Madden 08 NG - Shotgun 4WR Trips Flood Concept

Flooding receivers to one side is an excellent way to attack all types of zone coverage in Madden 08.


Primary Patterns:

WR2 (X) - Drag
WR3 (Y) - Streak
WR4 (A) - Slant
WR1 (B) - Streak
RB (RB) - Curl


Offensive Plays Used:




Defensive Play Used:

How the Concept Works on the Field:

The play we use is the Shotgun 4WR Smash Corners. This play by default has both slot receivers running corner routes. Against Cover 2 zone, this is an effective play because those two receivers will split the safeties out wide. The RB running the seam route will be open once he clears the underneath zone coverage. However, we want to show how we like the flood right side of the field with this play.

The defense called is Quarter Normal Cover 2.

To set up the flood concept, we hot route the WR2 on a drag.

Next, we hot route the WR3 on a streak.

We then hot route the RB on a curl.

Finally, we hot route the WR1 on a streak.

Once all the pass routes adjustments are done, we take control of the WR2 and ...

... motion him to the right. Notice we now have trips to the right. The WR2 is running a flat route, the WR4 is running a corner, and the WR1 is running a streak. We now have flooded the right side of the field with three receivers. Hence, Shotgun Trips Flood Concept.

Our first read is the WR2 running the flat route. If no defender is covering the flat, we will look to throw to him. Normally if no defender is covering the flat, chances are the pass coverage called is Cover 4.

If the WR1 is not open, we then look for the WR4 running the corner route.

We look to see if a defender is dropping back into his area. If one is, we look ...

... for the WR1 running the streak route.

He is matched up with the SS. This is a match up we like, so we throw him a bullet pass.

We take control of the WR1 and go up to make the catch.

Key Points:

• If none of our first three reads are open, we look to throw to the RB running the curl route.
• There are several different flood combinations that be created in Madden 08, we touch on a few more in the book.