EA doesn’t think Broncos’ defenders can tackle

In just over a month, EA Sports will release their 2012 version of their Madden NFL video game.  The game will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Vita and Wii.

Leading up to Madden 13’s August 24th release, EA Sports has been releasing game-play screenshots in an attempt to hype up the game.  By our unofficial count, among the 13 game-play images EA has released since early June, 3.6% of them have featured a Denver Broncos defender missing a tackle.

We could come up with some conspiracy theories, but EA choosing to embarrass Denver defenders three times is likely just a coincidence.  After all, EA seems to be warming up to the Broncos — BroncoTalk has learned that the team has an 81 overall rating in this year’s game, which is a +7 improvement from Madden 2012.

After the jump, here are the three images released of Bronco defenders missing tackles.  Be forewarned that some of the images are alarming.

In the above image, safety Quinton Carter just missed former Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton, who is part of Madden’s “Legends” team.  Middle linebacker Joe Mays does not appear to be in the best position to make a play, but it has not implied that he has already whiffed on the tackle, unlike the next image.

The image of Mays on the ground as former San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson runs down the field is perhaps the most appropriate (I’m sure Mr. East will think it fairly displays Mays’ sideline-to-sideline abilities).  Nevertheless, it’s discouraging to see as a Broncos fan.  But it is not as appalling as the final screenshot.

In my opinion, EA went too far with the above image.  Champ Bailey is known across the league as one of the better tackling cornerbacks in the game and Madden released a promo image of him missing a tackle.  It’s more understandable however when you consider that Champ was given a disgraceful 68 tackling rating in the game last year.

Somewhat comforting is the fact that linebacker Von Miller apparently still possesses his tackling ability in the game, as is displayed in this screenshot.  As a rookie, Miller was given an 85 tackling rating in 2011.

What do you make of the screenshots?  Is John Madden—the game’s namesake and former head coach of the Oakland Raiders—trying to get back at us for our April Fools gag?