Playing Madden the Belichick Way

I was watching Matt Cassel light up the Dolphins on TV last week, when the announcers made some very interesting observations. Cassel was off to a smoking hot start and they were discussing how the playcalling was aiding in his confidence.

At the beginning of the game, the play calls were built to help Cassel establish a rhythm, get confidence, and creating good timing with his receivers.

In addition, Belichick moved personnel in and out to get the coverage profiles that he would be able to exploit. The Pats had established that they could control the short area of the field with slants, curls, crosses & bubble screens.

This forced the defense to have to dip down with the coverage to take away these routes. When that happened, Moss began to go to work on the deep routes.

I was in the midst of editing Big B's Guide to the Green Bay Playbook while tuning into this game, and I was struck by the similar philosophy that Big B uses when creating his schemes.

The Green Bay Playbook scheme has a steady diet of curls, slants, crosses & flat routes to force the defense to move its coverage in close.

Then Big B lights them up with posts, corners & fade routes. He audibles up and down to different formations to get his playmakers in areas where they have the advantage.

For example, a big TE running a curl against a smaller DB. The TE turns, shields off the DB and makes the catch. He works his formations so that a Slot WR is coming out of the backfield on a variety of routes against a LB. Anything to force the defense to play a base set that he can pick apart.

You get the point. The game of Madden can be played like its real life NFL Counterpart.

Here's the good news for you today. As part of our Black Friday weekend, the Green Bay Playbook as well as all of our other guides are available for deep discount at:

http://www.maddentips.com/blackfriday