I don't often write about defense because defense really isn't my strongest area of the game. But I also know that defense has gotten a lot harder since 0.4.1 was rolled out with the hot reads and play overuse penalties and the steroid injections that the OL has gotten. The days of the three play defense are over (thank you JDB), but with so many struggling now, I thought I would throw out a basic primer for how to be competitive.

Understand that I'm doing this for purely selfish reasons. I'm really tired of watching 70-100 point blowout games even when I'm the one blowing out the other team. They are fun for about a day, and then they just get silly. They are also completely preventable even with personnel that isn't that great.

The Basics of Basics
This guide is going to revolve around one simple strategy and two simple rules.

First, the strategy: Only use defensive plays that go M2M against WR1 – WR5.

Find 30 of these plays so you can have a good variety and not get called for play overuse. Also, going Cover 5 means that you need to pull that Double LB CB3 blitz play from the nickle and all of your goal line defensive plays. You won't miss that Double LB CB3 blitz unless you like getting torched by hot reads. You also need to get rid of ALL OF YOUR ZONE plays, but you won't miss them either. Trust me. More on that later.

Second, the two rules: Create a rule for the passing only offensive sets that uses dime and quarter defenses and set it to pass key. Then create a rule for the goal line offensive sets that uses normal defensive backfield and blitzes 1 or 2 LBs 100% of the time.

You should know the offensive sets described in the first rule. And, yet, I see so many defenses line up in the Dime and then Run Key the play against those sets. This is silly. Just stop it.

The goal line rule is going to be a necessity because you're not going to run any of the goal line defensive sets in this playbook. That's OK because blitzing against these sets more than compensates for having only four DL on the field. This rule also basically nullifies any advantage your opponent gets from using the 221 HB Weak Toss or HB Counter Weak. Or, for that matter, the 230 TE PA pass.

If you want to stop reading now, feel free. The basic basics will immediately improve your defense. If you want to know more about why this works please continue.

Why only M2M

So why a Cover 5? (It's not really a true Cover 5 as the purists will say, but that's what we'll call it here.) The simple answer is because it matches a man against every man on the field. So no matter whether it is a run or a pass, the ball carrier will have an assigned man. Is it Pop Warner at its finest? You're **** right. But here's why it works when the others don't.

M2M Cover 3 or 4
The benefit of the Cover 5 over the Cover 3 or 4 is keeping a man on the WR5, which could be a different player for any given set.

In the 113, for instance, the WR5 is the RB. And not putting a man on the RB against the 113 short passes to the RB is asking to get destroyed by a fast, good receiving back. In the 230, on the other hand, the WR5 is the FB2 who runs the game breaking route on the PA TE pass. None of the goal line defensive calls put a man on the WR5, so this guy is open every time.

Zone
Hahahahahaha...moving on. In all seriousness, zone will probably never work on this game because the concept of a zone defense is too difficult to code.

Here's why. Zone defenses require the player in the zone to make a decision whether to cover the zone or the man in the zone. In MFN, every player covers the zone, which means they drop to the middle of the zone. If a player enters the zone, they will trail the player until the player crosses the zone boundary and then they will turn away from the player. Or if a player comes across their face, they will shadow the player.

What ends up happening is a zone defender either gets beaten over the top or gets beaten underneath on almost every play.

Pass/Run Keying
In v.0.3.x-0.4.1 keying was key to a good defense. Now, you don't need it. Really. Hear me out.

The play overuse penalty does something interesting in the backend of the defensive code: it overrides whatever key you put in to the correct key for the offensive play. Think about it. Let it sink in. What does that mean?

It means that your base defensive playbook should use all Neutral key because once your opponent starts overusing one of their plays, the defense is just going to adjust anyway.

The only time you should change your key is on your all passing plays defensive rule and maybe some other rules below.

Proper Use of Rules
I already discussed the two rules that you need as a minimum. But if you are scouting your opponent, you will want to consider using other rules based on what your opponent does. These TEMP rules, as I label them in my ruleset, allow you to key on specific formations that your opponent uses.

Here are some protips for these TEMP rules and for offensive game planning for that matter.

1) If your opponent only runs or only passes out of a specific set, key the **** out of it. – Your opponent loves the 122 medium passing play where the WRs run a streak and the TE runs a post? That's a good time to go to a Nickle, Blitz 1 Pass Key rule against the 122.

2) If your opponent runs the 113 HB Counter or runs a lot period out of the 113 or 203 sets, create a rule that goes Normal Defensive Back field – You are probably signing LBs that are fast, strong, and good tacklers, right? Why do you want them off the field when the other team is probably going to run the ball. This rule can really save you through 3Qs. But you might want to not use it in the 4Q if you have a lead and your opponent is likely to pass. In that case, you might need two rules depending on how much you trust your LBs not to get burned by the slot WR.

What about blitzing?

I can't end this post without mentioning blitzing. The beauty of the Cover 5 is that you'll end up with 30 defensive plays and a lot of them will be blitzes. The real beauty of the Cover 5 is you can literally set your base defense to call whatever combination of Secondary and Linebackers equally because you will always have one defender lined up against one offensive skill player. If you have a defensive play book that has a lot of Cover 5 Blitz 2 LB plays, well then, you're just going to have to blitz more won't you.

My biggest peeves are zone play and that rule that has to be made to stop running out of the 113 . As the game lines you up that way in the first place . I use no rules , and have noticed blitzing that set works well but opens your self up to the hot read dump. Either way it is not very intuitive or welcoming to newbs.

I would like to try zone with an elite defense , but clearly sub 70 speed is not fast enough to recover in time. Really in zone play, guys don't go to the correct place. If a rotation happens the deep third is never covered right . Same goes for a base defense cover two. The Safety never drops to the right spot.

Embrace the rule game plan strategy. Embrace it. ;)

It has been this way forever, but I want a game where a newb can apply a common nfl like strategy and still be successful quickly . The newbs will make this game successful . ....along with the dedicated ones who left due to common nfl knowledge lost in unreal rules like this where there is no counter.

An nfl team would see that lineup (in the huddle) and audible to a pass that would create a mismatch in thier favor. Just like defense would key on a team that put a run blocking TE in on that same formation every time they run.

Heck the offense could send the slot in motion to "crack down" on that LB to allow for the back to bust it outside. We cannot even make that formation where a TE is 1y×1 yrd off the tackle. Here with some imagination it jus the 212. Where is my counter out of that set. I love that play.

Still, as a beta tester I am not here to win , but have fun making a good game better.

Seth, your time spent allowing information to get out there is probably the most crucial way to make this game better the quickest. Thanks again for the effort !

These primers have been highly informative. Thank you, Setherick.

Great stuff!

Thanks for reading. I hope it helps work through some of the peculiarities of the game.

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I meant to add this in the main thread, but then forgot because it was late. Also, someone correct this if it is wrong.

For everyone who doesn't understand what the WR1 - WR5 mean in the defensive plays. Here is what I'm almost certain that the numbering scheme in MFN goes like this for receivers.

1 - WR1, TE1 (only in the 230 sets)
2 - WR2, TE1 (221 sets), TE2 (230 sets)
3 - WR3, TE1 (212 and 122 sets), TE2 (221 sets), RB1 (230 set)
4 - WR4, TE2 (122 sets), RB1 (212, 203, 221 sets), FB1 (230 set)
5 - WR5, TE1 (014 set), RB1 (014, 113, 122 sets), FB1 (203, 212, 221 sets), FB2 (230 set <- the guy that always gets open in the GL PA pass)

If the the WR4 or WR5 is a RB and the RB stays in to block, the player covering him - usually a LB - ends up staying in the middle of the field 99% of the time. This is perfectly OK. The LB ends up being in at least one of the passing lanes downfield, and we've seen how frequently LBs disrupt passes 20-30 yards from the intended receiver. Also, as soon as the ball is in flight, the LB will pursue to the ball, so staying home in the middle of the field allows him to get to a tackle faster or get into coverage.

Sorry if I am slow on the uptake here, but if my opponent insists on running every time out of formation X or personnel grouping X, why should I counter with, say, 4-3 normal and blitzing as opposed to a goal-line set like Attack 1?

By the way, thanks for the amazing primers.

It's a fair question, and it's total up to you. I stick with the normal defensive set in these cases because it leaves a man on the ball carrier, and GL defenses expose the second level too much.

Thanks for the response. I am going to examine my results and evaluate this because I may just change my mind.

You're 7-0 in USFL
You've outscored your opponents almost 4:1
What is there to reevaluate?