Hello Madden Fans, its Shopmaster bringing you another Madden article that may help you improve your game.  It's September and I'm still amazed by the number of people I meet everyday that are just picking up this game for the first time.  When I say first time I mean the very first time ever playing a Madden game.  For us vets who have been playing for about 20 years, it's still hard to believe that people haven't played Madden before.  The one thing that most of them say is how challenging the game is.  It's still challenging to me in some respects. I had a guy ask me the other day, what do you do to win all the time.  I laughed and told him I don't win nearly all the time and then went on to explain that I do particular things very well that help me win.  I manage the clock, I make smart decisions and I have a plan.   I once read on my friend Derrick's (owner of the league LEX) Gamertag these three words ‘Scheme, Stick, Skill'.  I don't know if he got that from somewhere but that's exactly what I think it takes to win a majority of your games in Madden.  I don't know if it's in that order either but for me scheme plays a big part in my success when I'm playing.  I'm not advertising that this will help you win a lot of games, because I think it takes more than scheme but the average Madden player will up his success by at least 60% if he has a good scheme that doesn't rely on stick to be effective.   
 
And that's what we are going to be focusing on for the next couple of weeks; the first word "Scheme".  If you look in the dictionary you'll find the following:
 
Scheme - noun, verb, schemed, schem·ing.

1.      a plan, design, or program of action to be followed
2.      a body of related doctrines, theories


     A Madden Scheme to me is a plan to win the game.  Most, if not all, of the top players use multiple schemes to win a game.  Now add stick and skills and those top players go on to be truly remarkable, but it starts off with scheme. You have defensive schemes and you have offensive schemes.  Most of the time offensive schemes are designed to show the opponent the same offensive look but has the ability to attack in multiple ways. 

One of the top guys on the planet, Problem; who owns TheMaddenGoats.com and has won several big tournaments including the Madden Challenge and Madden Nation, offers up this example of what I call a mini-scheme.  This scheme comes out of the Full House - Strong formation and provides a couple of ways to attack the defense and keep your opponent off balance.

 
The first play in this formation we want to look at is the "FB Slam"




Step 1: The only step to this play is motioning your FB to the right. As soon as you motion him snap the ball.




Secret; co-owner of TheMaddenGoats.com and one of the best Madden Tournament Ballers offers up this comment: "At the MC this weekend a lot of the top players used this play. You won't be able to survive with just this play. Mix it in with the other two plays to make your offense that much harder to stop."

Problem: "A lot of players used this play this past weekend at the MC's. This is the most effective FB run in the game."


Our second play in this formation is "HB Sweep"



We call this play when our opponent has eight in the box, or if you notice your opponent is run committing every down.

Read the full article here:  Scheming in Madden 09 - #1