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Madden NFL 23: Best Offense and Defense Tips and Tricks | How to Improve Your Gameplay

HomeGuidesMadden NFL 23: Best Offense and Defense Tips and Tricks | How to Improve Your Gameplay
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Madden NFL 23 is all about making the right offensive and defensive strategy to help increase your team’s chances of winning a game.

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Needless to say, proper defense and offense are key to winning championships in Madden NFL 23, pretty much the real-life NFL. However, developing a proper strategy is easier said than done. Some would say that focusing on offense is much better while some would argue against it.

That said, the key would be to maintain the right balance between both. Which is why if you want to improve your gameplay in Madden NFL 23, you need to know what exactly you should do. Let’s have a look at some tips and tricks you can follow.

Best Offense and Defense Tips and Tricks | How to Improve Your Gameplay in Madden NFL 23

Let’s go with defense first. In order to play solid defense in the game, you have to read and anticipate your opponent’s moves and adjust your play accordingly. The game actually has a screen where you can look at plays depending on play types, formations, personnel, and concepts.

There will be specific formations that work best for depending against specific plays. One such example is a 3-4 set which focuses on linebackers to defend against rush plays. Then there’s the nickel or dime formation which focuses on defending against passes.

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Apart from that, you can see a coaching adjustment screen where you can change the behavior of your DBs, tacklers, etc.

That said, here are some tips that I would recommend for your defense:

Learn How to Tackle

At the same time, familiarize yourself with the four different types of tackles in the game. These are conservative tackle, dive tackle, hit stick, and cut stick. Each of them has a different control which are as follows:

  • Conversative Tackle – A/X on consoles, E on PC
  • Dive Tackle – X/Square on consoles, Q on PC
  • Hit Stick – Flick right analog stick up when close to the ball carrier on console, W on PC
  • Cut Stick – Flick right analog stick down to take out the ball carrier’s legs on console, S on PC

Learn How to QB Contain

Contains are basically a type of defense that can help prevent rollouts outside of the pocket. It’s for this reason that you want to learn how to QB contain as it will help you maximize your QB and your defense at the same time.

So before your quarterback is limited, make sure you distribute your defense properly first.

Learn How to Intercept

To intercept the ball, you just need to select a defender and then press the right button depending on your platform. That would be Y on Xbox, triangle on PlayStation, and R on PC.

Playing Offense

Now, for the offense part, you need to focus on improving your passing game. For this, you have to familiarize yourself with your playbook and personnel. You can access all of the necessary information on the play selection screen.

Just like defense, you need to pick a good set and formation. Also, coach adjustments are really important as they let you adjust the behavior of the players when carrying the ball.

For example, you can go for aggressive carrying which lets a player perform more powerful stiff arms, but this increases the chance of fumbling. On the other hand, conservative carrying will limit a player’s moves, but it will significantly reduce the chances of fumbling.

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Argie Maputi
Written by

Argie Maputi

Senior Game Guide Writer

Argie Maputi is a long-time gaming writer with over a decade of hands-on experience across RPGs, action-adventure games, and live-service titles. He specializes in in-game mechanics, progression systems, walkthroughs, and breaking down complex features into clear, actionable guides. His work at GamesFuze focuses on first-hand gameplay analysis, update coverage, and practical guides written from direct experience with the games he covers. All articles by Argie Maputi are written based on direct gameplay experience and are reviewed and updated when games receive patches, balance changes, or major updates.

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