EA Sports has been using its Madden NFL games to simulate the Super Bowl matchups since 2004, and wouldn’t you know it, the game has correctly picked the victor six out of seven times. This year, Madden NFL 11 has predicted that the Pittsburgh Steelers will defeat the Green Bay Packers, 24-20, to win their seventh Lombardi Trophy in eight trips to the Super Bowl — the most wins and Super Bowl appearances of any team in NFL history.
In the Madden 11 simulation, the big game came right down to the wire. The Packers were down 17-13 going into the fourth quarter but took a 20-17 lead with nine minutes to go. Then, Steelers receiver Mike Wallace — the eventual MVP of the game — took a Ben Roethlisberger pass and scampered 36 yards to daylight, putting the Steelers up for good with 1:20 left. Aaron Rodgers led the Pack downfield without any timeouts, but a last-ditch attempt ended in a game-sealing interception by Ryan Clark. Check out the highlights above.
If the real Super Bowl XLV (that’s 45, for you Roman-numeral-challenged folks) on Sunday night turns out anywhere near as close as that nail-biter, I’ll be happy. We’ve been lucky in that many of the Super Bowls of the past decade have been spectacular games, whereas a lot of previous contests failed to live up to the intense hype. Personally, I’m hoping that the Pack can pull it off, since I really like Aaron Rodgers — what about you?
