Madden NFL 09 Strategy Guide

#1. Be sure to quick save (LS) when you’ve done something, especially after a win in franchise, but also after just normal wins.

#2. When playing, I always kick the ball to start a game. That way, no matter what happens in the first half, you can start the second half with the ball.

#3. Not much harm in going for it on 4th down when the ball is near the  40, especially on Heisman where kickoffs and returns usually put the CPU team on the 40 anyway.

#4. A basic tip while passing is to look downfield. Of course if you have  routes that take a while to develop, maybe then you can watch the pocket  collapse and enter scramble mode. You should see where the blitz is coming  from right after the snap and either respond or see if it’s picked up.

#5. It’s best to learn all the shifts before a play. There are three on  defense and one on offense. Then learn all the motions and hot routes for  offense; in time you may want to learn about the defensive hot routes too.

#6. I never play the 2 pt conversion on odd scores. Great if you can score  everytime, but I would rather take my 1 pt and then worry about cruncing #’s later.

#7. I hope your realize there is a way to see what the offense is running  when making defensive calls. It’s usually to the side of your play sheet.

#8. If you struggle with anything, whether it’s run, pass, run defense, or pass defense, you can run the “Madden Tests”, or just go to practice and actually put those skills to a better test. It’s best to try out all the moves. Of  course for any defense you could just play games – practice is really just  to get timing of passing routes down and running.

#9. Please, know what your team is good at. If you don’t know, feel free to poke around the internet, or here’s a thought, watch the games. Yeah, this is more an arcade game than a simulation, but bad defense is bad defense no  matter what.

#10. Please turn off weapons, they are stupid and make this game even more  arcade-y than it needs to be. This is an arcade game by the way, in no way resembling anything close to real football, but it’s a fun version of football.

#11. Refer to my NCAA 09 guide for maybe some additional insight, but the two games are different in players and some formations. Keep in mind large portions of this guide are copied from that guide, and fittingly since the two games are basically the same.

#12. When in the closing seconds of the game and behind, you’re in hurry-up mode, but don’t use the hurry-up controls post-play, just call a play like  normal as it’s much faster.