Madden NFL 15 Players Actually Don't Want to Touch the Ball

It happened on the very first offensive play of my Eagles connected franchise. There was one-on-one coverage on the edge: Riley Cooper vs. Darius Butler. I wanted to take a shot deep.

As soon as the football began its quick descent, both Cooper and Butler stopped in their tracks, staring at the ball as if it were some kind of UFO passing overhead. By the time the ball got to each of them, Cooper threw his hands up meagerly and came down with the catch. Not only did it look disappointing, but it felt disappointing as well. It was a terrible throw, and Butler was in great position. Why didn’t he make a play on the ball?

This is an unfortunate example of one of Madden’s biggest issues, and one many still overlook: the players on the field don’t want the ball.

It isn’t just a problem while the ball is in the air, either. Defensive ends don’t look to poke the ball out of the QB’s hands when they’re winding back for a pass and offensive lineman don’t look to dive on the ball when their running back fumbles it to the ground. There’s an unfortunate lack of urgency to complete the game’s most basic goal, and that’s to be the team that controls the football.

Moving into the future, Madden needs to program a basic instinct for the AI to fight for the ball. The sheer lack of receiver/corner interaction in the secondary makes the passing game hundreds of times less interesting than it should be.

With so many of Madden's generational issues being taken care of (however slowly), fans of the series have to ask: why isn’t the fight for the ball being given a look?