Bills Josh Allen Madden 24 Trailer Causes Backlash from Ravens LB Patrick Queen
EA Sports gave Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen royal treatment and then some on Wednesday.
Allen is officially set to grace the cover of "Madden NFL 24," the latest arrival in the long-running football simulator franchise. His virtual doppelganger was thus prominently featured in the game's trailer ... at the expense of one Baltimore Ravens defender's pixelated counterpart.
The final sequence of the preview shows a virtual contest between the Ravens and Bills at EA's version of Highmark Stadium. Digital Allen scores a touchdown by taking Patrick Queen into the end zone with him, running over the linebacker to score six and matching the Raven's jersey number.
Viewers naturally directed the trailer to Queen's attention, though the fourth-year linebacker took the incident in stride.
"How (did) I get signed up to be the one ran over on the release video?" Queen rhetorically asked on Twitter, accompanying his query with a laughing emoji.
The defender then reached out to EA Sports' "Madden" account directly, sharing a video from Ryan Mink, a team reporter on the Ravens' site. The footage depicts Baltimore and Buffalo's real-life get-together from last October.
Reality paints a bit of a different picture in the on-field showdown between Allen and Queen: the quarterback gets nine yards (and later outran a pursuing Queen for the tying, third-quarter score) but Queen has no problem taking him down, causing him to encourage EA Sports to "come correct next time."
Queen had five tackles for the Ravens in that game, as well as a contest-best three quarterback hits.
While Queen's likeness gets a raw deal in the preview, he gets off relatively easy compared to Kirk Cousins: in the span of about 10 seconds of a simulated bout with the Dallas Cowboys, the Minnesota Vikings quarterback throws an interception to Trevon Diggs, is knocked down by Micah Parsons when he attempts to make a tackle, for which he scolded for by the latter.
"Madden NFL 24" will be the 35th installment of the franchise named after late Hall of Fame coach and game analyst John Madden. It is set to be released on Aug. 18.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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