Electronic Arts carries out the yearly tradition of simulating the Super Bowl using EA Sports' Madden NFL. Just like every other past year, this year was no different. Gamers and football fans alike were treated to a simulation between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons, and it looks like the Patriots came out on top.
The simulation from Madden NFL 17 was posted up as just a small snippet over on the official EA Sports YouTube channel. Unfortunately it's just 49 seconds long, showcasing a small bit of the end of Super Bowl LI. The game finishes in favor of the New England Patriots, 27 to 24 with the last seven points being scored by an end zone touchdown courtesy of a pass from superstar quarterback Tom Brady.
The 49 second video is little more than a setup for the final play leading towards Brady taking the Patriots to another Super Bowl victory. The video starts with the winners down by four. Even though Madden NFL 17 doesn't show it, we can sort of guess how the scores came to be.
The Patriots had to score at least two touchdowns and two field goals leading up to the 20 versus 24 score against the Atlanta Falcons in the fourth quarter. Alternatively, they would still need two touchdowns and a field goal, but a one point field goal conversion off the first touchdown and a two-point end zone conversion off the second touchdown would also put them in position to have a 20 to 24 score by the fourth quarter.
It's too bad we don't get to see how the scores ended up the way they did, but somehow Madden NFL 17 put Brady and the rest of the Patriots at 4th down near the goal line with only 20 seconds left on the clock.
The final play that involves the setup and tactical strategy laid out from the Super Bowl participants, along with the winning goal, can actually be viewed in the short clip below. We get to see Brady's laser precision take aim and take out the Falcons by making the final pass to the wide receiver into the end zone.
The comment section is livid. You can tell just how some people took the simulation by the dislike bar alone. Plenty of Falcons fans took to the comment section to roll out some stats and season strategies that they feel the Madden NFL 17 simulation failed to account for. There were even some people accusing EA Sports of being Brady fanboys.
I'm not entirely sure how Electronic Arts becomes a fanboy of Tom Brady when it was Madden NFL 17 that ran the simulation. Now, of course, there's always the possibility that they ran the simulation multiple times until it favored Brady and the Patriots for the win, but that seems unlikely.
In previous years, Madden NFL has come eerily close to predicting exactly how some Super Bowl games would turn out, so we'll see if they managed to come close with their prediction once the real Super Bowl gets underway this Sunday.
