League Forums

Also, looking at knock down rates across leagues, which I think are pretty close, it may be worth adjusting up the effectiveness of downfield B&R and M2M so that Elite DBs stay Elite.

To this end, there are still a lot of 90 SP WRs with bad B&R abusing DBs at the LOS.

---

Actually, I've been thinking about this some more, and here's what I would do to fix coverage:

1) DBs still roll B&R to hand fight down the field. But make it much more effective (increase a in the -ax^2 roll 2 times or so).
2) When a DB loses a hand fight, roll the DBs discipline to see if he grabs the WR. Lower discipline DBs grab more.
3) Continue to roll DI to see how long he grabs. If he can grab and then get back in position, maybe he stops. Maybe he mauls the guy to the ground.
4) Roll lost discipline rolls against the chance of getting a penalty for DPI.

Do the same rolls in M2M rolls. If a DB is going to lose the M2M vs Route roll, roll DI to see if he grabs and holds.

This would do a few things:

1) Slower DBs with great B&R and good DI would be valuable because they could lock down all but the best WRs.

2) Fast DBs with good DI would be more valuable because they wouldn't grab even if they couldn't stay as close to WRs.

3) DPI would be a real possibility in the game.

---

I also think Arm needs to play a bigger role: https://private75.myfootballnow.com/player/249

Really, I think that distance accuracy should be computed something like this:

(100 * (ARM / 100)) /2

So that a QB with 100 ARM can throw the ball with pin point accuracy up to 50 yards, but a QB with ARM of 50 can only throw the ball with pinpoint accuracy 25 yards. But this feels a bit too linear.

Maybe make ARM a bigger part of the accuracy modifier. Not sure what is best here.

I've been thinking about sacks some too. I would like to see what happens if coverage gets a little bit better first though.

Overall, sacks look better. Nice work! Generally there are some quick passes that look rushed and on the defensive side alot dbs are going for picks and letting big plays. Maybe they could sit back some and knock the pass down or defend the receiver longer.

Also, Guys stopping as the pass comes there way doesn't look good for dbs. One moment they have good coverage . ..the qb passes toward their reciever and they momentarily stop....allowing for too much room to make a play.

Its not all the time but enough to drive completion % up several points . And for pass yards, the run after the catch, is where we are picking up a lot of yards. The averages (YPP, YPC) may be close but our air yards is low and RAC yards are high.

Anecdotal as stats are lacking there but gaps in coverage stated earlier would allow for a lot of RAC yards . Tackling /break tackle could be to blame but I am ok with that right now. Still, most defenders seem to be playing to their abilities . Some offensive scrubs are doing well, but I think that's do to the lack of coverage .

Still , I am not seeing a difference in the discipline rating for qbs . My low Discipline guy won the job in preseason and I want to use other guys with higher Discipline but why? What did the new code introduce in the game and how do you use it relating to a real life measure ?

This is incorrect, and frankly, should be ignored. Sacks and hurries are WAY too low. So while QB decision making is now correct, they are also not facing pressure because DL need adjusted.

First set of games, the most HURRIES in a game was 8. And there were only 31 hurries across all teams. A team should have approximately twice as many QB hits as it does sacks in a game: http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?tabSeq=2&offensiveStatisticCategory=OFFENSIVE_LINE&role=TM&d-447263-p=1&d-447263-s=PASSING_QBHIT

And that's is just a defender making contact with the QB. Most teams should have approximately 4-5 times as many QB pressures as they do sacks in a game. Really great teams pressure a QB up to 40-50% of all drop backs. Here's an example: https://buffalonews.com/2018/10/03/bills-struggle-pressuring-rodgers-still-in-top-10-in-defensive-pressure-rate/

I don't have a PFF subscription because I don't play FF anymore, so I don't know what the current rates are right now.

Knockdowns are also still too low across teams. But that's a different thing. I'm actively reviewing coverage issues with JDB in alpha code.

UPDATE: Here's a better look at QB pressure during the 2017 season: https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2018/defense-and-pass-pressure-2017

I spent a ton of time today watching alpha film (it's my vacation, I'll do whatever I want thank you). Here are the things that y'all should be paying attention to in beta games:

1) Slant routes. Oh, my the slant route. Specifically, watch M2M defenses with no secondary help (i.e. Secondary in Man). These are destroying teams in alpha code.

On one hand, I don't really care if you strand your CBs on an island with an elite receiver and then watch that receiver do what he do. On the other hand, there appears to be an obvious bug in how CBs engage with these routes.

Watch these and see if you see the same issues that I see.

2) Blitz 2 defenses with man secondary getting eaten up by the pass. I've noticed that blitz 2 defenses are losing big time. Part of this is because of #1 above, but it's not just the slant route destroying them.

Again, part of me doesn't care. It just means that teams will have to be more selective or creative with their blitz calling. It may be worth trying out some of those 3 Deep Man / 3 Deep Zone blitzes to see if you can effectively get pressure on the QB and not give up a bazillion yards.

If you can get pressure and the zone players don't look terribly stupid, great! That will give folks an option. I'm afraid that NEITHER the blitzes NOR the zones will work.

3) DL pressure, or rather, lack of DL pressure. DL play is UNDERwhelming right now. I'm not sure what is causing it. I have suggested to JDB to make AC more important in determining DL pass rushing position, but right now, there are VERY FEW pressures on the QBs and QBs are shredding defenses accordingly.

Part of this is good. This means that QBs are getting the ball out when they should be.

Part of it is bad. It means that versions (years) of nerfing DL to balance out passing need to be slowly unraveled to figure out an appropriate balance now that QBs make decisions like they should.

4) Lack of knockdowns. These completely went away. I think it's associated with the coverage bug, but I haven't been able to track down why there are no knockdowns anymore.

That's really about it. Those four things are what I think need to be solved for this to be releasable.

QB pressure in today's games was strange. There were some pressures (i had none in two weeks), but it happens because OL don't seem to block on pass plays. It's as if OLMs let their opponents go by them.