One new Madden feature most seem to be overlooking

[wco81]

Madden 2005 will have line stunts for the DL, like ESPN has had for awhile.

However, it will apparently be selectable at the LOS, not when you pick the defensive plays.

At Maddenguides.com, they seem to be skeptical about how effective they would be. In ESPN, some of them were too effective, particularly the fan stunt. Lot of DTs getting quick sacks, especially DTs not known to be pass rushers.

Well we'll see. Between audibles, DL and LB shifts, coverage auds and now the DL stunts and defensive hot routes, there sure are a hell of a lot of pre-snap adjustments for the defense.

You should be able to improvise all kinds of defenses. If you have the time before the offense snaps the ball.

[GTheorenHobbes]

I'm curious to see how all of these new "pre-snap" things work out in Madden. Its hard to even get to the player you want to control quick enough sometimes before the other side snaps the ball, I'm not sure how you could expect to change more than one or two guys' assignments in that limited amount of time. Maybe it will be pretty smooth..guess we'll have to wait and see.

[Fetter21]

When I asked them about this it sounded as if there will not be as many different types of DL rushes that you'd have in ESPN NFL, but there would be more than Madden has had in previous years.

[wco81]

It sounded like only 4 types of line stunts.

Madden didn't let you set line stunts. It had different ones for different plays so you couldn't select them independently of the kind of plays you picked.