NCAA Football 09 - Defensive Tips

One of the biggest topics we have noticed this year regarding NCAA
09 Football is that players are struggling on play defense. With
man coverage not being very effective underneath, players are
finding it hard to stop the short passing game.

I'm sure you've been victimized by dink and dunk offenses that just
nickel and dime you up and down the field. Defending in NCAA
Football 09 will require a completely different approach than normal.

Slants, curls, drags, outs, digs and other short pass routes rip
man coverage apart. The best chance to defend these types of pass
routes is to call zone coverage with multiple players playing zone
coverage underneath.

This year we like to call Cover 2 and Cover 3 zone coverages. Cover
2 does a better job at defending the underneath pass routes because
there are 5 or 6 defenders playing underneath pass coverage. With
more defenders covering underneath, they create less throwing lanes.

When we are playing Cover 2 zone coverage, we like to control one
of the defenders underneath and patrol the short areas of the field
(5-7 yards from the line of scrimmage). We watch for any receivers
coming in our area.

Believe it or not, our objective is to force our opponent to throw
deep. We do this because we believe we have a better chance of
picking off the deep pass rather the short pass. The reason we say
this is the ball is up in the air longer on deep throws than short
throws. This gives us more time to switch to a defender and pick
off the pass.

Now if you don't have good user stick control, you will have major
problems trying to defend a player who knows how to rocket catch on
offense. If you know how to rocket catch on offense, then you
shouldn't have much of a problem rocket catching on defense.

Something else you may want to look into is hook zones. On some
defensive diagrams, it shows a defenders dropping in a particular
area while in a hook zone. The problem with these diagrams is they
are not always accurate.

The diagram may show the LB dropping straight back in hook zone,
but once on the field, he moves at a left or right angle while
dropping back. This takes him out of position.

One way to solve this problem is to hot route the defender into a
hook zone. Instead of taking an angle while dropping back, he will
now drop straight back into a hook zone.

For more tips and schemes on how you can improve your defense and
get pressure on the Quarterback, check out the Virtual Playbook for
NCAA Football 09 at www.ncaa09tips.com