The football season begins approximately right now (discounting Thursday’s season opener between Minnesota and New Orleans), as I’m writing this article, and that means it’s the perfect time to see what Madden’s crystal ball is predicting for this season.
The Madden team ran their official Madden NFL 11 regular season simulation and according to their game, the Baltimore Ravens and Green Bay Packers are expected to finish 1st in their conference, respectively.Â
The simulation predicted that Aaron Rodgers, quarterback for the Green Bay Packers would win MVP and Offensive Player of the Year behind the strength of his arm. Fortunately, though, for fans of other NFC teams, the Packers were in a tight race for the conference title, finishing with a good but not stunning 12-4 records, meaning parity is the keyword in the NFC (except for Rams and Lions fans, we think you can expect the same results as last year – bad).Â
Baltimore cruised to a league-best 13-3 record, tying those pesky Indianapolis Colts for the best record in the NFL. But, the Ravens secured the conference title and home-field advantage in the playoffs through their better divisional record.Â
The other teams qualifying for the playoffs from the AFC? The New England Patriots (Yes!!), Indianapolis Colts, San Diego Chargers, New York Jets, and Houston Texans. The Jets and the Texans snuck in with Wild Card berths.Â
Tying the Packers at the top of the NFC and their division were their fierce rivals, the Minnesota Vikings, led by former Packer great Brett Favre. The Vikings finished 12-4 but lost out on the division title thanks to a weaker divisional record than that of the Packers.
The other teams qualifying for the NFC playoffs were the San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, New Orleans Saints, and Atlanta Falcons.Â
It seems that the Redskins just weren’t able to finally get back into the playoffs despite a stellar 28 touchdown, 13 interception seasonal performance from Donovan McNabb, and, as usual, the Browns were nowhere to be found.Â
Darelle Revis seems to have been worth the money the Jets shelled out for him this offseason to keep him in town. He led the league with 7 picks.Â
We’ll see how the regular season actually plays out, but Madden is often surprisingly accurate. They like to brag about their successes predicting Super Bowl champions and how close they can actually come to predicting the score of games as well. Will this be the alignment at the end of the season? Do you have a favorite sleeper pick? Let us know your thoughts below!
