Denver receives poor ratings from EA sports

[Liebs]

New madden team ratings were released, and assuming I viewd it correctly, the Broncos are the 24th best team in the game(last in the west)...... how do we have a top 10 offense, and a top 5 defense in 04, and get this low of a rating. ludicrous.
http://www.psxsports.com/news5.html

[Tom A Hawk]

New madden team ratings were released, and assuming I viewd it correctly, the Broncos are the 24th best team in the game(last in the west)...... how do we have a top 10 offense, and a top 5 defense in 04, and get this low of a rating. ludicrous.
http://www.psxsports.com/news5.html

Lighten up Nancy.....it is just a game. If you think those ratings mean something you need some help. Most pro football analyst ratings don't mean a lot at this point let alone some game rating.....take a pill

[Liebs]

Lighten up Nancy.....it is just a game. If you think those ratings mean something you need some help. Most pro football analyst ratings don't mean a lot at this point let alone some game rating.....take a pill
by no means am I saying this has any real meaning, Im just mentioning it on an internet message board, concerning football. a lot of people play the game, they might be interested.

perhaps you should remove the stick from your a$$ sister.

[Hercules Rockefeller]

1. Who cares? Madden's been the same game for years.

2. They update the rankings the closer and closer it gets to the release date

[MT-Tdawg]

Eh, nothing new about about. EA and Madden pretty much hate the Broncos. Thankfully they do have a roster editor so you can fix things or make them ridiculous if you want. I'm thinking the Broncos SHOULD be something like 82-85 overall on offense and 85-88 overall on defense. Those are probably much higher than what EA sports has them at.

[NaptownChief]

EA and Madden pretty much hate the Broncos.



Where do you guys get this "everybody hates the broncos" stuff? I don't deny there occassionally is the sports writer who dislikes a franchise and loves to bash them but every time anyone says anything other than glowing stuff about the Donks there is almost immediately the "they just hate us" stuff. It is actually possible for someone to objectively look at your team and not be overly impressed once in a while. I realize that is tough for some of you to believe however.

[Liebs]

1. Who cares? Madden's been the same game for years.

2. They update the rankings the closer and closer it gets to the release date
my apologies, I didn't now my goal was to capture your interest. I thought since this was a football message board, some people who played the game might be interested.

fyi: here's some people who do care, maddenmania.com maddennation.com vgsports.com

[Liebs]

Where do you guys get this "everybody hates the broncos" stuff? I don't deny there occassionally is the sports writer who dislikes a franchise and loves to bash them but every time anyone says anything other than glowing stuff about the Donks there is almost immediately the "they just hate us" stuff. It is actually possible for someone to objectively look at your team and not be overly impressed once in a while. I realize that is tough for some of you to believe however.
true sometimes I admit I get caught up just because I am a big fan, we all do. In this case I was just surprised that they would get stuck low preseason ratings because they did make the playoffs, and did put up good overall stats, thats all

[MT-Tdawg]

Where do you guys get this "everybody hates the broncos" stuff? I don't deny there occassionally is the sports writer who dislikes a franchise and loves to bash them but every time anyone says anything other than glowing stuff about the Donks there is almost immediately the "they just hate us" stuff. It is actually possible for someone to objectively look at your team and not be overly impressed once in a while. I realize that is tough for some of you to believe however.

I have never once said "everybody hates the broncos". I said Madden hates the Broncos...which is well, true. As for objectivlely looking at my team, I think I just proved I did. How would you rank our overall offense/defense? Did i even cross into the 90's? No. If i was to "objectivley" rank the wee chiefies, i'd say 85-88 offense 82-85 defense. Hows that for objectivity. I sense you have been exposed to one to many whiners Nappy.

[NaptownChief]

true sometimes I admit I get caught up just because I am a big fan, we all do. In this case I was just surprised that they would get stuck low preseason ratings because they did make the playoffs, and did put up good overall stats, thats all



I think all teams have their contingent that fall into the "They hate us" trap but it definitely seems to be more popular here. And as a Chief fan we definitely do have Whitlock who loves to see the Chiefs struggle so he can bash Carl Peterson but on a national level most of the negative comments that come towards the Chiefs come from people that couldn't care less about the Chiefs success or failure they are just writing their honest opinion.

[Ballhawk]

I think all teams have their contingent that fall into the "They hate us" trap but it definitely seems to be more popular here. And as a Chief fan we definitely do have Whitlock who loves to see the Chiefs struggle so he can bash Carl Peterson but on a national level most of the negative comments that come towards the Chiefs come from people that couldn't care less about the Chiefs success or failure they are just writing their honest opinion.

I do not think there is much hate from the media (except pastabelly is a definate Shanny hater). I do believe that there is a big East coast bias.

[Arkie]

Everybody seems to hate the Broncos these days. It was different in '96 and '97 when we were the media darlings.

[NaptownChief]

I said Madden hates the Broncos...


You actually said "EA and Madden pretty much hate the Broncos"


First off Madden while he does take an active role in the development or at least he did in years gone by I'm guessing he has got a few more things in life to concern himself with than worrying about the game rating for the Donks. And as for EA hating the Donks that is about as dumb as it gets. Technically EA is a company and not a living breathing being so it can't "hate"...But as for the player and team ratings I would imagine they pay NFL football scouts to assign ratings to each individual player and then those individual player ratings are averaged out to come up with the collective team rating. My guess is the person or people assigned to the ratings aren't intentionally lower Donkey player ratings cause they "hate" you.

[MT-Tdawg]

You actually said "EA and Madden pretty much hate the Broncos"


First off Madden while he does take an active role in the development or at least he did in years gone by I'm guessing he has got a few more things in life to concern himself with than worrying about the game rating for the Donks. And as for EA hating the Donks that is about as dumb as it gets. Technically EA is a company and not a living breathing being so it can't "hate"...But as for the player and team ratings I would imagine they pay NFL football scouts to assign ratings to each individual player and then those individual player ratings are averaged out to come up with the collective team rating. My guess is the person or people assigned to the ratings aren't intentionally lower Donkey player ratings cause they "hate" you.

You make some good points nappy but I'm really not crying wolf here. I've found that several teams are consistantly overrated/underrated when it comes to EA. If you've been buying Madden every year for the past 10 years you know exactly what I mean, which would lead me to believe EA and Madden either dislike certain teams and favor others, or they or their "scouts" are just really dumb when it comes to evaluating a player/team. The raiders are always, and i do mean ALWAYS overrated in Madden. I mean come on, they will probably give their defense at least an 82 this year, when it should be around 75. The Vikings, Dolphins and Redskins are also usually overrated. Underrated teams usually include the Broncos, Steelers (probably not this year though) the Jags, and even KC has been way underrated several times. So either EA/Madden favor some teams and not others, or the "scouts" they pay like/dislike certain teams, or they just suck at evaluation.

[TheChamp247]

wow people thats all kinda harsh. it is true though the past couple of years some teams have been overrated and the broncos under rated. really our offense hasent changed for the worse. jerry rice came here and hes still a good player so the rating should have gone up. out defense got better this year. sure we lost kennedy, hayward, and herndon but thats about it. getting ian gold and a good amount of d-linemen with potential should help the rating but in the eyes of ea it dosnt

heres my rating

OFFENSE
QB-85
RB-75
TE-75
WR-85
OL-90
OVERALL-85

DEFENSE
DL-80
LB-90
CB-87
DB-85
OVERALL-88

TEAM OVERALL-85

[Dukes]

Everybody seems to hate the Broncos these days. It was different in '96 and '97 when we were the media darlings.

'98 was the only year we got ANY respect

[TheReverend]

They should automatically make our RBs in the 90s just because they know well rush for 1500 yards every time.

[IHaveALight]

I hear you Liebs. The Broncos should at the least be a top 15 team. We'll just have to wait for those updated rosters once they prove EA wrong.

[Taco John]

Where do you guys get this "everybody hates the broncos" stuff? I don't deny there occassionally is the sports writer who dislikes a franchise and loves to bash them but every time anyone says anything other than glowing stuff about the Donks there is almost immediately the "they just hate us" stuff. It is actually possible for someone to objectively look at your team and not be overly impressed once in a while. I realize that is tough for some of you to believe however.



You'd have a point if they ranked us 14th or 17th. But we were a playoff team with a top ten offense and a top ten defense.

[alanm]

Where do you guys get this "everybody hates the broncos" stuff? I don't deny there occassionally is the sports writer who dislikes a franchise and loves to bash them but every time anyone says anything other than glowing stuff about the Donks there is almost immediately the "they just hate us" stuff. It is actually possible for someone to objectively look at your team and not be overly impressed once in a while. I realize that is tough for some of you to believe however.
That's true because everyone knows the media hates the Chiefs. ;D

[Rock Chalk]

New madden team ratings were released, and assuming I viewd it correctly, the Broncos are the 24th best team in the game(last in the west)...... how do we have a top 10 offense, and a top 5 defense in 04, and get this low of a rating. ludicrous.
http://www.psxsports.com/news5.html
And this translates to what on the football field?

[TheDave]

God the offseason sucks!

[Bronx33]

And this translates to what on the football field?


They seem to think so.......

[SoCalBronco]

It is actually possible for someone to objectively look at your team and not be overly impressed once in a while. '

I agree. Sometimes they are just plain impressed, not overly impressed.

[Bob's your Information Minister]

One of you pussies needs to nut up and play me with the latest rosters on Madden 2005 PC.

[SoCalBronco]

One of you pussies needs to nut up and play with me .

Isnt this what you were meaning to say instead Bob?

[wabbit]

Geez, no kidding

...stealing quotes from Michael Jackson won't get you any rep points here 'Bob

[Sean]

One of you pussies needs to nut up and play me with the latest rosters on Madden 2005 PC.

I'll put my money on Liebs.

[Nuggets4]

I'm more excited about NCAA 2006 than Madden this year.

[Arkie]

This vision cone feature looks kind of cool. I bet Plummer has a really narrow vision cone.
http://images.ea.com/sports/games/06/madden/promos/visionandprecision_160x114.jpg

[Willynowei]

A note about madden.

The EA development team that spends hours tracking these ratings are based in Orlando not like the 2k team from Take Two interactive who are infact Raider fans because they are based near Oakland.

Madden had OVERATED the Denver Broncos from 1999 - 2003 IMHO. Year after year Denver and Miami had been rated the best in their Division or second best. Denver never made it out of the first round of the playoffs. And the last two seasons i think it was because of our slaughters against the Indianapolis Colts that have lead to poor ratings these last two years.

Plus a bunch of our players got amazing ratings last year.

Champ Bailey was 99 in everything including speed, agility and jumping if i remember correctly. Al Wilson and Trevor Pryce were both 95. Everyone else however, was like 70 or less.

A huge reason for the ratings shortage is because of the departure of Dan Neil. He used to get a 90-92 every year and now Denver sent him away it probably dropped our offensive rating like 5 points since they'll probably rate Cooper Carlile a 60.

Honestly though.... Does Denver deserve any good ratings?

Lets look at the facts.

1.) Shanahans run based offense skews the defenses' yards per game because time of possesion is always tilted in our favor.

2.) Denver's top competition came mostly from defensive teams last year with the exceptions of Atlanta, Indy and Ten. However, Ten and Indy both played with their 3rd string players either because of injury or because they were resting.

3.) We've been blown out by every single offensive team last year with the exception of KC in the season opener.... Thus Denvers defense is rated so low.

4.) Denvers offense just doesnt have a superstar. When we had Clinton Portis Madden had an excuse to inflate our ratings, Neil and Nalen = 90 linemen then Portis is like 93. Denvers O-line is once again unknown and our receiving core is even less known and Tatum Bell is unproven. This will all change once the season starts though.

[Hercules Rockefeller]

1.) Shanahans run based offense skews the defenses' yards per game because time of possesion is always tilted in our favor.


That might have been a good argument if you had looked at the flip-side, Denver was tied for 6th in yards per play. In fact Denver was Top 10 in virtually every defensive stat except for sacks (middle of the pack) and takeaways (at the bottom).

By using playoff games as a barometer to move a team's rankings lower, where you are going up against the best teams in the League, your biases are skewed in a way that other non-playoff teams are not.

[Willynowei]

That might have been a good argument if you had looked at the flip-side, Denver was tied for 6th in yards per play. In fact Denver was Top 10 in virtually every defensive stat except for sacks (middle of the pack) and takeaways (at the bottom).

By using playoff games as a barometer to move a team's rankings lower, where you are going up against the best teams in the League, your biases are skewed in a way that other non-playoff teams are not.

Yards per play maybe, but often the Defense is fresh from the extended rest of a run based offense.

Also, Denver's weakness of a neglagible pass rush was taken advantage of when teams found out in the Monday night game vs. the Bengals. From that point on (not just the playoffs) Denver was simply a team in the bottom half starting off with a 5-1 record. Before the Bengals game, teams didnt see glaring weakness because of a revamped starting lineup.

Note, We were blown out by Atlanta, lost to all division rivals, and got two free wins against the third string defenses against Indy and Tenn.

Post week 8, once opposing teams discovered the lack of rush, Denver was indeed this bad.

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Note, We were blown out by Atlanta, lost to all division rivals, and got two free wins against the third string defenses against Indy and Tenn.


and they had a dropped handoff in Week 2 and blocked FG against Oakland that prevented two more wins. Denver could have had 12, 11, 10, 9 or 8. It all evens itself out in the end. (hat tip to I think SpringStein)

Even will all those losses though, they still kept their defensive rankings near the top.

[Willynowei]

and they had a dropped handoff in Week 2 and blocked FG against Oakland that prevented two more wins. Denver could have had 12, 11, 10, 9 or 8. It all evens itself out in the end. (hat tip to I think SpringStein)

Even will all those losses though, they still kept their defensive rankings near the top.

Denver played well against top competition in Jaxonville yes, and got some bad luck.

But a little bad luck shouldnt have done much in a game where we played a team we blew out in their own back yard at home.

My point is not that we had poor numbers, its that those numbers are skewed because were half the team we were when we compiled those numbers in the first 8 weeks once teams discovered our glaring weakness (protected early in the season by Tampa and Carolina's patchwork O-line and the Jaguars gameplan of running and throwing short).

Keep in mind, we were the top rated defense in pretty much every category in the middle of the season. So yes, we were impressive when our D-line looked okay.

[NaptownChief]

You'd have a point if they ranked us 14th or 17th. But we were a playoff team with a top ten offense and a top ten defense.



You were a playoff team but then you went out and bought the worst defensive line in the NFL from Cleveland, wasted a roster spot on a tired Jerry Rice and shot your first 3 rounds of draft picks on Mighty Mouse revisited and Clarrett Jug Head...

The fine folks at EA realize that should be enough damage to send you a few steps backward. They didn't become the world leader in sports video games by not knowing how to make them realistic. ;D

[rbackfactory80]

You were a playoff team but then you went out and bought the worst defensive line in the NFL from Cleveland, wasted a roster spot on a tired Jerry Rice and shot your first 3 rounds of draft picks on Mighty Mouse revisited and Clarrett Jug Head...

The fine folks at EA realize that should be enough damage to send you a few steps backward. They didn't become the world leader in sports video games by not knowing how to make them realistic. ;D

No they figured it out by putting a team(chefs) who have had one winning season in the last 5 years ahead of us.

[Arkie]

Madden had OVERATED the Denver Broncos from 1999 - 2003 IMHO. Year after year Denver and Miami had been rated the best in their Division or second best.

That seems fair enough since we are consistently one of the top 2 in the AFC West. Nothing suggests we should be 4th this year.

[Arkie]

San Diego 88
Kansas City 85
Oakland 81
Denver 74

7 points beneath Oakland!
14 points beneath SD!!!!!! :kiddingme

[broncosteven]

Madden never had Elway rated very high I remember buying around '95 & Elway was rated in mid to low 80's Bret Fart on other hand is greatest ever every year even though his play is going down the tubes.

I was shocked last years D was rated so high & not just Champ, Walls Wilson, TP, all hit 95 or better for me in Franchise mode after a year or 2.

I trade away the low rated players anyway, all you have to do is trade for a receiver with speed rated 99 & bomb away.

[Arkie]

Madden 2005 overall ratings:
Kansas City 90
Denver 88
Oakland 72
San Diego 70

Madden 2004 overall ratings:
Oakland 94
Denver 81
Kansas City 81
San Diego 79

[Swedish Extrovert]

Thats cool, this will be the first year I dont buy Madden. Im done with that ****...

I dont get how we are 10 points lower than the faguars.

[Northman]

New madden team ratings were released, and assuming I viewd it correctly, the Broncos are the 24th best team in the game(last in the west)...... how do we have a top 10 offense, and a top 5 defense in 04, and get this low of a rating. ludicrous.
http://www.psxsports.com/news5.html


Getting absolutely manhandled by the Chiefs and Colts will do that too you. sucks but our 5th ranked defense didnt do much to bolster their confidence in us.

[Bob's your Information Minister]

Thats cool, this will be the first year I dont buy Madden. Im done with that ****...

I dont get how we are 10 points lower than the faguars.

Is that your reason for not buying it? You can edit the rosters you know.

[clarker]

Getting absolutely manhandled by the Chiefs and Colts will do that too you. sucks but our 5th ranked defense didnt do much to bolster their confidence in us.
Two games vs the two top offensive teams in the NFL, really takes away from what they did the other 15 games. There were other low moments like vs Cincy and Atlanta, but you don't end up 5th in the NFL in anything without be pretty good most of the time.

[Taco John]

If it's the same game as last year, what's the point of buying the new one?

[Northman]

Two games vs the two top offensive teams in the NFL, really takes away from what they did the other 15 games. There were other low moments like vs Cincy and Atlanta, but you don't end up 5th in the NFL in anything without be pretty good most of the time.


yea, but you have to admit its really ' what have you done for me lately ' type thinking when they build these games. now obviously, they boosted the raiders because of Moss but its the same type of thinking. plus, i think a lot of the defensive help was the ball control from the offense. i mean, we really didnt make any real defensive stands thoughout the year we just kind of played keepaway.

[Swedish Extrovert]

I dont care about the ratings... I just look in hindsight - I never liked Madden's fat ass. And the game is the same every year, yet they manage to charge $50 every year for it. Madden also has a monopoly on the NFL - Im done with that ****.

[Bob's your Information Minister]

If it's the same game as last year, what's the point of buying the new one?

True dat. I'll be downloading it again this year...