EA Sports College Football 25 RPO Explainer Guide

Whether you’ve played Madden in the last couple years or this is your first football game since NCAA Football 14, RPOs can be complicated so we wanted to put together a concise EA Sports College Football 25 RPO guide for you.

I’m not going to explain every situation where RPOs work or not, or how they’ve been sort of “glitchy” in past Madden games because it’s sort of a different topic — the AI just couldn’t handle certain decisions on defense in the past being the short explanation — but I do want you all to understand the basic principles behind RPOs, the jargon on the playcall sheet, and your actual choices you’ll have at the line so you don’t confuse yourself.

So first I would tell you to use a team with a healthy amount of RPOs in practice mode (and go into normal mode so the defense is out there as well). You can use Wake Forest, Oregon, Washington, and many others — teams with lots of RPOs (and a variety of RPOs). From there, I would open the playbook and go to Play Type, and then go to RPO so you can see the various options under tags like RPO Read, RPO Peek, and RPO Alert.

How RPOs Work

After looking through the RPO plays just to scope them out, it’s time to understand how RPOs work.

The majority of RPOs in this game are basic run-pass options as described by the name itself. But really what it means in these games is you have a specific amount of time to pass before the handoff will automatically occur.

So whether it’s RPO Peek Slant, or RPO Alert Out, or RPO Bubble, those are describing the routes you have on the play, but they’re also going to turn into handoffs the moment your “window of time” ends to pass the ball.

Here is a “normal” RPO play — RPO Alert Bubble (out of Gun Doubles Y Off Wk in the Wake Forest playbook)

Here is the run option:

Here is the pass option (I throw to the bubble, but there is an option route on the other side as well):

There is no scramble with the QB option or hold on to the ball longer option with the QB in these versions. You might see people say the RPOs with “longer routes” on them will be the ones you can hold on to the ball longer, but no, that’s not necessarily true.

It comes back to the jargon on the playcall sheet, so let’s explain the key terms that change your options.

Explaining The Jargon

Not every word is important for understanding your RPO options. I mean, it is important in that you should know what a Bubble is versus what a Flat is, but that goes back to understanding passing routes not RPOs.

Instead, the key words you’ll be looking for are Read, Walk, and Glance, and arguably even just Read and Glance. Stuff like Alert and Peek might help you realize you need to make fast decisions to pass or hand it off, but Read and Glance actually tell you your options on the play.

Any play with RPO Read in it means you should have these options:

• Read option choice to hand it off to the RB
• Keep the ball with the QB and then run it
• Keep the ball with the QB and then pass it

Here is a look at the full range of options available on an RPO Read play:

As you can see there, I had an option to hand it off (the R defender in pre-play crashed down on my RB so I kept the ball), then I was able to scramble, and then I was able to pass to the player in the flat once his defender committed to me (he was the player marked P before the snap).

Another way to think about an RPO Read is that it’s just a normal read option but now you have a passing option on the end of it rather than just turning it into a QB keeper. It’s also worth reminding folks now that RPO Read plays work like normal read options. In this game, you hold the X/A button to keep the ball with the QB. If you don’t press X/A again after snap, then you’re going to hand it off on Read plays.

(Please note: you might still run into RPO Read plays like some versions of RPO Read Swing that may not have a QB keeper option. The way to know is pressing R2/RT at the LOS and looking to see if there is a read/R defender noted on the field. If there is no R defender, you’re going to auto-handoff after a certain point.)

As for the other major variation of RPOs, any play with RPO Glance in it means you should have these options:

• Hand-off option to start the play
• Keep the ball with the QB in the pocket and then you can also scramble, but it’s a more “normal” pass play than the Read versions.
• Keep the ball with the QB and then pass it

Here is a look at all the options on an RPO Glance play:

It’s very similar to a Read play, it’s just you get a more “traditional” pocket, and it’s a more traditional pass play after the handoff option ends. Either way, I didn’t hand it off, I kept the ball in the pocket, and I could have scrambled longer since it’s a normal pass play now, but the receiver was open so I threw it to him. You also might notice there was no P defender on that play because it was a more normal pass play.

The controls still work the same, just hold the X/A button when hiking it to keep the ball with the QB — you can also tap X/A multiple times if that’s more comfortable for you than holding the button down.

Glance and Read playcalls are the ONLY types of RPOs where you’re going to have an option to run, scramble, or pass.

One other keyword I would mention though is Walk. RPO Walk plays are still going to be automatic handoffs eventually (assuming it’s not a RPO Walk Glance play, in those cases you’ll be combining the Glance rules with the Walk rules).

RPO Walk plays mean you’re going to keep the ball in the RB’s stomach for an extended moment to give yourself more time to make a decision. Here it is playing out below — really look at how the QB holds it to the RB’s gut longer than normal.

For these plays, I prefer to tap the X/A button until I make a decision to hand it off or pass it (again, until it automatically hands off either way). But you can hold the button, and it will do the same thing just like “normal” option running plays. Also notice there was no R or P defender there because it’s going to be either a handoff or pass, there is no next step where a P defender or R defender would have mattered for your choice.

And that’s really all you need to remember at a high level for jargon in order to not be confused about your playcalls or your options once the ball is hiked.

Just a heads up, in the past, there would be some “illegal man downfield” penalties that emerge out of RPO Read and RPO Glance plays when you keep it with the QB, and I have still seen them in this game, but they’re not as prevalent. I believe these penalties that might be considered “bugs” in prior games were in them as a sort of last resort to stop the offense from being overpowered on these sorts of RPOs.

Reading The Defense

Again, I’m not going to do a full strategy breakdown because it depends on defensive formations, man vs. zone, who is blitzing, and still making the right choice on the RPO itself. RPOs are extremely powerful, but there is more risk/reward attached to it because it can go very wrong and relies on fast decision making.

What I will say in a general sense is that RPOs are a good option against blitzes most of the time, and they can work against both man and zone. It just also depends on the routes being run and press vs. off coverage. Those concepts tie more into understanding passing itself, which is why I don’t want to get too deep in the weeds in something that’s about just understanding how an RPO works.

Still, it helps to understand the icons above a defender’s head during pre-play. This matters most with RPO Read and Glance plays that we’ve been discussing.

This is RPO Read Y Flat, so it’s an RPO read option with a pass option as well. You’ll see an R and P above defenders’ heads:

So below, you’ll see I read the R defender and keep the ball because he crashes towards my running back. However, I make the wrong P read as he breaks to my receiver, so I should have kept the ball and scrambled for yardage. It’s still a completion, but it was risky.

What it means in a general sense during normal option runs is you have an R (read key) and a P (pitch key). That’s still true here and the R read doesn’t really change between RPOs and normal read options, but the P key more means pass key rather than pitch key for these plays.

R and P are the two major keys to worry about for now during pre-play during RPOs when they exist, so just be aware of them. The R and P defenders will change on the field depending on the defensive/offensive formations and setup, so don’t be confused if they’re all over the place.

But otherwise, I think that’s a good primer to get your started. You should be able to call plays and come to the line and trust that you know what options you’ll actually have on your RPO plays.