I've noticed that defensive players can get knockdowns fairly consistently despite being 10-20 yards outside of the play. Here's an example from a preseason game in mfn19: http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1017#184845

Here's a better example from preseason in mfg19. The LB that knocks down the pass is 10 yards up field and 10 yards inside of the WR. He has an angle to make the play, but you would think that the QB should have dropped the ball over his head: http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1002#182069

I can see this happening occasionally because the QB tried to throw a ball on a laser and the defensive back or linebacker got lucky. But this seems to be happening much more regularly then I think is probable. Am I crazy? Or have other people noticed this?

I'll try to find more examples later.

YES - I made a similar thread a few weeks back http://fakepigskin.myfootballnow.com/community/5/998?page=0#5771

I was going to try to make a case based on physics because I think a lot of the ***** even batted at the line of scrimmage are bunk but at least those are more understandable to me. Unfortunately I don't know physics that well - I did google things and found that 60 MPH is about max a QB can throw the ball. My examples were 20-30 yard passes and the LB was somewhere in the middle of the pass path. I had the QB, LB, and WR all at about 6 feet tall - the QB would likely release near the top of his reach so you add a bit there and the LB gets about the same reach as well as a little lift for jumping - but yeah I think its physically improbable at the least if not impossible.

But yeah then googling formulas and math got too difficult so I went back to my bowl of Cheerios and went - eh I guess everyone has to deal with the same code base so I'll just look away next time it happens so I don't get all twitchy again. My other thought was if these batted ***** were allowed to pass as I think they should, would passing be nearly impossible to stop due to completion percentages going up? So yeah - it bugs me still when I see them but then I remember that math is hard and stuff.

The vertical position of the flight path of the ball is calculated and the defenders are unable to knock a ball down that is out of reach (the DL's height is also taken into consideration for this). Also, the QB does have logic to throw over the defender, but may not see him (based on factors such as field of view, experience, and of course just a dice roll) or may decide to take the risk (because he doesn't have a very big window to squeeze the ball in for the receiver). I'll make a note to revisit all this logic though just to see if it needs to be tweaked.

Thanks for the explanation! It was something that I had noticed in a few seasons of play, but was never sure what was going on. I didn't see the other thread or I would have posted this there.