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[FrenchMovieTheme]

The games get more and more predictable each season, that's my main beef with it. I still can't help but feel that most of the games are predetermined, or at the very least skewed towards one of the teams getting all of the lucky breaks. Just makes no sense that in most games, there is one team that can't be tackled, or one team that can't catch and INT to save their lives.

:lol

couldn't disagree more. infact, what you are saying lends MORE to the diversity and unpredictable nature of the game.

10 years ago you go into a game knowing that the highly rated team was just going to walk all over the other team. not so anymore. i haven't felt that one game was predetermined this season. yeah, bad shit happens to you and it seems to snowball, but have you ever watched real football?

i bet if you transported the steelers vs. raiders REAL LIFE game into a madden season game you would say "fucking bullshit! game wanted rors to win!"

 

[Matrix]

Anyone want to scrim? I need to get 51 points out of my head so I can stay sane.

 

[Rorschach]

i bet if you transported the steelers vs. raiders REAL LIFE game into a madden season game you would say "fucking bullshit! game wanted rors to win!"

 

[AstroLad]

Matrix I'll scrim you just give me ten mins to set up my 360.

 

[Matrix]

me!

Anyone?

edit- ok Astro, see you online in 10

 

[AstroLad]

:lol that convoy was awesome. even i was watching in awe

 

[Matrix]

:lol that convoy was awesome. even i was watching in awe

I have never seen that before :lol

 

[ph33nix]

convoy? :lol :lol

 

[DMczaf]

 

[ph33nix]

all i see is a broken image

 

[Matrix]

convoy? :lol :lol

I sacked Warner and one of my slow as hell d-line players picked it up and he ran it back 80 something yards with two guys in front of him celebrating and pointing to the sky while others ran really close behind him protecting him from being tackled.

Most of the guys running were my fat ass players protecting him.

 

[ph33nix]

soooooo Rors buddy of mine when do you want to get this done tonight

 

[Wellington]

I hope custom personnel packages are available next year. I do too much subbing as it is, and I saw that one game that Crow streamed and he was even worse than me.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

Checking out steam, 4 pack is now out for Bioshock 2. Also get four copies of the original Bioshock as well that can be gifted. All for 134.97 or 33.75 a copy. I know Denog will want to be in for a copy, who else wants in? Need two more.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/8859/

Enjoy paying 60 bucks a copy on 360 suckers!

Just got your PM this morning, and I am definitely still interested.

I am definitely feeling like the Madden gods are against me this season (even moreso than before). Where I used to be competitve, I now seem to make a comedy of errors on both defense and offense and now, most recently, my special teams are killing me with costly fumbles and poor tackling on kickoffs. I literally gave up 17 points to Livewire on SPECIAL TEAMS in a span of about 4 plays. Ugh.

I am somewhat embarassed that I have a pretty darn good team on paper and I can't play worth a damn. Makes me wonder what someone with much more seasoned Madden skills would do with my team. I am not offering that, but I just feel bad. Apologies to those who want more of a challenge when they play me.

 

[Wellington]

Just got your PM this morning, and I am definitely still interested.

I am definitely feeling like the Madden gods are against me this season (even moreso than before). Where I used to be competitve, I now seem to make a comedy of errors on both defense and offense and now, most recently, my special teams are killing me with costly fumbles and poor tackling on kickoffs. I literally gave up 17 points to Livewire on SPECIAL TEAMS in a span of about 4 plays. Ugh.

I am somewhat embarassed that I have a pretty darn good team on paper and I can't play worth a damn. Makes me wonder what someone with much more seasoned Madden skills would do with my team. I am not offering that, but I just feel bad. Apologies to those who want more of a challenge when they play me.

I think that there are three components to the game that can raise a player's level from good to great if done correctly.

1) Follow your blocks on runs, passes, and special teams
2) Identify the defense your opponent is running as you drop back to pass
3) Do not make mistakes in the open field with defenders.

I am not so good with #3.

 

[Ramirez]

:lol

couldn't disagree more. infact, what you are saying lends MORE to the diversity and unpredictable nature of the game.

10 years ago you go into a game knowing that the highly rated team was just going to walk all over the other team. not so anymore. i haven't felt that one game was predetermined this season. yeah, bad shit happens to you and it seems to snowball, but have you ever watched real football?

i bet if you transported the steelers vs. raiders REAL LIFE game into a madden season game you would say "fucking bullshit! game wanted rors to win!"

This is exactly what I'm talking about, most of the time the mistakes aren't even stuff you control. Overthrown passes, dropped balls, tackles being broken left and right, etc. This happens all the time to specifically one team while the other team has no problems with it, which is why I say they're some what skewed towards one team always having the advantage in the game. If a person is just bad at the game, no amount of help will help them, but when players are evenly matched, it's such BS to lose a game because of stuff happening that's out of your control.

My game against Fifty is a perfect example of this, my players dropped 99% of every INT thrown their way, yet Ed Reed was doing backflips while catching everything thrown his way. Roethlisberger overthrowing 5-6 wide open people, etc. There was nothing I could do about it, I was calling the right plays, but the game simply wouldn't let my team have any piece of the pie.

I mean you even said in your game against Striker that you felt the game had some type of home field advantage, that's all I'm saying as well.

I know full and well that you'll say "oh dur dur you wouldn't have a problem if you won the game!". We all know it's not true, I get just as mad when I win, see Darnell Dockett for example. Not gonna put on my blinders and act like the game is perfect.

Don't take this as me not having fun with the game either, I still have plenty of fun with it, just little stuff irks me about the game.

 

[AstroLad]

 

[LiveWire]

3) Do not make mistakes in the open field with defenders.

I am not so good with #3.

This one is tough to stay focused with because when you're down you wanna make a play. I'm tied for the league in takeaways because I'm very aggressive in stripping the ball, but I pay for it dearly occasionally (F U Edelman!). Sometimes though, you can just get screwed when Madden switches you to a player not in position to make a play. That's the really frustrating part.

 

[Ramirez]

Tell me, was he flexing at the end of that game?

I love Dockett for what it's worth, it pains me to get abused by a former Seminole.

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

This is exactly what I'm talking about, most of the time the mistakes aren't even stuff you control. Overthrown passes, dropped balls, tackles being broken left and right, etc. This happens all the time to specifically one team while the other team has no problems with it, which is why I say they're some what skewed towards one team always having the advantage in the game. If a person is just bad at the game, no amount of help will help them, but when players are evenly matched, it's such BS to lose a game because of stuff happening that's out of your control.

My game against Fifty is a perfect example of this, my players dropped 99% of every INT thrown their way, yet Ed Reed was doing backflips while catching everything thrown his way. Roethlisberger overthrowing 5-6 wide open people, etc. There was nothing I could do about it, I was calling the right plays, but the game simply wouldn't let my team have any piece of the pie.

I mean you even said in your game against Striker that you felt the game had some type of home field advantage, that's all I'm saying as well.

I know full and well that you'll say "oh dur dur you wouldn't have a problem if you won the game!". We all know it's not true, I get just as mad when I win, see Darnell Dockett for example. Not gonna put on my blinders and act like the game is perfect.

Don't take this as me not having fun with the game either, I still have plenty of fun with it, just little stuff irks me about the game.

well this happens in real life! balls are overthrown, fumbles happen, you get blocked, things happen that you can't control. you know not EVERY pass in the NFL is a pinpoint, on target pass where the qb wants it. i thought this is what we asked for :lol

and in my game with striker i felt like his O-line was dominating me and did question if there is homefield advantage. guess what? the real life 49ers were 2-6 on the road, 6-2 at home. we were two different teams. and i still could have won the game if i didn't throw a stupid pick on a roll out.

the game isn't perfect but if you honestly believe you have no control over the outcome that is hilarious.

 

[Mrbob]

At least you guys weren't flagged for an illegal forward pass on a rollout which was picked off for an int. Being about two yards past the line of scrimmage, tapping X to get down and the ball is LOBBED sky high for about 6 seconds in the air right into the middle of the field around 6 defenders for an int while I'm in scoring position on first down. I still can't believe that play. The game knows I'M PAST THE LINE OF SCRIMMAGE, decides to lob the ball instead of having me slide, and then flags me for the pass. Tiburon, fuck off. :lol

Besides this, my only real complaint are broken tackles. Way too many times RB hit the hole and are surrounded by about 5+ defenders and somehow break free.

 

[LiveWire]

At least you guys weren't flagged for an illegal forward pass on a rollout which was picked off for an int. Being about two yards past the line of scrimmage, tapping X to get down and the ball is LOBBED sky high for about 6 seconds in the air right into the middle of the field around 6 defenders for an int while you are in scoring position. I still can't believe that play. The game knows I'M PAST THE LINE OF SCRIMMAGE, decides to lob the ball instead of having me slide, and then flags me for the pass. Tiburon, fuck off. :lol

Real men keep running with their QBs and take the hit like a man.

 

[Mrbob]

Haha, if Jcut goes down I might as well tank the season. Or maybe a real man wouldn't have taken the INT and given me the penalty and the ball back to legitimately beat me.

 

[Wellington]

Bob, the same thing happened to DM in the playoff game against me.

Keep your RB in on blitz pickup and Dockett/Alain/Haynesworth or whoever become non factors in the pass rush up the middle.

 

[Rorschach]

I find that a lot of players don't pay attention to the dropback timing. The playbook tells you if it's a 3 step drop or a 5 step drop or a rollout or whatever. When people don't pay attention to this or don't time it exactly right, it results in a lot of bad throws. Yeah, some QBs are magical and can make throws over the shoulder while not even looking and in mid air, but most of us have to pay attention to these things. If you get it all down, you can make throws just as the drop back animation is finished and release the ball with your feet planted.

I also think it's better to control the QB than to let the cpu do it for you. The QBs don't throw the ball anymore, unless you tell them, but if you're moving while throwing the ball, that's gonna be a bad throw. The only advantage to letting the cpu control the QB is that it wiggles out of sacks.

If you have a QB with bad accuracy, NEVER LEAD PASSES. Ever. If the throw is only there with a lead pass, don't make that throw. If your QB has good accuracy, but bad deep ball accuracy, don't lead deep throws.

Even if you do all these things, you will still get bad throws especially if you have a bad QB, but it will minimize the quantity.

Oh yeah, and stay in the pocket if your QB doesn't have good throw on the run numbers. The only exception being if you are dead set on throwing the ball away.

I'm not a good QB and I don't have a good QB on my roster, but these things at least help me keep my head above water.

 

[Mrbob]

86 throw on the run number for cutler mmmmmmmmm.

I need it too because my line gets shredded like swiss cheese so I'm almost constantly on the move. :lol

 

[LiveWire]

Bob, the same thing happened to DM in the playoff game against me.

Keep your RB in on blitz pickup and Dockett/Alain/Haynesworth or whoever become non factors in the pass rush up the middle.

But if they do that, who will they pass to?

 

[Ramirez]

well this happens in real life! balls are overthrown, fumbles happen, you get blocked, things happen that you can't control. you know not EVERY pass in the NFL is a pinpoint, on target pass where the qb wants it. i thought this is what we asked for :lol

and in my game with striker i felt like his O-line was dominating me and did question if there is homefield advantage. guess what? the real life 49ers were 2-6 on the road, 6-2 at home. we were two different teams. and i still could have won the game if i didn't throw a stupid pick on a roll out.

the game isn't perfect but if you honestly believe you have no control over the outcome that is hilarious.

That's not what I'm saying dude, give me a break, did you even read my post?

Even in our games that we've played, you constantly complain about how you're going to fumble 15 times a game, this is EXACTLY the point I'm trying to make. You have NO control over that, even though you're just as good as me, you get blown out because the game decides that your players can't hold on to the ball. You can say stuff happens, but it happens practically every time we play. :lol

Same thing with me and Fifty, our first league game each season plays out exactly the same, he gets all of the breaks and I get none. Fly over to Pitt for the second game and it's exactly the opposite, we're like 5/5 so far, let's see how mine and his game plays out in Pitt in a few games.

 

[Mrbob]

I'm not at home, but is there a way to remap the qb slide button?

I want to see if I can make it RB. So if the game at least decides to try and pass for me instead of sliding it is only a pump fake.

 

[Rorschach]

I'm not at home, but is there a way to remap the qb slide button?

I want to see if I can make it RB. So if the game at least decides to try and pass for me instead of sliding it is only a pump fake.

No. I don't know what's so fucking hard about letting us remap the controller configurations. Is it because they don't want to deal with people glitching and, instead of testing, they just took the whole thing out? There are unused buttons on the controller, too. They should move that button.

 

[daw840]

It does kind of suck you can't just take a dive in the pocket. Merriman got such a clean hit on JRuss one time I really wanted to just hit the button and fall down. I thought JRuss may have a ruptured spleen on that one.

 

[Mrbob]

Dang, that sucks not being able to remap.

Peterb0y you need to win another game....my team name is a blessing to use as an advantage to get into the playoffs, but it is a curse when I want to tank for a higher draft pick.

Deny me my WR at the expense of some of my defense? I'll use my top end pick to get an elite WR in the draft, and maintain my defense!

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

That's not what I'm saying dude, give me a break, did you even read my post?

Even in our games that we've played, you constantly complain about how you're going to fumble 15 times a game, this is EXACTLY the point I'm trying to make. You have NO control over that, even though you're just as good as me, you get blown out because the game decides that your players can't hold on to the ball. You can say stuff happens, but it happens practically every time we play. :lol

Same thing with me and Fifty, our first league game each season plays out exactly the same, he gets all of the breaks and I get none. Fly over to Pitt for the second game and it's exactly the opposite, we're like 5/5 so far, let's see how mine and his game plays out in Pitt in a few games.

wow, a 7 point loss is a blow out now? i've been blown out twice this season then!

and yes, i did say that i fumble constantly against you. but i don't chalk this up to the game pre-determining that i'm going to lose. i chalk it up to polamalu and clark being ridiculous in this hit power department.

i also lost to the rams last year AT HOME in a game which it seemed like i was getting all the breaks early, but didn't put the game away because i got greedy.

and if that's not your point, then what is? you originally said the games get more predictable each season, and i said that isn't true.

 

[PBY]

Dang, that sucks not being able to remap.

Peterb0y you need to win another game....

uh...

 

[Mrbob]

Chiefs over the Bears this season....I'm calling it now!

One more and we are golden!

 

[Wellington]

It does kind of suck you can't just take a dive in the pocket. Merriman got such a clean hit on JRuss one time I really wanted to just hit the button and fall down. I thought JRuss may have a ruptured spleen on that one.

I've crushed some QBs with the hit stick and haven't ever put anyone out for a game.

 

[CB3]

pft. Donovan stiff arms pussy rushers and keeps on moving

 

[LukeSmith]

I've crushed some QBs with the hit stick and haven't ever put anyone out for a game.

LJ knocked Peyton out for a half last season

 

[TheCrow]

I hope custom personnel packages are available next year. I do too much subbing as it is, and I saw that one game that Crow streamed and he was even worse than me.

I always sub out players once they start turning yellow so I can avoid injuries, missed tackles, fumbles, etc. But I think the game you saw was one of my late season games which were meaningless and I was subbing in a lot of my back ups in. But I would love custom personnel packages so I could have a easier time setting up my plays.

 

[daw840]

Custom Personell packages would be great

When I was rocking the 2 RB shotgun formation with Fred Taylor (before he retired) I would put him off to the right. The only problem was that it lowered his OVR rating really bad because he was technically at the FB position. I don't really know if that affected his stats though.

 

[Mrbob]

I'm shocked you would look at a 2 rb shotgun formation. Shocked I say! :lol

Just poking fun!

One thing I thought about in the pocket is just throwing it away instead of getting hit. Sure you'll get intentional grounding but at that point who really cares. The ball is placed at the same spot anyway and the qb doesn't get pummeled.

 

[daw840]

I'm shocked you would look at a 2 rb shotgun formation. Shocked I say! :lol

Just poking fun!

One thing I thought about in the pocket is just throwing it away instead of getting hit. Sure you'll get intentional grounding but at that point who really cares. The ball is placed at the same spot anyway and the qb doesn't get pummeled.

LOL, it's not my fault that JRuss can't hit the broad side of a barn more than 3 yards out!

Spoiler

And I suck at reading coverages.

 

[Mrbob]

You know, maybe we stumbled upon a secret to jruss success. His accuracy is so horrible, if you try to throw the ball away it might actually go to one of your WR instead!

 

[LukeSmith]

And I suck at reading coverages.

One of the true Elites can correct me or give you some better advice, but I usually watch the linebackers and the Safeties first. If the ROLB comes on a blitz, I look at the Safety, the Nickel Corner (when applicable) and the DE/DT on the ROLB side.

Does one safety come up and one drop to a deep third? that's Cover 3, some players will flip formations so that the SS drops to the deep third and the FS flips to cover the middle so you can't just bank on watching one safety.

 

[BigAT]

I still think people just don't value the ball enough. Throwing into coverage, passing instead of taking a sack (I'm certainly guilty of this), making throws on the run and passing too frequently in general. It is not surprising in the least, but the four teams with the best turnover differential are currently a combined 16-0.

 

[Somnia]

FMT...can you play tonight after the advance? I'm free all night tonight. I will be on AIM (in away, but I'm there) just let me know. Gonna crash for a few hours right now though since I've been up since 2AM for work.

 

[Wellington]

One of the true Elites can correct me or give you some better advice, but I usually watch the linebackers and the Safeties first. If the ROLB comes on a blitz, I look at the Safety, the Nickel Corner (when applicable) and the DE/DT on the ROLB side.

Does one safety come up and one drop to a deep third? that's Cover 3, some players will flip formations so that the SS drops to the deep third and the FS flips to cover the middle so you can't just bank on watching one safety.

I find myself just making my #1 and an inside read more and more. You should be able to tell if it's cover 2 or man/cover 3 based in the LCB. The read on the inside tells you cover 3 or man depending on how the LB reacts to the TE out on a route. It's a little unorthodox I know but it has helped me out a lot with hot reads as those that play me regularly can tell. Very rarely have I had to go past my #2 option. LJ sacked me last night because everyone was covered.

I try not to run plays that require more than a five step drop.

I've been throwing the ball up for grabs on fly routes with terrible results, that has been my downfall this year with ints. I'm almost ready to say that there is no height or jump advantage either (to go along with SPD) since neither Barden nor Nicks can make plays over DBs

 

[DMczaf]

At least you guys weren't flagged for an illegal forward pass on a rollout which was picked off for an int. Being about two yards past the line of scrimmage, tapping X to get down and the ball is LOBBED sky high for about 6 seconds in the air right into the middle of the field around 6 defenders for an int while I'm in scoring position on first down. I still can't believe that play. The game knows I'M PAST THE LINE OF SCRIMMAGE, decides to lob the ball instead of having me slide, and then flags me for the pass. Tiburon, fuck off. :lol

You wouldn't have had the problem if you didn't panic when Olson was covered and rolled out everytime to make it obvious Olson was your first read :smug

 

[DCX]

When these two last games getting played?

DCX

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

FMT...can you play tonight after the advance? I'm free all night tonight. I will be on AIM (in away, but I'm there) just let me know. Gonna crash for a few hours right now though since I've been up since 2AM for work.

yep!

p.s. league is advancing at 9 pm pst tonight (unless a game is in progress)