500 plays.
That is how many you get to cram into a Madden offense. It sounds like a lot and in a sense it is, but in the thick of a game 500 plays feels like you actually only have two or three plays you can run, and at times it feels like you have no plays at all. I’ve hit a point in my Madden game where my offense is completely stalled. I can attribute some of that to the sad fact that I used to rely on a few cheese plays to best the PC, but the rest is pure lack of imagination and skill. I’m struggling with my Madden offense, and as a result my defense is starting to fall flat. I’ve lost the last two games to my kids and that is not acceptable. Change gotta come.
My new offense is based on an online playbook called flexible. This offered a few formations I’ve never tried and gave me the chance to find a couple of run plays that ought to be successful with the caliber of players I have in the shared league. I am presently testing it out on a solo season as a remade version of the Jets with a few high tier players. However, I have not put up that many points yet vs. the CPU. In fact, my high point this season is 28 and that involved at least 7 points due to a cheese play and 7 more due to the defense. In other words, I am slumping still.
My new strategy is to test the system out online by facing real users and seeing if I can put some points on them using a team with a similar caliber/style of player as I have in my league. I’ve chosen the Cowboys based on their running game and the WR corps being a slower but similar bunch of talents. I’ll let you all know how it goes.
What I think I need to do is to write down a few sets/plays I want to attack with and have a gameplan going into these games. So far I don’t operate in that fashion, so when I get in trouble I tend to fall back on poor strategies and play calling that has not worked in a long time. I should be able to eat with this team, but we are the worst offense in a league that only includes four human players. In other words, every bot is better than me right now.
I have real work to due at this game before I am humiliated by season’s end. ‘Tis not the season to be booty-whapped.