Think of the best Madden players you know. Do any of them run an actual offense or defense, or do they run a small handful of plays that they know will work? Every year, the game becomes less of “two players diagnosing their opponent’s tendencies” and more of “what are the best plays to get huge gains every time?” On offense, these are like five or six plays that, after a few motions and hot route tweaks, will always have a person downfield for a big gain. The AI on defense can’t comprehend all of these moves and every year, players figure out how to convince the AI that they don’t have to cover a specific receiver. That leaves somebody on a streak wide open, and players can do this consistently. When they see it works, they just run that play over and over and over and over until the opposing player figures out how to stop it, rather than having the defense’s AI pick up on the fact that they’re consistently running that play. Buy madden 24 coins at xtmmo.

This prevents high-level players from running zone coverage on defense almost entirely, since zones are easier to manipulate than man coverage. However, there lies another problem. How do you beat man coverage on crossing routes? You blitz the quarterback. This defensive meta has created a paradigm of micro-blitzing and defensive manipulation of the offensive line to consistently get to the quarterback in little to no time. The offensive line should realize that out of certain defensive packages, specific blitzes often get run, certain people tend to sack the quarterback. They should adjust.

On offense, I shouldn’t have to max-protect every play in order to get a throw off. On defense, once I give up a big play, my players should realize that play and adjust. You’d think that Madden’s awareness statistic would encompass such attributes on both sides of the ball, but it doesn’t.