Chris Holmes Online

Five days with a sick 14-month-old at home. It’s time for something fun. I give you the 2009 NFL Predictions.

This year the goal is simple: beat the people who get paid to do this for a living.

Let’s break it down:

AFC

Playoff Teams: Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots, San Diego Chargers, Indianapolis Colts, Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans.

That’s right, I’ve got the Texans in the playoffs. Their defense is getting better and they actually have some playmakers on offense. Matt Schaub could be another Matt Hasselbeck type of QB in the making.

Indianapolis scares me with the huge turnover on their coaching staff; this team will struggle with the loss of Howard Mudd, et. al. But when you’ve got the smartest QB under center, you can’t count them out.

New England went 11-5 without Tom Brady; I don’t care how many “leadership” veterans they lost – they’re younger and faster, and with Bellichick’s X’s and O’s guiding them they should waltz into the playoffs.

Steelers seem like a lock.

Baltimore finally looks to have a legitimate QB to guide their offense (plus Ray Rice). But mostly I love their head coach, John Harbaugh.

San Diego gets into the post season by virtue of every other team in their division sucks. Hey, I just call it like it is.

As to the other teams…

Tennessee Titans : Kerry Collins turns 37. Does he strike fear into defensive coordinators? I think not. I think we saw the real Titans at the end of last year; they just don’t have enough playmakers in the passing game and now that Albert Haynsworth has moved on to Washington, I expect the defense to take a step back.

Miami Dolphins: Let’s be realistic – they rode a surprise “Wildcat” offense and a 3-interception campaign by Chad Pennington to an 11-win season. They got all the breaks; every fumble landed their way. That won’t happen again. Nine wins would be respectable, but it won’t be enough to get them into the post-season.

Jacksonville Jaguars: Um… Do they have any receivers for David Garrard to throw to? I didn’t think so. Enough said.

Jets: This will be a fun defense to watch because of Rex Ryan, the new head coach and ex-Baltimore defensive coordinator. But rookie QB’s rarely guide their teams to the playoffs. Sure, it happened last year with Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco, but those were the exceptions, not the rule. Plus, as much as I like Mark Sanchez, I just don’t see him being an elite NFL level QB. Call me cynical.

Buffalo Bills: Over-Under on number of weeks before T.O. implodes and the word “cancer” gets used in the media to describe his behavior? I’m going with three. And that might be high.

Cincinnati Bengals: Hard Knocks? They haven’t seen Hard Knocks yet. Believe me, in the same division with Pittsburgh and Baltimore. The pain is coming.

Cleveland Browns: Can we just call a 1o-run mercy rule for them right now?

Oakland Raiders: For the very first time in my life I can understand it if someone starts mentioning the word “contraction” with the NFL. Here’s the prime candidate franchise. I’m not even sure the Raiders could give a game against a top-10 college team. Those of us in Idaho, especially those of us who are University of Idaho alumni, well, we had a pretty good laugh when the Raiders announced Tom Cable as their head coach. Enjoy the circus Raider fans.

Denver Broncos: Best part about their season? Seattle has their first-round draft choice.

Kansas City Chiefs: You have to be optimistic if you’re a Chiefs fan. The addition of Scott Pioli means you finally have a leader at the top of the organization. Someone who knows how to evaluate talent, draft players and sign free agents. Unfortunately, it’s not going to payoff for a couple years.

NFC

Playoff Teams: New Orleans Saints, New York Giants, Seattle Seahawks, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles

Rational: Saints had the best offense in the NFL last year, and if the pre-season is any indication they haven’t missed a beat. Sean Peyton continues to be one of the most creative offensive minds in the head coaching business (honestly, as a Seahawks fan, I’d swap and our first round draft pick for Jim Mora any day). The Saints defense has improved; it’s a long way from being great, but we’ve seen, in recent years, you don’t have to have a great defense if you’ve got a great offense (Colts, 2006).

Giants are still essentially the same team that beat the unbeaten Patriots to win the Super Bowl two years ago; great defensive line and bruising running game. Eli Manning has elevated his game past two years.

Seahawks won five straight division titles before – get this – losing four starting receivers, their QB, and their entire starting offensive line to injuries last year. Oh, and Patrick Kerney. Matt Hasselbeck has returned and new offensive coordinator Greg Knapp has given him the shotgun formation (hey, it works for Tom Brady) to go along with new toys T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Deion Butler. Rookie linebacker Aaron Curry might be defensive rookie of the year. Don’t be surprised if Hasselbeck throws for 4,000 yards.

Vikings didn’t need Brett Favre; they were already poised for a deep run in the playoffs. Adrian Peterson is a beast (easily the first player drafted in every Fantasy league this year, and if he wasn’t, it was because the guy picking was stoned or drunk) and their defense makes it difficult for teams to run the ball. Watch out for rookie receiver/playmaker Percey Harvin; the Vikings will find multiple ways to deploy him in the offense and get him 12-15 touches a game. Kid is explosive and gives the Vikings another weapon that can create headaches for defenses.

Bears have a QB in Jay Cutler – finally. Unfortunately his best receiving weapons are both tight ends. Devon Hester still doesn’t look like a polished receiver and there’s rumor that Lovie Smith (who I think is a nice guy, but only an average coach) may not use Hester in the return game so that he can concentrate on being a receiver. Dumb move. But I like this team as a wild card.

Eagles have young weapons (what else is new) and the whole Michael Vick angle to them. But really, like every season for the past decade, their success rests squarely on the shoulders of Donovan McNabb, Brian Westbrook and the defense. With the loss of blitz guru Jim Johnson to cancer their defensive prowess is sure to take a hit. But I like them better than the other options; Wild Card for the Eagles.

As to the rest…

Green Bay Packers: Everyone is high on Green Bay, but I’m not seeing it. Yeah, Aaron Rodgers played really well last year on a club that went 6-10. But they’re transitioning to a 3-4 defense and that always takes 2 years to implement correctly. On top of that, there are reports that A.J. Hawk isn’t living up to expectations; their DB’s are aging and there is a question that Ryan Grant might have been a one-hit wonder at the running back position. With a rejuvenated Bears team and the Vikings in the same division, I’m just not seeing it.

Carolina Panthers: This comes down to a simple fact: I just don’t trust Jake Delhomme. Steve Smith I love, and same with DeAngelo Williams, but overall this just doesn’t strike me as a powerhouse playoff team.

Atlanta Falcons: Their success last year was well deserved. I loved watching them turn their franchise around and honestly, I wish I had Matt Ryan as my franchise QB. Kid looks poised for stardom. But history tells us that young teams like this have a hard time duplicating success. They might get 10 wins and be on the outside looking in come playoff time. But the real key, I think, is Michael Turner. I’m a big Sabermetrics/Moneyball guy, and the stats don’t lie: guys who rush the ball more than 370 times in a season fall off the next year. It just happens.

Arizona Cardinals: They had a magical run last year. And they have arguably the best receiver in football with Larry Fitzgerald. But history tells us that Kurt Warner doesn’t play 16 games in consecutive seasons, and the success of their team rests on his arm. Plus, he lost his offensive coordinator to Kansas City. Mostly, though, I just think Seattle is better all around.

San Fransisco 49′ers: Throwback football. Mike Singletary is going to have them run the rock a lot with Frank Gore. But here’s the problem: this isn’t the same league that Mike Singletary played in when he was anchoring the Bears vaunted defense. As Ron Jawarski is so fond of saying, “Points come out of the passing game.” And the 49′ers don’t have anyone to pass the ball with, and almost no one to catch it either.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: They may challenge for the first pick in next year’s draft. They have a great backfield and they got rid of some dead weight when they purged their defense of some aging veterans in the offseason. But the Bucs are relying on Byron “Windmill” Leftwich at QB so they can preserve and groom rookie Josh Freeman. With a new coaching staff and a recent firing of the offensive coordinator, this is definitely a team in transition.

Washington Redskins: Let’s just call this one like it is: Last year was Mike Holmgren’s swan song. This year is Jim Zorn’s. As someone else put it, you’ve got Bill Cowher, Mike Holmgren, Mike Shanahan and a few other notable head coaching candidates sitting out there. It’s going to take a Super Bowl appearance to keep free-spending owner Daniel Snyder from making a coaching change.

Dallas Cowboys: Fans are mad that legendary Cowboy and now current ESPN analyst Emmit Smith predicted that the Cowboys will only win seven games. Problem? Emmit is right. This team is a perennial underachieving unit and nothing is going to change about that while Wade Phillips is the head coach and Tony Romo is reporting to camp overweight and out of shape. This season is going to provide Jerry Jones with all the ammunition he needs to clean house and start over.

Detroit Lions: At the very least, Calvin Johnson now has someone to throw him the ball. Matthew Stafford and Johnson will make this team watchable come Thanksgiving Day.

St. Louis Rams: Hey, at least their baseball team has Albert Pujols.

AFC Championship Game: Patriots over Chargers

NFC Championship Game: Saints over Giants

Super Bowl: Saints over Patriots in the highest scoring Super Bowl ever.

Every year EA hits us with a new Madden video game. And every year there are people who decline to purchase it for various reasons: not enough new features, removal of older features that were loved, reported glitches, bugs not fixed from previous versions, etc.

If you are one of those people – if you decided to skip Madden 2006 or Madden 2007 – now is the time to upgrade. This year’s Madden is as good as they come.

To start, this is the best looking Madden ever. Not so much in terms of player models (they don’t look much different from last year), but in terms of motion. Madden 2008 is the most fluid looking version in the franchise. From the moment you launch the program you can tell: this game is smooth. The menus operate as fast as I’ve ever seen them (on the same machine I’ve used for Madden 2006 & Madden 2007), and the player animations are the best they’ve ever been.

Part of this visual improvement is due to some new (and much needed) additions to the player animation library: defensive backs now have a much more realistic set of moves to use when defending deep passes (I have yet to see the Superman Jump-Swat); some additional tackles have been added that improve the running game quite a bit; the players huddle up and break into formation right after you choose a play. The visual touches aren’t overt, but you notice the quality of the game as a whole while you’re playing. This is the closest Madden has ever come to looking like a real NFL game.

But not only does the game look good, it plays good too. The running game seems more realistic between the tackles; wide receivers on crossing routes don’t seem to get tracked down as easily by linebackers; out routes seem much more viable; long passes down the sidelines seem to have a much more realistic outcomes; punt and kick returns are much more fun to deal with. You’ll still catch an occasional linebacker making a Superman slide on skates to catch up to a receiver in the flat, but overall those sorts of imperfections seem to be fewer and farther between this time around. For the most part, this version of Madden plays as good as it looks.

Even if the visuals and game play were the only improvements over last year, Madden 2008 would still be worth owning. But the developers have added a number of features and tweaks to the system – almost all of which are worthwhile – so that gamers don’t feel cheating out of their money.

To begin with, this year’s Madden fixed one of the most glaring issues from last year’s game: the complete absence of the QB Slide. I complained about this last year and was pleasantly surprised to find that this year’s development team was smart enough to include this much needed feature. Now, when your QB runs across the line of scrimmage, you can drop into a QB slide by simply tapping a button on your controller (holding the button down causes a dive). With the proliferation of scrambling QB’s at an all-time high in the NFL, this is a feature you can’t live without.

Player Roles also return this year, but this time they are augmented by Player Weapons. Different player weapons grant different abilities. For instance, a Smart Quarterback can read defenses before the snap, revealing the oppositions play call to you. Unfortunately, while the icons for player weapons do show up in the manual, the exact benefits do not; the descriptions of each weapon are incredibly vague and don’t give you the slightest idea of what exactly the benefits will be. It seems amazing to me that with 12 months between releases of Madden, EA can’t afford to print a comprehensive manual for its game.

There are other tweaks as well. This year, there are four difficulty levels: Rookie, Pro, All-Pro and All-Madden. In recent years, players such as myself have complained that the difficultly system was inadequate: All-Pro was too easy and All-Madden was too hard. Well, All-Madden is still too hard (for me) but All-Pro mode seems to have been beefed up. In the dozen games I’ve played so far only a few have been blowouts, and I’ve seen more close games than ever before (though no losses). With the four modes it appears there’s a much better chance of finding a mode that fits your own skill set. The sliders still exist for adjusting specific deficiencies, but they’re necessity seems diminished. I had to bump pass-blocking to 75% because, as usual, my offensive line faired much worse than the CPU’s, but at least I didn’t have to max it out at 99% and still watch my QB get smothered. The other sliders I have yet to touch (although, like seasons past, there are almost no penalties called during a game, but I suspect this has more to do with the Madden Challenge and increasing the sliders may create a more realistic experience).

A Long View has also been added to the view points you can watch the game from. The Long View is at a much higher angle behind the quarterback and gives you a much better view of the field as a whole; finally you’re able to see the wide receivers to your right and left and know whether a defensive back is sitting on that hitch route or not.

Probably the most radical change to the game has to do with the kicking. The classic button-clicking method has been done away with. Instead, you kick field goals by pulling back on the right analog stick and thrusting it forward when it has reached peak power. Any deviation to the right or left is picked up by the analog stick, and if you deviate too far right or left while thrusting up or down you fall out of the Accuracy Zone which can cause the kick to veer off to the right or left. The change adds a whole new dimension to the kicking game; field goals can be an adventure until you get the mechanics worked out. Unfortunately, users of the Logitech Rumblepad may experience problems with their right analog stick not being detected during the “push up” phase of the kick. I experienced this problem with my own pad, making it impossible to kick a field goal. Some users have reported that swapping their Rumblepad to a different USB port cleared up the problem. Hopefully this oversight will be corrected with a patch.

If there’s one area of disappointment it is with the play books. I expected to see a bunch of new plays this year, and I expected team play books to match their real life counterparts more accurately. But alas, when I opened up the Seahawks playbook I saw the exact same formations and plays as last season, many of them wrongly affiliated with my favorite team.

Creating a custom play book seems to be more glitch free than last year, but unfortunately the custom play books are still limited to 10 formations and 75 plays which is totally inadequate. After creating a custom play book and using it in a game I went back to using the Seahawks’ play book because the custom one was just too small.

While most plays were not changed, there was one small tweak: on some plays, certain players will be sent in motion prior to the snap of the ball. You do not have control over this, it is a set part of the play. These motion routes are indicated with a bright green line, instead of an orange or yellow one, so they are easy to find when navigating your play book. It’s a small detail, but it adds a bit of realism to the game.

My biggest gripe, other than the small custom play book, is that the Seahawks still don’t have monochromatic home uniforms. It seems absurd to me that a team that was in the Superbowl two seasons ago still does not have its uniforms replicated in Madden correctly, yet the Arizona Cardinals, who have not even sniffed the playoffs in many years, do have their monochromatic uniforms.

All in all this is the best Madden ever. It looks better, plays better, and has more features. If EA continues to make these kinds of improvements every year we won’t have any more excuses not to upgrade.

I didn’t come up with that. Peter King did in his Monday Morning Quarterback column. But I can’t express how glad I am that someone else – someone who is respected in the sports media – has finally noticed and actually said something.

King writes:

I think for any of you — us — feeling the least bit of pity for Rush Limbaugh after his silly remarks about black quarterbacks and the media, we can all now rest easy. The guy’s a race-aholic. He injects race where it has no business being injected.

What King is referencing is this quote from Limbaugh’s radio show a week ago:

“And before we go to the break here, folks, I’ve got to get something off my chest. You know, the game was the game. And the game was what it was. But I – I can’t handle any more press criticism of Rex Grossman. They’re writing his name W-R-E-C-K-S. They’re just … worst quarterback ever to play in the Super Bowl. And it’s been like this since the Green Bay game — actually since the Arizona game, a little crescendo of it in the Green Bay game, the last game of the season for the Bears. And it’s just unrelenting! It’s just — they’re focusing on this guy like they don’t focus on anybody!

“And I tell you, I know what it is. The media, the sports media, has got social concerns that they are first and foremost interested in, and they’re dumping on this guy — Rex Grossman — for one reason, folks, and that’s because he is a white quarterback.”

King then writes:

Rush, we’re dumping on him because, in a five-point game in the fourth quarter, with the Bears in possession of the ball and still with a very good chance to win, he threw two ridiculous passes in the biggest game of his life. Two interceptions. Buried his own team. Had it been McNabb or Brees or Leftwich or Kitna or Daisuke Matsuzaka, we’d have buried them too.

I’m really tired of the race-aholics in the media. Rush Limbaugh, Scoop Jackson, it doesn’t matter. I’m sick of it.

It’s the year 2007. And for those of us who actually belong in this century, we don’t care about race. We don’t see color when we look at a person. We don’t prejudge based on ethnicity.

What we see is the person.

In sports, the things we notice are production, winning, attitude, responsibility, ego, behavior. When we, as fans, see a guy like LaDanian Tomlinson we don’t see a black runningback; we see a great running back, maybe one of the all-time greats in the making, who is humble about his abilities and relentless on the field. We see a winner. When we see a guy like Peyton Manning we don’t see a white quarterback; we see one of the greatest passers and field generals of all time, who will likely own every meaningful passing record by the time he’s done, and who plays the game with the same humble attitude and relentless pursuit of perfection that Tomlinson plays with. We don’t see color here. We see players and recognize them for who they are and how they play the game.

What’s interesting about Rush’s comments is that not only is he wrong, but he’s clearly out of touch with reality. I know he’s a conservative radio talk show personality, but my opinion of that profession has always been: they may engage in rhetoric on a daily basis, but at least it’s grounded in some reality. But here, Rush isn’t even living on the same planet as the rest of us.

Take, for instance, my brother-in-law. He rooted hard for the Colts in the Superbowl, partially because he wanted to see Manning win, but more I think because he didn’t want to see (his words) “that punk Grossman win it. He doesn’t deserve it.”

You see, my brother-in-law saw Grossman for what he was: not a white quarterback, but a punk kid. A guy who felt it was more important to get to a New Year’s Eve bash that study the gameplan for the season finale against Green Bay. A guy who couldn’t take care of the ball during the regular season, but who was bailed about by the defense. A guy who didn’t display the character or drive or attitude to win like Manning did.

It had nothing to do with race. It had everything to do with character. And it’s just amazing to me that Limbaugh is so completely out of touch with that reality.

But mostly it’s just disappointing.

I hope I live long enough to see the day when someone can make comments like Limbaugh and the general publish ostracizes them. It shouldn’t be acceptable to say those sorts of things. It only proves that we haven’t evolved into a more civilized society… Yet.

Madden 2007 drives me nuts. From the cheating Artificial Intelligence to the instant replay that doesn’t work, it can be a (no pun intended) maddening affair.

It’s also the only NFL game going, and at times it can be incredibly fun.

During my time with the game I’ve come up with a few things the development team could focus on to make the next iteration of the game more fun and realistic.

1: More Accurate Playbooks Or Better Custom Playbooks

Just like the real NFL, playbooks are a big part of what makes a team unique. Half of the fun of playing Madden is taking your favorite real life team and replicating what they do on Sundays. Or taking your favorite time and ditching the coach you hate and hiring someone you like and running their offense/defense. But these things are hard to do when the playbook in the game doesn’t match the one you see on TV every Sunday.

Take the Seahawks for instance. In Madden 2007 there’s a formation called Singleback Flips Trips. It’s a four-wide receiver set with three wide receivers to one side, but two of those receivers are bunched close to the line of scrimmage. The Seahawks in real life run that formation about a half dozen times a game and it seems to produce some of their best and most effective passing plays. But in Madden 2007 that formation isn’t even a part of the Seahawks playbook.

Another glaring omission is the “stretch” play. Just about everyone in the NFL runs some version of the “stretch” play that the Indianapolis Colts have made so famous. Seattle runs the stretch play out of singleback formations about three or four times a game, but you can’t find one stretch play in the Madden 2007 playbook for Seattle.

In short, the playbooks don’t come close to matching their real NFL counterparts. Part of that is the failing of the developers to devote the necessary time to make the playbooks accurate. But that could be fixed… With a custom playbook.

It turns out the PC version of Madden 2007 has a custom playbook editor, much like the 2006 version. Only there’s a couple of huge problems that make this option worthless.

For starters, the playbooks on offense and defense are limited to a scant 11 formations and a total of 78 plays. The limitation on the number of formations is crippling enough, but limiting the book to a total of 78 plays makes it even worse. There’s barely enough room to get in a decent mix of plays.

The problem with a playbook that small is that during the course of a typical game you may run anywhere from 50-70 offensive plays. Repeating an offensive play is bad. Calling the same play more than once in the same game is a bad idea. The computer defense will account for repeated playcalls; it will counteract you by calling tougher defenses or it will just outright cheat and have it’s defenders beat your offensive players so you don’t gain yards. It’s the computer’s way of keeping you from running the same play over and over. This is a good thing (even if the CPU cheats to make it happen) because the computer shouldn’t allow you to call the same play over and over. But with a 78-play playbook there aren’t enough plays to go around.

Calling plays is about down and distance. And you cannot dictate down and distance during a game. You have no idea if you’re going to be facing 3rd-and-long all day or trying to eat away the clock with a lead, and thus calling a lot of running plays. A good playbook will have a mix of plays in it, and the better the mixture the more likely you’re going to have to repeat some plays during a game. And as I’ve said, repeating plays is a bad thing.

This could all be fixed if the developers of Madden would allow playbooks to have more formations and more total plays. The default playbooks have a LOT more formations and plays. Why not the custom ones?

Still, even with the limited formations and small number of total plays, my preference would be to use a custom playbook, but there’s one glaring bug in the PC version that causes custom playbooks to become totally useless: If you use a custom playbook and score in the final two minutes of the first half and have to kick an extra point or field goal, the game locks up. And not the nice kind of lockup where you can CTRL-ALT-DELETE to kill the game. No, Madden 2007 locks up with the really bad kind of lockup. The kind where you can’t get back to your desktop. Your keyboard and mouse become useless and you’re left with the last resort: turning the power off.

This is all sorts of bad.

The solution to all of this is to simply provide a much better custom playbook editor. CPU’s have a lot more memory now. There’s absolutely no reason you can’t bump the formations up to 15 or 20 and the total plays up to 150 per playbook. Give users the power to make their playbook what they want it to be. And fix the lockup bug.

Barring that….

2: Playbooks For Coordinators

Currently in Madden 2007 hiring your offensive and defensive coordinators is pretty much pointless. The playbooks for a team are defined by the head coach. Yet, in the real NFL, playbooks are often the product of the coordinators.

Take the Washington Redskins of 2006. They hired Al Saunders and his 700-page playbook to run the offense. But in Madden 2007 the playbook for the Redskins is based on Joe Gibbs. Same goes for the Patriots during their Superbowl runs: Charlie Weiss was the architect of that offense. Mike Martz is the guy running the offense in Detroit, yet the head coach is the guy credited with the playbook in Madden 2007.

I’d like to see certain offensive and defensive coordinators have their own playbooks. Sure, some head coaches call plays on one side of the ball, like Mike Holmgren in Seattle or Andy Reid in Philly. But a lot of coordinators bring their own playbooks to the team when they’re hired. If offensive and defensive coordinators came with their own playbooks it would make the offseason hiring phase of a franchise mode a lot more interesting and fun. It would make it more meaningful, which would be a good thing.

3: Fix The Passing Game

The running game got a huge makeover with Madden 2007. The developers added a feature to allow you to control the fullback or an offensive lineman on running plays, thus potentially improving the blocking. But more than that, the developers really worked on the blocking and tackling so that it is easier for runningbacks to find lanes in the middle of the field, making the running game slightly more realistic.

Unfortunately, while the running game has recieved a lot of attention, the passing game has suffered.

Madden 2007 has a couple of really annoying features that negatively affect the passing game, and these have to get fixed in the next iteration.

For starters, defenders covering recievers on a “corner route” have this superhuman jump-swat that they use with amazing regularity to knock down a pass intended for the receiver. For whatever reason it is basically impossible to throw a pass over the receiver’s shoulder to a point where the defender can’t get to it, and the jump-swat is a large reason why. What’s annoying about this is that I have yet to see this superhuman feat performed in a real NFL game. Linebackers who get beat downfield by a TE or WR, especially on a corner route, do not have the recovery speed, nor the vertical leap to make this move. It is a physical impossibility. They also don’t have eyes in the back of their head.

Another incredibly annoying feature, at least played on All-Madden mode, is that some routes are simply impossible to complete passes on because cornerbacks react unrealistically to the ball. You see, there’s this thing in the real world call “momentum“. Physics and the limitations of the human body dictate that a person cannot simply switch direction and accelerate at maximim speed without first slowing down and overcoming the momentum they have already generated. This reality is not reflected in the game, however.

A common and oft-used route in the NFL is the “deep in” route or “dig” route. It’s a simple route: the receiver runs several yards downfield in a fairly straight line, and then cuts “in” toward the center of the field. Against man-to-man coverage the receiver’s job is to convince his defender that he is going to run downfield on a fly or “go” route, forcing the defender to turn his hips and commit to running the length of the field. At that moment the receiver cuts sharply ninety degrees toward the center of the field. The advantage here is that the receiver knows where he is going, but the defender does not. There’s a split-second in there where the reciever is cutting and gaining separation on the defender, while the defender is attempting to stop his momentum and reverse field.

When run properly this route is incredibly effective and very difficult to defend without underneath coverage from the linebacking corps. However, in Madden, this route is utterly useless as the defenders ignore momentum and can not only stop on a dime and turn with the receiver, but can actually outrun the receiver and get in front of the route!

This sort of clarvoyant defensive backfield play makes the passing game in Madden annoying in the extreme.

Another serious flaw with the passing game is how receivers constantly bump into defenders in zone coverage and cannot get around them. This causes the receiver’s legs to churn away as he continues to futily bang into the defender, pushing the defender a foot or two at a time while never completing his route. Meanwhile you, the quarterback, take a sack while waiting patiently for your dumbass receiver to navigate a zone and get open.

What’s incredibly frustrating about this is that some of the logic necessary to fix this problem already exists within the game code. When a defender in man-to-man coverage follows a receiver who has gone in motion before the snap of the ball he could run into any number of linebackers and other defenders as he is running down the line of scrimmage. But the developers have wisely coded the defender following the man in motion to navigate the field correctly, and avoid contact with other defenders (this works 90% of the time, but sometimes the players still get stuck). The code handles this situation, so why not receivers running routes?

Adding to the frustration of this sort of problem is the fact that in the NFL a large part of the passing game is predicated on being able to “thread the needle” and get a ball in between defenders, either by dropping a pass over the shoulder of a receiver who has beat his defender (the jump-swat case) or by throwing the ball to a receiver who is not yet open, but will be once he clears a linebacker (the collision case and in-route case). This is a huge, important part of the NFL passing game and it’s missing from the Madden video game.

4: Add QB Slide As A Button

This is a small fix. And easy fix. Add the ability for the quarterback to “slide” after he’s crossed the line of scrimmage. It should be a simple button press, not some convoluted joystick waggle. Sometimes the defense just covers everyone really well. Mobile quarterbacks can make plays with their legs. But in Madden, unless you can get to the sideline you run a very high percentage chance of either (a) getting your QB really hurt or (B) causing a fumble when he gets hit. The QB slide has to be included in Madden 2008 and it has to be easy to use. Period.

5: Lose The “Tuck Rule” Anti-Sack

In 2002 the New England Patriots hosted the Oakland Raiders in the AFC Championship game in what has since then been dubbed The Snow Bowl. This game is infamous for the emergence of the “Tuck Rule.”

The Patriots were trailing 13-10 with less than two minutes remaining in the game when Charles Woodson sacked Patriot quarterback Tom Brady. Brady fumbled the ball and it was recovered by Oakland, effectively ending the game and sending the Raiders to the Superbowl. But since it was the final two minutes of the game a review of the play was called in from the booth upstairs. Upon further review the play was reversed and called an “incomplete pass”. Brady’s arm was technically “moving forward” at the time he lost control of the ball; he was attempting to “tuck” the ball into his chest to avoid the fumble. But the letter of the law said that the passer’s arm simply had to be “moving forward” for it to be an incomplete pass. The call was overturned, Brady lead the Patriots to victory and the rest is history.

In Madden 2007 the “Tuck Rule” makes its presence felt early and often.

Sacking the quarterback is something that is very difficult to do in Madden. It is made significantly harder by the presence of the “Tuck Rule” mechanics. Most of the time when your defender is sacking the quarterback, the CPU QB will have the ball fall out of his hand and hit the ground at his feet. This should be a fumble but it never is thanks to the “Tuck Rule”.

A better solution would simply be for the CPU QB to hang onto the ball and take the sack. After all, in the real NFL when a quarterback feels a defender starting to sack him, his first instinct is to protect the football – to hold onto it.

Ironically, that’s what happens to your quarterback when you get sacked in Madden 2007.

I don’t know how many hundreds of games I’ve played with Madden 2007, but I know that I can count on one hand the number of times my quarterback was successful at getting rid of the ball the moment I was being sacked, and having it ruled as an incomplete pass. The vast majority of the time my QB hangs onto the ball and I get sacked. That’s how it should be. But the rules don’t apply equally to the CPU.

And that’s probably the single most annoying thing about Madden: the rules don’t apply equally. Whether it’s the way defenders cover pass routes, or quarterbacks take sacks, or offensive linemen block, or quarterbacks slide, when you play the CPU things don’t happen equally.

A Couple Other Things….

Here’s a few final thoughts for features/fixes that would really improve the game:

• Defenders that recover a fumble or intercept a pass have about a 100% chance to fumble the ball if you don’t fall down or go out of bounds immediately. The only recourse is to press the “4″ button and hope your guy can hang on for dear life. This is unrealistic.
• In the real NFL the success rate for coaches challenging plays with replay is less than 50%. In fact, it’s closer to 30%. Yet in Madden 2007 if the CPU challenges a play you can bet the farm he’s going to win. I actually tracked CPU challenges for several games and a few franchise seasons. The success rate for replay challenges when called by the CPU coach was over 90%. This has to be fixed.
• Defensive backs never play “off”. In the real NFL, when a team’s defensive backs are outmatched by the receivers, or if the defensive coordinator is a more conservative guy, they will often command their corners to play 8-10 yards off the line of scrimmage. You hear the color commentators comment about this during games all the time: “Look how much cushion #32 is giving!” This is an ideal situation for throwing short curls, hooks and slant routes. But in Madden 2007 the CPU never has the corners play soft. Your receivers never have any cushion – and if they do, the defenders elilminate that cushion as soon as the ball is snapped. It’s yet another thing that makes the passing game in Madden unrealistic and aggrevating.
• Crossing routes are too closely defended. In the real NFL a crossing route can be a killer (this is why defenses employ zones and combination man/zone coverages while they attempt to fill passing lanes with linebackers). It’s very difficult for a defensive back to cover a speedy wide receiver all the way across the field. It’s impossible for a linebacker. Yet in Madden 2007, defensive backs and linebackers routinly cover wide receivers on crossing routes like they had their torso glued to the receiver’s shirt at the snap of the ball. More aggrevating: As you pass the ball to one of these closely guarded receivers, the linebacker covering them (who should be trailing by a couple yards by now) is able to speed up with Superman powers and swat the ball down. I’m still waiting to see this move in a real NFL game.
• Track play calling stats. In Madden 2007 you can go into something called the Weekly Gameplan and see the top three plays your opponent likes to call for passing and running, and the average yards per play that they gain using those plays. But that’s mostly useless information because the CPU is programmed to call plays in a fairly evenly distributed manner. What would be much better is a breakdown of the plays you have called over the course of a season, how frequently you call them and the AYPP. I’d like to see my whole playbook broken down, so I know if I’m not calling certain plays as often, or which plays absolutely stink because I get no yards from them. That sort of information would be invaluable (and fun).
• Shade plays you’ve already called during a game. In the real NFL coaches keep markers with them. As they call plays on their laminated playcall sheets they annotate things. One feature that would be really cool is if the playbook would shade a play you have already called – make it duller, and provide a counter in the corner of the playbox window so you would know how many times you’ve already called that play during a game. If the entire playbox window for that particular play was shaded slightly then your eyes could flip through your playbook for plays you haven’t called yet in very rapid fashion. All of this would make calling plays a richer game experience.

All right – I’m done. For now. Get to work EA. Your game doesn’t suck, but it’s not great either. You’ve got room for improvement.

• I’m happy for Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy. Mostly because I’m sick of the moronic national media trying to define these guys by their inability to win the biggest game. There’s 32 teams in the league, and 53 players per team. Only one team can win. Now the media can shut up for a while. Peyton Manning is an all-time great, and everyone outside of the media already knew it.
• This was the most food we’ve ever had at a Superbowl. This is also the best Superbowl I’ve experienced, in terms of food. My wife and I spent 4+ hours this morning preparing appetizers that we’ve never had before. Suprisingly, they all turned out very well. I love the Superbowl and I love eating food. This is the best day between now and Memorial Day.
• I raced home during halftime to pickup a DVD for my daughter and her cousins to watch, so they could stay out of our way while we were cheering on the Colts. While in my car I heard Don Shula n the radio complaining that this was a disappointing Superbowl because of the six turnovers at the half. The only thing disappointing to me was that comment. Was Shula even watching the same game? We had an opening kickoff return for a touchdown, and the score was 14-6 at the end of the first quarter. Usually the coaches for each team spend the first fifteen minutes feeling each other out before they get aggressive and start putting points on the board. Not this time. This was a great Superbowl from a fan’s perspective (unless, of course, you’re a Bears fan. But since the referees shafted my team last year, I feel no sympathy for Chicago.)
• The Superbowl ads were mostly lame. I do give the award for Best Superbowl Ad to FedEx though. The office-on-the-moon ad wasn’t particularly funny, but the ending was the best. Watching that guy in the spacesuit get obliterated by the passing comet was bold, brave and freaking hilarious. I wish more advertisers would have taken chances instead of playing it safe with dull ads. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Have some cojones!
• There’s roughly six months until football starts back up… And that’s just too damn long.