I've been having a lot of trouble with Madden 19 so far. The game has so far seemed unusually difficult. Not just for myself, but also for my CPU opponents. Both myself and the CPU have had a lot of trouble moving the ball. Part of this seems to be the result of some tighter coverage in the defensive secondary. But a big part of it is the complete ineffectiveness of the running game. At first, I thought the problem was associated with the defenders not being bound by the same Real Player Motion locomotion limitations as the ball-carrier. This may still be the case, but I discovered that a big part of the problem is a recurring glitch in which the center gets stuck in a looping animation of him snapping the ball instead of blocking his assignment.
This problem happened several times during the course of my Franchise preseason game. I captured some footage of it, and edited it into a quick Youtube video highlighting the problem.
Centers get stuck in a loop, as if snapping the ball repeatedly instead of blocking their assignment.
When this happens, the defender who the center is supposed to block (usually the defender closest to the quarterback or running back) goes completely unblocked and has an unobstructed path into the offensive backfield. This results in runs repeatedly getting blown up for losses of 3 or more yards. So far, I haven't seen it happen on a passing play, but it's possible that the bug affects passing plays as well.
The problem isn't isolated to the human user. While going back through some footage from that same game, I also saw at least one incident in which it happened to the CPU's center as well.
This isn't the first glitch that I've found in the game. I also posted a short clip of a defensive coverage glitch in which defenders in deep zones would undercut a receiver's route, as if to go for an aggressive interception or swat. The problem is that the defenders runs himself out of the play, out of position to even attempt such an interception or swat, and leaves the receiver open for a huge gain or a touchdown. I've seen this happen on several occasions, and the defender does it even though he doesn't have any help over the top.
Defensive backs also undercut routes and run themselves out of plays.
Bugs like this have been pervasive enough in my early time with Madden 19 that I'm not sure if I can consider the game to even be viably playable at this point. It just isn't worth my time. I might have to put Madden aside for now and check out the recent patch for Maximum Football 2018 instead. Or hold my breath until Axis Football releases...