Fix Madden Offensive/Defensive Balance

While Madden 13 has a solid foundation, time is showing how the game's poor offensive and defensive balance are hurting gameplay a great deal. Presently, scores are much too high and defensive stops are a misnomer a la the dreaded Madden 11. And why were so many defensive plays taken out of the playbooks? The lack of double TEs and WR plays hurts tremendously. If anything the defenses needed more--not less.


Defenders in the run game still appear unaware of other players and run at the ball-carrier in a straight line (getting caught in collisions virtually every play) instead of navigating their way around bodies. While we understood the need to make defenders more realistically react, like Madden 11 we now have a game where pass defenders in man coverage (and in general) are too easily beat. We love how defenders who don't get their heads around are now reduced to watching and attempting a late pass breakup after the ball arrives, but those dislodges (while better done than in the past) simply don't happen enough. One look at the completion percentages will show you that pass breakups need to occur much more than they do currently. We also love how ball-carriers can no longer run through blockers. This helps the running game immensely as now runners must find a hole or risk not gaining an inch. This helps gameplay in a number of ways, namely making QB sneaks and FB Dives much more balanced. Hopefully we'll see more "push" on the line of scrimmage in the future so that gameplay can depict players who "reset" the line of scrimmage (and allow penetration by their teammates/themselves) accurately. Here's are some of the other early issues we see.

Defensive Matchup - Why this was taken out is baffling but it probably has something to do with the frequency we'd see totally missed coverages or LBs out at CB. We'll stomach this for now but its bad all around when Jets fans can't iso Revis on the opponent's best receiver. BRING IT BACK.

Man Lock - This wonderful and necessary feature vanished two years ago and is still yet to make its return. It was a valuable tool in fooling the offense into seeing one thing while another was going on. Madden 14 perhaps? Thank you in advance.

QB Accuracy - Madden QBs have been too accurate for years and until we see off-target passes the passing game will be overpowered. Its made especially bad now since defenders have realistic limitations. The worst examples are elite QBs with 90+ accuracy. In contests versus them the single way to defend a pass is to deflect or intercept it. Almost all of their passes fit in that perfect spot where only the offensive player has a shot at it. Watch any NFL game and even the best QBs miss on as much as 20% of their throws. Madden will be a better game when it scraps its perfect model and embraces a bit more realism.

Route-Based Passing - Sigh...this year's empty feature. It has virtually no impact on gameplay and throwing the ball early in a route has largely the same effects that it did in past versions of Madden. If we're going to add a feature? ADD IT. This is a major balance issue as now only WRs have the psychic abilities of Madden's past. I can count on one hand the amount of times releasing the ball early has resulted in the receiver not turning around. I disregard the faded icons altogether because they have no affect on my completion percentage.

DL Pressure - While the DL/OL pass interaction is depicted pretty well, where are the instances where DEs and DTs (to a lesser extent, obviously) beat their men at the snap with a speed rush and have a direct shot at the QB. While these certainly don't happen a great deal, we virtually never see "quick wins" from linemen on defense. WE SHOULD.

TEs - Look no further than this matchup to see Madden's biggest mismatch and glaring loophole. Even average TEs run defenses ragged (yes even the ones designed to stop them) Beat double teams? No Problem. Man coverage? In their sleep. Dislodges? Never happen. Get physical and jam TEs at the line like it reality? Negative. This aspect of gameplay is so poorly depicted its criminal. Only in Madden do we see TEs go untouched with free releases without ever being touched. Is it a penalty or something? I've seen more contact allowed on QBs and Punters. This can't continue. While its also a function of too-high ratings (the separation even average TEs get is comical) something has to be done to balance this aspect of the game much better.

The Comeback - Its Coming. Remember who told you first. The undefendable route this year is the comeback. Fail to blitz and give offenses the time for this route to develop and expect a 90% completion rate versus even the best defenders in man coverage. FACT: Its worse than the slants of Madden's past. No route illustrates the need for more pass-breakups and off-target passes more than this one.

Seams -The ability to throw over defenders in the short area (who never should have been able to affect these passes from the start) was necessary in Madden gameplay and it has done a good job opening up the middle of the field realistically. Unfortunately, lack of dislodges, too high accuracy and poor safety play have made throws "up the seams" so easy to exploit it isn't funny. You simply can't make defenses react more realistically and continue to allow QBs unrealistic accuracy with an almost total lack of off-target passes--its unbalanced at the core and Madden 13 is suffering from the fruits of this imbalance. We need a greater amount of animations that can affect downfield passes beginning with linemen who bat-down passes at the line of scrimmage and when they are pressuring the QB. Let's also see safeties make some plays. Something must be done to reduce the amount of catchable balls (NOT INTERCEPTIONS) or gameplay will continue to suffer from horrible balance.

Interceptions - Real NFL players only wish they had the ability to catch like their Madden counterparts. But is it any wonder they do? Turnovers are the only way to get defensive stops at this point. Its done in an attempt to balance the game much the same way defenders in the short area were able to "superleap" and affect downfield passes in the past. The thing is, its unnecessary at this point. Reduce the amount of catchable passes with too-high throws, short-hoppers into the dirt, passes behind the receiver and add pass-breakups and batdowns at the LOS by the defense and you never need to have defenders pick off passes at a rate where the NFL-record will be broken by Week 10.

User Catching - We mentioned this earlier because we saw it coming. You could see it in the verbage "easier to make catches with your WRs" Oh no!...is all we could think. Its not as bad as it could be, but its still early. Realism > FUN. Hell realism is fun! Madden has to leave behind this system where performing an action in the game means you get some silly percentage boost. Turning a journeyman WR into Jerry Rice, poor and average pass rushers into Julius Peppers, Blaine Gabbert into Joe Montana or any back with speed back into an all-pro is the reason SIM players still yearn for the days of a 2K Football game. Less arcade, More realism.  No boosts or rewards. Only football please and thank you.

We love the way that Fantasy Draft was added post-release, but core gameplay is just much more important. One look at NFL scores will show you that games that end 42-35 are in the extreme minority. The NFL had 4 games combines for 60+ points in Week one. Scoring isn't the afterthought that it is in Madden 13. Our suggestion? More football, less videogames. The necessary gameplay tuning, patches that will make Madden 13 a better, more balanced game will ultimately determine if it is viewed as a step in the right direction or more of the same poor representation of football.