New Ways To Beat Zone Defenses After The Latest Update

In today’s big Madden School film room update, we are going over a bunch of different ways to beat the new way zone defenses play after the early February update.

Deep zones in cover 3 and cover 4 in particular now play significantly different than in the past causing many of the ways we covered in some of our earlier ebooks to no longer work.

All of the plays below are tested to work on both current and next gen Madden 21 with the latest patch.

Playbook: New Orleans Saints

Formation: Gun Tight Offset TE

Play: Saints Spot

Setup:

1. Hot route your X/square receiver to a streak route
2. Hot route your B/circle receiver to a streak route

Reads:

1. Your primary read on this play is the Y/triangle receiver on the left against cover 2 or cover 3 defenses
2. If he is covered, look to the corner route on the other side or the running back in the flat

Overview: Make sure to run this play to the wide side of the field to give your receiver more room on his corner route.

Playbook: New Orleans Saints

Formation: Gun Tight Offset TE

Play: Saints Spot Shake

Setup: None required

Reads:

1. Your main read on this play is the Y/triangle receiver on the wheel route

Overview: Wheel routes paired with streak routes now do a great job of beating cover 3 defenses deep.

Playbook: New Orleans Saints

Formation: Gun Stack Y-Flex

Play: Corner Strike

Setup:

1. Hot route the Y/triangle receiver to a fade route
2. Smart route the X/square receiver
3. Block your running back
4. Do whatever you want with your receivers on the right side of the field

Reads:

1. Your primary read on this play is the X/square receiver who should get open against cover 2, cover 3, and cover 4 defenses

Overview: If your opponent is in any sort of zone defense, this play should get you a huge gain. Make sure you are on the right hash mark when you call this play.

Playbook: New Orleans Saints

Formation: Gun Doubles Offset

Play: Fade Smash

Setup:

1. Hot route your X/square receiver to a streak route and motion him to the right

Reads:

1. Your Y/triangle receiver should get wide open against both cover 3 and cover 2 defenses. Lead pass to the sideline.

Overview: This is another play to mix in to beat cover 3 defenses post-patch.

Playbook: New Orleans Saints

Formation: Gun Bunch

Play: Z Spot N Go

Setup:

1. Hot route the X/square receiver to a streak route
2. Motion the B/circle receiver to the left
3. (Optional) Put your tight end on a streak route or block him

Reads:

1. Your primary read on this play is the B/circle receiver deep
2. If he is covered, look to the running back in the flat
3. Or you can look to the other side and hit the corner route

Overview: Make sure to run this play to the wide side of the field to give your receiver room to let his route develop.

Playbook: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Formation: Gun Flip Trips

Play: Deep Fork

Setup:

1. Hot route your RB/R1 receiver to a streak route

Reads:

1. Your A/X receiver should get wide open deep. Lead pass to the sideline
2. If you are expecting a cover 4 defense, you can instead put the B/circle receiver on the streak route
3. Youalso have the running back on a great zone beating route out of the backfield

Overview: Run this play from the left hash mark to beat any zone defense deep.

Playbook: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Formation: Gun Flip Trips

Play: Slot Trail

Setup:

1. Hot route either the A/X receiver or the B/circle receiver to a streak route

Reads:

1. This time your primary read is the RB/R1 receiver on the corner route

Overview: This is another way to attack zone defenses from the flip trips formation.

Playbook: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Formation: Gun Split Close

Play: WR Corner

Setup:

1. (Optional) Hot route the B/circle receiver to hitch route
2. Hot route the X/square receiver to a streak route
3. Block your running back
4. Double team the outside most pass rusher on the right

Reads:

1. Your primary read on this play is the A/X receiver deep against cover 3 defenses. Make sure to roll out to the right to get a better angle and lead pass to the sideline.
2. You can always hit the running back in the flat as well

Overview: This play only works if you have time to throw the ball so make sure you set up your slide protection. Make sure to run this play from the left hash mark.

Playbook: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Formation: Gun Bunch HB Str

Play: Bench Pivot

Setup:

1. Hot route the RB/R1 receiver to a streak route
2. (Optional) Hot route the B/circle receiver to slant route to try to hold the user in the middle of the field

Reads:

1. The A/X tight end should get wide open deep against both cover 3 and cover 2 defenses

Overview: With the new way cover 3 defenses play, the route our tight end is on has a perfect window for our quarterback to throw the ball into.