ZAN over at Compete4Ever.com has posted a X’s and O’s football video game tips article that is related to Madden 12 Football. He explains what the differences are between 4-3 Under and 4-3 Over.
The following is an excerpt from the article called “FORWARD PROGRESS #6: 43 OVER & UNDER (& WHY 43 UNDER IS MY FAV” that posted January 2, 2012 by ZAN
“Hey all, and welcome back.
I wanted to get back to my favorite side of the football; the defense. Madden 12 is definitely an “offensive” game; at times, it seems like everything gets open, and the run seems more difficult to stop than ever. When I see people playing certain fronts vs. run heavy formations, it makes me wonder what exactly is their rhyme and reason for calling said play. So this week, we are going to get back to the defensive side of the ball and explain the difference between an “Over” front and an “Under” front. For the sake of Madden, I’m going to focus on the 4-3 Over and Under defensive fronts.
The primary difference in the two fronts lies in the number of weak spots in the defense; these are commonly referred to as “bubbles”. The bubbles are created by the “Over-sliding” and “Under-sliding” of your front 4. The Over front has 3 bubbles vs. the run, and the Under has 2 bubbles. The diagram below illustrates this:
The diagram above is a more accurate representation of an Over front that you’d see on Sundays. Madden 12′s representation of the 4-3 Over is below. The difference lies in the placement of the weak side (Will) linebacker. Notice the defensive line is shifted to the strong side of the offensive formation, with left defensive end (“9″) in his 9-technique.
In 4-3 Over sets, it’s easy to see the “bubbles” in the defense vs. the run game. The Sam linebacker (“S”) is responsible for the strong-side C-gap bubble, the Mike (“M”) backer is responsible for the strong-side A-gap bubble, and the Will (“W”) backer actually has a lot of responsibility to cover his weak-side B-gap bubble (in the first diagram), but in the Madden set, is lined up in a 7-technique, playing outside of the right defensive end. Versus run oriented offensive sets (In competitive Madden, “Strong Close” is a commonly used running set.), an Over front will tend to struggle. The Madden representation of the 4-3 Over, in my opinion, is Over-dramatized in the LB corps; that set will struggle so much vs. the run game, that no one should ever pass the ball when facing this set (in the video game).”
To read the rest of the article and view a video, please click on the following link – FORWARD PROGRESS #6: 43 OVER & UNDER (& WHY 43 UNDER IS MY FAV
