Defense on 360!!!

Can you be more specific. Give us some for instances if you will.

Like getting killed on routes where the wideout cuts inside to the middle, and post routes to the outside? Like how they almost always manage to get that 3rd and 3 converted? Yes, I'm having similar troubles. I gave up a little over 400 yards to Arkansas in a 42-17 beatdown...that I WON! It's tough...but we'll adapt. We're the Crimson Tide, defense is what we do.

NCAA 07 is trash. That is why.

The QBs at the Heisman level are all robo-QB. I have better luck praying that my corners can survive in man coverage and try a variety of blitzes. Still that means I'm leaving myself open to the big pass downfield which is no good either. You basically just are either going to get raped by the Heisman CPU by death of a million passes (if you play zone) or death by a few big ones (if you blitz and play man).

rgw said:

NCAA 07 is trash. That is why.

The QBs at the Heisman level are all robo-QB. I have better luck praying that my corners can survive in man coverage and try a variety of blitzes. Still that means I'm leaving myself open to the big pass downfield which is no good either. You basically just are either going to get raped by the Heisman CPU by death of a million passes (if you play zone) or death by a few big ones (if you blitz and play man).

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I've thought the same thing. I played the game for about a week or so but havent played it since. Its the worst EA sports game I've ever played.

Oh c'mon, you're just getting upset because you're getting your asses handed to you. This game is just more tough than the ones before it.

UAMDB1 said:

Oh c'mon, you're just getting upset because you're getting your asses handed to you. This game is just more tough than the ones before it.

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I've always been a good defensive player on NCAA/Madden, but you just can't scheme for the Heisman CPU. If they score one TD on you and the CPU gets the momentum, the game is over. NCAA 07 is one of the least enjoyable games I've ever purchased. I'm cool with getting beat if I actually felt like it was possible to defend the CPU...but everything seems to be in futility when you play the CPU.

EA is such a horrible developer. In 06, it was hard to be productive in the passing game because the computer controlled players were pretty good ballhawks. Anything with LBs in zone coverage was near impossible to pass on until the routes got 20 yards or more out. In 07, they respond to that criticism by making the computer controlled players not play the ball at all. They'll just sit back in their zone spot even if they have an easy play on the ball and I be damned if I take control of a DB and get burned if I miss.

The game sucks. It’s not worth the disc it was burned on. I'll gladly trade it in for the 30 dollar credit on Madden 07, and if Madden blows as hard as this game I will never give EA a single penny of my money again. I'd suggest that to everyone else. Stop being sheep and taking what ever EA gives us. Simply being a football game with the NCAA license is not good enough for me, nor should it be for anyone else. I expect my 60 dollars to deliver something a little better than what EA has been giving us on the 360.

Suggestions? Ok.

Practice makes perfect. If you're like a lot of people I've played with, you more than likely play on the line on defense to try to help with the pass rush, or maybe occasionally play the MLB spot in a zone....sometimes even drop a DE into zone. I would suggest taking control of your corners in practice situations.

rgw, you mentioned something along the lines of not being too good with that. Well, the only thing you can do is practice at it. I figured out really fast that playing the corners against WR's is a must if they've been passing well.

Second, watch it when they use motion before the snap. I've noticed the computer is pretty smart with that. They'll switch a TE over to make a safety cover him, then when the safety drops down I might get burned deep. That's where playing CB comes in handy. Also, watch when they use motion because sometimes you'll get a LB covering a WR. Must avoid that. I mean...this is all pretty basic crap.

The only thing I could suggest is recruiting players with high awareness. The play action kills me sometimes, and it's irritating. Doesn't matter, though, if you're playing the CB spot. I can't think of how many times I've said, "Where the hell was his coverage!?!?" and replayed it to notice that my guy bit BIG time on play action.

Something that I mentioned earlier was dropping a DE into zone coverage off the line. Helps tremendously when you're pretty sure they're not running. Usually the CPU doesn't pick up on that lineman playing zone, and it helps me.

Also, if they're passing well, and you're SURE they're passing, bring those damn LB's in. Bring in your quickest LB with the other LB's in a zone, and corners playing man with safeties in a deep zone, and 50 or 60 percent of the time you'll force a crappy throw that your guys can knock down or intercept. If you've recruited a decent D-Line, then this works even better. Bring a LB in from the right, pull your left DE into a zone(if you know they're passing). When the CPU sees the LB come in, he's gonna go to that open spot, but your DE will be over there to cover. You have the risk of getting outrun, but hell...it works for me a lot. I'm not talking about a defensive play designed to blitz LB's and pull DL either, cause I know they have those. Gotta be tricky your own kind of way.......Wow...that all seems kinda scatterbrained.

Pretty basic knowledge...and I don't know what else can be done with your defense on that game. Just gotta hope for the best. Don't give me crap about being down on Heisman mode and not being able to come back. I've done it three or four times against top 10 opponents. Granted, I've never been down more than 21 pts in a situation like that...you've just gotta be creative and pick the opposing defense apart. There's always weakness. I'm just not having that problem with the zone defense you're having, rgw. And the game's not crap, you're just obviously upset because you're having a lot of trouble with it. You get mad at the CPU DB's for missing passes, but will "be damned" if you're gonna try it and miss. Practice it and do it yourself. I have...I get burned sometimes...but I have. That little "swat ball" button works very well.

Just like on offense, when you're playing defense and the CPU snaps the ball, watch your defense form up and look for the holes. It ain't music theory, people.

NCAA 07 is great IMO. I played my first two season's on All-American and once I had my recruits in I bumped up the difficulty to Heisman. Sure it's more difficult to stop the pass and it always seems that you are set up in the wrong defense. The fun comes when you fight through all of the adversity and still win. I've had my behind handed to me a few times on the game, and it seemed like I couldn't call a play that worked but its not like that everytime.

My advice- Do the Spring Drills on Heisman level. Try to scheme better. Adjust your defense before the play (usually I always put an olb in a zone in the middle of the field). Play bump and run. Play a different position - I usually play LB, DT, or FS, but in special occasions I play CB to shut their play maker down. Be patient.

Of course the computer is going to pull off some amazing unrealistic plays, but the key is adjusting and over coming the problem. Good luck.

I've never cared for the Heisman levels in the NCAA games. The computer AI just feels too cheap at times. Kind of like the racing games with the "rubber-band AI". I just put it on All-American and adjust the AI sliders to make things more difficult.

Yeah, I am having a hard time figuring out the defensive mode of the game also.

Run a 3-3-5 defense, man to man, blitz the LBs: OLB's to the outside and MLB up the middle. Play as the safety and let nothing behind you. The main thing to watch for is the toss sweeps, if you can read those you are money on defense against anyone. Do NOT play zone in this game unless you are up by 30+ in the 4th and the offense basically has to pass. I played zone defense with blitz packages thrown in there and was consistently lit up in any way possible.

NCAA 07 Heisman mode is like playing Mortal Kombat with the arcade machine set on "quarter muncher" difficulty. You cant win. No matter what you do, the computer controlled enemy attacks a split second faster than you and has a counter for any move your might do.

The only way you can win is to find a way to exploit the AI. Find something that the AI cant deal with and do it over and over...and over and over and over. However, this takes the fun out of the game. Which means theres no point in playing.

There is a way. In the world of video games where you are competing against AI, there is always a way.