Probably not quite what EA SPORTS had in mind when they put Brett Favre on the cover of Madden NFL 09.  No matter what team he is one though, Favre is worthy of a Madden cover.  Here’s a couple of screens of Favre from Madden 09 in his new team’s gear.

Here’s Favre’s key stats for Madden 09:

OVR - 95
SPD - 60
AWR - 88
THP - 98
THA - 92 

The key to buliding a solid running game is knowing how run to against all fronts. A Front is the setup of the line and linebackers in front of your offensive line. Each front has a weakness. The key here is knowning what running plays take advanage of these weakness. This is a 3 man front. The key to beating this is counters, traps, and “A” gap running plays. The 3 man fronts are good against outside running plays. The key is to beat the middle up and use misdirection.

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From Phil with EA SPORTS:

There’s been a lot of discussion around rosters and patches so I wanted to go ahead and post an update.

Rosters
For those that manged to get an early copy, you may have noticed that a roster update was recently made available. Many of you also noticed that Brett Favre was listed as the 2nd QB for the Packers. This roster was posted up as a final test of our roster update capability. We’re actually prepping a more final roster update that should be available on 8/11.

As for our roster update frequency… Our current plan is to update rosters about every two weeks. This could change based on major roster movement but expect us to drop rosters on an average of twice a month through the Super Bowl.
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A number of the guys on the team have retail copies of the game in hand, so it’s time to begin the Madden 09 strategy season in earnest!  In this breakdown, we’ll take a look at one of the best passing concepts in the game: the Corner Flats High Low concept.

Concept:

The Gun Split Y Flex Corner Strike is an excellent play to use to attack just about any pass pass coverage in the game. With both the SE (X) and FL (B) running corner routes and the HB (Y) and HB2 (LB) running flat routes, you have a Corner Flats High Low Isolation passing concept.

Offensive Play Used:

Pass Routes:

FL (B) - Corner with inside release
SE (X) - Corner with inside release
TE (A) - Dig ( but we hot route him on a streak)
HB (Y) - Flat
HB2 (LB) - Flat

Click here for the full breakdown of the Gun Split Y Flex Corner Strike

Here is a list of the dates for EA SPORTS Madden Challenge:

September 5 and 6, 2008 - Los Angeles - Universal City Walk

September 7, 2008 - San Diego - Horton Plaza Gas Light District

September 12 and 13, 2008 - Dallas - Grapevine Mills

September 14, 2008 - Houston - Houston Galleria

September 19, 2008 - Minneapolis - Mall of America

September 20, 2008 - Indianapolis - Castleton Square

September 21, 2008 - Chicago - Navy Pier

September 26 and 27, 2008 - Philadelphia - Gallery at Market Street

September 28, 2008 - Baltimore - Inner Harbor

October 2, 2008 - Mexico City - Azteca Stadium

October 3 and 4, 2008 - New York City - South Street Seaport

October 5, 2008 - Boston - Government Center/The Commons

October 10 and 11, 2008 - Atlanta - Lenox Square

October 12, 2008 - Orlando - Florida Mall

October 26, 2008 - London - Wembley Stadium