Madden 25 How To Stop The Read Option

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When I visited EA back in February they told us that the Read Option was going to get some attention this year because of what we saw transpire in the NFL and they told us about the icons over the defenders heads as a teaching tool on who to read. I then proceeded to ask the Central Gameplay team about the defense in that situation. We can’t control everyone on the field, so what makes that DE go in to attack the RB or stay with the QB. I noted that in the Super Bowl, the Ravens made a conscious decision to stay home with Kaepernick every single time and letting Gore run the dive option. I asked was there something in the game that will allow us to do that? There was nothing in place. My other concern was that everybody is going to try out the Pistol formation even with teams that I feel don’t have the right personnel to run it. If the Patriots come out in a Pistol Formation and run the option, Tom Brady is not a threat to run so on an option play in no way would I want my DE standing up waiting for Tom Brady to keep the ball. My DE should attack the RB and let Brady run if he pulls the ball out and get caught easily by the defense. I felt there had to be something on the defensive side to allow us to key on a player to attack and not leave it up to the randomness of the AI. EA SPORTS took my feedback and I found out just not too long ago that it’s in the game.

I asked Creative Director Rex Dickson how this worked and he explained to me that in Madden 25, pre-snap on defense, there is a Defensive Key option available when the user enters Defensive keys, this is the flow and behavior:

You first Press LT/L2 to enter Defensive Keys

Then it depends on whether you want to attack the QB or the RB:

– Press X/Square to have the Read defender go after the Runningback – The Read will crash and chase the Runningback

– Press A/X to have the Read Defender go after the Quarterback – The Read will stay at home and attack the QB when he starts running

One of the questions that I still have is whether this is for every play or for option plays only. The last thing we want to see is some kind of ‘tell’ where the defense knows if we are running the read option or not. Another question I have is what happens on a playaction if I key in on the QB or the RB. If I key in on a QB on a playaction does my DE just stand there in a contain waiting for the QB to run? I think in one instance I would like to see that happen as it will make people think twice about always keying someone but on the other hand the DE should know after a second that it’s not a run and then rush the QB; which I think is a better option. This will be something I look at next week at E3.

Again, there are some other questions but I’m happy to see some kind of key for the defense in there.