Madden 20: Coaching Adjustments Guide

Coaching adjustments used to be very popular in the old NCAA College Football
series that EA Sports had great success with but ceased creating due to
disputes with colleges.

Its
been part of Madden since 2018, and with each year its impact has been
tweaked to try and find the right spot between making too much, or too little,
of a difference. But this
year, it’s definitely become more important.

Below we have explored all the Coaching Adjustments you can make. When you are in the game, before you have selected a play, the bottom section of your playbook options shows these adjustments.

This is for both offense and defense. Once the user
selects the Coaching Adjustment option, they'll be taken to the next page,
which contains the list of Coaching Adjustments available for the side of the
ball they’re playing.

By default, each adjustment is set to
Balanced.  This means standard gameplay
conditions apply based on the mode the user is in. If you want to be more
nuance than that, then keep reading…

READ MORE: Best Blitzes in Madden 20

As with everything in Madden these are trade off options, that generally carry a degree of risk vs reward;

Offensive Adjustments

Ball Carrier

Balanced – Standard gameplay
settings.  

Conservative – This protects
the ball more and reduces the risk of a fumble. But this does reduce the chance
of broken tackles.  

Aggressive – This increases the chance of broken tackles and extra yardage, but increases the risk of a fumble.  

Blocking

Balanced – Standard gameplay
settings.  

Conservative – This makes the
blocking tighter and reduces the risk of holding, but also reduces the chance of
big powerful blocks that will spring free a ball carrier.  

Aggressive – This increases the chances of a big pancake block, but also the chance of holding and false start penalties.  

Deep Pass Catching

Balanced – Standard gameplay
settings.  

Conservative – This always
triggers an aggressive catch from the receiver which makes them fight for the
ball, but it does limit any yards after the catch.  

Aggressive – This always triggers a yards after catch from the receiver, which makes them ready to run after the catch, but decreases the chance of a catch and increases the risk of interception.  

Intermediate Pass Catching

Balanced – Standard gameplay
settings.  

Conservative – The receiver
will always attempt a possession catch, but this limits the amount of extra
yards they can gain from yards after catch.

Aggressive – The receiver will attempt yards after the catch or aggressive catch, but this risks the ball being knocked out.

READ MORE: How to read a defense pre snap in Madden 20

Defensive Adjustments

Autoflip Defensive Play Call

On – CPU automatically flip the play
call depending on the side the offense lines up on.

Off – This functionality is disabled. Only the Madden masters would turn this off. This is because they want to confuse the opposition.

Auto- Alignment

Default – Defenders will
align according to their default alignment rules.  

Base – Defenders will align according to their base alignment rules. They line up based on your selection, irrespective of the offense.

Man – Defenders will align according to their man coverage assignments. Even if you pick a Zone play.

Ball In The Air Defense

Balanced – Players will
play depending on their own traits.  

Play Ball – Defenders will play
to catch the ball in two man catch situations. Increased chances of
interceptions, but also increase chances of your player missing, or giving up a
catch.  

Play Receiver – Defenders will play
to hit the receiver in two man catch situations. Decreases the chance of interceptions
or a swat but will increase chances of a tackle or fumble.  

Swat Ball – Defenders will attempt to swat the ball in two man catch situations. Increases the chance of breaking a passing play up, but the player wont try to intercept.

READ MORE: How to master the draft in Madden 20

Cornerback Matchups

Balanced – Matchups are determined
by standard gameplay settings.  

By Overall – The best CB will
go against the best WR on every play. We see this in the NFL and is quite good
when you have a star CB and you are going against a team with a star WR.  

By Speed – The fastest CB
will go against the fastest WR, in order through the team. This is good for preventing
deep passes down the field.  

By Height – The tallest CB
will go against the tallest WR, in order through the team. This is relevant near
the end-zone, in case the opposition go for a high pass.

By Route Running – The highest
rated man cover CB will go against the the highest rated route running WR, in
order through the team.

By Depth Chart – A direct matchup of the depth charts.

Option Defense

Balanced – Standard gameplay
settings.  

Conservative – This focuses on
the QB and prevents them getting open for a big rushing gain. But this leaves
the pitch option more open.  

Aggressive – This focuses on the option and prevents them getting open for a big rushing gain. But this leaves the QB more open.  

Strip Ball

Balanced – Standard gameplay
settings.  

Conservative – Lowers the chance
of broken tackles. Particularly good against HBs that are bigger and have Arm
Bar abilities. The CPU will not attempt a strip of the ball, so much less
chance of a fumble.  

Aggressive – Increases the chance of a fumble, but also increases the chance of a broken tackle or a facemask penalty. One to use when desperate for a turnover late in the game.  

Tackling

Balanced – Standard gameplay
settings.  

Conservative – Defenders tackle
conservatively and less chance of missing completely, but it increases the risk
of getting yards after contact and the ball carrier falling forward to gain
yards.   

Aggressive – Increases the chance
of a fumble, but also increases the chance of a broken tackle, fake outs from
jukes and spins or a facemask penalty.