More Madden Stats

I'm about to go on our Monday night 20 mile, kick my ass bike ride. As my ankles continue to go, basketball has been pushed to a Tuesday night only affair atm. Damn age.

But I did check some stats from the Madden sim.

The running game is interesting in that the teams definitely share carries between the #1 and #2 (and even #3) backs. No team has ONE guy that carries every time -- and some teams split carries around 60/40, which is fantastic to see.

The catch here is that (most) backups get very few yards per carry. It looks to be a case of Madden's new rating system being a tad wonky for halfbacks. Giants HB Ahmad Bradshaw averaged 1.9 per carry over 125 carries in the test sim. Maroney in New England -- 2.1 per carry. Jerome Harrison in Cleveland: 2.0, the list goes on and on.

The reason (I think) is that these backups aren't rated too high. Bradshaw is (I think) a 73 OVR. Jerome Harrison is a 70 OVR player, so he shouldn't average 5 yards a carry -- the sim engine just doesn't see him as being a star so his numbers are simmed accordingly even though Bradshaw was a 5.3 per carry change of pace back and Harrison had 34 carries for a 7.2 YPC average and fans are dying to see what this kid can do if given a real chance. Madden just sees a guy rated a 70.

The problem is that backup running backs in the league don't average 1.9 a carry.

If they do, they are not backups in the league for very long.

So from all of the stats I have checked, this is the one real red flag. I don't like it, but hey...if you told me before shipping that Madden's biggest sim engine fault would be that backup running backs get about 2-3 yards per carry less than what they should, well, it's hard to get too upset at it.

But it is noticeable for stat heads and it is unclear how it will affect play progression.