Haha, I think at least. I see what you are saying. I actually hunted down the original quote and it was just as vague, so you don't know how they are defining it.
However, 18% Y-o-Y declines each month (if that's how it is actually being calculated) would result in Final Madden sales being down nearly 8-10% anyways. So if the game started off well and then sales collapse compared to the year before, that's a VERY negative sign for sales the next year anyways. So regardless on how Cowen and Co. did calculate this, this is horribly negative for EA and Co.
Either way, I'll update the thread title and add a bit to the original news piece just to give this possibility some air-time