AI "cheating" or I just suck?

I hold my own online every year, I even won a decent amount of the virgin mobile real money tourneys. But for some reason, every single year, no matter what I run or how good I get, I struggle more with the AI than I do other people.

It is ALWAYS on flukey BS, its not like they are out playing me or out coaching, its just flukey BS, is this common? Is there anyway to prevent it? Here are ACTUAL examples of 3 of my games.

1. Playing as SEA. AI has the ball going into the half with 21 seconds after taking a touch back, score is tied. Richard Sherman's awareness drops to zero as a nobody 71 OVR receiver runs past him and sherman just watches, the WR runs toward the safety on their streak and the safety decided "hey I should wait until he is past me to give pursuit" TD AI.

2. Playing as SF. I have the ball with 1:15 left in 4th. I drive down to my own 28, they rush 3 down linemen and drop the rest into coverage, their NT blows past the OLINE, (gore is blocking) he runs past gore who makes no attempt at all to stop him, sacks Kaepernick who fumbles the ball, and then Gore dives OVER the loose ball missing it entirely and their DE picks up the fumble.

3. 4th Quarter, I score to pull within 3 with just over 3 minutes to go. I kickoff to them and the get a couple first downs, I use up all my timeouts and its 3 & 14, my defense holds forcing them to punt to me with just over a minute left, I have no timeouts. I think to myself, hey this will be an exciting end. I run back the punt being cautious so I hold R1 to cover the ball, I get tackled, not hit sticked, around the waist, and my returner basically just throws the ball forward as he casually gets gently pulled to the ground on a routine tackle that the defender was no where near the ball, they recover and kneel it.

This **** ONLY happens on all-madden, I dont understand wtf is happening or if there is anyway to prevent it. When I play my friends head to head on All-Madden nothing flukey happens, just the AI.

The AI adjusts and cheats if you're ahead on points, ratings go out the window.

I remember seeing a youtube vid doing a breakdown of the speed boost given to cover tacklers.

You'll still see 'psychic' players on the AI defense a lot as well. It seems to be safeties more than linebackers this year. As well, I've seen them do some insane stuff speed wise... cover 3/4 of the field in less than 2 seconds to bat/INT a ball the FS/SS otherwise had no way in hell of getting.

My current franchise has an elite O-line that I went out of my way to put together, along with deep into my team's pockets for, and when playing the game... well, it's not usual for that crew of 93-99's to be beaten regularly by weak D-Linemen in their 70's and low 80's every down or every other down.

Even running Shotgun it's insane just how little time you have to throw at times. Running the ball on the other hand? It's like the D-Line doesn't even exist as my back in Ace > Doubles > HB Dive is pulling 6-10 yards a carry much of the game. >_>

the AI has been doing this since back in the nintendo days... it keeps it interesting and keeps you frustrated

Yea, my run defense is horrible in All-Madden. I do Goalline defense or full blitz and the RB has huge holes.

I give up 200yds easy to a good running back. Yet, because it's 5 min quarters, I have the #1 ranked defense...and only get 1 stop per game.

I wonder if that's because I'm playing 5 min quarters...on 15 min quarters, maybe it plays a little more close to reality??

I've seen an ai "slide" sideways 3 yards before making a HUGE jump for an interception on a wide open reciever. without even turning his head.

This is what really bothers me when I play madden. There's no fun having the AI be able to magically correct itself and stop certain things. I wonder if there's a way to turn it off. Because like if you hit holes and make plays that would/will/should work in real life, but it doesn't work in madden its just frustrating.

Like any time my running back (usually darren mcfadden) gets chased down by a defensive end from behind I die a little inside, they really need to fix how fast players can spin on a dime and accelerate to full speed because you just cant physically go fullspeed downhill, immediately stop and go full speed up hill in real life.

Super Speed safeties all around this year, it seems. I can't get a long pass completed for the life of me. Play Action pass, wide open DeSean Jackson, safety comes across the field to break up the play. I love when they corner blitz me, I hot route the guy on that side on a streak, nobody's near him, I toss it up quick to avoid the sack, and the safety rolls over to break it up. There is no way even the best and fastest safety covers 40 yards in 3 seconds to break it up.

End short rant. Long story short, longest pass of the season (7 games in) is 27 yards. On a HB screen.

I hate this as well. I play on All-Pro, so it doesn't happen as much as All-Madden obviously, but to counter it I adjusted some sliders a tad bit to my favor and since then the gameplay has been pretty even. Some close games, some blowouts, depending on who's playing.

ReignFury posted...

The AI adjusts and cheats if you're ahead on points, ratings go out the window.

This.

Some other examples, The AI blitzes work while yours get bottled up, even if you send more than 5.

The AI wide receivers are wide open on a few occasions. Your receivers are rarely that open and barely have enough space to even catch the ball.

When your receivers are open, you get sacked. It's a big play for the AI offense in same situation.

You're cruising along defensively then all of a sudden you can't stop or tackle anybody.

I can go on and on