End of the QB Debate

by ATL Lion on Aug 16, 2009 9:43 AM EDT Comment 31 comments

No, I am not going to break down their play in the first preseason game, I have something a lot more scientific.

I simulated them in Madden! Below are the highlights from a Lions team helmed by Culpepper and another one helmed by Stafford. I ran the entire season without any interaction by me. Conclusions follow:

Culpepper's Lions

5-11 season

4th place NFC North

Green Bay Wins NFC North

Pats beat Cards for the Superbowl

Culpepper: 78 QB rating/2433 yards/14tds/17ints

Kevin Jones: 884 yards/3tds

Calvin Johnson: 1217/ 8tds

Stafford's Lions

9-7 season

1st place NFC North (beat GB on tiebreaker)

Won wildcard game against Eagles

Lost Division Game to Seattle

Pats over Seattle in Superbowl

Stafford: 90 QB rating/2751 yards/ 20tds/11ints

KJ: 981 yards/ 0 tds

CJ: 1254 yards/11 tds

Well, there it is. No more arguments. Madden has spoken. Stafford should totally start as QB of your Madden franchise.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pride of Detroit's main writer, Sean, or the site in general. FanPosts are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable fans.

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And for The Real Lions!!!!

by BennieBladesFan on Aug 16, 2009 10:13 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Ha!

That’s great ATL. I’ve been basically glued to my xbox this weekend, trying to figure out all of the new features and tweaking the gameplay. On my first simmed season – with Stafford at the helm – my Lions also went 9-7 and inked a WildCard spot.

I’ve finally started a franchise. Stafford’s the starter. I play on coach mode… basically, I call the plays and let the CPU engine run the play. This way the outcomes are more based on player ability versus my Madden skills… which are pretty good. If I were to control the players, I would blow every CPU game away… no fun. I like to take a bad team (so this years Lions are the ultimate challenge) and build through the draft and free agency. Over the years I’ve gravitated to this style of play over being a button masher. I still play a game or two now and then, but for the most part, I love being the coach and GM to see how it all plays out.

So far my Lions are 0-2. Got blown out 51-28 by the Saints and lost a heartbreaking 31-30 game to the Vikings. They recovered two onside kicks in the last few minutes to beat me. Stafford has thrown over 300 yards both games. My first impressions (and this is after two FULL days of slider tinkering, tweaking of the auto-subs, etc) that the Madden Lions are going to have a tough time rushing and stopping the run, but the secondary is pplaying really bad and most passing teams are going to torch me. Part of the secondary woes are due to the flaws in the coverage game engine. Slants are nearly impossible to cover and the AI needs tweaking in DB reaction time. In a few days, I may post a review of my Madden experience so far. A few bugs and things I don’t care for, but all-in-all a great game.

by DrewsLions on Aug 16, 2009 10:14 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

When I was playing with the settings

I noticed the coach mode. I had always just simmed the games. I would sim 3 or 4 games, play with my roster and coaching tendencies and then sim another 3 or 4. I would do a season in 2 or 3 sittings. The farthest I got was 8 seasons into the future (in the good old before kids days of Madden 05). It got weird; you started to notice that there were no “real” players left on rosters.

I will have to try the coach mode out.

by ATL Lion on Aug 16, 2009 10:28 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The reason I play the coach mode versus CPU vs. CPU...

is that in Madden ‘10, there are no injuries on a CPU-CPU played out sim. With coach mode, you still have to select the plays, perform field goals and punts and hike the ball, but then if you don’t do anything else, the CPU skill settings take over and it’s an even playing field against the computer.

I will say that the sim engine is still not very good. If you sim a season, the stats are heavily weighted to the pass and there are very few rushing TDs… like unrealistically so. The only way I found to get around this in franchise is to control all teams and then change the coaching sliders so they are one or two bumps towards run and only two bumps up on aggressiveness. This evens things out a bit. But even then, there are not enough rushing TDs. Also, the simmed RB2 rushing averages are always like 2.0 yds per carry. But if you control all franchises, you get an unrealistic free agency period, so that’s really not an option for me. So, I’m just gonna use the Lions and kind of “look past” the simmed stats a little. I’ve seen online where people have gone out 10+ years and the progression and player attributes are fantastic and realistic… no more of every single player reaching the 90’s. The ratio of player in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s stays consistent year-over-year. I might actually reach the thirty years this time… never gotten there by the time the next Madden came out.

But the cool thing this year is the year-long draft scouting process and the revealing of the player’s potential grade afterwards. I absolutely LOVE this feature. Actually, I can’t wait for my season to be over so I can test my savvy in the draft. Also, the free agency is much more realistic. Have fun!

by DrewsLions on Aug 16, 2009 11:53 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

we experianced different things

when i played NO they threw like 80% of the time and when I played Minn they ran like 80% of the time.

http://cmufootball.blogspot.com/

by CapitolLions on Aug 16, 2009 12:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Slants are unstoppable

If I ever need a first down I run a slant.

by ImPuLsE on Aug 16, 2009 3:33 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

CapitolLions Lions

PS3 9-2 Online with the lions and ravens (based on who the opponant picks)

2009 Season on All-Pro
12-4 Losses to Minn TWICE, Pittsburg, Baltimore, and Cleveland of all teams.

Won the NFC lost to NE in Superbowl. I didn pick up Chris McAllister from FA…but other than that, online updated roster HAHA

http://cmufootball.blogspot.com/

by CapitolLions on Aug 16, 2009 10:20 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Weird

Both Staff and CP beat the vikings in the first game. Staff swept and CP split. I was beginning to think they built in the Lions winning game 2 into the system.

by ATL Lion on Aug 16, 2009 10:23 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

the vikes are tough man. even with 8 in the box

http://cmufootball.blogspot.com/

by CapitolLions on Aug 16, 2009 12:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Like I said, I didn’t actually play the games. I just simmed the entire season. I did just play and lost to the bills in the last seconds (still tryiong to get used to the new button-to-play-on-the-screen thing). I found that our line does an OK job pass protecting, but if I try and run inside I am swallowed. 2 yards and a cloud of dust. If I bounce outside, I do much better.

by ATL Lion on Aug 16, 2009 1:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

seems like off tackle is good but up the middle and pitch plays get killed

and i can’t do anything on the ground out of single back. need the lead blocker seems like.

http://cmufootball.blogspot.com/

by CapitolLions on Aug 16, 2009 2:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Haha funny

I love doing this with the Packers as well! I do it every year to see how well the Pack does and everybody else as well.

by packallday555 on Aug 16, 2009 3:49 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Howdy Pack

I see your Packers D-fence looked stellar last night. Did Raji play or not? Thinkin he didn’t being that he just signed the other day but they still shut down the run pretty good, gotta ask. Are you on the Yellow Kool-aid already? lmao if not the Blue Kool-aid is an excellent year. And I have to say I might not of played madden as of yet, but Staff outplayed both of our running QB’s last night. I liked how they all moved in the pocket all night also.The start is going to be Staff in week 1 if he continues to drop dimes like last night.

by davis0169 on Aug 16, 2009 9:36 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Looked great

Nope, Raji didn’t play as well as Harris, Woodson, Barnett, or Matthews. But we had 4 sacks I think and forced 4 INTs. The main reason we installed the 3-4 was so we could get pressure on the QB, and so far it’s working as there was pressure on the QB virtually every play. Of course you do have to keep in mind it’s the Browns and it’s only preseason, but I was still very excited to see our defense excel. Rodgers played great also, and so did Grant (who is finally 100% healthy). If Grant can run effectively we could be very tough to stop.

That’s good to hear that Stafford looked good. How did your o-line and defense look? What about Delmas too? I know a lot of you guys are really excited about him. It’s good to finally have football here, and I can’t wait for the regular season to start it should be a good one!

by packallday555 on Aug 17, 2009 3:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I love hearing

About Grant being healthy, Sorry POD bro’s Im thinking Fantasy here. I was on his back 2 years ago and picked him up last year so I have been following him. He came on strong at the end of the year and I think that’s cause teams had to respect rodgers/jennings and driver, and he was hurt t the beginning of the year.But It was hard to tell how good we might be cause we didn’t have any of our starerts on O-fence we payed with 3rd string wr’s and TE, but the line was ALOT better than we allthought it was going to be, and Staff is going to be everything that was advertised, just dropping dimesinto hands that (colbert) couldn’t catch. I think we found the steal of the draft with our RB Brown. WOW scary fast and is going to be a homerun threat. D-line was better than or lb’s I thought, well DT’s were pretty disruptional on most plays. Secondary was a hugh surprise and we have not gotten to see Delmas back there yet.

by davis0169 on Aug 17, 2009 4:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Brainfart

Kevin Jones? What am I missing here?

Witty Unpredictable Talent and Natural Game

by iDea on Aug 17, 2009 1:44 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

That's true

I didn’t even notice that? How come you didn’t start Smith at RB ATL Lion?

Haha I like the results of his first season more so then the second I think haha…

by packallday555 on Aug 17, 2009 3:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

lol

I noticed but I didn’t mention it. I knew what he meant.

2009 = The start of the Lions Golden Age (We hope).

by Hyperion Ecta on Aug 17, 2009 7:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

same here

by JCruize on Aug 17, 2009 9:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Oops

I guess the patch on my jersey fell off

by ATL Lion on Aug 18, 2009 9:10 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

All hail Madden… Why would you base everything on a video game? Is your last name Caputo or Sharp?

by grass_cutr on Aug 18, 2009 9:19 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

This is a very tongue-in-cheek post

I that’s pretty obvious to everyone… except you, I guess.

by DrewsLions on Aug 18, 2009 11:34 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Kevin Jones has not played for the Lions since 2007-2008 season. That confirms it for me- you are a Caputo or Sharp family member- and I mean the part about member… Whatta Jackmo!!!

by grass_cutr on Aug 18, 2009 9:21 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs