First, you cannot just d/l the first patch and not the second. If you d/l a the patch online, it will d/l both of them.
As for the stats, in my humble opinion, the stats post patch are much easier to tolerate vs the stats pre-patch. I say this because w/o any patches, teams rarely score rushing TD's and passing stats are inflated. Sacks are also a rare occurence by OLB's thus meaning teams that run a 3-4 defense are "screwed".
Post patch the sacks are better, OLB's get sacks, and the passing and rushing numbers are more in line. Yes, there have been seasons that are simmed in which guys are rushing for substantial amount of yards and sacks are inflated a bit, but thus far after playing thru 9 games, the simmed stats don't seem to be all that far off. I don't have anyone on pace to rush over 2,000 yards, at least not as much as been reported. I only have 1 guy over 1,000yds and one guy over 900 yards this far into the season(Gore & Peterson repsectively).
There is a supposed work around for the inflated rushing stats by supersimming the games. This way, you don't have to control all 32 teams, but supersimming each game takes a bit of time.
The flipside to the stats issue is how much better the gameplay is post patch vs pre-patch. Defense is now an enjoyable experience as man coverage is better and the flats aren't a "cheese" fest nowadays. Also, w/o patches, you'll have the FG holding bug, where its almost impossible to kick a field goal without a holding call taking place, more often than not in succession thus pushing teams out of field goal range.
For these gameplay changes, plus the fact that for me the stats are more tolerable post patch than pre, I'd recommend downloading both patches and just having fun with the game. Of course opinions will vary, but thats my .02.
