Giants 30 Browns 26

This game didn't see RoboQB like the Bengals game. Eli was 19/30 for 232 and 3 INTs. Yet I lost because I kicked FGs. I was in the Red Zone *8* times. DA was 36/52 for 410 yards.

Here are a few things you may want to know/consider about Madden before firing it up Tuesday:

• Lower your Run Defense sliders to 0 except for Tackling. I have mine around 25. If you play near default settings the AI cannot run the ball at all. By lowering Reaction and Shedding to 0 you give the AI a chance. It does fairly well.

• The most you will want your QB Accuracy is 35. Any higher and you never see off throws. I'm considering going lower than that after DA is putting up crazy numbers in the first 5 games.

• The AI is very effective at short passing. It's "ok" at throwing medium 10-12 yard passes. It *sucks* at throwing 15-20 yard passes. The problem is one of velocity. When you are playing QB you can zip the ball on a frozen rope for a 20 yard gain. When the AI throws a 20 yard pass it's a moon ball every single time. It's very easy to pick (see Eli's stat line). I get upset at the RoBo Qbs from time to time but if the AI went deep more often it would get ugly -- fast.

• If you want to keep the QBs in check you MUST learn to take control of a DB and swat passes away. If you don't expect 70% and up completion rates.

• The Pass Rush slider doesn't do anything.

• The WR Catch slider doesn't do much, either.

• The Rushing sliders do, though. On default running the ball is extremely hard this year. You can fix that with slider tweaks. Mine are across the board at 65 right now. (Fumbles at 50, though.)

• Sideline awareness is really poor. I think this is going in the first patch, and it's a good thing because no one knows where the sidelines are in this game.

• I really, really hope that next year Tiburon puts the CPU sliders back in the game and that they work. The game *really* needs them. The Madden IQ is a feature that long time Madden vets will basically ignore because every one of us will put the sliders to "custom" and tweak them as needed.

• The Backtrack feature is really neat.

• Unlike most, I like Rewind, too. I use it as a Home Field advantage tool. I deactivate it in road games and when playing in Cleveland I give myself one "Do Over" a game.

• I thoroughly enjoy this game playing head to head. Two games in this mode and both have been great fun -- much more so than playing against the AI.