Anyone notice that the year the devs focused on defense created the best Madden ever

[crumpled_heap]

Madden 09 has manual double teams.

[orhymes]

Quote: Originally Posted by gilgamesh348

Madden 09 has manual double teams.

really? how do you do them?

[Joborule]

Quote: Originally Posted by orhymes

really? how do you do them?

You do defensive hot routes with them. Press X (or A) on the player you want to cover a receiver, and then move the right stick (I think it is) in the direction the pre play controls menu says to cover the receiver specified.

[Tweeg]

Ahhh...morale and the overhaul of Franchise mode. What a splendid year.

However, two things I hated about 05.

1. Incredibly long loading time at the main menu.

2. This was the year they started blending all the player ratings together. An Overall of 75 was no longer a decent starter. Quite the contrary, a 75 was now probably the worst player on your team. It just didn't seem to make sense to me. In the past, good players stuck out, and bad players could be taken advantage of(like they should). Now everyone has relatively the same rating and it doesn't matter who's on your team.

[bears5122]

It's sad that football games keep shifting toward only improving the offense. Defense is a ton of fun to play and I think a lot of people would love to be able to have control of their defense. It seems these games make defense an afterthought and focus on the Arena football scoring.

But I agree, 2005 was a great game and put a lot of emphasis on defense. Would love to see that come back in future versions, although I'm not holding my breath.

[g2thecore]

Quote: Originally Posted by Chad0034

Adrian Peterson on the cover.... not sure what feature theyd have for it though. Or possibly a Safety like B Dawk DeMarcus Ware could be good too I see them putting a DE on it though. Maybe Usi Umenyoria

Being as he's not going to play this season, I highly doubt it....but wouldn't hurt to see some other defensive player on the cover though.

[Vince]

I find spotlighting a receiver blankets their coverage a little.

[Vikes1]

Defensive battles in real life NFL games have always been my favorites to watch.

And I prefer my video football games to mostly play that way as well. So EA making sure as possible a good balance between offense/defense is in Madden, is very important to me.