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Last week Madden 25 was able to simulate Carson Palmer so well that his actual stats were nearly identical to his game stats in the simulation. Madden also correctly predicted the win, even if the Texans did score in real life. So following the win last week the Arizona Cardinals host the Jacksonville Jaguars in what many have deemed a trap game following Jacksonville's first win of the season. It turns out to be just like most other games that the Cardinals have lost, it was tight all the way but the offense kills the game with a turnover (or two in this case) and cannot recover in the fourth quarter to pull out the win.
Palmer continues to use Floyd as his preferred outlet when Fitzgerald is covered, and it cost the Jaguars as Floyd had two receiving touchdowns for the day. On the other side of the field Cecil Shorts accounted for 81% of Henne's passing yards connected for 131 yards on eight catches.
Carson Palmer has two interceptions on the day which the Jaguars were able to turn into touchdowns, while Chad Henne didn't have a great day, he was able to play clean football and got give up the rock to a hungry Cardinals Defense. For the most part the Defense performed well, but when you give any offense in the NFL a short field they're usually going to come away with points. In the simulation the Cardinals had the ball three times in the fourth quarter but couldn't even get into field goal range to tie up the game.
Let's just hope this is one of the weeks Madden is wrong at picking the winner.
Madden Note: Juke Ellington (77 ovr) is officially rated better than Mendenhall (76 ovr). But he only got 6 attempts this week. Sound like real life?
Top Performers:
Cardinals:
QB: Carson Palmer 21/37 (56%) 257 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INT, 73.8 Rating
WR: Michael Floyd 6 rec, 92 yards, 2 TD, 15.3 avg
RB: Rashard Mendenhall 17 att, 66 yards, 3.8 avg
D/ST: Karlos Dansby 6 solo tackles
Texans:
QB: Chad Henne 11/26 (42%) 161 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT, 75.9 Rating
WR: Cecil Shorts III 8 rec, 131 yards, 16.3 avg
RB: Maurice Jones-Drew 22 att, 85 yards, 3.8 avg, 1 TD
D/ST: Paul Posluszny 9 solo tackles
|
Box Score |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
Final |
|
Jaguars |
3 |
7 |
3 |
7 |
20 |
|
Cardinals |
7 |
3 |
7 |
0 |
17 |
|
Teams |
Jaguars |
Cardinals |
|
Total Off. |
246 |
329 |
|
Rushing |
85 |
72 |
|
Passing |
161 |
72 |
|
First |
11 |
17 |
|
PR |
16 |
5 |
|
KR |
43 |
44 |
|
3rd Conv% |
8-14(57%) |
4-10(40%) |
|
4th Conv% |
0-0(0%) |
0-1(0%) |
|
2-Point Conv |
0-0(0%) |
0-0(0%) |
|
Red Zone |
3-3(100%) |
2-3(66%) |
|
Turnover |
2(+2) |
2(-2) |
Hopefully we see better production tomorrow.