Adding a Fully Customizable Playbook To Madden

@Whast Thing is... Many of the things in the past don't need to be 'fixed.'

I like to use the "Motion Glitch" as an example. The first "motion glitch" from Madden NFL 2004 was called the "Wally-B" because he was the first to use it in tournament play to beat Man Under 2, the most popular defensive play at the time. He would playmaker his WR to run a flat route, then motion him across the formation and snap the ball when he reached the TE's inside shoulder. The WR would run back toward the flat and the CB and OLB would swap the man they were covering (a technique called Banjo in football circles). The WR, now covered by an LB, would catch the ball in the flat with room to run while the LB and CB rubbed each other out of the play.

Back then it seemed everyone called it a glitch, with the consensus opinion that this would never happen in real life. Who could blame them? Up until that point, no one had ever used that technique in a real NFL game (I'm not sure about college).

EA started making changes to prevent the technique from working on Madden NFL 2005. Receivers in motion in the tackle box were forced to block (which also curbed another issue with WR running routes through the gaps), Auto-Motion was created to simulate the same motion with only designated routes attached, flat routes was nixed as a hot route for outside receivers, and defenders no longer Banjoed coverages...

Seemed like EA did the right things UNTIL week 4 of the 2011 regular season when the Dallas Cowboys ran the Wally-B (with playaction and false reverse motion) against the Detroit Lion's man coverage with 12:35 left in the 3rd quarter for a gain of 13 (which was comparable to the Wally-B in Madden 2004).

The Lions liked the concept so much that they ran it against the Panthers in week 11. Unfortunately for the Lions, the Panthers were in a 3-Deep sky zone coverage and they only gained 3 yards. The Wally-B hasn't been run since.

Here's a video I made that goes into detail - it's queued up to the NFL footage: https://youtu.be/f5reTY2sddc?t=818

It's one of the reasons I'm so adamant EA changing the right things - instead of listening to the fans. Fact is, many Madden players don't know what they are talking about when it comes to play design versus what they call glitches.

Later