SpruceGoose

This Play DESTROYS Every Coverage in Madden 26🔥

This RPO Will Make Your Opponent Rage Quit in Madden 26😈

Comeback Routes Are The Most Underrated Route in the Game If you're not currently using comeback routes, it's time to start. These routes beat man coverage, get underneath outside thirds/quarters, and can be an absolute nightmare for your opponent to deal with. They aren't easy to switch stick, so the best way for your opponent to guard them is to commit a curl flat or cloud flat to guarding the sideline, which of course can open up other routes across the field. Once you start incorporating comeback routes, you'll wonder how you ever played offense without them!

Use Man Blitzes to Play Better Run Defense By their very nature, man blitzes are GREAT run defense. In zone coverages, you'll often have defenders moving AWAY from the line of scrimmage the snap (which makes sense, since they have to drop to their zones), but that can result in poor run defense. If you find yourself in a situation where you NEED to stop the run, a man blitz is your best option. Obviously, man blitzes have weaknesses as well - if your opponent ends up passing the ball, your man coverage may get exposed. Ultimately, it's a high risk/high reward move. If you guess right, you have a super high chance of bringing the ball carrier down for a minimal gain.

How to Gap Shoot Any Shotgun Run Play This method has been around for YEARS now, but it continues to be the single best way to shut down shotgun run plays. When you pick a formation with four down linemen that are approximately evenly spaced (like Nickel Over, Nickel 3-3 Over, Nickel 2-4, or Dime 2-3), all you have to do is pinch the d-line and slant the d-line outside and then user with a middle linebacker. After the snap, you'll be able to shoot straight through the gap that opens up between the two DTs, allowing you to blow up the run play in the backfield.

How to See Your Run Blocking Assignments Pre-Snap When you hold down LT/L2 and then point and hold your Right Stick straight to the left, it will show you the run blocking assignments of every player on offense. This makes it SUPER easy to identify if one of your players has poor leverage to make his block, and you can use motion to get your guys in the right position or audible to a different run play so that you can give yourself the best chance possible of busting a MASSIVE run.

How to Bomb Prevent Defense Play: Verticals Formation: Gun Trips TE Playbooks: BUF, CLE, HOU, JAX, LAC, LAR, NE, PHI, PIT, SEA, TB, WSH, Run N Gun This is the "Super Bomb", one of the only setups in the game that can reliably bomb true Prevent coverage. Use this at the end of half or end of a game to give yourself the best chance possible of getting a Hail Mary touchdown!

Click Off to Make 1-on-1 Tackles in the Open Field We've previously talked about how to click on & dive, but now we're talking about when you should do the opposite - clicking off. When you're trying to make an open field 1-on-1 tackle, it can be nearly impossible to make the tackle with a user controlled defender. In these situations, the best thing you can do is run your user in the approximate direction of the ball carrier, and then "click off" of him, meaning you press B on Xbox or Circle on PlayStation to take control of a different defender. When you do this, the defender you were initially controlling will now become controlled by the CPU. This CPU defender will be "locked on" to the ball carrier for the final few steps of his pursuit, and he'll easily make the open field tackle.

How to "Lock" Your User on Defense For some blitz setups, we want to be INSTANTLY moving in a certain direction with our user as soon as the ball is snapped. However, moving the left stick pre-snap will of course move your user to a different spot. However, if you open the Subs menu pre-snap, then you can point and hold your left stick in any direction you want, but your user won't move. This is the easiest way to "lock" your user in place - once the ball is snapped though, your left stick input will once again apply to your user and you'll start running in whatever direction your left stick is pointed.

Knowing How to Click On + Dive Will Transform Your Defense While this isn't anything new, you'd be surprised how many Madden players don't do this. "Clicking On" refers to taking control of the defender closest to the ball, which you can do by pressing B on Xbox or Circle on PlayStation during a play. If you find yourself in a situation where your user isn't near the ball carrier during a play, then clicking onto the closest defender and going for a dive tackle (if you're in range) can be WAY more effective than trusting the CPU defenders to make the tackle on their own.

Use This Unstoppable Route Combo in Any Playbook Play: Stick Formation: Gun Trey Y Flex Playbooks: GB (but see below) This is an EASY redzone & goal line passing concept that you can do out of TONS of trips formations: Gun Trips TE, Gun Trips TE Offset, Gun Trio Y Flex, Gun Trio Offset, Gun Trey Y Flex, Pistol Trips, Singleback Trips, etc. Any formation with trips WRs on one side of the formation and the TE on the other side. Pros players use this route combo all the time in goal line passing situations since it's borderline impossible to guard.

Use Hot Routes to Make RPOs 10x More Effective RPOs can already be powerful, but when you modify RPOs with hot routes they can become the most unstoppable plays in the game. One of the best RPO hot routes is to put a slot WR or TE on a streak - if the defenders drop back with the streak, then you can hand the ball off to the RB. If the defenders crash down to guard the run, then the streak can be wide open for a massive gain.

Shake Routes Absolutely COOK Man Coverage One of the most underrated routes in CFB 26 & Madden 26 is the shake route. These routes get absurd separation vs man coverage, and because of the hesitation of the shake route, they also do a great job attacking the middle of the field vs zone coverage as well.

The Most ANNOYING Goal Line Pass Play in Madden 26 Play: Empty Mtn Whip Flood Formation: Gun Tight Open Playbooks: CHI, DET, IND The auto-motion wheel route on this play is a GREAT distraction to hold the user's attention while we focus on the important routes on this play - the zig, the whip, and the crosser. At least one of these routes should be open literally every time. If you want an easy drill to get used to making these reads, go into practice mode and put the defense on "Random Coverage". That way, you can quickly get a TON of reps with this route combo and within just a few minutes you'll be able to easily find the open WR every time.

Two Easy Blitz Setups in the Cardinals Defensive Playbook Play: Edge Blitz 2 Formation: 335 Penny 3 High Playbook: ARI These blitz setups are SUPER simple to setup and are an EASY way to generate crazy fast pressure with just a 4-man rush!

How to Block Punts in College Football 26 This is a CRAZY aggressive method, but if you called the play FG Block Left, you can give yourself a decent chance of blocking a punt in CFB 26. As shown in the video, even if your opponent audibles to a fake punt pass, they have a super low chance of actually being able to convert a 1st down since punters & gunners have horrible throw ratings & catch ratings. Of course there's always the small chance your opponent can complete the fake punt for an easy touchdown, but if you're willing to take that risk, you have the chance of getting a game-changing punt block!

Use This RPO to Score EASY Touchdowns Play: RPO Peek Cheat Wheel Formaiton: Gun Split Close Pro Playbook: MIA Always run this so that the auto-motion wheel route is going towards the WIDE side of the field. The wheel route will get outside of any zone defender, and against man coverage you can just free form the pass up & outside and beat the defender to the pylon!

How to Get Inverted (Backwards) Hot Routes on Your Tight End For certain tight end routes like the Stick Nod, you can use motion to get INVERTED hot routes, meaning hot routes that are backwards from how they are supposed to run. This works best in formations like Gun Trips TE and Gun Bunch TE where the tight end is on the outside of the formation. The inverted Stick Nod route can be especially tricky because not only does it COOK man coverage, but it also gets into a super unique spot vs zone coverage as well. Your opponent isn't going to see this one coming!

This is an EASY 4-Man B-Gap Blitz Setup Play: LB Blitz Formation: 4-2-5 Over G Playbook: 4-2-5 The adjustments are to Show Blitz (LBs Only), shift the d-line towards the side you want to blitz from, and slant the d-line inside (only needed if you're sending the blitz from the left). From there, you can zone out the LB and edge rusher on the side opposite the blitz, giving you a SUPER fast 4-man blitz to get crazy fast pressure on the QB.

How to See The Run Fits of Your Defense Pre-Snap Run fits refer to the the run defense assignments of each defender. You can see these for runs to the right by holding RT/R2 before the snap and then pressing B on Xbox or Cirlce on PlayStation. For runs to the right, hold RT/R2 and then press X on Xbox or Square on PlayStation. Some plays have better run fits than others. In Cover 2, safeties will drop back at the snap and provide poor run support. In Cover 4 Quarters, the safeties will aggressively play the run, meaning Cover 4 Quarters is a much better play call for run defense if you don't want to use man coverage.

The BEST Goal Line Run Play in Madden 26 Play: QB Blast Formation: Gun Empty Quads Playbooks: BAL, JAX, TB This QB Blast gets CRAZY good blocking and is an easy way to convert your drives into touchdowns. If you're in the JAX or TB playbooks, you can also combine this play with RPO Alert QB Draw to create a 2-play mini scheme: If your opponent stacks the box, audible to the RPO and throw to the bubble screen. If your opponent spreads their defense out, then hike the ball and run it with QB Blast straight up the middle.