Madden NFL 23 Review: 3 Ups & 7 Downs

3. Coverage/Blocking Is Still Balls

Madden 23's 'FieldSENSE' improvements do work for things like passing and running (more on those later), but defensive plays remain a chore. AI teammates just do not block running lanes, and that can lead to constant blown coverages which you wouldn't see at an elite NFL level in real-life.

Worse, there's no way to fix this.

Similarly, your offensive line does a poor job of protecting QBs or shielding your own runners. This means there's way less time than there should be to pick a pass, and that's true even when you're playing as some of Madden's best units. Everyone sorta runs around in circles bumping into one another like they've never played football before.

'FieldSENSE' was supposed to eliminate overly-scripted animation cycles for tackling and make collisions more lifelike. That's true maybe 40% of the time. The other 60%? That's spent shouting at cornerbacks who weirdly get sucked into the middle of the pack rather than cutting off routes.