Madden 20: Build an unbeatable defense with these OP blitzes

Some defensive coordinators love to send extra bodies and try to make plays behind the line of scrimmage.

Like everything in football, blitzing is all about balancing risk and reward. If you come after your opponent every time they will know what's coming and call plays to beat it, but if you don't blitz at all they can run slow, developing plays.

That is, unless you have the ideal blitz called. There are hundreds of different blitzes in Madden 20, but they fall into two main categories; man blitz and zone blitz. These determine the type of coverage behind the blitz, and which you use should be tailored to what your secondary is best at.

These are the best blitzes in Madden 20.

3-4 Odd/Under - Pinch Buck 0

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BRING THE HEAT: Pinch Buck 0 leaves no room for error

Playbooks: ARI, BAL, CHI, DEN, DET, GB, HOU, LAR, MIA, NE, NYG, NYJ, PIT, TB, TEN, WAS

This base formation blitz does a great job of getting a free rusher through into the quarterback's face.

It blitzes the defensive line into the middle, as well as a linebacker, which will either result in the ILB coming clean through, or shortening the corner for the outside linebackers as they blitz. This does brilliantly against play action, bootlegs, and any quarterback that likes to roll out from inside pressure.

If you make sure to control whoever has man coverage on the running back then you can bring an extra body if your opponent keeps the RB in to block.

Even though this is from base formation, it can be used against shotgun-heavy offenses, especially if you tinker with your lineup and put some man coverage experts at your safety spots.

There are several adjustments to this play you can make that keep your opponent on the back foot. A good one is to make sure you are in base align regularly and bring the other inside backer while using an outside backer to take over his old man coverage job.

READ MORE: Most OP plays in Madden 20

4-3 Over - Will Blitz 3

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PROTECTION: The cover 3 shell saves you if things go wrong

Playbooks: BUF, CAR, CIN, CLE, DAL, DET, IND, KC, MIN, NE, NO, OAK, PHI

The 4-3 Over is a very nice formation if you have an athletic set of linebackers that can do a bit of everything. It's harder to disguise blitzes with the 4-front, but you can get more predictable pressure too. This 5 man blitz requires a few adjustments to make certain gets quick pressure.

First, be sure to base align, and then set to QB contain. Then set your middle linebacker to a blitz and move him up a few steps, but then control him and drop out into a middle zone coverage.

This provides nice quick pressure while the cover 3 shell over the top protects from any deep passes should the quarterback elude you.

READ MORE: How to master the draft and rebuild your franchise

3-4 Odd - Pinch Dog 2

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KNOW YOUR ADJUSTMENTS: This play can be a monster with adjustments

Playbooks: ARI, BAL, CHI, DEN, DET, GB, HOU, LAR, MIA, NE, NYG, NYJ, PIT, TB, TEN, WAS

A cover 2 zone blitz this time but it is again out of that 3-4 odd look. You need to run a few tweaks pre-snap to this, but once you get it down it provides a nice base to then play around with.

First, spread your D-Line and set them to slant outside. Then base align and set to QB contain. Now walk a middle linebacker up into a gap and make sure to hold him there for a second after the snap before dropping back to cover the middle of the field.

With this blitz you are a little weak against trips and will need to make a few zone adjustments, but it works very well against balanced offensive formations and especially outside runs and play action.

So there you have it, three blitzes that don't require sending the house to get consistent and reliable pressure. All of them can be tinkered with to optimize for situations or run as is. The key is to know your defensive adjustment controls so you can rapidly put in the switches you need.

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