I've decided to learn football lately after being tired of not knowing anything about it and two weeks ago I bought Madden 2004. So far so good, I win almost all the time for evenly matched teams on Pro and about 50% on All-Pro. I've got a few questions though:

1) Can Playmaker be used too much on defense? I use it about 80% of the time when I can read the offense correctly and the results are great: 5-6 forced turnovers and at least one sack per game. Are there times when you just want to run plays as called? My scoring is usually around 50-14 or so on the Pro level.

2) Are situation substitutions really effective? Sometimes I'll put the NB in on defense for nickel and dime calls and another WR or FL instead of an SE on pass plays, but don't usually use substitutions.

3) Blitzing too much...is there such a thing? About 20% of my defense is blitzing but I notice the CPU can read a zone blitz like a cheap novel and I'd like to find a non-Prevent defense that won't get stifled when the CPU is 3rd and long and about to score.

As a note, I bought "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Football" and the two book set "Offensive / Defensive Football Strategies" by the American Football Coaches Association. Good books to learn what is really happening.

Anyway, some tips would be cool; thanks in advance for the help.

Happy Gaming,
Colin

Sign the defensive tackle Gilbert Brown 71 Overall from the free agent pool. He is literally a monster. Also move the difficulty to All-Madden.