help my defence is utter s**t

I am fairly new to madden, especially online,my stats are 5 wins-21 losses.
To put it into perspective im english.
I play as the Patriots, basically they are one of the better teams and i felt that my inadequecies may well get ironed out over time. Unfortunatly i still get trounced.
My defence is garbage. I dont really understand which are the best plays.
I dont know what a spy is?
I dont know what contain means?
I dont know how to move a defender legally?
What is a pinch?
The list goes on.

Offensivly i dont do too bad. Brady to moss gets you out of trouble plenty but this is more luck than down to skill. Also i struggle to read the defence, when to run and when to throw?
Also i struggle to run the ball but constantly give away big yards under the run.

I love american football and love playing madden. I think my lack of knowledge of the game is severly letting me down but is it possible to overcome this or should i put my ass in a sling and go back to playing fifa 09?

lOl u better go to the last page of the forums and try to use the guides that everyone else started with to learn the game and work ur way up..

A spy is something you can put any defender in, and it allows the guy you spied to not bliz in, but watch the QB the whole time jus in case he scrambles out.

A contain is another thing you can put any1 else in, that prevents your opponent from scrambling to that side, becuase it acts as a spy, until the QB scrambles, then he blitzes.

You can move any defender legally by using the cirlce button to toggle thru players, and put them wherever you want, as long as it isn't offsides, or trying to move a dlinemen off the line.

A pinch is done by hitting L1, and then the left stick, or d-pad down.

Man just do a google search for American football rules or something and get kind of an idea of whats going on.....I can tell ya what some of the things you posted are....

SPY means, when on defense, whichever defender has a spy he will watch the QB and and move where he moves kind of reading his eyes and making sure he doesnt scramble to far out of the pocket. He usually stays 5 yds or some from the line of scrimmage.

A CONTAIN is where a defender, usually a Defensive End but somtimes a linebacker, Will rush upfield a few yards and kinda just sit there keeping a good awereness of where the ball is and CONTAIN whoever has the ball (QB, HB, FB, WR) from getting to the outside, or around the EDGE of the offensive line. Usually used if someone is running alot of outside runs or bootlegs out with the QB alot.

PINCH means the defensive line will pinch inside when the ball is snapped usually trying to plug up the middle of the offensive line usually for FB DIVES, QB SNEAKS, and other INSIDE runs.

About the moving a defender legelly, you can pretty much move anyone wherever you want on defense as long as hes on your side of the line of scrimmage.

Hope i helped ya out a little.....PS whats your PSN name, some of us could add you and try to help ya out.

the best thing for you to do.....is to "LAB" (practice) with someone with a mic....so that they can tell you and show you on the field what each of these things you mentioned are.

well i,m not good myself but if u need help and u play with ps3 my online name is simplerun . i well teach u wat i know

use a non super team and u will learn to play real O and learn D then return to pats and you will be better

well,defense is tough,you basically have to figure out what different coverages will stop certain things.Most people online use only a limited amount of plays,so you just have to figure it out.As far as offense go to practice mode and run your favorite plays against say cover 2.Watch the D and see what they do.Then after massive amounts of time with that,switch to Cover 3 and so on and so forth.Once you see how the defense acts you can recognize it in the game.there are also a couple of posts on here on how to read coverage.Hope this helps,just remember lots of practice makes perfect.LOTS,and LOTS...

Bro, I think the greatest player in madden was once just like you....the only way to get better is to pratice, and play more...I WAS just like you i didnt know how to do s***...I was like what the **** is a spy? I got used to it...you will 2

yea the best thing to do is jus go into practice mode and learn all the controls and have some plays you go to in the clutch, but the main point is to practice until u feel comfortable with your skills becuase everybody wants to be the best at this game and i did say everybody