What's even more alarming to me is what they discussed in the live stream. I've gone on record about the fact that I enjoyed the stream and the candor of it, but there was one segment that summed up my issues with Madden for years. They were actually discussing using "Wide 9" technique to stop outside runs... The Wide 9 is NOT a run defense. It is designed to match up a superior pass rushing athlete against a slower, less athletic tackle to allow him to run around the edge and apply pressure quickly. This is not something that is done to stop the run. The fact that they were suggesting that sort of thing to stop the outside run raises red flags to me. How about fixing the horrendous pursuit angles and gap assignments? Gap assignments are not something you shouldn't care about. Whether you understand it or not, they have major effect on every single play. You probably DO care about them even though you don't realize it. Whenever you give up some insane run to the outside that is complete nonsense, you care about it, you just don't realize it. A lot of the issues are magnified due to the bad player movement and super high speed that Madden runs at, but it also has to do with the AI in this space.
EDIT: I tweeted Clint about this to really verify that we want to promote the use of "wide 9" as a run defense. Apparently, Teryl Austin (the Lions defensive coordinator) told them that it is, in fact, used as a means to stop runs to the outside. Interesting, I've tried to find some documentation about using this defensive setup to stop the run, but was unsuccessful. I certainly believe Clint, but I was legitimately looking for ways in which it was used this this case since I know little about it. I also asked him about teams that do not employ a wide 9. He stated that reach tackles, blocks and linebacker pursuit have all been tuned to properly contain these types of runs. Sounds good, just have to see how it actually works.