The annual tradition of simulating the year’s SuperBowl matchup in a game of Madden has happened and if we’re to believe the real game will end up in a similar fashion we should expect the Carolina Panthers to pull out a 24-20 victory over the Denver Broncos this coming Sunday.
The game saw the Panthers coming out to an early 17-0 lead after two quarters. Peyton Manning is able to lead his team back in the 4th quarter with 20 unanswered points thanks to two touchdown passes (one coming courtesy of an Aqib Talib interception), and two field goals. The game culminates on a final drive by the Panthers with Cam Newton running into the endzone for the touchdown and a 24-20 victory. Cam Newton was awarded MVP honors and finished the game going 19-26 for 216 yards, 1 touchdown with 1 interception.
So far in the past 12 seasons this tradition has run, the Madden prediction has successfully picked nine correct SuperBowl winners. Last season Madden predicted the exact final score of the game (Patriots 28, Seahawks 24) and predicted that SuperBowl MVP Tom Brady would finish with 335 yards and 4 touchdowns; not far from his actual stat line of 328 yards and 4 touchdowns.
While the Madden predictions have a pretty decent track record, the last time the Peyton Manning lead Broncos faced off in the SuperBowl against the Seattle Seahawks in 2014 they were predicted to win 31–28. Instead they were blown out 43-8 by the upstart Seahawks.
The predictions are run by EA Sports producers by pitting the two current rosters against each other on the game’s highest difficulty.