It's fourth and 21, your quarterback was just sacked for a 17 yard loss on third down, and you are obviously not too happy about it. In a fit of anger, you make a very bold decision to go for it—in the hurry up offense nonetheless.
You are the New England Patriots after all, so the logical play in this situation is to send Randy Moss deep and throw him a jump ball 25 yards away from the line of scrimmage.
The play works perfectly. Randy, because of his superb jumping skills, jumps over the triple coverage the other team brought over to his side of the field before the play even starts.
You've just converted what others would think is an impossible first down.
Obviously this is not a real story. This is what I, and many others, would do if I were playing Madden '08. Unfortunately for the person who was on defense, this story is not fiction.
In my countless hours playing Madden, I've noticed a few things that cross over between my TV screen when I'm holding a controller, and my TV screen when I'm holding a remote: Some players are just unstoppable, no matter what precautions you take.
Just so you think I'm not going to be a homer this entire column, I'm won't use any New England Patriot again.
I'll start with Adrian Peterson, the second year running back of the Minnesota Vikings, 2007 NFL Rookie of the Year, and Pro Bowl MVP. His video game character happens to be the single most unstoppable NFL player in Madden.
It's not worth trying to tackle him with the first linebacker because it doesn't work. Maybe, if you're having a good day you'll get him with the second or third, but I doubt it. In Madden you can win a game with the Vikings and not throw the ball more than five times, if any.
If only the real Vikings were that smart. (Side note: Vikings, please draft a QB this year. I really want to see Peterson if he doesn't go against 10 man fronts.)
The "God" figures behind putting player ratings together must have looked at "All Day" and decided they were going to make him unstoppable.
Oh, I forgot to mention, these ratings come out before the season starts, so they didn't even know what he was about to do during his rookie campaign. Every expert knew he was going to be good, but did they know he was going to be unstoppable?
For those of you who are not familiar with the game, 99 is the highest rating a player can get for any particular skill. Devin Hester received a 100 in the speed category. If there was such a feature in the game, I would simply have him line up 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage and snap him the ball back there for every play.
(Bears, read over what I just said again. You know it's safer than having Benson run or Grossman throw.)
He runs away from every player like they were fans in the stands rather than professional football players. Unfortunately for other teams, virtual and real alike, this is not an exaggeration of what he does on the field. Much like in real life, when facing him in the video game, I'd much rather give the Bear's offense the ball on the 40 yard line by kicking it out of bounds than give Devin Hester a chance to even see the ball inside the lines.
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