Runners fall forward for extra yardage, and can also get stopped dead in their tracks by a hard tackle. No game has ever modeled the running game this well. A great pass from Tim Couch splits the Eagle secondary. Passing is much more enjoyable this year, too. The defensive backs do not react to a thrown pass as quickly as they did in Madden '99 and this gives the quarterbacks the chance to find receivers that are open.
Hot routes are similar to an on the fly audible.
You can go to the line of scrimmage and change the route of a wide receiver by using your gamepad. You can tell him to go deep, to run a quick out or a comeback, etc. However, the computer quarterbacks still have trouble consistently completing passes. It doesn't appear to matter whom the CPU QB is, either. This is not to say that the CPU cannot pass.