Dorkington

Man, our bench players are the worst.

Great tackling, Heath.

Oh Bills and QBs.

Surprised we don't have any starters out there. Guess coaches are confident heh.

'Slow' feels too Matrix-y to me, but I think I will lower the speed threshold. It's really frustrating getting tracked down by Defensive Tackles on breakaway runs with Spiller.

I'm starting to wonder about this. Williams, Williams and Dareus all, alone, seem pretty damned good. But yet, together, last year, they got gashed... and so far this preseason hasn't looked great either (most of our pressure and plays have come from our new LBs if anything). I really hope they live up to their "on paper" value, soon.

Spot. On.

I'm not going to put much into this game, considering that we'll mostly be facing Lion-scrubs.

I'd love to have a mediocre or worse FO on a team that wins 75% of it's games, goes to the playoffs every year, and contends to win the NFL championship. If you really think ONE player is the reason that happens, then we'll agree to disagree.

If the team is a consistent winner, then why shouldn't their FO be lauded? I think it's worth looking at the whole picture, and not just their draft picks in particular rounds. They end up winning games, so they obviously must be making some good moves. As good as Brady is, the team wouldn't win nearly as many games if he didn't have some talent around him. But, for argument's sake... lets say everyone on NE sucks, besides Brady. Then obviously NE's FO hit it out of the park far enough on the Brady pickup that the rest of the stuff matters less. The net result is still a highly rated FO.

Have they dominated us for the last decade? Have they gone deep in the playoffs? Been in the Superbowl? Won a couple? Yes, their FO is better than ours. So they strike out on some of their draft picks, they still produce wins on the field.

Have Tuel and Leinart play the whole game, rotating series.

This seems pretty strange to me. I would have expected him to find a new home the way people were talking about him after the draft and during training camp.

Every time I go to a Bills game, they lose in some sort of horrific manner. Therefore, I will stop going to Bills games.

Player speed has always been a bit funky. Goodwin and Spiller both get run down very easily by LBs when within a certain distance of the play. There's a setting to adjust the differences of player speed in the game, it might be worth messing with. It controls how much slower a 50 speed is vs a 90 speed for example. 0-100 slider.

Canks is a national treasure.

It's easy enough to skip all the management stuff and just start a new 2013 season though. I mean, there's a few more loading screens, but that's about it. It's Madden... it doesn't change much from year to year, it's a constant "evolution". So if you enjoyed Madden 13, you'll enjoy Madden 25, most likely. If the eye poking is in relation to how the Bills are in the game, that's another story. I only played a couple games last night... the run game is "improved" but it's also possibly too easy now, we'll see. ------------- I went ahead and captured the overall ratings of Bills players so folks can easily see how they rank. The ratings are very different when you go to career, because they are adjusted for scheme and position. For example, Kyle Williams is a 64 or something, overall, because the game has him as DE and the scheme is looking for someone more... DE like than Kyle Williams, but when you actually play the games, he's still very effective. So it's worth looking at specific ratings for certain positions when setting your roster.

Pats were 10-6 Jets were 8-8 Dolphins were 4-12 or something

I had the same problem, suggested plays were almost always fairly standard zones and man coverage plays, nothing aggressive. Would be remedied once I get comfortable navigating plays quicker, I always start on "Ask Madden" or "Gameflow" until I do, though.

Good idea, I'll have to check that out. I'm surprised EA didn't switch the defensive playbook, it looks exactly the same as last year's. Though, to be fair... they probably don't give the Bills much attention.

I'll have to go back and check, I remember the D was just a base something.

Received Madden 25 last night. I started a connected career (franchise mode), set the roster to resemble my best guess for what our week one roster will be, based on who we've seen Marrone favor in preseason. Also changed the defensive strategy to "attacking 3-4", and had to change some roster spots around. I simulated the season.... results: Regular season record: 12-4 (Started off 0-2, went on a 9 win streak, finished 3-2 over last 5 games... 0-2 vs Pats, killed Jets/Fins) First round playoff bye Played the Chargers (who finished 8-8) and.... lost. Womp womp. - CJ Spiller finished with 2,064 yards rushing. Freddie got himself 500ish yards on top of that. - EJ Manuel had a safe year. Threw for 2,500 yards, 20 TDs, 2 INTs... but only 50% completion percentage. Stevie led our receivers with 1,000ish yards. Goodwin had a strong showing with 500ish yards. Woods and Graham both had 400ish yards themselves. - Mario Williams finished the season with 20 sacks - Gilmore and Byrd both had strong seasons, with 8 and 7 interceptions respectively. Not bad! One caveat... I turned injuries off. So....... yeah.

He's jerking us around! -- As usual, ESPN sucks. Here's the actual quote: http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-2/How-Marrone-will-decide-if-EJ-Manuel-plays-Week-1/c0c5ddb1-bb52-4609-bbe8-ec0e367428f9 “I think there are two things that you’d look at, A, the number of times he needs to go and play and then, B, the number of days of preparation,” he said. “To give an example, if we were playing New England and we are the first week, and the doctor said, ‘You’re not going to get him until Thursday, but he’ll be ready to go on Sunday,’ I would be concerned about doing that. If they said, ‘We can get him on the field Monday or Wednesday,’ I would see how he played and then make a decision. That’s how I feel about that situation.”

As long as he doesn't have any increases in swelling the day after, that's pretty good news.