I think they are speaking from experience from the past few years. There are many indications for reserved excitement:
A)Consistent lag in EA football games since next-gen started. It's gotten better, but if more and more people are going online, there's a chance we could see lag for awhile.
B)The playtesting (or lack thereof) of Madden NFL 08.
C)EA never seems to get a feature right in its first try. It's hard to think of a new feature that was ever a smashing success in its first year.
When you add all of that up, it's definitely best to be reserved rather than expect greatness. History dictates you will be very disappointed. I hope I am wrong