Just curious, do you usually play a sports game by taking the best team available, or is this just a case where you're a big USC fan? I'm one of those people that likes to build from the ground up by starting at a small school. I honestly get bored if I start with a good team.

It's probably a good question in general whether people like to start at small schools, big schools, or their favorite school.

I'm a USC alum and have been a huge fan of all of their sports teams ever since I went there. That is why in my NCAA College Hoops 2k7 dynasty, I'll leave Duke in a heartbeat if the USC job opens up. I always try to work my way to USC or start as USC in my college videogame playing.

He can answer for himself, but since I'm here, I'll grab it. He's a USC alum.

I choose Memphis because that's where my wife did her undergrad work, and my school (New Orleans) doesn't play football. I'd pick Memphis (a very, very good basketball team, obviously) in College Hoops, too, but New Orleans does play basketball, so I pick UNO for that.

I've tried to do the "pick a small school and build it up" thing, but if I don't have any kind of connection to that particular school, I have a hard time getting into it. I have to pick a team I actually like or care about.

Edit to add: EF beat me to answering the question that was asked to him. Oops on my part. :)

Dola -

I usually do get bored with controlling USC after a few seasons in NCAA Football. At that point, if I'm still into the game (and this could be the first time that happens since the 04 version), I'll pick one of the worst schools in the game and start there, trying to work my way up.

For me its favorite school, i always try to play as Missouri(where i grew up) or Arizona state(where i currently go to college), and if those two arent available i take wisconsin since i have a lot of family there.

I usually play with Mizzou as they have been a middle of the pack team. They're awfully good on this year's game, so I may have to start at a lower level when I get the game next month and move my way up to Mizzou.

I start at my alma mater, Rutgers, which just a short time ago was one of those "start with a terrible school in a tough conference" choices.

Gotta admit...I don't miss those days.

Always Mizzou for me as well. It's time to get us a NC!

I never know how to start in games like these. I went to a state school with a Div III football team, so that is out. The closest big school that I care about is Wisconsin, but that almost makes the game too easy...

I PICK WEST VIRGINIA AND RUN THE SAME PLAY OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND U CANT STOP THIS LOL N00B

I play with Indiana, so there is always plenty of building to do.

same here, St. John's U is Div III, so i have to pick a team i have no allegiance to. i normally will pick Miami, since i love South Beach and that's the only other city i like on the East Coast. Syracuse or some other New York State team could be a possibility, but i really don't consider upstate New York to be the real NY. just like no one in NYC recognizes the Bills as the 3rd NY team.

Marshall. I was born in town and have family ties.

I usually go with Rutgers, since they're the Div 1A Jersey school. (I went ot Stockton, a Div III school. Once these college games start including Division III, I'll be set...but I won't be holding my breath). I used to create Stockton in some college games (If it was easy and could find suitable colors/logos), but NCAA Football doesn't have that option in the next gen this year.

I generally pick a new lower level team each year and try to build them into a champion. Wish I could update my CSU dynasty - darned easportsworld.com hasn't worked for the past 2 days.

Karl Dorrell, is that you?

So I #11 Louisville offered me 3rd string, and I decided to accept (I had a ton of top-25 offers for 4th and 5th string). Then my finger slipped on the "do you want to rename all the players?" and switched to "No" as I hit the A button, so now I have to go back and replay the last 2 games of my high school playoffs where I last saved.

Maybe I'll win the championship game this time. And maybe I'll remember to save when the championship game is over.

I generally take Wyoming, since I went to school there for a semester as an undergrad and if I hadn't run out of money, would've graduated from there.

But if/when I get into an MFA program, I'll take whatever school I get into.

I miss going to a D-I school.

dola,

I also went to Minnesota for a year, but I actively cheer against the Gophers at every opportunity.

trola,

I'm the starting RB as a freshman for North Carolina in my current CL game after winning the state championship with Park High.

North Carolina because they were willing to make me the starter and I love their powder blue uniforms.

Next time I'll take a 4th or 5th string school and work my way up, probably as a QB.

I always pick Army (alma mater) to start my dynasty. On another note, there are no sliders for fumbles. The only thing that I can think of to fix it is to increase the RB Ability maybe?

I've only had 1 game where fumbles were out of hand. I have had at least a half dozen with 0 fumbles. For me, they aren't a problem.

At least in campus legend mode as a RB, they seem to come in spurts for me. I don't think I've had a game yet where I've just fumbled one time. Its either 0 or 2+, I've had as many as 4 in a game, more than once.

Yep, generally it's not an issue for me in CL mode but I did have 3 consecutive games where I had fumbling problems for some reason including one game where I fumbled 4 times.

While doing some research I was surprised to learn that Missouri is the only Big 12 team without a division title in football, regular season or tournament title in basketball, or a regular season or tournament title in baseball. In fact, Missouri's only two conference titles in Big 12 play were by the 1997 softball team. 2 out of 320 conference championships awarded by the Big 12 so far.

I'm not talking smack. I just found that amazing because Mizzou's athletic program is generally very competitive across the board.

Maybe not, but I get the feeling this bit of information will be posted again at some point in the next 4 months. :)

i used a free rental on this and I gotta say Im very impressed with the CL mode....havnt played dynasty yet but this has been a lot of fun thus far.

question: on the calendar if you sim to the games, skipping practice, do you still get an increase or growth in points?

Oh yeah, you don't have to tell us MU fans. :)

MU has never won a team championship since the B12 was formed. Lots of close calls, but nothing overall. However, MU has won multiple individual titles, both at the B12 and NCAA level and has one of the top 5 wrestling programs in the nation. Hopefully, our football team can win the north this year and win the B12 championship on our home state turf in Arrowhead. :)

Bastard!!! :mad:



;)

Has anyone else encountered a problem with too many holding penalties? I used EF27's sliders, setting holding to 99 and started getting a ton of holding penalties, sometimes 4-5 in a row. Even after setting the slider to 0, it still happens. I had to shut off penalties (PS2).

I've seen some other instances of this happening on the web, but was wondering if anyone had any insight here.

Also, how are the load times on the PS3 or XBox 360? This game is the first one that actually got me thinking about buying one of the two.

Hmmm, on the 360, I hardly see any holding penalties or any penalties at all with my sliders. Besides the interceptions being too high, that is my biggest gripe with the game. Load times aren't bad at all on the 360.

Not bad on the PS3, but it's all relative. I never sat there thinking it was taking way too long when I rented it. I know that there are websites out there that do load time comparisons between the two systems when there are similar games. If you want exact load times on either system, probably would be a good thing to search for to find out.

Man, Bill Abner started out pretty high on this game and his impressions have gone downhill pretty quickly. Complaining about the passing game in his latest blog.......

http://sportsgamer.blogspot.com/2007...nning-low.html

Jistic on OS usually has some great sliders and he just released his. He has defensive awareness at 20 for both sides which he says has eliminated the interceptions being too high (he's averaging 1 a game against the CPU.) He has knockdowns to 100 and ints at 0 like I did. I'm going to try that this weekend, as the number of interceptions being too high is my only significant complaint about the game at this point.

I've only played a handful of games so far, but I'm still not seeing this yet. I'm hoping to start my dynasty very soon though and then I'll get to see more games played. Last game was 1 INT and that was me.

Without using anyone's sliders, I upped knockdowns to 100, decreased INT's to zero, and defensive awareness to 35. Interceptions are now at 1-2 per game, sometimes zero or three, but mainly within the 1-2 range.

Yeah, I might just keep it at 30 which is where I tested it at with a variety of teams. I think I just need to accept USC's defense kicks ass and will intercept it more than most teams ;)

In my first start for the Buffalo Bulls against Penn State in career mode (whatever it's called), I threw like 5 or 6 picks, including my first 2 passes.

I suck. They should really move you back down the depth chart if you suck it up. The high school games were fun. I got sick of the load times before each practice...

I increased knockdowns to 100, ints to 0, and lowered defensive awareness a little. We shall see...

That being said, I just had my best game with 2008. The third game of my dynasty I played West Virginia at home (as Maryland). For the life of me, I could not stop Slaton at all. The only two saving graces were the two interceptions Pat White threw - they kept me in the game. With 18 seconds left, West Virginia kicked a FG to take a 38-35 lead. I had no timeouts left (they drove down the field on the previous possession, so I had to do everything just to have some time left), so I knew I had to throw an out pattern. The first attempt was miserable, so I had 7 seconds left from my own 42. I threw a hail mary, completed it down to the West Virginia 22, only to watch the last second tick off. My first loss, 38-35, but thoroughly enjoyable.

I can't wait for the next game :).

Oh, btw, 2 interceptions for WVA and 1 for me. I can deal with 3 interceptions per game...

I'm not either. I had one game where it was big. I just played a game today where each team had 1 pick on AA with no slider movement at all.

I also was wondering about this. I've been skipping practice (without a noticeable in-season ratings boost) but attending the nightly functions (and receiving the applicable boosts). I'd like to sim everything, but the night stuff is kinda neat.

Do you have to save your profile right after you get an ESPN Instant Classic? Because I didn't save the profile right away and just went straight to ESPN Instant Classics... then when I tried to save it after not finding the game on there, it didn't appear. :(

Was a hell of a game too. North Carolina goes up 7-0 on a 72 yard TD run by me, my first-ever for 20+ yards in CL mode (I even took 2 videos of it), Virginia battles back with superior defense and takes a 20-7 lead. I punch in another TD from 5 out and we close to within 20-14 and eke out another TD late in the 4th quarter.

Then I got the ball back with 15 seconds left, rip a huge gain down to the Cavs' 15 yard line... only to fumble and lose the ball. VA gets it back with 11 seconds left but we hang on for the 21-20 win.

My highest total ever running too, like 154 yards for 2 TDs and a short pass reception.

Another post from Bill Harris concerning a few positives and a list of bugs/problems he's found thus far, including another complaint about interceptions.........

Quick responses:

- My first Legend game on the college level (I only played one, then went back to my dynasty) was at night.

- Haven't had any issues with the sound.

- The interceptions are a little high it seems, but with slider changes are much more reasonable. I know right when I throw it when a pass will be picked off; it's always been because of a terrible decision, not when the DB/LB makes a great play on the ball. I probably average a pick a game defensively. Running is a little tough on default AA, but I wouldn't say it's "difficult" to run. Before I messed around with sliders, I was breaking plenty of big plays and also getting stuffed behind the line. Now that I have the sliders where I want them, it feels much more realistic...some big plays, some losses, most in the 5 yard range (I'm using a very good RB).

- Strongest wind I've seen is 13MPH. I guess that's an issue to some, but not to me.

- Not following on his Super Sim issue.

- Either he or I are seeing something wrong. I seem to see the holder looking back at the kicker before every snap, seeing if he's ready, and then turning his head forward to receive the snap. Actually thought that was a pretty cool animation.

- 100% agree on the ESPN.com feature. It's crap. Annoying to navigate and it seems to take too long to load/exit out of.

- No real comment on the legend mode, haven't played enough...but as a HS MLB, I remember getting called for PI in one of the playoff games.

- 100% disagree on "meaningless" Pontiac Game Changing play...what's considered meaningless? A 7 yard run...an incomplete pass? I haven't seen any like that. Every one has been a TD, an INT, or a fumble. And not a TD to make it 35-14...my last game, my national championship loss to USC, the featured play was an early 3rd quarter TD by USC...which was the first 7 of 21 straight points. My complaint with the feature is that you can't cut out of it by X-ing or hitting start...you're forced to watch the whole play.

Speaking of the wind, sometimes when I pick my side of the field to defend (with the wind) I'm actually kicking off into the wind.

The ESPN.com feature may be crap but at least it's an attempt to get us more immersed in the game. I can't figure out how to get to the AP's 25. All I see is the Coach's 25.

I think the Pontiac Game Changing play is the score that allowed the winning team to get ahead. I also don't like the fact that you have to watch your whole replay of a play you're trying to save to the hard drive without being able to X out.

After losing in the final thirty seconds to Ole Miss, beating Arkansas State on a last-second field goal, and holding off a Duke comeback attempt to win by 10, I thought I was at least able to keep up with some of the teams out there. I wasn't worried at all when I had a game coming up at Central Florida. Little did I know...

UCF handed me a 55-19 beating. Their running back ran for 178 yards on me. I've never had the CPU run like that against me in an NCAA game before, I don't think. I mean, we just couldn't stop him. This wasn't something where he only had like 10 carries and broke two or three long touchdown runs. This was in about 28 carries. After he broke a couple of 10-yard runs on me, I started stacking the line, and then UCF went to the air on me. I just couldn't do a thing.

On the flip side, I was punishing UCF early in the game with play action passes. After about a quarter of that, they started blitzing much more often. I actually got sacked on three consecutive plays. They were ahead, they knew I had to throw the ball, so they pinned their ears back and just flew at me. I figured that the CPU couldn't possibly be smart enough to keep blitzing again and again, but it was. I had to slow down the blitz, so I went to screen passes. After rolling down the field with some screens and quick passes, their blitzes stopped. Of course, I didn't know that they were going to stop blitzing, so I tried one screen pass that got stuffed. They completely confused me when I was on offense because they were adapting to everything I did, and since I was down by about 26 at that point, I couldn't afford to run the ball much to get them off my back. They just played way too smart for me.

I hope I have UCF on my schedule next season so I can get revenge. :mad:

Hold down the LT trigger, like how you move through the depth chart with the RT one.

I'd like to add one more thing about my game against UCF. On consecutive plays, I did something that I'd never done before. First, I returned a kickoff for a touchdown. Yeah, yeah, I've been playing this series for years, and I'd never done it. Well, I did it and I almost jumped up and down. That feeling left pretty quickly, as I followed that up with another new experience.

I missed the extra point. :(

Ha. Good stuff:) I mean, :(

I suck at offense so bad...it's ridiculous. My D is pretty solid, but I just beat Akron (as Ohio State) 26-7. I kicked 4 FG's and scored one defensive TD. In the Red Zone, I had 4 FG's and 1 TD. If I can work on that I would have blown them out. I only scored 1 offensive TD on a 3rd and 6 pass from the RZ that hit an open receiver. That was about the most excited I've been with the game since I got it (because I struggle mightily with the offense). Hopefully I can be undefeated until I play some tough opponents (Penn State in the 9th game).

Curious how others are finding special Teams play...I have never been succesful returning kicks but against UCLA I popped 3 for touchdowns. Lost 37-34 because I threw 6 picks though :( 2 were just bad reads on my part, but the other 4 were horrible throws by my QB, thank god special teams kept me in the Game.

Has anyone else had this much success on KO returns? (I have 7 for TD's since I started playing, in 9 games)

Two total, approximately 35 games.

I've returned one kickoff and one punt in about 20 games.

Just had the weirdest bug. Ran a playaction on about the 7, reciever made a diving catch in the MIDDLE of the endzone for a TD. Booth reviewed the ball spot, not the catch, the spot. Play was reversed and I had the ball on the 1.

For the life of me.. i cannot get the cpu to auto name the rosters for me in campus legend mode, its kinda a game killer for me :(

I did on the default difficulty level...when i turned it up to all-american and heisman it was fine

Thanks!

Guys...has there been mention of this bug???

I have my settings on AA but in dynasty mode, every game I start has the setting to be played in varsity.

Happened to me. I saved my profile then loaded it before I loaded my dynasty. Then with the dynasty loaded it was all set.

It sucks because your profile saves the sliders and such across all game modes. Example: I don't fatigue in CL mode because my player (the RB) gets wiped when I'm in the red zone. But I do want it in dynasty mode. So when I switch between the modes, I have to toggle it on/off each time I switch. It's not cool.

Thanks...that's certainly a pain but I guess I have to deal with it.

What's the error you are getting? You have the option to do this at signing day (forget if it is heading into or out of signing day). If you forget to do this, I think you are screwed, and agree that's an issue, but in my case I just re-did signing day (well, I went back two games in the high school playoffs because I forgot to save, but that was also my fault).

I'm not about to wade through this thread to find the answer to this question...has anyone played the regular XBox version? Is it decent? The last version I bought was 2005 and I'm wondering if there's enough of an upgrade to spend the $40 on it...

Thanks for any help!

This game is very good and has that one more game feel to it. I currently have a dynasty with Florida State and to my surprise my freshman receiver is flat out amazing. I have seen one hand catches, diving catches with him sliding his toes make the catch inbounds, and seen him take a screen 80+ yards after juking almost everyone.

I still don't have a hang of recruiting as I usually don't have enough points to recruit a whole class of 25 players because my top targets need attention. Does anyone have any tips or know where I can get some helpful recruiting tips.

Thanks

I am having the same problem with my game. After the signing day I get the option to name them and I always select yes and still my rosters have always been default HB #23, etc...

Am I missing something about how to do this???

I was playing as Notre Dame and I received an invitation to play in the MAC! So i took it! Woot!

I have it for the regular xbox. You can't "play" as a HS recruit and get recruited that way, you can only do some of the skills challenges to get your points. It's just a more updated version of 06 IMO but still fun

This worked fine for me on the 360 version.

I;m having the same problem as well

Turnovers are killing me. I've adjusted the sliders (O int, 100 knockdown, awareness down). Against the Akron Zips with 7 minute quarters, I fumbled the opening kickoff, and proceeded to have a 4 pick, 3 int game. The zips threw 3 ints as well, and may have had one fumble too. I use the cover up button when in traffic. Not sure what to do. The interceptions are no doubt a result of me sucking, but the fumbles are getting annoying.

Finally, finally, FINALLY! Good god. I'm a RB in my 2nd year in CL mode and I was ready to throw the game out the window. Ohio State was 1-5, with one of the worst defenses in the country (30+ PPG allowed, T-2 on turnover margin). Here are the results for the season thus far:

vs Akron 23-34 L
@ Washington 16-29 L
vs North Texas 52-31 W!!!
vs Penn State 6-30 L
vs Northern Illinois 17-40 L
@ Wisconsin 14-27 L

1-5 with my RB player averaging over 200 rushing/receiving yards per game. Frustration city.

Then, my defense finally played like Ohio State and my QB didn't throw 5600 picks and we freaking beat Minnesota 28-10. And yes, I turned the INT slider to zero several games ago.

Hopefully we can least make a freaking bowl game and start to play like a title contender before I get the hell out of there...good god team, get it together...

Per the Gameinformer Preview, Madden also has too many interceptions and fumbles and supposedly the developers are aware of it and already working on a patch to correct both issues. It makes me hope that NCAA will also have a patch to reduce turnovers, although I'm still enjoying the game with sliders.

ok bigdpw and greyroofoo i figured it out..

i had to delete my profile/roster file/settings. that somehow allowed it to randomly name my players in cl mode. after that you can change the settings etc..

My next game only had 2 turnovers, so that was better. I still suck. Although we did beat Marshall. :)

This is what is killing dynasty mode for me. Over the first 4 games I've played I've only thrown 1 pick but I've had 22 fumbles, of which I only recovered 1. I just can't handle it.

I'm just not seeing all this stuff you guys are seeing. Perhaps, some people just aren't that good? I get picked off probably 2-3 times a game with my BC QB but almost all of them are terrible throws. I rarely fumble. The machine throws 1-2 INTs a game and also rarely fumbles. I've played 6 games on AA and no adjustments. I sit 3-3.

It's odd that some people see a ton of fumbles and others don't. I've hardly fumbled with the USC backs. Occasionally, my WR's will fumble one if they get hit right after catching it, but I have about 10 (4 in one game) in 8 games of my dynasty and the CPU hasn't had too many either.

The whole fumbles thing is getting to me. I can handle it when it feels right, for example you pull a special move in traffic, or you bounce off a tackler and get lit by the next guy, wr receiver across the middle, blindsided qb. I understand that there should also be a few random fumbles in low risk situations but it's been absurd. I've been using the cover ball button more but it's hard to tell if it's doing something. The carry rating of the two backs i've been using isn't too low (86 and 84) but I'm on track for 60+ fumbles. I think the number should be down in the 20's. I'm working up the will to play again and am just hoping it's an abbaration.

Are you covering up the ball?

I'm not seeing that many fumbles either. I can't figure out why some people are and some people aren't.

Why should you have a cover the ball option that is selectable I love the game but the fumbles are really bothersome. I want the player to naturally cover up just like the manually hurdle and juke occasionally. The juke stick is WORTHLESS if you don't want to fumble.

Maybe it is because the USC backs are very good, but I juke frequently and they still rarely fumble. However, I never juke unless it is a 1 on 1 situation.

I agree...if you're about to get tackled by a couple guys...just take the hits and go down. I try and accelerate through the hole, get to the second level and if I break it, great. If not, I'll take my 5-7 yards and be happy with it and holding onto the ball.

I think with this game more than any other, if you try and do too much, with the tackling being what it is, you're going to mess up.

I think people just like to bitch about something. :)

I'm seeing variance, and to me that's a good thing.

Right now the one thing I am unhappy about is the general lack of firepower from the CPU offense. They don't seem to try and take advantage of clear mismatches. It looks like this will be another NCAA version that I play the game on All-American difficulty when on offense and then bump it up to Heisman when the CPU goes on offense.

I will say recruiting is already boring for me. I pick the targets and offer scholarships and let the CPU make the phone calls.

EA really needs to start adding some gameplay immersion though. It seems kind of bland after playing a game of APF before hand.

I really enjoy recruiting so far. This is the first console game in a long, long time where I find myself playing for a hour after I had planned to stop. This happens sometimes with PC games but it is rare for me on the console. Haven't played APF yet. I definitely won't buy it without a career mode...might give it a rental sometime.

I just had my most enjoyable game. I turned down Defensive Awareness one more notch to 25 and upped tackling and break block to 45. I also turned knock downs to 95. Neither side threw a pick, but it was a defensive battle between USC and Cal for the first half. Then in the 2nd half, it was wide open football. We barely got by with a 33-28 win. Longshore and DeSean Jackson were very dangerous all game long.

Hey, to each his own. ;) It just takes too much time and I'd rather be playing games.

I have been, even during those high fumble games. I had 4 in my last one but two were reversed on challanges and the other two were when the players were covering the ball. One was my QB and he kinda bounced off someone, then got rocked, so that was OK. The other was in the open field, near the sideline, when someguy hit my back who was covering the ball, and had it in the sideline arm (he was hit field side with a glancing blow). It's still frusterating but when there aren't so many the game is fun. I kinda wonder if it has something to do with the replay system and maybe wanting to have to many plays challanged or something? I dunno.

Also side note, just played the Heels, Richie Rich? Parents are crazy.

My biggest gripe in the game is a small one, but still a gripe.

Adjusting my Depth Chart. Man, this is SO LAME. I remember when it was so much easier, but now they've made it so clunky and horrible. It needs to reload when I make a move but then everything resets and shows every player being a possible replacement for my QB, so I have to scroll down a half mile just to find the right guy. Hopefully it will be cleaned up once I get used to it, since maybe I'm doing something wrong.

You aren't doing anything wrong. I think it is a bug that reverses everyone by overall ability at the position on the replacement chart, and I agree that it is very annoying.

I'm in the middle of another great game with these sliders. My only complaint is the CPU QB might be too effective, but that is much better than the inepitude of the CPU QB in past years on AA.

#1 qb in the nation coming out of high school(campus legend).. everyone wants me.. where should i go? :)

wanna stay out of the top 10 or so

it doesn't seem to matter where you go, as even if you're buried deep on the depth chart it doesn't take an insane amount of time to eventually be the starter. i went to Miami as the #5 RB and by the 9th game in i was the starter.

Hawaii.

I think its actually better to go somewhere that you don't start. As you practice and leapfrog over people, you gain ratings. I've started two different careers, one at Georgia Tech as the 5th string back, and one at North Carolina as the starter. In both I started with a 78 overall rating. But working my way up from 5th to 1st, I was the starter after th e 6th game or so of my freshman year, and at the start of my sophomore year my ratings had jumped to 91. Starting at UNC i don't get any big bumps from practice, and my ratings are only up to an 86 overall late in my Junior season.

I quit my Ga Tech career, but I might go back and play another one after this one is completed where I start as a 5th stringer and work my way up, I want to get on a good team and get my ratings into the upper 90s(hopefully) by my senior year and try to just put up ridiculous numbers.

Got into my first game as a player in my RB CL career. Got from 4th -> 3rd on the depth chart, then had a home game against North Carolina (I'm on South Florida). Got in on a kick return and extra point coverage, then suddenly was in on most offensive plays. Found out later that at least the starter went down, haven't checked yet to see what happened to second string. Caught a swing pass on my first play, took two steps, got blasted and fumbled. Was my only fumble though on 30+ carries and a handful of receptions.

We ended up losing a tight one 28-21, with me getting stuffed on the goalline on a 4th-and-goal from the 4 inside of 2 minutes left. 7 trips to the red zone by my team, with 2 TDs, 1 missed FG, 1 stop on 4th down, and 3 INTs. I'll be uploading video of the goal-line stuff later, it was a great gaming moment for me.

On the INTs, I was on the field for 4 by my QB, and in at least 2 he threw into coverage (triple-coverage in one case), but in the 2 others I think my least favorite football game bug kicked in, one that's bugged in ESPN NFL 2k5, Madden 06, and probably every other game I've QB'ed in: the CBs break for the ball, receivers don't. If the receivers had been playing the ball, they would not have been nearly as likely to get picked. But a receiver keeps blissfully running the route, while the CB sees the ball coming and breaks off pursuit to get to the ball. Isn't that supposed to be the other way around, where the WR can fool the DB, then break off at the last second to make the catch? I can see why turning down awareness helps with the problem.

I think the problem with fumbles may be with the players you have. I frequently fumble if I try to juke...granted, my players are from Army so they're not the best. The last few games I've played I haven't fumbled as much (maybe 1 per game). But that's because I've been using the coverup button a lot.

Im pretty sure you can sort by overall rating by pressing X on the 360 version, which brings the legit replacements to the top.