Category: Money Plays

This week’s Monday Money Play comes from the Green Bay packers playbook. The play is Gun Flex Trey Shallow Cross. This play is more of a situational use type of play and not something you’d want to “live in” as your base play in a scheme. The reason I wanted to break it down is because it often works well against a Cover 4 set to get a big chunk of yards. This comes in handy in a 3rd and long situation. It also beats most Cover 3 and Cover 2 sets as well.

Play: Gun Flex Trey Shallow Cross

Playbooks: Packers
Required Hot Routes: Streak Y(triangle) and A(x) receivers. Motion X(square) receiver in.

The adjustments I make to this play in a 3rd and long situation are listed above. Streak the two receivers, motion the far left receiver in. Most of the time our goal is to throw it to that far left receiver and have the RB(R1) receiver on the deep in route over the middle as our check down route. A lot of times what I’ve seen is that user defenders tend to start off usering the A(x) receiver and then jump onto the RB(R1) in route when it breaks in. This typically leaves the X(square) receiver wide open deep middle just under the safety which is what we want. Check it out against cover 4:

Gun Flex Trey Shallow Cross – vs Cover 4

Against Cover 3 it works pretty similarly:

Gun Flex Trey Shallow Cross – vs Cover 3

When facing Cover 2 I’ve found that typically the A(x) receiver gets open deep if you pass lead to the inside. If your receiver is fast enough it could result in a one play touchdown:

Gun Flex Trey Shallow Cross – vs Cover 2

Like I mentioned above, this play is not meant to be a base play for a scheme. It’s more of a situational usage type of play to throw something new/different at your opponent. Also, as you can probably tell it takes a bit of time for these routes to develop and you don’t have any blocking help outside of your offensive line. So this works best when your defender is not blitzing on third and long and you are able to let this play develop. Here is a clip of me hitting this play for a 1 Play touchdown against Cover 3 in a H2H game:

Let me know what you think of the play or if you use it live. Also if you have a suggestion for future Money Play Breakdowns, leave a comment! Check out last week’s play here.

Hey Hey! It’s Monday. That means another Monday Money Play breakdown for our Madden Tips section! This week we’ll be breaking down the play Gun Tight Drive Corner. I really love this play, and I really love the Gun Tight formation in general, because it has a lot of opportunities for hot routing into a lot of different looks. I’ll try to keep the adjustments for the weekly breakdown simple, but I’d encourage all of you to hop into practice mode and experiment with putting the receivers on different routes to see how it effects different defenses.

Play: Gun Tight Drive Corner

Playbooks: 49ers, Jaguars, Panthers, Broncos, Chargers, Falcons
Required Hot Routes: Motion Y/Triangle WR right. Streak B/O WR OR Streak A/X receiver

For this play all you need to do is motion your Y (xbox) or Triangle (PS4) receiver to the right. After this, either streak the “B” receiver or the “A” receiver (your choice). If the defender is not utilizing hard flats, I typically like to start by killing them with the check down route to the HB:

The true back breaker route on this play though is the Y(Triangle) wide receiver. After throwing the HB a few times, users on defense typically start to focus on taking that away. This introduces the perfect time to hit them deep with the route I just mentioned. Against Cover 3 it should be wide open, and against Cover 2 you can typically pass lead it to create a tight window to still get the pass completed. If the player on defense used “protect the sticks” the route won’t be as wide open, but you should still be able to fit it in if you lead it and time it right.

Gun Tight Drive Corner – Y / Triangle Route vs Cover 3 and Cover 2

Like I mentioned earlier in this post, be sure to play around with other hotroutes on this play and in this formation in general. Gun tight has been consistently a great formation to play out of for a long time in madden. Almost as good as gun bunch in my opinion.

If you missed last week’s Monday Money Play, be sure to check it out! We broke down the “Gun Trio Steeler Dig” play from the Steelers Madden playbook. See you next week!

Welcome back! This week we’ll be taking a look at the play Gun Trio Steeler Dig. This play is only in the Steelers playbook and has a unique post route that if used right can result in a one play touchdown against both Cover 2 and Cover 3 defenses. Let’s give it a look:

Play: Gun Trio Steeler Dig

Playbooks: Steelers
Required Hot Routes: Streak “B”(xbox)/”O”(ps4) Receiver
Suggested Hot Routes: vs Cover 2, motion left outside receiver to right, put on out route and smart route it.

The only required hot route to make this play work against Cover 3 is to streak your slot receiver. You can feel free to hot route your left outside receiver and the HB onto a route of your choosing as you see fit. Check it out in practice mode vs Cover 3:

Against Cover 3:

Gun Trio Steeler Dig vs Cover 3

As you can see in the video above, the corner route keeps the defense down and Antonio Brown is able to get deep and uncovered for an easy score. Try experimenting with pass leads to get some extra separation (this can be inconsistent though).

Against Cover 2:

Gun Trio Steeler Dig vs Cover 2

When facing Cover 2, This play tends to be well covered unless you motion your left outside wide receiver to the right side of the field and put him on a smart routed out route. Also, you’ll need to pass lead on this throw to make sure you don’t lead your receiver directly into the deep right defender. But if setup and thrown right, this is still a one play score against Cover 2 (as shown in the video clip).

Live H2H against Man Blitz:

In the clip above, you can see me run the play against a man blitz in H2H. I set it up the same way as if I was facing Cover 2. I also blocked my TE and HB for extra support vs the Blitz. You’ll notice vs man that you can check down to the smart routed out route on the right, depending on the match up. However, I decided to be aggressive and “test the user”.

Try the play out until you get it down in practice mode, and then take it live and see if you can work it into some games! Tweet me or comment here if you run into any issues!

Missed Last Week’s Post? Check it out here.

Starting today MaddenFocus.com will have at least one Money Play post per week. Each Monday for the rest of the season (and possibly the whole year), you can check the website for a hot play that currently is working in game.

Today, the play we are going to focus on is…

Play: Gun Tight Flex PA Post Shot

Playbooks: Bengals, Titans, Rams
Best Against: Cover 3 with Hard/Cloud Flats
Suggested Hot Routes: None!

This play is a perfect go-to play for newer or less experienced Madden Players because it requires no adjustments to run. Both of the crossing routes (the slot receiver on the left, and the outside receiver on the right) require the defensive user to help cover them so one of the two routes is pretty much always open when facing a stock Cover 3 with hard flats or cloud flats. The play is available in the Bengals, Titans, and Rams offensive playbooks.

Against Cover 3 w\ Cloud Flats:

Worth noting is that this play takes a bit of time for the crossers to get open downfield. Play around with the timing of the throw in practice mode. If you throw it at the right time, you can often times do a RAC catch instead of the possession catching shown here. When throwing it to the deep right I like to throw a low ball and possession catch it, but that’s just me.

Against Cover 3 w\ Hard Flats:

PA Post Shot vs Cover 3 w\ hard flats

Against hard flats you can typically throw the ball a bit earlier and RAC it for extra yards.

This play also often works against Cover 2 plays but is inconsistent. In a Cover 2 with Cloud Flats sometimes the defender will drop down to the flat, sometimes they never do. Your mileage may vary when facing Cover 2 defenses.

Anyway, that’s all for this week. Try the play out a few times in practice mode to get it down and then see if you can work it into your game plan online! Post a comment and let me know how it works (or doesn’t work) for you. Also let me know what you think of Madden Focus starting to have some tips posts. I’m trying to keep them very simple and easy to digest.