After several months of disappointing losses and hours of time in practice mode, I finally ended my season in the EA Tiburon Madden marketing league with a victory in the Super Bowl. I won by a final score of 21-7 in a game that was a lot closer than I'd have liked. My opponent was missing Peyton Manning and Dallas Clark from his Colts team, but was allowed to pick up Jared Zabransky at QB in order to fill out his roster.
While Zabransky isn't as dangerous as Peyton Manning on the Madden gridiron, facing him did force me to change my game plan a little. I ran through the playoffs with a defense that featured a lot of heavy blitzing, something I'd have to reconsider because the Z-man has an 80+ speed rating. I came out and scored pretty quickly and ended up leading 13-0 in the third quarter in what was a boring but safe Super Bowl most of the way through. I was content with my lead because it didn't seem like my opponent would have enough offense to put the result in doubt. Then I had the worst start of a 4th quarter ever in the history of Madden Super Bowls.
After an early 4th quarter defensive stop, my opponent punted the ball inside my 5 yard line. I was ok with running the ball and punting it back, but on second down my running back put the ball on the turf, where it was quickly picked up by a Colts linebacker and run into the endzone for 6. I wasn't worried just yet because I knew I could probably score on the next drive if I needed to. It was at this point that I made my only real mistake of the game. I threw a pass I probably shouldn't have, and it was tipped by one defender and picked off by another deep in my territory. The Colts were now about 10 yards from taking the lead in a game I felt I had no business losing.
If ever there was a time I needed some help on defense, that was it. I got my opponent into a 4th down situation at around the 7 yard line and he decided to go for it, thinking he might not have another chance to take the lead. I was fortunate enough to stop him and then scored on an out to Santana Moss that he turned up field and ran about 70 yards. I decided to go for 2 and converted, making the final score 21-7. This was the first time I've ever won a Madden league and I have to say it felt pretty good. Especially in a league where I had a lot of challenges during the regular season.
Now that the league's over I guess the next Raczilla report will have to cover a new topic. Any thoughts on what you'd like to head about? Shoot me an email at footballcommunity@ea.com and let me know.