports needs to fix this.

[warren123]

EXACTLY!!! I could NOT run the ball on this dude and he was in quarter defense!!!!!!! EA Sports needs to fix this.

its nothing to do with ea, its you. people complain every year i cant run against quarter blah blah, its not that hard. soon as you get the handoff hold triangle or protect the ball, hit the hole and youve gotten yards. this is one thing that always bothers me, its not hard to run against quarters d, especially this year. people just think its automatic since their all dbs on the field, you still have to see where the d is lined up, account for all of the defenders with your offense, then pick which run and to which side would be best

[MelloDrama]

:edit: :edit:

[AKWA6]

I played yesterday a guy who ran Q 3 deep all game and I rushed 170 yrds with rudi out of sigleback sets. HB Slam all day 7-12 yrds/pop. 3WR sets worked too but singleback was just on the money, 4wr, normal,2TE. I was somewhat amazed he stickled with Quarters 3 deep D but now I see reason…I suppose he must have had good success with that D against normal I /big sets. btw He was pats which might be on of the toughest D’s to run against between tackles. Just like stated above, spread it out, there is nothing to fix in game...

[MelloDrama]

Personally I love when people bring this style of D against. What I like to do especially to run against quarters is to use a lot of online shifting. I find that the OL seems to block alittle better using it. I use it on all my runs.

Spreading the OL against quarters:

Spreading OL when running inside in quarters will help you a lot in you're runs. By doing this you change the mentality of you're linemen. When you spread OL against quarters Insted of you're OL blocking head on (by default) spreading them makes them run a bit off the and out to the outside. Another benefit is they are"blocking away" from the ballcarrier makin it harder to reach you.

Try with and without it and you'll see a difference. Try OL shift pinch as well and try it. You'll notice little jolt in you're OL play.

Personally I use it on virtually all my runs. I'll OL shift to the side I'm running to. I find that it improves run blocking.

[Michael]

NuJerseyDevil,

I understand your frustration towards people who run Quarter and Dime defense. But, what you have to keep in mind is that Pittsburg, New England, Indy, and the Baltimore are the most consistent teams for stopping the run this year.
I use to get pissed off at the same thing, and then I started disguising my defense.