One of my favorite activities after reading an article online is to then browse the comments. It’s an entertaining activity, and is particularly enjoyable on any forum or comment section devoted to sports games. Definitely check them out if for some reason you’ve never done this (though this would probably indicate you’ve never been on the internet before, in which case — Welcome to the internet!) The comments section on Madden‘s official site quickly devolves into an open mic night for just about everyone to complain about what should be improved, regardless as to whether or not these comments are at all related to the article in question.

But one frequent breed of comment involves people complaining about the unrealism of online play. And while I do believe Madden is chock full of bits of of irrationality, I don’t believe the way people play the game is necessarily the ones creating this farcical world that Madden inhabits. Sure, opponents’ play calling can seem experimental at best sometimes, but it’s not like there are unwritten rules about, say, going for it on fourth down, and even if there are, the rules are being broken more and more often by real NFL teams. So let’s go into some of the myths about the irrationality of Madden play:

Going for it on 4th Down

This is an incredibly popular topic for people who study the NFL — when should teams attempt fourth down conversions? And yeah, fourth down attempt rates are still pretty low (about 10 to 15 percent each year). To further destroy my argument, the four teams that attempted fourth down conversions the most often all wound up under .500, so we can probably guess why they attempted the conversion so often.

But already, there are certain situations which tempt coaches to roll the dice on fourth down. In particular, there’s the 4th and short around the opponent’s 40 yard line — a distance that makes for a very long field goal, but a short punt with a high probability of producing a touchback.

Even so, it doesn’t make sense to blindly imitate NFL coaches when they can be irrational themselves. Offenses have quickly become more dominant over the years in the league, and the value of an extra down versus an extra 35 to 40 yards of field position has gone up. Obviously, there are a lot of other factors that could influence this equation, but the frequency of punts in the NFL doesn’t necessarily match the climate of the league now, and coaches just don’t play the numbers. They’re inherently conservative right now, and I’m not sure there’s a consensus about why: job security, tradition, lack of confidence in the offense, or even the notion of going for it on fourth down being “unsportsmanlike” (though I kind of doubt the last one in particular) are all cited reasons. You could argue that with more effective offenses, there’s even more motivation to force them to drive those extra 40 yards, but that’s ignoring your own offensive production, and sounds like something a a team with an offense like the 2012 Jaguars or Cardinals might think. Maybe it feels like too much pressure for the offense to make it on fourth down, because they know there’s no cushion in form of an upcoming punt — who knows.

But there is at least one coach in the world who is famous for punting about once a season, and super successful (though I won’t claim to watch high school football in Arkansas enough to claim that this is due to his lack of kicking).

So sure, if you attempt fourth down conversions all the time, you’re not exactly replicating the play-calling of most NFL coaches, but you’re generally doing something that makes more sense. There’s no reason for the game, other players, or anything to stop Maddeners from rolling the dice on fourth down, especially since that would limit the ability to go for it in situations — such as fourth and short when just out of expected field goal range — that NFL coaches would consider. So by all means, knock yourself out, and if you don’t make it, that makes it easier for me to score.

Oh, and for more studies on fourth downs, check out this one and this one.

No Huddle Offense

I’m not sure I should even be writing about this. No huddle and “sugar huddle” offenses are incredibly common, and with good reason. First off, if the offense can handle its own tempo, this will wear the defense out … to the point where multiple Giants defenders feign injury. But more importantly, this limits the defense’s ability to make substitutions, which happen between nearly every single play.

Oh, right, but the Madden interface makes substitutions a daunting task, and players don’t actually sub players very often because fatigue works unrealistically. Well — newsflash — Madden‘s default quarter length is — what, like seven minutes? (I’m not going to look this up.) So if you want to try to get more done in that time frame, well then way to be industrious.

Scrambling quarterback

This is another non-discussion. It might’ve meant something before Michael Vick’s resurrection, before Cam Newton came into the league, or before Robert Griffin III, Russell Wilson, and Colin Kaepernick grabbed the league by the throat, but now, none of this matters. The people who used to play as the Raiders with JaMarcus Russell throwing to Darrius Heyward-Bey weren’t a far cry from the state of the quarterback position now.

But actually, scrambling quarterbacks aren’t all that tough to stop. Just bunch up the middle of the line and have outside containment. Occasionally throw a weird blitz — like a corner blitz — to throw the opponent off, and the scrambling quarterback isn’t all that dangerous. And many users make the same dumb mistake with scrambling quarterbacks and drop way too far back into the backfield, making the throws so much more challenging.

Going for Two

Should users and/or NFL coaches attempt the two-point conversion more often? It’s tricky. There is a lot of evidence to suggest teams should leave the kicker on the sideline more often, but not all the time, so it’s not as clear cut as the punting situation. So if someone attempts every single two-point conversion, that’s probably not the best call.

As much as the player who pulls out all the stops and plays the game like a coach with an attention disorder can be frustrating, so too can the crowd who insists that everyone must conform to the rules of what they deem to be realistic. Madden is absolutely not a realistic football simulator, which helps people get away with ridiculous strategies that would never work in a football game. In one game, I dealt with toss sweeps to Steven Jackson every single play, and my linebackers were unable to react quickly enough, so the only way to ever effectively stop the play was a corner blitz. This stuff is absurd.

But simultaneously, what is even realistic in a football video game? A couple of years ago, I would’ve said that quarterbacks running the option read successfully in the NFL is unrealistic, but that’s not true anymore (we’ll see if anyone can get a handle on it this season). A lot of college teams basically run the same play — often an option read — over and over again until the defense is able to stop it. Essentially, realism has a fair amount of wiggle room in sports games, and since we don’t have jobs on the line, we can be a little experimental with strategy. And then it gets tough to ignore little things that we feel give us an advantage, such as rocket catching or attempting fourth down conversions. And that makes people mad…