Mr4freeze

Did you watch him the past 3 years? He was invisible on the field.

The more I looked at it, it seems like it’s the run stopping version of nickel. It might be the way to defend against pistol sets with a heavy backfield or shotgun ace. A way to deal with tight ends in shotgun sets

Something off a mix. Personally when it comes to nickel I like my DT's to be better run stoppers than pass rushers. I wouldn't say like danny shelton or vince wilfork as those guys are more like nose tackles that cant really pass rush. More like a 3-4 end or a 4-3 DT like Watt, Jurrell Casey, Cameron Heyward, Aaron Donald, Suh. Guys that are quick enough to pass rush but strong against the run.

Its still a nickel defense but with an under front type of look with corners playing off coverage. Pass rushers on the edge and run stoppers with the ability to collapse the pocket in the middle.

A big part of being good at any game is learning the mechanics of it. For defense try to learn what coverages take away parts of the field. Learn what zones take away the shallow or medium routes. Once you learn what zones take away what and how your A.I. will react, you will then know what you want to call to stop certain things. A big thing that anyone reading this needs to understand is that you will give up yards on defense. Your job on defense is to minimize those yards and not let them score. With that in mind you will understand that whatever defense you call, there is a counter to it. Don't get frustrated if you give up big yards on a play. Clear your mind for the next play. Then try and learn why that happened later on.   Once, you learn what coverages take away certain things you will learn to adjust your play calling to what your opponent is running. A big thing in football is to make sure you have a numbers advantage. When you are on offense, you dont want to run the ball into 5 defenders if you only have 4 blockers. Same goes for defense.

Ive been hoping that there is some improvement to the pass rush as last year it seemed that the qb had all day if you didn’t send some sort of blitz.

Quote from NinerNation >> Completely agree with you OP.   However I will say, the one thing thats tough for semi-competitive players trying to toe the line between being a top player and playing real football, is that the tournament / ultimate league players lead by example and run the exact same formation and 2-3 plays for an entire game.    So basically if you don’t follow what the best players do, you are knowingly doing something less than optimized for maximum wins, albeit possibly more enjoyable.

I was wondering myself if it’s time to call it a year with all of the game breaking glitches. It’s great to know that there are others that try to play football the way it’s meant to be played and don’t take advantage of exploits.

Quote from JoshPoeta >> It is called over because your LB/ DE is over the TE, under is they are on the opposite side It’s called an over front because the 3tech is shifted to the strength or TE. In that formation whether it’s 4-3 or 3-4 the rusher on that side tends to play head up over the TE to allow him to get outside contain while allowing flow from other backers.

Quote from Holtrp >> In game, does this affect the run fits? I assumed it is similar to odd / even front in 3-4 in lining up directly or offset to the Oline.   I never bother with and instead cycle between normal and wide sets, but it might be another adjustment to make considering how good running is this year.  It really doesn’t effect run fits much besides the DT. The over under fronts are essentially 1 gap fronts that are aimed at getting upfield fast and destroying the 1 gap the defenders are assigned too. I run my 3-4 almost like a 4-3 since the two are almost interchangeable. I look for guys like Bruce Smith at my ends(in madden 18 more blockshed if you can get it) and a good blockshed DT that can also rush the passer and is quick. The need for a big boulder Nose tackle  is eliminated since he only covers one gap. This setup also works well in nickel and dime sets since your ends are both like 3 techs. It would be much more effective if the pass rush wasn’t turned down like it is now.