Madden Game Three: Lions travel to the San Francisco Bay - ennepetal's Blog

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Madden Game Three: Lions travel to the San Francisco Bay

Posted on November 15, 2008 at 06:40 PM.

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So, after my concern over not changing my scouted players after week one, it seems that it's a moot point as the information I had on those players didn't seem to change whatsoever.

Hence, I am led to believe that the scouting function on Madden does little to nothing, which should be embarrassing for them. Even if it does do something, for it to not be obvious that you're gaining something by assigning a scout to a player is really, really poor form.

Since I'm already complainy today, I'm ready to smack virtual John Madden in the teeth. On my first two drives against the Niners, he called nothing but play-action passes without having given the ball to a back a single time. The sixth consecutive PA pass fooled nobody, bringing heat to where I panicked and hit Y when I wanted LB. This means that my tailback who was nearly being mugged by Takeo Spikes has zero chance to make a play and the ball, in fact, is taken the other way by Spikes to the eleven, leading to a Frank Gore 1-yard scoring run.

J.T. O'Sullivan after one quarter looks like the least error-prone QB I've faced yet, but the day is still young.

At the end of the first quarter: SF 7, Det 0

At least it's closer to real life for the Lions, eh?

Early in the second quarter, the teams exchange touchdowns.

Shaun McDonald lines up in the slot with nobody on him and his route to the flat, so, once the CB covering Megatron (Calvin Johnson) stays with him, I have Kitna shoot a pass his direction, which ends up going for an 80 yard score.

O'Sullivan sticks it back in my face by hitting Arnaz Battle on a curl, after which I whiff on the tackle, allowing him to get into the red zone. The next play is a bit of a blooper toss toward the goal line where the Niner player (i forget who) goes up in a crowd of Lion defenders and comes down with the ball.

Now THAT is the Detroit Lions I know.

Gore scores his second TD to post this amazing line: 5 carries, 3 yards, 2 TDs. Nice work Madden!

moving along...

My Skills strikes again. O'Sullivan and Gore move the ball fairly easily down the field until they just get too close to blowing the game open early for the AI's liking (my thoughts, anyhow) and the ball finds the hands of yet another Lions defender shortly before the two-minute warning. A couple of decent pass plays set up a 37-yard FG as time expired in the half.

Now, with seven seconds left in the half, Madden is calling for a field goal. Is this really that difficult to figure? I mean, seven seconds on third down? You throw one to the end zone. That just seems irresponsible, so I had to overrule the play call on that one and threw one deep to Roy Williams where he caught it just out of bounds.

The second half was pretty boring.

The no-rushing thing is getting old. I had Johnson up the middle twice at midfield needing but two yards and didn't get it. Then, with about five minutes left in the game and down four points, Madden calls for the same dive play on both third and two and fourth and one, Rudi, of course, can get the yardage not at all (or was it Kevin Smith as the third down back?

Either way, it's probably not completely unrealistic, but it's a little unnecessary. The rushing tests for the Skills is far easier than anything in the game. There should be some work put into it if they're going to keep it. It's a little skewed to ridiculousness right now.

In the good (bad) news department, Kitna is finally is coming into his own.

Kitna: 14-24 for 191 (yep), 1 TD and 2 INTs (that's the real deal Kitna there).
O'Sullivan: 20-26 for 191 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT

Gore: 22 times for 57 yards and 2 TDs? I don't think he ran that well in the real game (but I was working that day and don't have a clue, but you expect a guy like Gore to run wild on the Lions D)

Rudi: 13 runs for 9 yards. Give me a break.

Smith: No carries? How did that happen? I thought he was my third down guy?

I may change backs for the next game just to see if it's just that Madden has Rudi as washed up.

But, a loss is a loss.

SF 14, Detroit 10