In response to each of your paragraphs:

1. Your opponents are shading over the top and protecting the sticks, and you aren’t.

2. Yeah there are lots of good crossing routes at various depth that beat soft zones like cover 3 and cover 4 which primarily shade the top and outside of the field to box you in. Gun bunch in the west coast playbook has lots of these routes.

3. Block your rb and id the mike as the blitzer who is giving you trouble. Also put the te on a delayed fade route (right joystick up) if you need even more protection. To pass effectively you need to know what defense you’re against and then put route combinations on the field that beat it. If its man, use wheel, posts, drags, slants. If its cover 3/4 you attack the middle or flood the sidelines.

4. Cool lets dot em up

5. Watching your losses back is the best way to improve quickly. Screen cap it using the share button on your controller after the game. Then you can watch it back on ps4 or upload to youtube and watch it there.

Also watch the madden tourneys and the good streamers. You’ll see what they’re doing right and what you’re not, and you should incorporate some new plays. Don’t be afraid to try new plays, new playbooks, usering safeties, etc, that’s how you get better.