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Editor note: Week 5 vs Carolina went unpublished, so we are publishing the results for both games now.
Greetings from the Revenge Of The Birds Arizona Cardinals Madden 25 Simulation. This week will have two weeks worth to make up for a missed week last week. When we left off the Arizona Cardinals were standing at 2-2 which mirrored the Cardinals real record. Madden seems to call wins during losses, and losses during wins so far. Which is further shown in the week 5 match up against the Carolina Panthers.
Simulation Note:
Probably the most fun/annoying thing about making the simulations is the constant tweaks to the roster. There was a lot of irony in trading to get Sowell (68 OVR) from the Colts, I first tried to trade Levi Brown (78 OVR) straight up, but Jim Irsay was not interested. So I had to trade them Levi Brown and a 5th and a 6th round pick for Sowell. That tells you something right there.
Week 5 Simulation Recap
The Cardinals lose this match up 31-9 due to three turnovers and a complete lack of ability to score touchdowns.
Box score
Quarters 1 2 3 4 Final
Panthers | 7 | 7 | 0 | 17 || 31
Cardinals | 0 | 6 | 3 | 0 || 9
Daryl Washington's return to the line up was shown through his leading the defense in tackles with 10 solo and one pass deflection, but in the simulation he was not the gamechanger he was in real life. The defense had three sacks, two for Calias Campbell and one for John Abraham, and that pretty much sums up the good play to report.
On the offense the Cardinals were sloppy. Carson Palmer threw two interceptions and was 27/52 for 252 yards and zero touchdowns and six sacks. Larry Fitzgerald caught seven passes for 93 yards with the next highest receiver being Mendenhall with 58 yards. The week 5 roster updates are really staying true to the lack of offensive capabilities of the Cardinals, but are not keeping up with the capabilities of the defensive.
Team Stats: Panthers Cardinals
Total Offense: 365 293
Rushing Yards: 157 41
Passing Yards: 208 252
First Downs: 18 15
PR Yards: 32 19
KR Yards: 21 41
Turnovers: 0(+3) 3(-3)
3rd Down Conv: 6-17 (35%) 4-17(23%)
4th Down Conv: 0-0(0%) 0-2(0%)
Week 6
Simulation note Sewell went from a 68 to a 75 in the line up and Shaughnessy went from a 69 to a 73.
In this weeks match-up the simulated Cardinals enter the contest 2-3 where the 49ers are 3-2.
Quick Recap
The Cardinals offense continues to disappoint. Continuing the trend the Cardinals are unable to complete passes anywhere in the red zone. This unfortunately reflects the issues Palmer is having and we're hoping that the Cardinals loss in Madden reflects a win in real life! The final score is 24-6 after Palmer reduces his turnovers to only 1 interception.
Box score
Quarters 1 2 3 4 Final
Cardinals | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 || 6
49ers | 7 | 14 | 0 | 3 || 24
Interestingly enough, Kaepernick played very close to how he has been playing for the past four weeks putting up 183 yards, but doing it very efficiently 18/27 with one touchdown. Frank Gore had a good day with 26 attempts for 116 yards compared to Mendenhall's 20 attempts for 40 yards.
The real highlights for the Cardinals came on defense where Daryl Washington and Karlos Dansby really started to click. Washington had 14 tackles and Dansby had 11. The Cardinals defense was only able to make one sack, and the Cardinals offensive line only gave up two sacks on the day. Something tells me Sewell is going to continue to get roster improved stats if he can continue his good play.
Team Stats: Cardinals 49ers
Total Offense: 229 391
Rushing Yards: 40 208
Passing Yards: 189 183
First Downs: 12 24
PR Yards: 19 21
KR Yards: 72 0
Turnovers: 1(-1) 0(+1)
3rd Down Conv: 2-12 (16%) 9-17(52%)
4th Down Conv: 1-3(33%) 0-0(0%)
This drops the Cardinals to 2-4 in the simulation and moves the 49ers to 4-2 in the division. Let's hope the trend continues and the Cardinals win in real life whenever the simulation has them lose.
Go Cardinals!