Madden 09 Tips - Running Against 4 Man Fronts

The best way to expose four man fronts is by working the outside. You have way too many people in the middle to work that hard. You can pound with the FB Dive, but you need an outside run game to help open up FB running plays.

So we use a toss and set the table. You see that this set draws the DB in and allows us to get outside.

Now you have to allow your men to get out. If they don't then you need to cut back inside and get what you can. Side note here. Just because you get 3 yards a pop you shouldn't dump the run. That is good yardage on the ground. You want to get a steady gain every time you take the ball. Big gains come from blown assignments. If a person run commits and doesn't contain the outside then they will get exposed. So when you play someone and they contain you, but you still get positive gains you are doing well. In most cases I get 3-4 a pop. Then I may get a long one once a game. You want a steady dose of the pound.

You see by giving my blockers time, they are able to seal off the edge well.

Now I can make the 1st man miss.......

Then add a few more yards to my process.

If you have good stick you can even break it for more yards on the ground. He isn't tired because no speed burst was used.

When you hit it later you're able to break more tackles.

Here is another outside running play that we will look at against a 4man front.

This is the overhead. You can see that they are overloading the left side. The best thing to do is work the right side. Now when you play with LT it doesn't matter what side you run on. LOL

Again LT is chilling and looking for cutbacks and outside running lanes. We want to set the blocks up to get a nice gain.

Now the turbo has been used because I have the outside with great containment.

Now I have one-on-one. Time to break some ankles or run through this cat here. LOL

Now I want to use my own little stick work running moves. This will be shown in the advanced moves section. Just look at the Commish do his thing.

I pulled down and hit the spin move. This sucks him in really bad. Now I have the sidelines and pay dirt.

You see that the defender is still shook. There is no way they will catch me now. Again make the 1st man miss and you are gone.

Final Thoughts

Know these little things should help you move the rock. I would have an outside and inside running play. This way if they change fronts during pre-snap you will be fine. You know how to expose the weakness and be able to get a steady gain on each play.