Madden 13 - Learning from Scratch

[JoeC]

First off, this may not be the right place for this topic, although I think it is. If I've dropped it in the wrong place, would a mod be kind enough to move it rather than killing it please? :D Also, I've tagged this as 360 because that's the console I'm playing on - if anyone's got stuff they'd post but plays the PS3 version, please post anyway, the 360 tag is just in case other people have 360-specific stuff :)

If you want to skip a couple of paragraphs of back-story, jump down to the red bold text :)

I'm an English guy who's really got into American Football over the last 18 months - I watched some games of the 2010 and 2011 seasons without particularly following it until the 2011 playoffs, then forgot about it until the 2012 season started up. Since then I've been hooked, and really enjoy it. I figured that September is a long way away right now and I'm running out of games to watch on GamePass so I went out and bought a copy of Madden 13 to give it a go.

My first impression is that it's like FIFA/PES (two games I've deliberately avoided) in that it has a lot of complexity hidden under the easy-to-pick-up gameplay. I've been playing it for a session and a half now (2 practice games, then career mode as a QB - preseason and weeks 1+2, including all practices) and I'm looking for some general advice.

My player is a pocket-passer QB, although I have a soft spot for dropping bombs down the field - it's just fun :) I'm playing for the Cardinals on the basis that they have a great receiver in Fitzgerald, a couple of solid receivers and a poor QB so I can easily get into the starting lineup. It's going well so far, 2 played, 2 wins. We've also acquired James Jones from the Packers, so there's another really good receiver on the squad.

TLDR? Start reading here!

I've got a reasonable understanding of the mechanics of the game as a spectator, and I'm beginning to get a basic understanding of how plays work, although I'm looking for advice on a couple of things:

1) Any detail on basic, solid QB strategy - at the moment I sort of look at the defence, look at the route lines and pick 2 I'm going to look for, and sometimes a 3rd as a "well that sucked" option, and I'd like to know what I should be looking for when choosing my targets

2) Any general Madden/NFL tips - I've never played Madden before and what I know it pretty basic. I can choose my play, pump fake, and that's about it so far (even though I'm not entirely certain what I'm getting from pump faking, sometimes it seems to go well). Any explanations of tactics like that and things you could do would be awesome.

This is probably a bit of a messy, all-over-the-place post, but I'm basically a complete beginner at Madden asking for some advice; I've watched some Youtube videos on strategy although they tend to assume you're not a complete bonehead with gridiron football so it didn't help too much :p

Any advice is much appreciated.