Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

[undrafted]

I think the NFL is also to blame, with all the spotlights constantly placed on offensive/defensive players.
Not to speak about the misconceptions about the kicking game... often considered like some kind of a gimmicky afterthought, not belonging to football at all.

[Dr Death]

The problem with EA is that they do NOT know subtlety... in their case everything happens all the time or it doesn't happen at all. They need to realize that something happening once a season would be cool. Like a blocked punt or blocked FG. But they - for whatever reason - don't get this.

If you have more than one blocked punt or FG a year, then maybe it's time to change your blockers, which you can't do. We want SIM!!! How difficult is this to get???

Having the occasional blocked FG or punt would only add to the immersion one would feel. As it is now... there's no worry. And THAT is a shame!!!

[SolidSquid]

Having my starters on special teams is annoying. I'm sure some teams allow it but I want that choice for myself.

[ODogg]

This is, BY FAR, my biggest issue with Madden. I was really hoping this year on kickoff returns they'd finally zoom OUT to be able to see the lane a little but nope, the stupid camera still zooms in on you KR. Such a simple change but they won't even do that.

[EricFreakingBerry]

I've always wanted a special teams section in the depth chart so that you can best align players to block or attack (of course that all hinges on them tweaking the artificial intelligence to make special teams more dynamic and realistic too). It would make true specialists come to life a bit to be able to rate and interchange them. I mean it would be awesome to have some backup players who aren't great at their position (HB's, LB's who don't start because of low speed, bad carrying, etc.) but yet still "excel" at being a special teams player.

As it is now, it's mostly just starters and even if it wasn't the AI is so bad and you get the same results 99.9% of the time that it just doesn't stand out or matter.

[Datninja619]

You win and lose games, because of special teams (IRL).

But as most of you know, it's SIM community vs CASUAL community nowadays.

In Madden 15 H2H, people got the timing down to block FGs. It was frustrating!! They would start running off the edge once the players got set, because most people start the kick meter as soon as they can.

What did I start doing??? Slowing my kick meter down by either hesitating to start it or holding on to it.

This made it a chess match, because if I was confident in myself, I could go for 2 because I made them get a penalty.

[Datninja619]

Quote: Originally Posted by undrafted

I think the NFL is also to blame, with all the spotlights constantly placed on offensive/defensive players. Not to speak about the misconceptions about the kicking game... often considered like some kind of a gimmicky afterthought, not belonging to football at all.

I don't think the NFL is to blame. The high risk/reward for attempting to block a kick is real though lol. Some teams just go for the safe return instead of the aggressive block and risk a penalty.

But seeing Kam jump over the FG block line multiple times, Troy P doing it in the past, JJ watt Swatting balls, etc etc makes me believe that teams aren't afraid to go for the block. IF they are confident they can get it.

Gotta remember that once I team reveals it's "trick" play or how they block FGs teams have film on it.

[Cardot]

Covering punts.....and trying to down the ball inside the 5 seems like something that would be fun in a football VG....but I don't recall any game trying to capture this aspect of the sport.