Your bang on there!!!
For me thats where awareness helps, you get backs that have no awareness and just charge the hole and get 0 yards coz there is no hole, thats what happens most of the time in madden.
Look at power backs like the great Emmitt Smith, and A.P they have great awareness to add to their power, if the lane closes they jump to the outside and not just charge all the time, Emmitt Smith was so hard to bring down in his heyday, I recommend to people to watch some A.P runs on youtube, he is so shifty and clever, all down to his awareness!!!
So as a player playing madden its only fair to actually play the game like it is in real life. Awareness is key and always think ahead at what you may need to do if the lane isn't there!!!