Wanted to make a separate thread about hot reads...

Hot reads were removed for week 11. I saw Tecra's comment in the general discussion that he felt it made thins worse. Anyone else feel similarly, or anyone else feel that it benefited the game?

Also I wanted to have some discussion about how to make it better for the next game engine iteration. Here's what it's doing now - this list is somewhat simplified from what is actually happening, but overall the logic is simple and probably could be improved:

* The offense determines the number of blockers needed based on the number of rushers. If a rusher is a blitzer, the likelihood of him being identified is relative to the familiarity of the play by the offense.
* If the extra blitzers are identified and the RB is running a route and is not the primary receiver, the RB will bail on his route and switch to pass protection.
* If there are still too many identified blitzers, the QB will audible a hot read. The eligible receiver closest to the blitzing defender will run to the area the defender was occupying and the QB will take a 2-step drop and throw immediately unless the receiver is still not open (by the QB's standards).

I certainly think the hot read should be in there. If people get upset there defense is not working so well, then perhaps they should not be blitzing so much. I certainly think there should be an effective counter to neutralize blitz heavy defenses unless the defensive personnel is by and large superior to the offensive talent. At any level of football, its safe to say the most effective defenses are those that mix it up and the offense can not get a read on what is coming next. If the offense knows what is coming and talent equal across the board, the offense should win as they know where they are going and what the defense will do. Same goes for the defense as well, if they can get a bead on where the offense is going, they should have the advantage. Strategy says, whoever gets to make the last adjustment when all else is equal should have the advantage. Generally that should mean the offense, since defense is mostly reactive and offense controls the timing.

So if I'm reading this right...

If the offense is facing off against a blitz-heavy defense, there will likely be several incidents of hot reads, as there will likely be a mix of the number of blitzers coming in any play... Especially if the QB is calling hot read on the initial ID of rushers, and not what makes it through the line

Week 10 against Cincy, I saw exactly 1 hot read from their offense despite an all-blitz defensive gameplan. I had 6 QB pressures (which would imply rushers > blockers), so I would think there should've maybe been another hot read or two, but I could be wrong. Cincy's QB has a high Int, so I would think IDing rushers would be relatively easy... Or is it tied -entirely- into play familiarity?

I personally think hot reads should go back in (or at least some indication that a hot read could / should have been used, like a debug mode), just so we can see how they're actually playing out. If we have several teams going with blitz-heavy / blitz-only schemes, that would give us a good amount of data to see when hot reads are being used and if they're being used properly (according to your rules / play logic).

I do like the Hot Read. But tied to the intel or play familiarity of the WR, RB and especially the QB in some fashion.

And maybe down the line have the blitzing players intel or play familiarity determine how well they disguise the blitz.

And the chess match begins.....

I'll turn it back on for the next games. The way I'm reading chinaski's comments is that he was the offense that was calling the hot reads too much and he would have rather had his original play calls, or at least that the hot reads were being unsuccessful. But maybe I have it backwards, if he's frustrated because his opponents are calling lots of hot reads then that's a factor of using his defensive blitzes too frequently.

The RB should be the hot read/dump off for most medium and long passes, so this doesn't make much sense. It's one of the reasons why QBs fire the ball at a RB that is blocking right now. And the main reason why we get so many defensive holding calls by DL. The RB should keep running his route if he is the hot read/dump off BECAUSE he IS the hot read/dump off.

RBs and TEs should be the first dump off pass points, followed by WRs running any shallow/underneath routes.

Dump off under pressure != hot read, though - the QB should be dumping off to the RB when under pressure now (at least with a greater frequency than before), but the hot read is designed to take advantage of the space opened up in the secondary by the vacated blitzer.

That was kind of my point. On a lot of plays, there shouldn't be a difference between a dump off route and a hot read. If your WRs are running med/deep patterns, your TE is running an out, and your RB is running a swing route, it doesn't mean that the TE is automatically the hot read. The RB in this case should be the hot read. If he comes back to block, then it disrupts the read patterns.