Defending the No-Huddle Attack

The No Huddle Offense has become very popular in college football and after playing for almost a month now it feels like every team in the game runs the No Huddle, lol.  It presented problems in the past but the way EA presented it this year, in which the play-calling screen does not immediately appear, has made it much harder to defend.  There are times when, literally, the CPU calls a play before my play call screen even appears.

How do you defend or adjust to the No-Huddle?

Three things I have found to help a little are:

1. Choose a defensive set that you are going to be comfortable using for the entire drive on the first play.  In other words, don't choose Dollar when you only want that for one play and then decide you're going to want a four man front instead.  the CPU may not give you enough time to shuffle through the defensive sets.  Pick a front that you'll be comfortable using for the entire drive.

2. Start thinking of your next call as soon as the ball carrier is tackled.  Even though the play call screen doesn't appear right away, the down and distance will update.  The CPU won't give you a lot of time to pick a play so start thinking of whether you want to go man, or zone or blitz, etc from the time the ball carrier is tackled.

3. Know your play book.  Like I've mentioned the CPU will not give you much time to shuffle through, so if you called Nickel 2-Man on the first play and want to call Nickel Cover 4 on the second, its best if you know where in the playbook to find it (quicker to scroll up, will it be the X, square or triangle button, etc).

In the end you still have to defend the play but I've found these techniques to be a big help when playing the CPU.

Anyone else have success or tips for defending the No Huddle Attack?

I urge everyone to make a custom defensive playbook. Even if it's just a default 4-3 or 4-2-5 you can then organize the plays how you want. I'll be posting my custom playbook(s) in the future. But I like to organize my defensive formations in the same order for each group.  I list the coverages from top to bottom as Cover 1, 2, 3, 4, etc as I start mixing in the different blitzes.  That way the plays are all in a familiar area.

the_EDJ wrote:I urge everyone to make a custom defensive playbook. Even if it's just a default 4-3 or 4-2-5 you can then organize the plays how you want. I'll be posting my custom playbook(s) in the future. But I like to organize my defensive formations in the same order for each group.  I list the coverages from top to bottom as Cover 1, 2, 3, 4, etc as I start mixing in the different blitzes.  That way the plays are all in a familiar area.

Good call man.  I've been using custom playbooks the last two years but I've never actually re-arranged the plays within the sets.  But if there was ever a version where that was necessary its this year.