This play reminds me a lot of this thread: http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/community/1/1036?page=0#6026

I think the QB makes the right read and is throwing to the WR running the skinny post. The LB just makes a ridiculous play on the ball. He has an angle, but I want to know how the QB throws the ball to allow the LB to make the play.

Just play a thriller that came down to a last second FG by my opponent to win it, which he did, so congrats to him (my season was over before it began because I had 5 of the first 6 on the road including three games against division winners from the past season).

By the numbers, our QBs look like they had a decent game.

Mine: 15/25 - 136 - 2 - 0

His: 15/28 - 160 - 0 - 0

I've been throwing mostly short passes to see if I could figure out why my interceptions were so high, but short passes are almost as ineffective as outside runs. Too many stupid routes where the WR goes five yards downfield and then cuts six yards back to end up behind the LOS and plays were a player runs a "drag", which really means the player turns 90 degrees on the snap and runs down the LOS. And, slant plays? Slant plays? Don't talk to me about slant plays. Slant plays.

Some of the incompletes in this game are what gets it included. Check out these:

My team. 2-6. QB has some pressure, but could beat the DE to the edge and run for the first down. Instead, he rifles a pass into triple coverage, which should be picked: http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1178#219439

His team. 1-10. What? That ball isn't knocked down and the intended WR is 10 yards away:
http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1178#219443

My team. 2-11. TE is jumping up and down he's so wide open, but the QB decides to roll back (WHY?) and then throw the ball into the dirt: http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1178#219452

His team. 3-6. No game is complete until a LB knocks a pass down in a ridiculous fashion. The LB breaks on the ball, but he's still 10 yards away from the WR when he makes this play: http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1178#219458

My team. 3-12. This is actually a good play by the QB and the WR. The DE is breaking free so the QB releases the ball a little too early and it ends up just out of reach of the WR. There is nothing wrong with this play. It's how the pressures should work, not how they usually work:
http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1178#219463

His team. 1-10. QB gets heavy pressure and rifles the ball into the stands. This is intentional grounding! My coach threw his headset at the ref on this blown call. The QB is inside the tackle and there isn't a receiver within 20 yards:
http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1178#219468

His team. 2-5. You have to watch this play to realize why his QB coach had to be removed from the game on an "undisclosed medical emergency":
http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1178#219490

Sitting at 3-5, my season is over, so I'm probably not going to follow the games as closely as I have been. I'll probably do an end of the season comparison with last season.

---

Just wanted to add this nugget. I checked out league's QBR numbers since we are now 8 weeks into the season. Every QB that has enough passes to be reasonably rated (since there isn't a league minimum setting to filter out the QBs that have only thrown a handful of passes) has a QBR of <90. That's right, less...than...90. That means that all of the QBs in our league would be considered below average starters in the NFL.

How does this get solved?

---

I wasn't going to post again. I really wasn't. Especially after my offense finally seemed to click, racking up 400 yards and holding the ball for 37 minutes like it was designed to do all again. Then I realized that I gave up 9 sacks, and then I saw how I gave up 9 sacks.

Like the bad incomplete passes where the QB throws the ball into the dirt, QBs not running in the open field and not throwing the ball away is making the game look stupid.

Full disclosure, my opponents QB got destroyed until the 4th quarter and without two garbage time TDs the game would have never been close. I didn't look at why his QB played as badly as he did.

So here we go again.

Let's start with a play that wasn't a sack. The QB rolls out to his left and rolls and rolls and rolls (is that day light down the sideline?) and rolls out and before going out of bounds fires a 32 yard completion to the RB. What just happened?
http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1196#222553

Now for some bad sacks.

First play of the game. QB gets pressure and rolls out. He's a few yards deep, but he has a clear lane to his left and could try to cut the corner. He's also outside the tackle and could easily throw it away out of bounds to his left where there is no one. Instead, sacked: http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1196#222549

My starting QB got a concussion midway through the game, so my rookie backup had to play. This is where things get interesting. On this play, the DE gets free. The QB rolls to his left to avoid the rush. At this point, he has an open receiver cutting across the field and he has a running lane to the outside. Instead, he runs perfectly parallel to the LOS and sacked: http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1196#222604

On this play, the pocket doesn't form so the QB rolls to his right where there is no one. No one at all. He then stands there until a defender can come and sack him: http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1196#222664

On the very next play, the same thing happens. The QB rolls to his right after the pocket doesn't form. There is a LB watching him, so I don't fault him for not trying to run. Instead of throwing the ball away, he waits to get sacked again: http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1196#222664

I'm really not sure what happens on this play. The QB runs to the opposing team's sideline so he can get sacked in front of their coach instead of doing anything, really anything, else: http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1196#222672

I didn't post all of the sacks because some of them were just great plays by the defense that I would expect to be sacks. The five above though represent a real problem in the game code right now. QBs have to be willing to tuck and run if there is nothing open or at least throw the ball away.

Finally, I thought I'd leave you guys with this play where my DE gets called for defensive holding on the OT that inexplicably the QB's intended receiver: http://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/1196#222678

The most frustrating part of putting together an offensive line is how mediocre defensive lineman take over games and blocking rarely holds up even with elite offensive linemen. I know some teams in mfn-19 are on pace for 100+ sacks allowed and I have an offensive line with 4 80+ players and two 85+ tackles who have allowed 45 sacks through 9 games. It's partly a function of QBs rolling out before protection breaks down and just running laterally until they get sacked, but it seems like blockers rarely hold their man for more than 2 seconds.

It's worth pointing out that this is affecting teams like Houston, who has dominated the league for three years and won a championship. He's currently 8-1 and facing the same issues we're all facing in that league. To be blunt, ill-conceived code changes have ruined this game. It's not just newbies or bad coaches/managers/planners whining about this.

The league's best-rated QB through 9 games has a rating of 86.54. Completing half your passes is a rarity. Running games have suffered, though to a lesser extent. Mediocre defensive linemen are on pace for 40 sacks. Everything is fucked.

Interestingly enough in my automated testing this was not the result of the newer algorithms - things always get more interesting when there are actual people playing the game. I appreciate your posts and analysis and definitely appreciate your patience as the game engine continues to mature. I still really feel like there's a lot to be done before the engine qualifies for a 1.0 release, and your posts about the pain points definitely help guide the development. I will continue to address these issues and most likely we will continue to have a pendulum swing through the release versions that will hopefully stabilize!

I think the code is stable. It doesn't crash randomly at least on the user side. It just needs to be refined. I agree with automated testing versus human intervention. This season has provide some suggestions on things you can do with the automated testing code too:

1) Make the quickest and strongest defenders DL
2) Make the fastest defenders that are below X-strength LB
3) Put the best overall player with the highest kick catching score as the PR and KR

+1

Any hope we can have some kind of relief in place for next season?

Still don't understand how a 92 rated QB can have such a crappy game, and with a pretty **** good O line which just got totally owned.

Name Att Comp Yds Sk/Yd TDs Lng Int Rate

Curtis Miller 31 11 227 8/55 2 54 2 56.79

Dude or is that Dudd didn't have one completion in the first half :(

Jdb, thank you for being receptive to us. You've put together a **** of a game, some things with the new engine are frustrating though.