After the 2004 Vick-fest EA countered with Ray Lewis a defensive minded game - however the game is still just so easy.
I played this thing on all madden and was winning super bowls with the cardinals easy - defense what?
Honestly tho - EA Sports did do a decent job of attacking the Vick problem even by the means that they did it which was altering gameplay rather than fixing AI.
The madden series seems to have the need to get over to EA Canada and talk to the NHL guys about getting the AI right and then over to MLD the show and fix their presentation.
All in all this game was pretty great, fun and all - just not a TON better than 04. I still dumped a lot of money and time into this game and this was the prelude to the best in series thus far - Madden 06.
Basically buy this game if you bought madden 04 to redeem your faith in the series, if you still have 2003 - you can pass once again and wait for 2006.