I'm going to show you how you can beat any zone in Madden 24. Zone coverage plays a lot better than Madden 23. So, it's important to know the weaknesses of every zone and how to beat it. 

Only in this way can you better adjust your tactics. Of course, it would be even better if you have enough MUT 24 Coins. Because you can buy good players to add to your team.

Pull Routes

The universal way to be any type of zone defense is to use Pull Routes, Pull Routes occupy, or pull defenders away from their respective zone to open up windows for the other routes. 

If that doesn't make sense to you, that's okay. Because I'm going to go into detail on what Pull Routes are and how to use them within certain route concepts. 

How to Beat Cover 2 Defense? 

Let's talk about how to beat Cover 2 first. 

Cover 2 Defense, in my opinion, is the worst defense for deep passing situations. So, when people use it against you, you should be able to expose them especially deep downfield. 

Cover 2 zone is meant to defend short passes, because we have five underneath defenders and only two deep half safeties. 

The weaknesses of Cover 2 are the sidelines and the middle of the field. So, let's go over route concepts that exploit Cover 2 by using Pull Routes to occupy the deep half safeties. 

Now, in this play, I knew that the defense was in a Cover 2 with the corners 5 yards off the ball with an outside shade along with them having two deep safeties. 

So, to attack this, I motion the running back out and put the running back and X on a vertical with Y on an out route. The vertical by the running back will pull the deep half safety away from the outside vertical and the out route will occupy the cloud flat by the outside corner.

And you will see that the safety turned his hips towards the middle of the field because of this pull route, which gave me time to throw a strike to the outside receiver for a touchdown. 

Also note that you may need to pass lead the ball away from the safety depending on how far he gets sucked in to the middle of the field. 

Now, in this play against Cover 2, I am in PA Slot Cross in the Tight Formation. The routes we will be looking at are the corner and the Vertical Route up the middle. This play could also be a one play touchdown VS Cover 2. 

The reason that this does so well against Cover 2 is because of the spacing by the route concepts, which makes Pull Routes much more effective. 

When you snap the ball, you'll see that the corner is able to get behind the underneath defender easily. The vertical route up the middle puts the safety in conflict. He is stuck between defending the Vertical Route or the Corner Route. 

So, your job on offense is to read what route the safety chooses to guard and hit the open receiver for a wide open pitch and catch.

So, the pull route in this play is the vertical up the middle because he pulls the safety towards him, which leaves the corner wide open. 

How to Beat Cover 3 Defense? 

But, what about Cover 3 and 4? 

Now, Cover 3 has three deep safeties with four underneath defenders. its job is to take away deep threats and the intermediate routes. But you can exploit these zones pretty easily by using Pull Routes and threatening the weaknesses of Cover 3. 

In general, the main weaknesses of Cover 3 are the Seams, Quick Passes and Flood Concepts. But with zones playing more aggressive this year, Pull Routes will make your life much easier against any zone, including Cover 3. 

So, the first play I'm going to go over is a one play touchdown against Cover 3. The play is Post Y Dig in the Trey Y Flex Formation. In this play, the defense is showing Cover 3 or Cover 1 with outside corners, eight yards off the ball with one high safety.

Because of my opponent running a lot of Cover 3 this game, I chose to set up my Cover 3 one play Touchdown by motioning the Y receiver over and putting him on a Comeback. Then, I put a on a go. 

So, now we have two receivers on the right side that will pull the defenders away from the Deep Post Route. 

Once you snap the ball, you will see that the Comeback route by Y pulls the deep outside third corner down to open up the field behind him, which opens up space for the post. 

But to take this even further, the A receiver on a streak pulls the inside third safety away from the post as well. And as the routes develop, the post is able to run freely towards the open area of the field for an easy one play touchdown.

Now, let’s go over the Flood Concept. It is pivotal to have a Flood Concept, and a Modified Flood concept in your offensive arsenal. 

A flood concept will have a Deep Route, a Medium Route and a Flat Route on one side of the field. The reason this is such a great concept against zone is because you are overloading one side of the field, which is almost impossible to guard, especially in a base Cover 3. Because there’s only two defenders and three routes near the sideline. So, someone has to be open. 

So, in this play, the key is to read the curl flat zone defender. If he is pulled down by the flat route, you will have the corner wide open near the sideline. If the defender stays with the corner, you’ll have the flat for a couple of yards as well. 

But the big factor in this play is the Vertical Route because he pulls the deep safety away to create open space for the corner over the top. 

In this play, I am in Double Outs in the Doubles Formation. And what I’m about to show you is a unique route combo that can cook, Cover 2, 3, 4 or 6. 

To start, I put the running back on a wheel and motioned him to the slot. Then, I put B on a Comeback Route. Now, the best thing you can do is put the Tight End on a Flat Route. Then, this would be the Modified Flood Concept. 

But instead, I put him on a streak in this play just in case I wanted to hit him quick up the Seam. But the main reads are the wheel and the Comeback. So, what you want to read are these two defenders.

In this play specifically, it turned out to be one read. The User Corner and you’ll see that the user got lost and did not really know who to guard. This led the Comeback to be open for an easy 20 yard gain. 

But again, you usually want to make sure to have some type of Flat Route in case the defenders play a Cover 3 to pull the Curl Flat zone to make him have to guard to routes. 

How to Beat Cover 4 Defense? 

Now, let’s go over Cover 4.

Cover 4 is purely to stop deep balls. Cover 4 has four Deep Quarter defenders and only three Underneath defenders. Unless you play Cover 4 Drop, which has four deep defenders and four underneath defenders. But let’s get into how to beat it. 

The first play I’m going to show you against Cover 4 is called Slot Post in the Tight Formation. And this play is also a one play touchdown, even for Cover 3 as well. What we’re going to do is motion the X receiver out and put him on a Comeback and Y on a vertical and you’ll see the A receiver get wide open down the field.

The reason this happens is because the Comeback pulls down the deep outside quarter safety and the go pulls the inside quarter safety away from the deep left quarter of the field, which leaves the deep post by A wide open for a one play touchdown. 

Another way to bomb Cover 4 or Cover 4 Drop is with Z Spot in the Stack Y Flex formation. All you have to do in this play is put X on a streak and that will occupy the deep zones to open up the Corner Route by Y.

And without throwing the ball, you’ll see how much separation the vertical pull route is able to make for the Corner Route on the sideline. But because Cover 4 is mainly a deep prevention defense, it lets you hit the flat very easily for a couple of yards every play unless your defender makes some adjustments.