A trip back in time: Madden 11

[PGaither84]

Team: San Fransisco 49ers
Season: 2010
Head Coach: Mike Singletary
Roster: Final Update by EA on March 24, 2011

Real life record: 6-10
Real life notes:

• The Packers defeated the Steelers by the score of 31–25 in Super Bowl XLV.
• The Chargers would finish with the #1 offense and #1 defense, yet maybe the worst special teams in NFL history.

2010 NFL Draft
49ers:
Round 1 - Pick 11: Anthony Davis
Round 1 - Pick 17: Mike Iupati
Round 2 - Pick 44: Taylor Mays
Round 3 - Pick 91: NaVorro Bowman
Round 4 - No selection
Round 5 - No selection
Round 6 - Pick 173: Anthony Dixon
Round 6 - Pick 182: Nate Byham
Round 6 - Pick 206: Kyle Williams
Round 7 - Pick 224: Phillip Adams

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Real life 2010 season previews:
2010 NFL Preview, San Francisco 49ers: No More Excuses
By Joel Thorman@JoelThorman Aug 24, 2010, 1:29pm EDT

I think they will find that consistency and finish 10-6 while winning the NFC West. As far as a postseason run is concerned, this is the league of "Any Given Sunday" so anything is possible. I'd imagine that after hosting a wild card round game they'll run into trouble with a New Orleans type of team, but crazy things happen in this league. A playoff berth would be a nice first step.

Predicting the 2010 NFL season

Don Banks Sep 7, 2010

San Francisco (9-7) NFC West: First place
After five years of embarrassment, injury and struggle in San Francisco, this is the payoff year for 49ers quarterback Alex Smith, the league's first overall pick in 2005. It won't be a magic carpet ride kind of season, but it'll be vindicating all the same. For a 49ers team that hasn't been relevant since 2002, the small step from last year's 8-8 to this year's 9-7 will be ever so sweet.

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In this franchise, Jim Harbaugh, Vic Fangio, and Greg Roman do not exist. They are in college coaching for Stanford. They will never be available. This will have to be the Mike Singletary show until I have the opportunity to promote Kyle Shanahan, who is in the game - though his likeness really isn't.

[PGaither84]

Defense: Attacking 4-3
Madden 11 doesn't support the 3-4 defense at all. It doesn't rate a player's OVR based on the needs of the 3-4. It doesn't have draft class rookies based on the 3-4 such as a true Nose Tackle, run stuffing DEs, or pass rushing OLBs.

Roster changes:

• Move MLB Navarro Bowman to LOLB where he played in college.
• Move MLB Takeo Spikes back to ROLB.
• Move Manny Lawson from LOLB to LDE
• Move Parys Haralson from ROLB to RDE
• Move RDE Justin SMith to DT
• Move LDE Isa'ako "Isaac" Sopoaga from LDE to DT

Special notes:
In Madden 11, the 4-3 Over scheme works a lot better than 4-3 Under for my needs.

• Our SS Taylor Mays is asked to be the yellow Hook Zone defender and can come up in the box.
• It puts #1 DT Justin Smith in a 3 technique over the guard and asks #2 DT Franklin to be more of the nose in the 0 or 1i technique.
• ROLB Ahmad Brooks is an end man run stopper while LOLB Bowman it a roaming LB off the LoS.

Offense: WASHINGTON - Mike Shanahan West coast Zone run scheme.
Roster notes:

• In addition to Vernon Davis, the 49ers also have TE Delanie Walker. An underrated TE who would later begin to shine in 2012 and would eventually become a pro-bowl TE for the Titans.
• Brian Westbrook is a 49er for this one season. Why the real life 49ers did not use him much was never answered. When he was used, he was a play maker. While a good runner, Westbrook made his name by being a weapon in the passing game. There are many opportunities in Madden 11 to have a two HB set in the Weak and Strong I formation and to use "Sub HB" in the shotgun. Throwing the swing pass, angle route, wheel routes, HB option and the HB screen seems like obvious plays to get the talented veteran involved each week. I can see how one might get too focused on running the ball with Frank Gore, but use the talent on your roster!
• Return specialist Ted Ginn Jr. can be a game buster in Madden 11. Especially with the right thumb stick (RTS) running controls. There is a special move when you pull back on the RTS for just a moment. Combined with his high agility and acceleration, Ginn can change direction in a fluid way (compared to the jerky/twitchy movements we know madden for) which can allow you to make that one man miss in the return game, as well as pull off Dante Hall like changes of direction and reversing field. This also comes into play when you catch an out breaking route and can swerve by a defender.

Roster Changes:
Not much. In real life, you often want your X receiver to be your best weapon who can win one on one outside on an island. This is who I want Crabtree to be, and who he was able to be many times in his career. To do this, he has to be #2 on my depth chart.

To threaten speed outside, Ted Ginn Jr will be my #1 WR on my depth chart and Josh Morgan is my #3 slot weapon who will have option routes and play that Wes Welker / Julian Edelman role in space. So, while Ginn is #1 on the depth chart, his real role in the offense is to be more like Dante Stallworth was for NE in 2007: always be a fast deep threat who can cook you if you don't respect him, but i truth, his job is to open space for Morgan to work underneath.

Final notes:
The 49ers were not known for being a team with a lot of weapons, but I felt they were underrated. With Davis and Wlaker at TE, Gore to run and Westbrook to be a threat in the passing game, Crabtree on an island, Ginn always a deep threat, and Morgan in space... there is only one ball and a lot of places to distribute it.

[RolePlayer]

So glad to see this, madden 11 is one of my favorite versions of madden and extremely underrated.

[PGaither84]

Import NCAA11 Draft classes, or use the Madden Handcrafted rookies?


Positives of importing NCAA11 Draft classes:
You feel attached to players from your NCAA Dynasty.
You will have real names of real players if you used a roster update, which I have.


Negatives of using NCAA11 draft classes:

• They are "broken". Great players that we all know and love and are 95+ OVR in NCAA11 import to be garbage in Madden 11. One example of many: Von Miller is a 97OVR in NCAA11 for me. He imported as a 7th round F potential 56 OVR DE. There are countless examples of this.
• Russel Wilson was playing baseball in 2010 and wasn't the QB Wisconsin and will never exist in my game.
• They do not have their authentic likenesses, which means they are who they say they are in name only.
• Even if imported players worked like a dream, you can only go about 3 or 4 seasons in before you are again faced with random NCAA Dynasty prospects. it is not as if NCAA has real life high school prospects like TJ Watt or Patrick Mahomes.

I tried to use imported rookies, but there was zero fun in it. If the future stars with high OVR do not come in as star prospects, then why even have them? Give me the handcrafted rookies.

[PGaither84]

Week 1 preview:
Injury Report
49ers: Nothing to report
Seahawks: Walter Thurmond III 2 weeks


Special note: I have edited many known players across the NFL who were vastly underrated into something much closer to their real life attributes and with room to grow. For Seattle, this includes Strong Safety Kam Chancellor, who was a 66OVR SS and had insultingly low ratings in important areas. He is now an 83OVR rookie with 97 hit power, 86 tackle, 83 zone coverage, 78 man coverage, 82 play recognition. He has room to progress, but is no longer stuck as a bad player.


Seattle will never have Brandon Browner, Richard Sherman, or Russel Wilson because they don't exist (and Sherman imports from NCAA as a terrible CB). However, I tried to help make them closer to real life.


Real life result: Seahawks won 31-6 (Link to 2 minutes highlights)
Offensively, the 49ers were a turnover mess.
Defensively, they were getting cooked in man coverage and by veteran QB Hasselbeck.


Goals to change history: Avoid turnovers. Play zone.


Special Rule: Playing Seattle on the road, I cannot audible and must use the cadence to try and draw the defense off sides with the real intention of getting flagged for false start for maximum of 6 false start flags. This applies at Seattle and at KC.

[PGaither84]

Update: 18 August, 2021.
I was crushing the Seahawks in the first quarter alone. I knew I had to quit and mess with the settings. I was using default All-pro and dug back into the old slider settings for Madden 11.

For those who don't know, Madden 11 has 4 major categories:

• Passing
• Rushing
• Pass Defense
• Run Defense

Those 4 categories each have 3 sub categories with a slider scale of 0-100. If the total of those three adds up to 75 or less for all 4 categories, then you will be playing with All-Madden kick speed and All-Madden AI for defensive adjustments, AI QB play, AI ball carrier ability, etc. Default All-Madden sliders are simply 25/100 in everything.

However, it gets far more interesting. You see, 75*4 is 300, and if the grand total of all points you distribute equals 295 or less, then you can also play on the same All-Madden settings. This means, for example, that you an have 25 Interception and 75 pass rushing for a total of 100 just in pass defense, but that leaves you only 195 points to distribute in all other areas.

Here are the sliders I am toying around with:
Passing
10 QB Accuracy
00 Pass blocking
25 Catching
Rushing
20 Broken Tackles
50 Run blocking
05 Fumbles
Pass Defense
00 Reaction time
25 Interceptions
50 Pass rushing
Rush Defense
00 Reaction Time
00 Block Shedding
50 Tackling

I am trying to avoid "slider-itis", where you spend all of your time worried about sliders. I just want a fun experience, and default all pro is too easy while default all-madden is BS.