I know there is a lot of criticism for Zone defense but has anyone ever put together a team of Zone specialists.

Where your linebackers and secondary are all 70+, preferably 80+ in Zone defense.

To my mind (and I could be wrong) Zone d should give up yards but not big plays whereas man should give up less yards but be susceptible to the big play (especially if your CB doesn't have elite speed, Accel and m2m marking).


Is the general assumption that Zone D is more likely to stop 2nd and 3rd and long and pick up the odd interception, whereas man D is better in short yardage situations IE stuffing the run and getting pressure/sacks.

Are people scared off from Zone because they generally show up badly on scout reports (average yards per play) without taking into account when and where they're used.

As an example, you give up 10 yards on a 3rd and 12 in zone and 4 yards on a 3rd and 2 in Man. Which is the worst play? The scout sheet suggests Zone on every occasion, the reality?

So is Zone hideously broken or misused or is it broken because people ignore Zone coverage as a player attribute?

Succinct answer.

JDB built v4.5 to thrive on Zone defense. I use Zone defense and every product placement I do is designed to get a 100 pinned zone defense rating in the zone spots on a particular defensive play.

https://ncaa.myfootballnow.com/watch/4391#762895

On this play the cb1 has the flat but he gets stuck in on the wr. 97 zone 87 intelligence doesn’t matter

Really zone designations a roughly where the players should be . But they end bunching up. Still jdb has a fix for this that was scrapped for the punt block and 46 pass blocking bug.

It’s not a perfect fix but it’s awesome to say the least....in comparison to what we have now. Irl zone defenders can sit back and read the qb.... jump the ball and make it plays. Currently even while playing trail in man a defender will quickly peel off and make a play off the ball.

In this newer version of zone man defenders stay with there man assignments while guys in zone can sit read and make a play on the ball with more frequency. Too bad they still jump the ball pretty poorly just like previous versions.

Zone has other benefits always coded in like jogging to save energy, so in theory man should get tired quicker.

Zone does have a bend but don’t break mentality and does force equal turnovers but since 4.0 especially to 4.5 there’s still no comparison (even with elite zone ratings) between the two ... as a man under scheme is the way to win more consistently. Like 40 % completion to 70% completion...mostly in the middle of the field. And both are equally beat deep pending you have at least 2 deep set

On the next play, does he play it correctly?

That’s funny as the next play is another egregious zone error but it has nothing to do with the cb1 cause he’s in man.

Still look at the LDE , his assignment is the flat , but for some reason he locks in on the TE and never goes out in the flats. This is game wide and is caused by presnap alignment issues with a TE on the strong side. He will only drop back in those scenarios never to the side(flat) even if a receiver is there.

This is one thing that was fixed in the beta zone upgrades that were shelved due to the punt block and 46 sack bug.


Fixed being guys just don’t bunch up anymore. Which made passing against zone a lot harder.

And just as a note I have run whole defensive schemes that were 100% zone calls . No man assigned anywhere in them, and every defender had 100 zone and above 80 speed for multiple seasons worth of data.. 32 regular season games

Really this play shows how overpowered man is. The cb1 is responsible for the wr1 who running a fly. The SS is blitzing so the cb has no help over the top but still once the pass is thrown that same cb1 who responsibility is to stop a fly pattern can magically somehow peel off that pattern and make a play on the ball to the rb in the flats.

That part has been lowered in the new updates as well. The games not perfect but a lot of that garbage (cb1 getting a ton of knockdowns) was curbed in that version. Still a lot of blame is on the qb reads but closer and closer the game inches to something better.

Tweaks will have to be made if these zone updates are ever added cause the raising of zero speed but lots of potential there. In that version 38 accuracy was viable it wasn’t ideal but you could complete passes