All-Madden is difficult and I know exactly how EA Sports do it. NFL is a difficult game to succeed at, particularly in real life, because of the sheer amount of players on the field. No single player can win you the match. Even the quarterback doesn't play on defense (excuse the "US English" spelling). I simply can't be everywhere, can't cover two wide receivers on opposite sides of the field.

The main effects I'm feeling are that opposition running backs generally break the first tackle, man coverage on defense flat out doesn't work and that once again, I can only count on a handful of passing plays or else I'm likely to throw an interception. I had to make similar playing style changes when I went to All-Pro, so it shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did.

After four pre-season losses out of four, including two absolute slappings, I wasn't looking forward to the season. Which made it all the more surprising when I started the season with two consecutive wins where I shut out the opposition. Un-freekin-believable. I'd worked out in the last pre-season game to play a cover defense and try and cover one of the primary receivers myself. I'd also cut down on blitz plays, because it's easy to get burned on them because it takes two to tackle down a running back or sprinting wide receiver. The strategy worked well in the first two games, taking a lead early in both games and picking up interceptions aplenty due to the cover scheme.

It was harder to explain how I've lost the last four games then, considering I thought I'd found the secret and adjusted well. The difference was that I didn't get the lead early, or had trouble keeping it because there weren't so many turnovers in my favour. I figured out I could stop the passing game with the cover defense, but if they ran the football I was practically powerless to stop them. Teams that are trailing pass the ball considerably more and that gives me a big hand with playcalling on defense. By the way, this rings true in real football too, it's not a glitch or cheat way to play Madden.

My last game against the Patriots was close. I got the lead and knew I had to keep it. The downside of that was I kicked two close field goals (under 30 yards) because I wouldn't risk failing on fourth down. Unfortunately, it backfired. I got behind 17-13 with only a minute to play and it suddenly dawned on me that I had no reliable plays that I could get down the field and out of bounds on (to stop the clock). My whole game's based on running and I had to desert the Out routes that I loved on the other skill levels, instead adopting Curl routes, which were a Madden 2005 staple but initially proved difficult to use with Madden 2006. Going deep on the play action, which I consider the Dean Special, is totally out of the question right now. Defiantly I tried an out route to get out of bounds ... and threw a pick that was returned for a touchdown. Game over.

I even brought in Michael Vick at the start of the season to help my passing game. Unfortunately his awareness isn't as high as other quarterbacks with the same overall skill (due to his running skills) and I haven't incorporated QB runs into my playbook (it takes forever). I guess I'll eventually switch to the Falcons playbook to make better use of him. In other trades, I traded away the whinging WR David Boston and a pick for Bengals WR T.J. Houshmanzadeh. He should be a better all-round replacement when I trade away Marty Booker in the off season, because he's getting old.

At least I drew some pleasure or confidence by stopping the runs after that. A goal line defense was handy at stopping runs up the middle and surprisingly, blitzing with the Quarter defense produced good results because my guys were blitzing from so wide that the offensive line couldn't get to them. Linebacker blitzes had much less success, which wasn't helped by my ineffective pass rushing.

The strategy for my next game: run the ball early and score, go for fourth and 2, be aggressive with defensive play calling and don't be afraid to gamble on whether the offense is running or passing. All guns blazing!

Previous GameBox: Madden 2006: Graduation to the Big League