Playaction Passes/Option Runs

PA play

The play action is great if you run the ball a lot because then the defense is expecting a run and will stack the box and bring up the safeties. Yet for some reason in Madden they did not add this important play in the custom playbook editor (among other things).

So what you have to do is add an existing playaction play and edit that to your liking. If you like to design custom formations then you will have to get the PA play’s formation and edit it from there. Just don’t edit the QB's assignment. This is easy enough - PA passes are readily found throughout many playbooks and formations in Madden, simply pick one that suits your needs and edit whatever you need.The Colts playbook is one of the best for variety of playaction passes - there are some in there that aren't in other playbooks. Kansas City is also another good playbook featuring playaction passes.

You can also edit the route of the player receiving the play fake without destroying the PA bit - just make sure he still passes close enough to the QB that he still receives the fake. Assign him a custom route to your liking.

One downside is that linemen tend to ignore their blocking assignment on a PA pass. They run block for a second before pass blocking, which leads to a greater chance of a quick sack. If you assign them to pull/screen pull, most of the time, they will ignore this, and do their regular playaction blocking scheme. This makes it hard to run playaction screens.

An option run

With the custom route trick, you can even add playaction passes out of a shotgun formation. The play diagram (from my Spread playbook) has a PA rollout pass out of a trips shotgun formation. The upside to a shotgun PA pass is that you have limited control over the offensive line - They will hesitate a second before doing the run block thing, so you can run rollouts better.

An option run can also be created from a PA pass. The QB playfakes to one guy, and you assign another back to trail outside and behind with a custom route. Manually sweep the QB outside, just outside the hash marks, and decide to make your "pitch". This isn't a very consistent or effective play, but the best I've been able to come up with in Madden. There is no "lateral" function.

Option Video Link (228k)