newbie to the site, and returning to the game

hey all

out of Vancouver, Canada and haven't played Madden for more than a game or two since I last had it on ps2 a few years back. 36 years old and feeling out of my league a bit on this game. I bought it last year but didn't like it, and figured I'd give it another chance this year. Loving the game but woefully out of practice and using the Bengals as my favorite team doesn't really help any!

I'm looking for a sim style league where I can take my lumps and learn from it, I've been playing online but quickly get frustrated when 90% of the people are using the steelers or patriots and running the same plays the entire game. I try and mix it up when I play, but without much going on with my offense, I've had a lot more practice on defense so far!

Looking for anyone who has any Bengals specific tips (other than pick another team lol) and if someone has an opening in a sim style league, even with a different team, I'd love to get in on that. Been poking around the forums and have found a lot of good reading that has helped me get a little better, and hope to get a chance to play some of you online at some point

psn gamer tag: wcfurious

thanks
Tom

Welcome to the school Tom! Class is now in session: Throw it up to Ochocinco! thats all you gotta do!

wcfurious, i saw you posted about joining the MG League, but the MG is very much NOT a sim league.

however, we have a very comprehensive sim section. we give people tryout games, to make sure they play sim, and if you pass you can join our sim league!

check out everything here:
http://forum.madden-school.com/sim-players-sign-ups-and-tryouts-f110/

good deal, thanks! I've posted there and will await a response

I've been trying to use chad, but my offensive line is a little like a rigid piece of kleenex, so it doesn't take long for defenses to tear through that and get to carson so it's been a bit of a rough ride so far. I'm continually trying to run the ball with benson, and starting to slowly get better at it, but still end up overrunning my blockers quite a bit and need to be more aware of that. My defense is okay in the 4-3 set, but as soon as I need to add a nickelback...I be screwed. I think my third corner is ranked 59. Here's to hoping for a favorable roster update!

I had the same problems with my oline when I tried out the colts for the first time this year, I got my run game to work by throwing a lot of drags, crosses, and slants, its fairly easy to throw over the middle consistently with palmer. Once they start dropping back instead of trying to stuff your runs, hit em with a draw play! then switch to like a singleback twin Te or something and burnem with play action. ochocinco!

so far I've been running a lot of the strong pro set, along with the singleback sets. Mostly I'll be pushing the hb blast, weak counter and power O out of the strong pro set, sometimes I'll mix in the dive. I've had mixed success with the run - mostly due to my habit of overrunning my blockers. The longest run I had was a 68 yard TD, but that was (wait for it) following my blockers lol. Once I get into that habit more I think I'll have consistant success with it.

Passing is a mixed bag for me. I've had limited success with using both my TE's out of the singleback set, mostly hitting them with short passes right off the line if the linebacker doesn't stick to them. I've run a few slants with limited success and the deep ball works sometimes - but having a lot of trouble getting separation with chad. He should be able to stretch the defense a bit, but I'm finding most db's seem to stick right with him. I'm probably not calling the right plays. It's tough too - since most people are using the pats or steelers I get swarmed off the snap and having a tough time hiding in the pocket. I'll get used to it or get better, but I'm in a little over my head right now having not played the game for a few years. Loving it though

There are plenty of PS3 gamers on this site, I'm sure they would be happy to play some non ranked games and help you get back up to speed.