Time for another Madden Sim, this week playing out the week sixteen Christmas eve matchup between the Cardinals and Bengals.
Again, I am using 15 minute quarters, the rosters are the most recent ones, and the game is played through the Super Sim mode.
Skelton is expected to start on Sunday although we don't have any official word as of the time this is being written so he gets the start. I also replaced Joey Porter with Stewart Bradley now that he is on IR, Jaymar Johnson was also moved behind Chansi Stuckey on the depth chart and Rob Housler replaced Jim Dray to try and better reflect how the actual depth charts look.
Game Summary:
Last weeks sim was a defensive struggle. This one wasn't....
The offenses started off early with big plays, first we got an 82 yard pass from Dalton to Caldwell, and Doucet brought in a 69 yarder from Skelton. Later in the first Benson pounded in a six yard run, and to close out the quarter the Patrick Peterson show contunued with him bringing back a 43 yard punt return for a score.
The action slowed down in the second and nobody scored leading to a 14-14 tie at the half.
The Cards were then able to get some more control of the game early in the third with a 56 yard run from Beanie, but the Bengals responded with a 96 yard kick return from Bernard Scott. Jaymar Johnson then got in on the act by catching a 21 yard touchdown to make the score 28-21 going into the fourth.
The Bengals started off the final quarter quickly with Benson taking a short pass a long way for a 51 yard score, then the teams just kept exchanging shots with a 16 yard score for Doucet, a two yard run by Benson, and LaRod Stephens-Howling getting in on the kick return act by bringing one back from 102 yards out. Then down by a score of 42-35 with the clock ticking down Dalton was picked off by Lenon at midfield to seal the win for the Cardinals.
My quick impressions for this week.... Well, Fitz didn't get any catches or targets. I'm guessing that he was injured early in the first quarter and had to leave the game. And yet again, we saw some low completion percentages by the quarterbacks in this sim, but for the first time in a while with these things Skelton was able to hold on to the ball while Dalton wasn't and in a close game like this it made all the difference. We also got to see three non offensive touchdowns, take those out of the game and the score winds up being a 28-28 tie.
By the way, I am not expecting the real score to look anything like this. I'm expecting something more like what we saw last week with the Browns, although hopefully not another overtime game because I don't need that kind of stress right before Christmas.
So, in the end, the Madden Cardinals get a 42-35 win over the Bengals. Their record also goes up to 6-9 in Madden.
Box Score:
| Teams | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Final |
| Cardinals | 14 | 0 | 14 | 14 | 0 | 42 |
| Bengals | 14 | 0 | 7 | 14 | 0 | 35 |
Notable Stats:
Passing:
John Skelton - 12 of 28 for 168, 3TD
Andy Dalton - 16 of 36 for 376, 2 TD, 3 Int
Rushing:
Beanie Wells - 16 for 163, TD
Cedric Benson - 19 for 72, 2 TD
Fumbles - Dalton (2)
Receiving:
Larry Fitzgerald - 0 for 0 (Injured???)
Andre Roberts - 2 for 17
Early Doucet - 3 for 95, 2 TD
A.J. Green - 7 for 144
Andre Caldwell - 3 for 123, TD
Dropped Passes - Roberts (2) Todd Heap , Jerome Simpson, Caldwell
Defense:
Sacks - Michael Johnson
Int - Paris Lenon (2), Richard Marshall
Kicking:
Jay Feely - 0 of 1
Mike Nugent - 0 of 1
Total Offense:
Cards - 211
Bengals - 459
3rd/4th Down:
Cards - 4 of 13, 0 of 0
Bengals - 2 of 9, 0 of 1
Turnovers:
Cards - 0
Bengals - 4