The Singleback Trips Bunch Flanker Drive is one of the toughest plays in Madden 09 to defend against. This play can be found in a number of different formations, but the spacing of the receivers and the fact that this play is run under center makes the Trips Bunch formation the best to run it out of. The real key to this play's success is the blue route that the running back has been assigned. This delayed blue route is basically not delayed at all. The running back pauses for just a split second after the snap, then moves upfield quicker than any other blue route in the game. However, the slight pause by the running back is just enough to make his route near impossible to stop when facing both man and zone defenses.
Quick Setup
Step 1 - Hot route the (A) receiver to perform a slant (360 - Y + receiver's icon + right analog stick left / PS3 - Triangle + receiver's icon + right analog stick left).
Step 2 - Smart route the (A) receiver's route to go deeper downfield (360 - Y + receiver's icon + push right analog stick in / PS3 - Triangle + receiver's icon + push right analog stick in).
Step 3 - (optional) Shift your line protection to the right (360 - LT + right on d-pad / PS3 - L2 + right on d-pad)
Play Breakdown
In the image above you can see what the offensive assignments are on the play before we have made any pre-snap adjustments. We could successfully run this play just as it's shown here, but the spacing on the field wouldn't be quite as good. As we run this play through the first time we are going to demonstrate how it works against a man to man defense.
We take the first two steps of the Quick Setup process and now we'll be provided with much better spacing on the field. Even if your opponent comes out in a zone defense you will still want to make the same changes before the snap. This play will work against almost defense in the game.
We know that our opponent is in a man to man defense because the defenders responsible for guarding our bunched receivers on the right side of the field came out of the huddle and lined up directly in front of our players. However, if our opponent's defenders had come out of the huddle wide of the receivers before sliding in front, then we would have known it was a zone defense. Regardless, our running back's blue route is nearly unstoppable no matter if we know what defense our opponent is in or not.
In this first example we chose not to use the slide protection to the right. However, you're probably going to want to use the slide protection more times than not because it forces your running back out of the backfield much quicker. Otherwise, if your opponent sends an overload of defenders after your quarterback on the right side of the field and you don't use slide protection, then your running back might just stay in to block a lot longer because he knows that he needs to help. By shifting the offensive line to the right the running back quickly leaves the backfield because the right guard and right tackle are now blocking out much wider.
We've just taken the snap and the running back has already begun leaving the backfield before our receivers can even get five yard up the field. The running back will still leave early without the use of slide protection if there's no apparant pressue coming from the right side of the offensive line. However, shifting your offensive line to the right almost assures that the timing of the route will stay quick on nearly every down.
