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How To Do The Fake Onside Kick On Madden 12?

How has Madden (the video games series) impacted coaching in the NFL over the past decade?

  • This question in inspired by 's comment on : ...if you look at how Madden (the video game) has undoubtedly influenced coaching strategy in the NFL the last decade, you might be right. The Saints onside kick to start the second half of the Super Bowl 2 years ago is a prime example of life imitating art. Players in Madden online, frequently try onside kicks at the start of a half. Furthermore, its not uncommon for gamers in Madden to never punt. I totally could see a team with a super potent offense (e.g. Texas) and crappy defense pursuing a scheme like this. I don't think its a winning strategy, but I definitely think some team will eventually try it.

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    Two ways the game has changed as a result of Madden immediately come to mind: Deferring to receive in the second half after winning the opening coin toss. Prior to the 90s, it seemed much less common for coaches not to elect to receive upon winning the opening coin toss.  If you play Madden online, almost every player, as a rule, elects to receive the ball in the second half. The strategy here is try to string together two consecutive scoring possessions or if you are on the losing end, get the second half started right. More liberal and creative approaches to 4th down. In Madden, the top players almost always go for it on 4th down if it is a reasonable distance (5-7 yards or less). Prior to this past decade, on 4th down it was almost an iron rule amongst NFL coaches to punt. Today, you see lots of coaches choosing to go for it on 4th down situations that they previously would have avoided.

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As a general football knowledge training tool. There was an article in Wired (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/ff_gamechanger/) that suggests that this generation of players come out of high school/college much more familiar with at least the vocabulary, and sometimes even the Xs and Os BECAUSE they've had some exposure to it in Madden. Sure it's no substitute for doing it live, but a young QB may have at least seen a Cover-2 and know (in general) how to attack its weak points because he's done it in the game. This shortens the learning curve somewhat, though how much is open to debate.

Jason McDonald

I doubt that it's impacted coaching much, if any. Most of the examples you see -- onside kicks, no punting -- are ultimately correlation, not causation. Teams don't punt less because of Madden, they punt less because there is statistical evidence that it can be a good thing. In the post-moneyball era particularly, many teams pay more attention to this kind of statistical analysis (public variant: http://www.footballoutsiders.com/).

Angus Macdonald

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