Most screen passes in Madden 09 develop very well. However, sometimes when using an HB Screen pass play the defensive line will react and cover the running back when he releases out of the backfield. Fortunately, we're about demonstrate a way that you can can take any screen pass in the game and set it up for any receiver on the field that you choose. This means that you can call the HB Screen play, but actually throw the ball to a receiver without worrying whether a defensive linemen will be in the way. What we're about show you will take a little bit of timing and practice, but can pay off big time when run correctly. Check out the full breakdown below as we walk you step by step through the setup process.
Quick Setup
Step 1 - Hot route all of the receivers not involved in the screen pass to stay back and block (360 - Y + receiver's icon + RT / PS3 - Triangle + receiver's icon + R2).
Step 2 - Hot route the receiver that you have chosen to use for the screen to perform a drag (360 - Y + receiver's icon + flick down on right analog stick / PS3 - Triangle + receiver's icon + flick down on right analog stick).
Step 3 - Hot route the running back who was scheduled to run the screen to either perform a curl route or stay back to block (360 - Y + receiver's icon + down on d-pad/RT / PS3 - Y + receiver's icon + down on d-pad/R2).
Step 4 - Take control of the receiver running the screen (360 - LB / PS3 - L1).
Step 5 - Loop around behind the offensive line once the play has begun and press (360 - A / PS3 - X) to pass the ball to the receiver.
Play Breakdown
In this first image you can see the offensive assignments for the HB Screen. Originally, this play is designed to go to the running back. However, what we're going to do is make a few changes to redesign the play to go to wide receiver (X) Marvin Harrison on the far left side of the field.
The first thing we have to do to in order to change who we want the screen pass to go to is to hot route all the other receivers not involved in the play to stay in and block. We'll have manual control of the backside receiver after the snap, so we need to make sure that the quarterback doesn't make any poor quick decisions on his own by throwing an errant pass.
Next, we hot route the running back to perform a curl route over the middle. An underneath throw from the quarterback to the running on a curl route is typically safe. However, if you don't trust you quarterback, then you may want to keep your running back in to block as well.
We hot route the (X) receiver on the far left side of the field to perform a drag route. The reason we make this change is because it allows us to have immediate control of the player right after the snap.
The last step we make is taking control of the (X) receiver and prepare to snap the ball.
