Description
While Golden Dollar is designed to stop deep passes, Mega Prevent takes it a step farther and is intended almost entirely to eliminate the Hail Mary. With the cornerbacks playing off and four safeties in deep zone, it excels at just this. In my testing every pass thrown deeper than 25 yards was double covered, and many such deep passes were triple or even quadruple covered. This is not to say that no passes are ever completed deep against this defense, but it pretty much requires an individual defender to completely botch his assignment, or for a receiver to make an outstanding individual play.
This is my favorite Golden Dollar defense because it really doesn't have any weaknesses past about 6-7 yards downfield. With four deep zone safeties and the outside CBs playing back there's no chance for a streak pattern to burn the defense quickly due to a DB biting on a quick move or pump fake. Unless the offense goes five wide every wide receiver is man covered, leaving only a likely running back to roam a bit freely in the undercoverage. The LBs spreading out into shallow zone ensure that a RB or scrambling quarterback won't get very far once they do get out of the backfield, and are in decent position to tip or even intercept many short to medium passes. Many shorter passes and a few medium passes will be completed, but with at least two defenders almost guaranteed to be in the area YAC potential is very limited.
The biggest weaknesses with Mega Prevent is that the QB can have infinite time in the pocket, and that quick out patterns will easily gain at least 5 yards while preventing the clock from running. As long as you only use this formation to prevent deep touchdowns or strikes to setup field goals with very little time left, or to protect very big leads, this shouldn't be an issue.
Player Assignments
| Position | Action |
|---|---|
| ROLB | Curl Zone Right |
| MLB | Hook Zone |
| LOLB | Curl Zone Left |
| Right Outside CB (CB #2) | Man WR2 |
| Right Slot CB (CB #3) | Man WR3 |
| Left Slot CB (CB #4) | Man WR4 |
| Left Outside CB (CB #1) | Man WR1 |
| FSs and SSs | Deep Zone |
See the Madden Playbook Guide for a description of these symbols.
Analysis
Pros:
- Maybe the ultimate Hail Mary coverage with four man CBs and four deep safeties
- Deep set by CBs means that quick streaks, fades and corner routes will be well covered
- Will force INTs by impatient QBs
Cons:
- Absolutely no pass rush means that a QB can sit back and simply wait for a WR to break open
- CBs playing off will allow short catches underneath with the ability to run out of bounds to stop the clock
- An offense that decides to simply run up the middle can average 8-10 yards a pop
Contact Arkaein with any comments or questions regarding the Monstrous Madden Playbook.