Quantcast

Office Hours with Prof. QB

by Qbstud | 4 years ago | 0 Comments

Office Hours with Prof. QB

Every week I will be holding office hours with the SML, giving my thoughts on the happenings around the league, and giving others opportunity to come into the office and share their own thoughts. If you ever want to be heard, feel free to step into my office.

To kick off our first edition, we have one of the newest members of the SML: Dan He22

  • Although you're a familiar face to some, you're new to the SML. why don't you tell us about yourself?
    • I live in Western PA, steeler fan, been playing madden since 96, been in online lgs since 2010, commish a lg as well since 2006... Enjoying learning the game and finding out how to take away what most people want to do. Love the competition and challenge of getting better every game, every season, every cycle...
  • So I see your background in Madden, do you have any football background?
    • played QB in HS, played basketball in college
  • I feel like there’s a strong correlation between guys that played QB in HS and madden success, so that tells me that there’s still plenty of football knowledge applicable to the game as well. What are your initial impressions of the SML?
    • knowing the MF guys from the past I knew it would be solid... The level of content and investment beyond the game have been impressive. Love the fire, the activeness and challenge of a whole new set of owners and styles I haven't played before.
  • We take pride in our commitment to not only great content, but great gameplay as well, do you watch league games outside of your own? If so how often would you say you do?
    • I only watch games in lg play so I can get a feel for what they want to do. I don't care much of watching games of people I will never play
  • How about consumption of other content from the league? (i.e. podcasts, articles, etc.)
    • I watch/listen to everything... any thing produced someone took the time to make it and I feel as part of the lg I should take the time to watch it. Also gives me more insights into owners which can help come game day
  • That last bit is always a hesitation of mine, and probably the reason I’ll never do a series like Prime did with The Breakdown. So we have just started the playoffs, talk to me about who you think will be your biggest obstacle to a Superbowl appearance.
    • number 1 is always madden.... any game madden can be the deciding factor... outside of that I have played Skins, Packers and Vikings... I know NYT from MF only one I haven't seen yet in person is Hawks. The competitor in me wants Sunday. Our last week 17 game felt more like a preseason exhibition so I would love a shot at him... If it would happen to be in NFCC I get Fournette back which is a big factor...
  • You're definitely going to be rooting for Lawyer to win so your shot against Sunday comes in the NFCCG. What're your thoughts on what you've seen from the AFC?
    • Haven't seen a lot of AFC games as I don't have to play them yet. It appears the more locked in Prime is the tougher he is too beat. But I haven't seen Pats, Bills, Ravens games yet.. Although getting the vibe from personalities by guess is it will come down to Pats v Colts. Toughest opponents are the ones that can adjust and come at you with different options... I think some of these are teams are more one trick ponies and when you take that away they struggle to adjust
  • We'll end by leaving the floor open for you to say anything you want to everyone at home reading
    • Winning Super Bowls is the only thing that matters, it is the only award, stat or record that counts in the end. Win it or stay quiet until you do. Thats what I am here for, maybe this year, maybe next season, maybe next madden but I will be hungry til I do. Until then best of luck for all in the dance, don't leave anything left on the floor. If the gods of madden so smile on you, we will tip our hat in respect for being the best of the best in season 31 of SML

Awesome man, really appreciate you taking the time. Dan He22, newcomer to the SML, but is a force to be reckoned with? Time will tell if he can displace Sunday as the head of the NFC.

QB’s corner:

In QB’s corner I’ll focus more on what’s going on around the SML. I know we have a ton of guys that do great work in predicting games, so I will be focusing more on the other aspects of the league.

My topic of the week now is going to be over whether or not the running game is overpowered in Madden this cycle or not. Really when I say in madden, I mean in a sim CFM. Whether or not repeatedly running the same plays over and over in a mode where you can run TEs at WR and abuse abilities or game mechanics is irrelevant to us. In my experience, and I believe this is backed up this cycle in the SML, madden success correlates very closely with that in the NFL.

I’ll explain what I mean. A ground game is vital to the overall health to any offense; however, no team is going to go very far without strong quarterback play. Every team in the playoffs outside those hailing from the NFCN has a Superstar QB. This doesn’t mean they have to rely solely on that QB for their success, but you aren’t getting to the postseason without strong QB play.

An additional point we can bring to back that up, is that the Oakland Raiders have the SML’s leading rusher, but they finished the season with a 3-13 record. Yes he had a large volume of carries, but he still amassed over 8 ypc, which is excellent by anyone’s standards. If you’re able to build your offense around running the ball, do that really well, and still have nothing to show for it, it isn’t overpowered.

The only reason that the run game is perceived of being so strong is the concept of ball control. Being able to dominate time of possession and limit turnovers are going to lead you to success the vast majority of the time. Having a solid RB or running game will absolutely assist you in that, but without competent QB play you’re going to fail.

Generating turnovers then are equally important. We can see that the Ravens were the only team not in the top half of the league in forcing turnovers, and they get away with it because of an extremely strong ground game and a really week schedule this season.

All-in-all, so long as we’re discussing a sim setting, success in madden will correlate well with the same keys to victory as in the NFL. We may all have some gripes about the game and how it decides to handle some things, but regardless, Madden 20 has been the best edition of Madden this decade.