Hello Madden NFL 09 fans and thanks for taking the time to check out my blog post, my name is Anthony White and I'm a game designer here at EA Tiburon. I've been a passionate Madden gamer since 1991 back when the game was on the Sega Genesis console and in my opinion I have one of the best and coolest jobs here at EA. My primary responsibility is researching, designing, implementing, and testing the offensive, defensive, and special teams plays which are used in each of our football titles at EA. For those who don't know I recently wrote a blog post on the changes we made for the playbooks in NCAA Football 09. That blog can be found here. This time around I'm going to discuss the changes, updates, and additions to the team playbooks in Madden NFL 09.
The team playbooks in Madden NFL 09 have undergone a major overhaul. As many of you are aware, each week during the NFL season we receive the actual coach's film of every game that was played in the NFL the previous week. I personally watched and broke down game film on every team in the NFL and we'll show you a few video clips of plays that were created as a direct result of film study. With the large number of hours devoted to studying film the end result was the addition of 31 new formations and over 1,200 new plays to this year's Madden NFL game.
In this year's edition of Madden NFL you'll notice new schemes, new terminology, and a more streamlined organization of the plays within each playbook. All 32 team playbooks are now much more unique and authentic to their real life counterpart's style of play. Whether it's the Patriots heavy use of the shotgun spread offense, the Seahawks west coast system, or the Bears power run game, you'll see that reflected in that team's playbook. It also comes to light when playing against any of the CPU controlled teams in a Franchise or Play Now game. We made a concerted effort to tune each team's playcall logic so that it closely mimics its real life counterpart's style of play. That means when you play a team like the Patriots they'll use lots of shotgun, the Steelers and their use of bunch/condensed formations or Packers with their Full House backfield package will be evident.
Offseason coaching changes were also taken into consideration when building our team playbooks. New coaching staffs in place for teams such as the Falcons, Ravens, Dolphins, and Redskins were all taken into account. Offensive coordinator changes such as the ones that took place in San Francisco, St. Louis, and Detroit were also factored in.
Although we did a similar overhaul to the team playbooks in NCAA Football 09, we didn't just take what was done for NCAA implement it into Madden and call it day. There are some very noticeable differences between the two titles, with each game having some of its own unique plays that can't be found in the other title. In Madden NFL 09 the first difference you'll notice while scrolling through the playbooks is the new naming convention for the formation and sets on offense. For example in Madden NFL 08 the formation/set name Shotgun Normal HB Wk is now called "Gun Doubles Wk" in most playbooks. In the playbooks of the Lions and 49ers the shotgun is now referred to as "Rifle". The primary reason for the change is we wanted to differentiate Madden from NCAA along with the fact that we want to introduce more authentic /real world football terminology into the Madden series.
As is the case in NCAA Football 09 there's much more variety in the passing game with the introduction of new concepts such as mesh, shallow cross, spacing, X and Z spot, as well as new smash concepts from formations with reduced receiver splits. We've also added more variety to the play action passing game with new bootleg and waggle plays. Attention was even given to the running game with the addition of the inside zone, Power O, along with adjustments to the blocking schemes on many other run plays. Speaking of the run game each team's run game is patterned after what they actually do in real life. Teams that are primarily zone run teams such as the Broncos, Colts, Titans, and Packers will feature more of those types of schemes in their playbook, whereas teams that focus more on a power run game such as the Chargers, Buccaneers, and Bears will have more of those types of run blocking schemes in their playbook.
The plays within the playbooks have been rearranged to make better use of our four play playcall interface. The plays are logically grouped so that runs are aligned next to complementary playaction passes, while all automotion plays are now aligned with other plays that use similar motions. This is very useful when using our new bluff mode system while playing head to head offline matches. The playbooks themselves are larger than what they were in Madden NFL 08. On average each team's playbook consists of about 24 formations and 369 plays. We obviously can't put everything a particular team does on offense into its playbooks due to our playbook size limitations, but for the most part everything that's in each team's playbook is based on what we saw on film.
Game film BreakdownWe touched on earlier the fact that we receive the actual coach's film of every NFL game that's played each week during the season. Instead of just giving lip service to that point we're going to show examples of four new plays that were added to Madden NFL 09 that was the direct result of our film study. The first clip of each play was taken directly from the coach's film while the second clip of each play shows that exact play being run in Madden NFL 09 against a similar defensive scheme as to what's on the coach's film.
Chargers - I Tight Pair "Power O" The Power O play is one of the favorite run plays of the Chargers. The idea behind the play is to carve out running lanes for the ball carrier on the outside edge of the offensive line. The play side guard, tackle, and tight end all block down away from the run hole. The fullback kicks out (blocks) the first defender that shows up outside of the tight end. The back side guard pulls and leads the ball carrier through the hole that's been created in the defensive front.
NFL VersionMadden NFL 09 VersionPackers - Gun Empty Ace "Levels"The levels concept is designed to create both a horizontal and vertical stretching of zone and man coverages. The play calls for the tight end to climb to a depth of 10 to 12 yards and run a dig/in route to the inside. The two flankers to the strong side of the formation will both run 5 yard in routes. This creates a hi/lo situation for the quarterback to read. If the defense takes away the tight end go underneath to either of the two shorter in routes. And vice versa if the defense jumps the two shorter routes underneath, the tight end on the dig route is a viable option for the quarterback.
NFL VersionMadden NFL 09 VersionPatriots - Gun Snugs Flip "Bench Swap"An extremely popular concept in the NFL the Bench Swap play is designed to attack cover 2 defensive coverages by vertically stretching the outside cornerbacks. The cornerback in cover 2 is forced to make a decision to either key the receiver running open in the flat or get depth on his zone drop in order to take away the corner route that's being run by the outside receiver. This variation of the smash concept forces the cornerbacks to have to key the flats longer since the flat route from a reduced split has lots of room to work with to the outside.
NFL VersionMadden NFL 09 VersionSaints - Singleback Bunch "Curls"The Singleback Bunch Curls play is very effective against cover 3 and man free (cover 1) coverages. It's designed to horizontally stretch the curl/flat defender by forcing him to make a decision on which defender to cover. If the curl/flat defender (usually safety or outside linebacker) runs to the flat to cover the flat receiver, this opens a passing lane for the quarterback to throw the curl route to either outside receiver. If the curl/flat defender sinks in coverage in an effort to take away the curl route, the quarterback can then go to his receiver running the flat route.
NFL VersionMadden NFL 09 VersionNew FormationsHere's the complete list of new formations that have been added to this year's game along with some screenshots of some of the formations.
Gun Wing Trips, Gun Doubles Wing, Gun Flex Trey, Gun Bunch HB Str, Gun Empty Trips, Gun Spread Flex Wk, Gun Wing Trips Wk, Gun Flanker Close, Gun Spread Wk, Gun Doubles Y-Slot, Gun Deuce, Gun Spread Y-Flex, Gun Ace Pair Wk, Gun Split, Gun Doubles Wing Wk, Gun Ace Empty, Gun Bunch TE, Gun Trips Open, Split Pro Slot, I-Form H Pro, I-Form H Twins, I-Form H Slot, Strong Flex Twins, Weak Flex Twins, Singleback Wing Trio, Singleback F-Wing, Singleback F-Pair Twins, Strong H-Slot, Weak H-Slot, Singleback Trio, I-Form Slot Flex,
Gun Bunch TE
Gun Doubles Wing Wk
I-Form H Pro
Singleback Wing Trio
Split Pro Slot
Weak H Slot
Team Playbook Sneak PreviewHere's a sneak preview of the formations and sets that are inside the playbooks of the Patriots, Ravens, and Seahawks.
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