Some of the short passing game effectiveness is directly tied to a really terrible decision that was made by EA when Ian Cummings was lead developer. That was to "water down" adaptive AI. Likely the dumbest move EA made ever in regard to game play.
Well, that and the terrible zone play make the short passing game overtly successful as the defense plays terrible in zone and never adjusts to repeated "strategies".
It feels like EA is making a concerted effort to make amends for these poor choices, but we are still waiting for features from legacy gen and I think it is directly related to those years where EA relied far too heavily on the tourney crowd for feedback. Thus they set the game back years and years - same with "grass graphics junkies" who got what they wanted - I can now pick out individual blades of grass, which adds absolutely zero to the experience. Really, I never notice the dang grass in actual NFL games, so why do I care about seeing "individual blades" in my dang video game.
But hey, thanks for the great graphics - you know I would rather have "signature running styles" and "signature throwing motions/drop backs" but thanks for the great grass it really makes it better when I am watching 22 players who run exactly the same way...
And for the record I want both great graphics and game play, but its a game not a painting and game play should always be first and foremost - if one or the other has to suffer - then graphics be blanked!!!