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This week and every week for the remainder of the NFL season, we will bring you weekly game predictions courtesy of EA Sports’ Madden NFL 25. Our methodology: Each week we will update the rosters using the game’s roster download feature to make sure the game lineups reflect the real teams, then we’ll simulate the week’s match-ups using the Franchise Owner mode. We’ll record the simulation’s scores, its best players of the week, and the injury reports, then post these results each Saturday. This makes the Thursday game something of a litmus test (Madden 25 is 6-3 so far this season on Thursday games) – you can use this info for fantasy or gambling purposes. Or you can ignore it entirely. What does Madden know about football, anyway? |
Last week Madden followed up its worst week this season with a mediocre 7-7 performance. To be fair, last week was an unpredictable one. Jacksonville recorded its first win of the season, Andrew Luck had one of the worst games of his career, and Carolina silenced a lot of doubters. Even most of the pundits were wrong.
But here at Digital Trends we expect more out of our completely unscientific weekly Madden simulations. Going 7-7 simply isn’t good enough, so we decided to take a page from the NFL’s book and basically fire Madden 25’s coach. Beginning this week and continuing for the rest of the season, we will no longer use the Xbox 360 version of the game as we have been. Instead, we have hired the PlayStation 4 to take over.
The PS4 brings a new energy to the simulations, and can hopefully breed a new, winning (simulation) culture. We’re excited to see what it can do with the team – sorry, simulation. And if it fails to live up to the expectations, there’s always the Xbox One.
The biggest matchup of Week 11 is between two teams that – barring an unforeseen meltdown – are destined for the playoffs: The Chiefs and the Broncos. The teams have a single loss between them, and the last time two teams with a higher combined winning percentage played was when the 10-1 Viking faced the 11-0 Rams less than five months after man walked on the moon. And if that weren’t enough to get these teams fired up, it is also a divisional game, fueling a rivalry that goes back decades. Madden, being prudent, is picking a very close game.
Despite the undefeated record, there are still a lot of questions about the Chiefs, whose defense is the best-ranked in the NFL but who rank 24th in total offensive yards and 16th in total points. The Broncos, meanwhile, are nearly polar opposites, averaging a league-leading 371 total points but giving up an average of 26.4 points per game – eighth worst in the NFL. Broncos QB Peyton Manning is significantly out-playing his Madden doppelganger – 33 real-world TDs to simulation’s 13 – but he’s dealing with a high ankle strain this week.
According to most pundits (and Vegas odds makers) Denver has the advantage. The Broncos are playing at home, and dinged up or not, Manning is a trooper. Madden is predicting a very close game, decided by just three points, but it is choosing the Broncos. We’ll see what happens when the two teams play again in just two weeks on December 1 in Kansas City.
Week 11 League Leaders:
Quarterbacks
| Russell Wilson: 432 yards 2 TD 78 yards rushing 1 TD |
| Philip Rivers: 372 yards 2 TD 1 INT |
| Case Keenum: 356 yards 1 TD |
| Matt Stafford: 329 yards 2 TD |
| Tom Brady: 318 yards 2 TD |
Wide Receivers
| Wes Welker: 146 yards 1 TD |
| Calvin Johnson: 138 yards 2 TD |
| Brandon Marshall: 136 yards 1 TD |
| Larry Fitzgerald: 121 yards 2 TD |
| Marques Colston: 118 yards 2 TD |
Running Backs
| Alfred Morris: 165 yards 1 TD |
| Frank Gore: 153 yards 2 TD |
| Jamal Charles: 147 yards 2 TD |
| CJ Spiller: 135 yards 1 TD |
| LeSean McCoy: 128 yards 1 TD |
Injuries
| CJ Spiller (HB): 3 weeks Pulled groin |
| Montee Ball (HB): 2 weeks Broken thumb |
| Tony Romo (QB): 2 weeks Pulled groin |
| Matt Stafford (QB): 1 week Pulled groin |
| DeAngelo Williams (HB): 5 weeks Dislocated hip |
| Darren Sproles (HB): 1 week Pulled Groin |
Week 11 Game Results
Thursday Night Game
| Madden Result | Actual Result | ||
| Indianapolis: 24 | Tennessee: 13 | Indianapolis: 30 | Tennessee: 27 |
Sunday Games
| Madden Result | Actual Result | ||
| Cleveland: 14 | Cincinnati: 0 | Cleveland: 20 | Cincinnati: 41 |
| Houston: 24 | Oakland: 10 | Houston: 23 | Oakland: 28 |
| Arizona: 29 | Jacksonville: 24 | Arizona: 27 | Jacksonville: 14 |
| Washington: 30 | Philadelphia: 13 | Washington: 16 | Philadelphia: 24 |
| Chicago: 37 | Baltimore: 16 | Chicago: 23 | Baltimore: 20 |
| Buffalo: 32 | NY Jets: 14 | Buffalo: 37 | NY Jets: 14 |
| Detroit: 32 | Pittsburgh: 10 | Detroit: 27 | Pittsburgh: 37 |
| Atlanta: 30 | Tampa Bay: 23 | Atlanta: 28 | Tampa Bay: 41 |
| San Diego: 34 | Miami: 24 | San Diego: 16 | Miami: 20 |
| San Francisco: 34 | New Orleans: 17 | San Francisco: 20 | New Orleans: 23 |
| Seattle: 49 | Minnesota: 13 | Seattle: 41 | Minnesota: 20 |
| Green Bay: 26 | NY Giants: 20 | Green Bay: 13 | NY Giants: 27 |
| Denver: 23 | Kansas City: 20 | Denver: 27 | Kansas City: 17 |
Monday Night Game
| Madden Result | Actual Result | ||
| New England: 35 | Carolina: 6 | New England: 20 | Carolina: 24 |
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