Madden NFL 12 Walkthrough Primer

Advanced Running Techniques: Flipping Runs

Flipping your running plays is a great way to completely change the direction of your offensive attack without letting your opponent in on the adjustment. Of course, the quarterback always stands up and gives a gesture when the call is made on the field; however, since you can have your quarterback make the gesture even if you aren't really flipping the play, it's still difficult for your opponent to prepare. Let's take a look at an example on flipping your running play.

We've called for a toss to the running back out of the huddle. However, we want to see if our opponent is going to try to make any adjustments before the play. It's important to read the defense and make an educated decision on the field even when you've called a running play. If your opponent is consistently overloading one side of the Offensive Line, then make him pay by pulling off a big run to the other side of the field.

Let's say we notice our opponent manually moving several players over toward the tight end side, so we flip the play back to the other side. To make this change flick the right analog stick to the left before the snap. If we decided that we wanted to run the play back to the right all we have to do is flick the right analog stick back to the right.

After our opponent has completely setup his defense, the commitment could be made on the right side of the Offensive Line. With far less defenders on the left side, the decision on where to run the football is easy! In our example, Buffalo Bills' quarterback J.P. Losman swings the ball out wide to running back Marshawn Lynch with a wall of blockers in front. A couple perfect blocks from our linemen, combined with a sweet block in the back, allows us to get to the outside and using a flipped run, we totally avoided the defense's stacked front and his prediction on where the run was going.

Advanced Running Techniques: Controlling a Lead Blocker

Believe it or not, lead blocking control can have significant benefits when used in certain situations. In this tip, we're going to take a look at two plays in particular where this feature turned a worthless play into a positive gain. We don't see this feature changing the way that people play Madden, but it's certainly entertaining and will have some value in some offensive schemes.

In our example, we've come out of the huddle with the Chicago Bears having called the HB Draw out of a shotgun formation to try to trick our opponent. As soon as quarterback Rex Grossman takes the snap we notice the weak defensive tackle coming off the line unblocked. The weak defensive tackle is already right in the face of our running back and we haven't even had a chance to get started. Our running back is dropped in the backfield for a big loss on the play. Why did that happen you ask? Well, the blocking scheme on this particular play typically allows the weak defensive tackle to come free every time when the opponent has pinched in his Defensive Line.

We could switch to another play, but we like the fact that our opponent is pinching his line because we think we might be able to get to the outside and turn this into an even bigger gain. To counter the unblocked defensive tackle we use the lead blocking control to take over the left guard. To make this change we cycle over to the player then press (360 - LB / PS3 - L1) before the snap. Our goal after the snap is to make sure that this lineman gets picked up so we can get up field.

The computer controls the running back as soon as the play begins. However after we've secured a block on the weak defensive tackle we want to click back over the take control of the running back by pressing (360 - B / PS3 -O) on the controller. In our example, the play begins and we immediately run right into the weak defensive tackle. Next, we click back to the running back to try to find an opening in the line. We've already got back to the line of scrimmage, so the lead blocking control certainly helped out more than the last time we ran this play. We're able to squirm through a tight hole in the line to pick up a few yards just before getting hit. The end result on the play this time is a gain of six yards. On this particular play the different between using the lead blocking control and not using it was nine yards.

In this example, we've chosen to run a counter to the backside of the Offensive Line. This counter calls for the right guard to vacate his area and pull across the field to help make a lead block for the runner. Unfortunately, as you're about to see we need someone to help pick up the right guard's vacated area before we can even worry about following his lead block!

In our example, the play begins and our right guard moves in front of the quarterback across the field to try to lead the way for our runner. What's more important right now is the fact that the strong defensive tackle has begun attacking the vacated area. Our running back has just taken the ball as the defensive tackle closes in for the hit in the backfield. The defensive tackle blows this play up before it even got started.

Sometimes you don't have to worry about picking up the pressure, but simply just controlling someone else on the line to change the assignments. We've run this play enough to know that if we use the lead blocking control to take over the center the right tackle will actually slide over and pick up that pesky defensive tackle that continues to shoot the gap. Being able to control the center allows us to add yet another lead blocker without having to worry about getting hit in the backfield again.

The right tackle shuts down the defensive tackle as we switch back over to the running back to take control of him. The two linemen continue moving up the field as our fullback applies the first block on a defender. Perfect blocking allows us to get through the hole easily and try to turn this into a nice gain. Our running back get four yards up the field before he's approached by the a defender. A net gain of seven yards is well worth using the Lead Blocking Control on this play.

The Lead Blocking Control is a feature that is proven to be successful in certain situations. In fact, if somebody created an entire offensive scheme around this feature we'd imagine that it'd be pretty tough to stop. However, we just don't see that kind of dedication occuring with this feature. Expect to see it used sparingly, but unfortunately most people will probably only try it once and then quit.