That’s right Patriot fans, the New England faithful will be rewarded this year when after missing nearly the entire 2008 season due to an injured left knee, Tom Brady leads the New England Patriots to the best overall record (14-2) as he compiles over 4,500 yards and throws for 47 touchdowns – also being named the season MVP and Offensive Player of the Year.
The rest of the AFC played out similar to last season, as the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tennessee Titans and San Diego Chargers won their divisions, while the Indianapolis Colts and Baltimore Ravens secured the AFC Wild Card spots. The biggest surprise was the performance of New York Jets rookie quarterback, Mark Sanchez, who took home the Offensive Rookie of the Year award. It was not enough, however, as the Jets once again failed to make the playoffs.
In the NFC, the Philadelphia Eagles returned to prominence, winning the toughest division (NFC East), thanks to a 12-4 record. Andy Reid was awarded Coach of the Year. The Arizona Cardinals and Atlanta Falcons prove that last year wasn’t a fluke as they took home their division crowns. The Jay Cutler-led Chicago Bears will also rebound in a big way, taking the NFC North division. The New York Giants and Carolina Panthers grabbed the NFC Wild Card spots.
Larry Richart, one of the designers on the central gameplay team says they added more and more team-specific plays, formations, audibles, and the like, but one of the biggest things that they hadn’t nailed was that the CPU teams didn’t play the same way that they do in real life. For example, when you were playing against the Vikings they wouldn’t utilize RB Adrian Peterson enough and would quickly abandon the run for the pass. This year they made it a point to concentrate on getting teams to call plays that focus on their best players (while still differentiating team playbooks with unique team specific formations and plays). For some teams like the Vikings and the Falcons, that may be through the running game, while others like the Patriots and Saints, you obviously expect them to air it out a lot more.
With Madden NFL 10 already boasting ‘Sim Style Gameplay‘, we’ll see how accurate those bold predictions turn out to be early next year. Last year’s installment predicted the Super Bowl score within one point! Madden NFL 09 predicted that the Steelers would dominate the Cardinals 28 to 24.
What’s scary is that the final score of the game was 27 to 23, Steelers over the Cardinals.
Here’s the season preview and full simulation results:
http://maddennfl.easports.com/media.action?version=10
NFL 2009 Season Awards (as simulated by Madden NFL 10):
- NFL MVP – Tom Brady, New England Patriots
- Offensive Player of the Year – Tom Brady, New England Patriots
- Defensive Player of the Year – Patrick Willis, San Francisco 49ers
- Offensive Rookie of the Year – Mark Sanchez, New York Jets
- Defensive Rookie of the Year – Brian Orakpo, Washington Redskins
- Coach of the Year – Andy Reid, Philadelphia Eagles.
NFL 2009 All-Pro Team:
- Quarterback – Tom Brady, New England Patriots
- Running Back
- Michael Turner, Atlanta Falcons
- Brandon Jacobs, New York Giants
- Wide Receiver
- Randy Moss, New England Patriots
- Andre Johnson, Houston Texans
- Tight End – Jason Witten, Dallas Cowboys
- Offensive Line
- Matt Light, New England Patriots
- Shawn Andrews, Philadelphia Eagles
- Chris Snee, New York Giants
- Logan Mankins, New England Patriots
- Michael Roos, Tennessee Titans
- Defensive Line
- Trevor Pryce, Baltimore Ravens
- Haloti Ngata, Baltimore Ravens
- Kris Jenkins, New York Jets
- Osi Umenyiora, New York Giants
- Linebacker
- Patrick Willis, San Francisco 49ers
- Channing Crowder, Miami Dolphins
- James Farrior, Pittsburgh Steelers
- Defense Back
- Brandon Meriweather, New England Patriots
- Nnamdi Asomugha, Oakland Raiders
- Ed Reed, Baltimore Ravens
- Donte Whitner, Buffalo Bills
- Kicker – Josh Scobee, Jacksonville Jaguars
- Punter – Brad Maynard, Chicago Bears
- Kick Returner – Devin Hester, Chicago Bears
- Punt Returner – Josh Cribbs, Cleveland Browns
[Source 1]
[Source 2]
[Source 3]
