Quest to Madden 16 Perfection: Week 5

I should have known Madden 16's poster child would be almost godly on the field, and that's exactly what happened when I took the Niners to New York. Unlike the Packers last week just being a harder team overall, Odell Beckham Jr. was his own team. Thank God this only took me two tries.

Attempt 1:

The Giants received and began an offensive drive that lasted two plays. Both of which going to Odell Beckham Jr. The first catch was on the 50 yard line in double coverage with a guy on both ends of him. The other was the next play with him wide open.

On the following drive, I ran the ball repeatedly to the 50 and threw a sweet pass to Anquan Boldin for the touch down. It was called back for holding (imagine that). After that blunder, I hit Vernon Davis two plays later and managed to have him run it into the endzone.

Once the Giants got the ball back, Odell Beckham Jr. basically ran through a pile of 49ers defenders to take it up for the score.

I was unable to do anything on offense and after a single 1st down, I had to hand the ball back to the Giants. And guess what? Another Odell Beckham catch that he takes to the house about four or five plays later.

Good God, reset.

Attempt 2:

The Niners received and promptly gave the ball back. On this attempt though, the A.I. threw me a bone and I was able to keep the Giants from crossing the 50 yard line through the first quarter.

But then again, they weren't letting me cross midfield either.

When the second quarter rolled around, the Eli Manning started chucking it down field, to the game's regular Ninja, Odell Beckham Jr., who seemed to be everywhere. The funny part was when he caught a touchdown pass with one foot out of bounds.

Given my track record of challenges in this game, there was no way I was going to waste a challenge, but the game did it for me! And despite clear video evidence on the contrary, Beckham scored.

While this is another reason to question how accurate to the game Madden is in real life with technical blunders like this, think: how many times has this happened in real life to the Niners (See Rams 2014)?

On the next possession, I wound up giving the ball back to the giants and went blitz-happy on Eli Manning mostly being out of patience. I got the ball back after he basically walked into Navarro Bowman for no rhyme or reason. I'll take it!

What happened there was a 70 yard drive culminating in me going for it on 4th and goal with 4 minutes left in the half. . Not a good idea, as I got stuffed.  While I managed to kick a field goal after getting the ball back on a 3 and out, I never heard the end of it from the commentators on how stupid I was. Thanks guys!

On the ensuing kickoff, Odell Beckham Jr. literally juked just enough to dodge the Niners special teamers coming for him. He also ran through a wall of defenders (again) to get to the 50 yard line. This resulted in a field goal for New York.

I gladly took the ball down the field and ran Carlos Hyde in not just for the score, but for the regained confidence (whatever that does with Madden's crazy experience system). While I got chastised for the decision, I went for two to make it a 11-10 game. How's that confidence, Hyde?

The Giants threw to Odell Beckham, but he failed to really gash me. The fumble by Eli didn't help. After one more field goal, I was able to contain Beckham and run the clock down on my possessions to take the win.

Observations:

Odell Beckham Jr. nearly broke the game: I don't know how nuts the AI has to make this guy for the game, but he could do no wrong for the Giants.I guess this makes Odell Beckham Jr. The T.G. Cid of Madden 16.

Eli will be Eli: Since checking my sanity in and going on this crusade, I don't think I've seen more erratic throws than those by one, Eli Nelson Manning. Either he'd hit Beckham in stride or throw balls into the stands on the 50 yard line. It was actually pretty comical. And accurate to real life. Well...maybe only a little.

Ramses Barden looks like an O-lineman in Madden: Not much to say there other than he looks nothing like a wide receiver.

Up next: Another 49ers Madden game