is anyone having problems getting to return punts?

[knicks69]

Quote: Originally Posted by bosssplat

Great job by EA on the punts returns...Buy hey we have superstar mode...What a joke ...the more I play this piece of gargabe the more I hate it...they release a football game after buying all the rights to the NFL for five damn years...with broken special teams...Stupid

How right you are! They better fix it for the 360!

[CaptainZombie]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jimplication

Yea, the punt blockers are worthless on returns in this year's game. Not sure how it got through testing, but it's unfortunate.

It is a shame, I have the same problem.

[Mrcabone]

Same here,EA needs to realize special teams is a very important aspect of football,and while "fair catches" happen in real football,it doesn't happen every time like it does in Madden.I noticed the the ball hangs in the air way too long,and when you finally do catch there's always one defender right in front of you,and he's usually standing there for at least two seconds,it's sad that ea couldn't improve this part of the game.

[trobinson97]

I've found that positive thinking helps in returning punts. When the ball is punted to me, I cross my fingers and visualize my blockers actually blocking. 1 out of ten times it works. Positive thinking fever, catch it!

[ChiTownKid]

Some have suggested using a punt block man play, where the AI will then audible to a max punt protect. What this does is keep everybody at the line for a bit longer since the kicking team has to stay home to defend the block rush. When you catch the ball, you'll have more space in front of you than you would with a regular punt return. It sometimes works, but the trade-off is that you won't get a single block once you catch it. Generally, when you catch the punt, you're all alone, and there's a pack of about 4 guys barrelling down on your head about 20 yards away. I've gotten anywhere from 5-15 yards per return like this, averaging about 10, I'd say, all things being equal.

The only other option I've found is to choose a regular return play, and make sure the control indicator is on the return man prior to the snap. Once the ball is and flight, and immediately after the camera swings around, hit your change-guy button. This will give you control of the blocker closest to the ball. Control him, and swing him around to make the block manually. If you miss the block, you'll usually have time to switch back to the return man and call a fair catch.

If you spend some time with it in practice mode you can get a feel for it, but even then, it doesn't fix the problem. You can get yards when successful (I once returned one for 35 yards like this), but you have to get lucky with what kind of pursuit you're facing. If only one guy has gotten through, and you can pick him up with a manual block, you can get a good chunk. But that's rare. Usually 2 or more get through. So you might get the first guy, but your other blocker will stand there facing you like a drooling idiot, and let his man cruise right by to crush your face.

Still, yards can be had, and I think these fixes can satisfy the statistical aspect of punt returns. The median average of punt returns in the NFL was about 8 or 9 yds per return in 2004. Odds are, you'll get close to that. But there's virtually ZERO chance that you'll ever see a punt returned for big yards, or for a touchdown, and that's what really sucks.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised with all of this, to be honest. I have been buying EA sports games for the last 15 years. And every single year, there's always one major flaw in their sports games that make you wonder how the hell it got through testing. And it's usually something that wasn't broken the year before. Fix one thing, break something else. Fix that next year, but now something else is hosed up. Looking back, this has been such a routine occurance with EA sports games that you have to wonder if they do it intentionally so they can sell you the fix the following year.

[ZB9]

yea, this sucks

but i have found that if you increase the punt length slider +3 for both the human and CPU, it helps returns. (although, the punters stats are now a little inflated)

[ZB9]

I returned a punt for a TD last night.

what a historic occasion

[RedsFan75]

Couple years back the punt returns were a real problem, the only way to get a decent return was to call a punt block and their wing guys would stay in to block allowing you to get an average return. Maybe give that a shot.