The offensive and defensive line battle is played out very realistically as well. Your traditional bull rushers will push your offensive linemen back into the QB (unless the lineman is a powerhouse), collapsing the quarterback and causing the sack. However, there is one weakness to the line play…it’s still way too easy to blitz off the ends and get to the QB. With a fast LB on the outside, you can record an outrageous number of sacks. Madden fans won’t mind this since the series has always played like that, but I would like to see the game more balanced out. If an inside rusher doesn’t hit a wide-open gap, they probably won’t get to the QB.

Unfortunately, the passing game is marred by a couple of significant problems. First, your receivers are extremely dumb. If your receiver is running a route and a defensive player gets in his way, he’ll often stand there and ping-pong off of that defensive player instead of run around him to continue the route. Also, in order to lead your receiver he must be facing the way you want to lead him. For example, if your receiver is running an out pattern, you’d like to time it so that the ball gets there just as the receiver cuts toward the sideline (so that the DB doesn’t have time to react to it). In real life, this involves throwing the ball while the receiver is still running up the field, with the knowledge of where that receiver will turn on his passing route. If you throw the ball in this game while the receiver is still running up the field, you’ll simply lead him on a post pattern (down the field) since he was facing forward at the time. This really hurts your ability to lead a timing-controlled passing attack, and makes a good route much less effective.

Don’t get me wrong, the passing game is still pretty good. Before each play, you can preview the route each receiver will take on the screen. This gives you a much better sense of how to attack the defense you’re facing and allows you better ability to audible out if necessary. Also, the game reacts realistically to each individual’s attributes, so speedy receivers can often break away from coverage and tall receivers can leap over the DB’s head to make a reception. In other words, it’s still your typical Madden-style passing game. However, in the age of NFL2K1 EA should make a serious effort to improve the passing game in next year’s Madden.