[reverend_heat]

Saw something again I don't think I have ever seen in a Madden game last night. I realized all this happened after the play was over and went back to watch what the defense did in replay to dissect it. I was on offense playing against the CPU, a WR ran a post route from the left side of the field, the MLB carried him until he entered the zone area for the deep safety, at about this time I have scrambled right and noticed my TE has settled down in the middle of the field, before I throw to him the MLB has turned back to look at his initial coverage area and sees the TE sitting open, he sprints full blast back toward the TE before I throw it, he arrives and makes the tackle just as my pass is caught by the TE. It was just AI, but it looked like that MLB was thinking about his coverage responsibility and was aware after passing off the WR to the safety he needed to get back to his zone, and he hauled *** to get there. Hard to explain, but seeing CPU defenders move and react with purpose is shocking. Another example of something you aren't going to see in a sizzle trailer, but makes a big difference when you are used to CPU defenders drifting and trying to cover acres of grass and nothing else. Zone defense is working now, coupled with the removal of pre-determined 2 man animations in pass defense it's refreshing to say the least.

Also, the head tracking by all players is vastly improved, I took a kickoff back for a TD up the middle of the field and when I cleared the last defender the ball carrier quickly looked over both shoulders, it looked like he was checking to make sure nobody was close to him like happens sometimes when a ball carrier breaks into the wide open in real life. Also had a deep throw to Diggs down the sideline, the safety switched between tracking the ball and looking at Diggs as he got closer, he jumped at the last second and knocked the pass away just before it reached Diggs and the CB. Looked good enough that I took a video of it off my TV, wish I could post it.