The people asked for a Madden 20 Simulations, and we delivered today for the first time. Sunday’s tilt featured an divisional matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers. We’ll do a quick recap on what happened in today’s game and the winning FanDuel Single-Game Lineup. And don’t forget to check back tomorrow night for the Dallas Cowboys vs. the New York Giants. We go live right after the NBA stream!
Madden 20 Settings
First Quarter
Jimmy Garoppolo came out of the gates firing, completing his first couple passes for 22 yards to Emmanuel Sanders. He had all day to throw, not a great sign for the Seahawks early. However, the drive stalled after a couple short gains by the 49ers and a failed fourth-down conversion. Sanders was then up to three catches for 30 yards and looked to be the early favorite for FanDuel’s captain spot.
Seahawks got a chance next. A big run by Wilson to get near midfield was followed by a sack and a pick in the end zone by Richard Sherman on a third-down Wilson deep shot. Garoppolo found Sanders for a huge gain on first down. Two Tevin Coleman rushes on first and second down put the 49ers in a third-and-3 situation as the first quarter ended.
Second Quarter
The 49ers looked to drive down and get a score, but on the first play of the second quarter, they fumbled after a completion across the middle. After a lengthy return by Quinton Jefferson the Seahawks looked to be in business in plus-territory.
Seahawks could not get their running game going either. Wilson had all day to throw on third-and-4 but couldn’t find anyone and was forced to take a sack. Bosa came flying in late in the play. 50-yard field goal attempt by Seattle was no good and the game remained scoreless.
49ers had good field possession to start their third drive. Two more rushes for Coleman netted just two yards and the Niners were in a third-and-8 situation. Another huge sanders completion down the middle of the field converted and set San Francisco up to break the scoring drought.
George Kittle made an appearance for another Niners first down. He then had a nice catch and run, setting up first-and-goal for San Francisco. A pitch outside to Coleman got it down to the 1-foot line with just over two minutes to go.
Garoppolo owners were losing their minds after he threw this pass out of the end zone. He probably could have ran it in, but coming off a torn ACL, he made a business decision to live for another down.
On third-and-goal, Coleman was stuffed. Seahawks sold out for the run and were rewarded. The 49ers made it 3-0 on a short Robbie Gould field goal.
The next Seattle drive, Wilson nearly sacked again, but was able to dump it off to C.J. Prosise for a short gain. Seattle decided to punt it away on fourth-and-1 with 1:11 to play in the half to avoid disaster.
San Francisco got the ball back on their own 20, and a very dangerous pass by Garoppolo was broken up and almost picked. A couple safe run plays netted just two more yards. A booming punt with 50 seconds left did not give much hope to Seattle as far as getting points to end the half. Seattle had a screen set up perfectly, but Prosise dropped it. Second time is the charm, though, and Prosise picked up the first on another screen.
Wilson completed another big gainer to Will Dissly, and it looked like Seattle could be in business after taking their second timeout with 35 seconds left. Wilson completed a pass but Dissly could not get out of bounds. They were about ready for another play and Pete Carroll decided to take a timeout with just six seconds left. Terrible clock management there. A 58-yard field goal attempt was no good, and that appeared to do it for the half. But there was still time on the clock thanks to poor management by Carroll.
With two seconds left, Garoppolo dropped back, heaved it up, and someone — no one quite knew who — came down with it. We found out it was Deebo Samuel — his first catch of the game — and it’s a 51-yard touchdown. The score at the half was 10-0 49ers.
Third Quarter
The Seahawks got the ball and they try a reverse on second down, but it was sniffed out by the Niners. Third-and-9 was converted to Dissly, who picked up 16 on the catch. Prosise was getting almost all the usage in the Seahawks backfield, and he picked up 18 yards on a couple carries.
On third-and-6 for Seattle, Tyler Lockett made a catch over the middle down to the 3. Back to the run, Prosise was stuffed again. That did it for the third quarter with the Niners not touching the ball once.
Fourth Quarter
On third-and-goal, Wilson ran play-action to Carson. He scrambled for the touchdown to bring the score to 10-7 Niners with 7:15 to go.
49ers were very conservative on the next drive, picking up just four yards on their three plays. They punted away with 5:46 left on the clock, giving Seattle the ball on their own 22.
They immediately got a huge gain from Jacob Hollister to puts the Seahawks near midfield. Wilson scrambled for six yards to get into San Francisco territory. Another Wilson scramble should have gotten the Seahawks another first down, but Wilson tried to get fancy and went laterally for just a 3-yard gain.
Wilson’s attempted juke proved to be costly, as the Niners once again stuffed Carson for a 3-yard loss. Pete Carroll decided to punt the ball away on fourth-and-short with just over two minutes to go.
49ers were pinned deep in their own territory, and once again, they did not take any chances. There was little trust shown in Garoppolo despite a solid first half. They were forced to punt it away with 1:52 left after Seattle took a couple timeouts.
Wilson got the ball back with 1:44 left on his own 34. Seattle did not run hurry-up offense run despite a short completion to Prosise. David Moore then got wide open and picked up a huge gain to the Niners’ 39 with 50 seconds left.
Wilson took a sack on the next play. Then with just 28 seconds left, Wilson found Lockett, who made a nasty juke and somehow found his way into the end zone. What a drive put together by Seattle, and they had 16 seconds to hold onto a 14-10 lead and escape with a win.
A nice return by San Francisco got them to their own 36 with 11 seconds left. Garoppolo took a deep shot right away, and it was batted up in the air, but fell incomplete. One last heave for the 49ers was caught, but ended up well shy of the end zone and Seattle escaped with the victory.
The Winning Lineup
Dirtroadpanda took down the top prize out of 26,884 entrants. This isn’t much different than your average single-game slate lineup on FanDuel for an actual NFL game. Wilson in the MVP slot was a popular choice (57.1%). Only one receiver for the Seahawks did much damage (Lockett). Just one catch for Deebo Samuel was good enough for the winning lineup. Garoppolo was double-stacked with Kendrick Bourne (2.7%) and Samuel to close out the lineup. If these games continue to be low-scoring, you pretty much have to have a piece of every touchdown, which is what we saw here from dirtroadpanda.
Monday’s Game: Giants vs. Cowboys
Make sure you head over to FanDuel to get in on the latest Awesemo eNFL Single-Game Slate Contest!
There was a 7 way tie for first in this contest and I was one of them. Why do you only mention one winner?
The others tied for 1st were matt_dauber, nowayxnowayx, jameywilson21, oldnewms, mjjd, jmoneymaker84 (me)