Yeah, that tagline from Madden (I saw it it one of the earliest trailers for Madden 09) definitely was false because other games have claimed to have the same thing, like NHL 08. The problem is, did it really work? One constant complaint I've heard is passive defensive AI. Consistently. The AI might adjust to how you play defense, but their defense continues to allow you to walk right into the zone and set up your offense. It's in there, it's just not correct.
Which is why I think we're going in the right direction, and now is the perfect time to see great improvements. We're what, 3 or 4 years into this generation of systems. The first couple were to get all the old stuff into these versions. Now that that's out of the way, what else is there? Roster updates and... gameplay. They have to bear down and make some serious improvements and innovations to the gameplay. It might not be sexy and consumer friendly, but damn it, if you have a good game chances are people are going to be attracted to that! Even the casual gamers want a good playing game, even though they aren't as hardcore with everything as the serious gamers are. Yes, casual gamers are more likely to be attracted to sexy graphics, but all these games are pretty close in their visuals. The first game that finally "gets it" will be the next NFL 2k5, MVP 05... those types of games that people still play today because they were so revolutionary (not for all, obviously, but for a majority of people that was the benchmark of the old generation).
And speaking of those games, check out their year. Right near the end of the PS2/XBOX generation. The developers finally pieced it all together and came out with something that was just right. We might be 2-3 years away from that game coming out, but it'll come and you'll know it it when you play it.