Every year, Madden players fire up Franchise mode and immediately get hit with a harsh reality: The game has its favorites and its doormats. The highest-rated squads will, more often than not, dominate the lower-rated ones over the course of a full season. But every now and then, the algorithm decides to throw a curveball, and suddenly a team destined for irrelevance in real life finds itself battling for playoff contention in the virtual world.
