In all of my leagues, I am struggling with defending the run. I've got good defensive personnel in a couple of those leagues, so I am guessing that the issue is game planning.

When it comes to, say, LBs, what is the best assignment for defending the run? My thinking is that they kind of stack up like this:

1) Zone - Even though it's a pass defense, my thinking is that the defender is facing the line of scrimmage (mostly) so would be in a good position to react if the play is a run.

2) Blitz - My thinking is that since the defender is rushing, he might be in really good position to make a play...or he might run right by it going towards the QB.

3) Man - Supposedly the most effective pass defense if you've got the personnel for it...but I would think it would be awful against the run because the defender has his back to the line of scrimmage (mostly) as they follow their receiver around the field.

Also, what about Pass-Neutral-Run key? A friend of mine showed me some stats (although based on a small sample size, for sure) that suggested Run key is not helpful, and may actually be less effective than Neutral key.

I don't know. I'm feeling frustrated.

Any thoughts on the above or anything else you have to say about Run Defense is appreciated.

Ouch. Closing in on 50 views and not a single reply? So either no one has figured out run defense or no one is willing to share. Based on my experience with this community over the past few months, I find both possibilities hard to imagine.

If I had anything good to say, I would share.

For the most part, I don't really know what I do differently between my good games and bad games. Most of it just seems like randomness.

That said, I usually try to have a good DT or two, and usually try to use 4 man fronts.

I am with war eagle. A team I had ranked top 10 in rush yards a game for 6 seasons. Also, opponents on two occasions had 90 plus rated backs both 100 speed go for like 190 yards. One guy, war eagles, did it at 10 yards a clip while the other guy grond it out.

Granted the 190 was like on page 5 of the stats so maybe 190 is good. If so, I would say speed is very important for small guys and strength for big ones. Cause after that I look for run defense and speed for all guys.

That d blitzes alot but I see no difference. If anything blitzes might leave lanes open to speedy guys.

Top rated LBs seem to help this 3-4 hybrid that blitzes alot and plays man/cover1 with the MLB playing the middle some.

Still, is this a recipe for success ......probably not.

To stop the run, use 4 deep man and 4 deep zone :)

Thanks for the replies, guys. It sounds like I'm not the only one who struggles with this. Well, maybe the next game engine update will improve game planning enough to get something to work.

This. One thing that I found really helpful was removing all of my Goal line defensive sets. Since the game matches personnel, it's really easy for teams to take advantage of other teams by running a goal line offense in the middle of the field. The CPU rotates in a bunch of DL, and if the RB breaks into the second level, he is usually gone.

On defense I value speed....I try to have fast DE's and LB's and I actually take the best available in the secondary although I'm not cool with having 2 slow safteys.....1 is ok tho if all his others skills are high....My 3rd or 4th corner has to be fast because I love to blitz CB/SS on 3rd down. I run a mixture of zone, blitz and man depending on where the offense is on the field, I may do 1 more than the other. I usually keep my LB's on Neutral tho......If i had to guess I'd say my defense usually allows the least(Top 5) amount of points in all my leagues....

There are more than just a few factors that can affect run defense to be honest. Personnel attributes (both runner and defender), formation, play(s) called, player substitutions, health status (potentially, not verified), player familiarity with O play being run, etc.

There really is no SINGLE way to boost your run D, as all of the above factors, and likely more, come into play.