Having trouble running the ball or making plays on defense? Your problem could be as simple as putting your finger on the RT or R2 button. If you tend to play Madden at a high speed or simply try to run down your opposition using the ‘turbo’ button you will notice that taking your foot off the gas a little will actually make the game play a bit better for you.
When you are trying to run the ball on offense take a little time to devote to not pressing the sprint button until you are well past your line of blockers. This is all due to the way the game has been programmed from the AI/CPU perspective. You will notice that every player on the opposing team will actually increase their speed once you hit that sprint button. This means that when you are early in your running plays and try to sprint through an open hole, you are actually inviting the other team to get there faster and stuff your play.
The same occurs on defense, but in a slightly different manner. When you see the CPU pitch the ball outside and try to get a running play to go around the edge and you move with your MLB to stomp it with the sprint button, you will almost always notice that the play will end up going for bigger yards than it should have. This is because the same principle exists on the other side of the ball. Keep your finger off the sprint button and you will notice your team will play much better.