Pistol/Shotgun v Good Pass Rush

[Mike7273]

Anybody done any studies on how much help running these formations help against the pass rush in the game?

[Ushikawa]

Never seen anything like that Mike but a damn good question

[bdubbs]

Just getting the data for that kind of analysis seems like it would be more trouble than its worth.

The only way I can even think of to do it off the top of my head would be to parse though detailed game logs line by line for every team in a league for at least an entire season and compare how often the pass rush disrupted each team's offense under center to pistol and shotgun formations.

[Ushikawa]

1. Create an all shotgun playbook - could likely just be 50 plays or so
2. Create an Under Center Playbook
(2a). Create an all Pistol Playbook
3. Save at TC
4. Run a few seasons with each and compare PR%s

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ushikawa

1. Create an all shotgun playbook - could likely just be 50 plays or so
2. Create an Under Center Playbook
(2a). Create an all Pistol Playbook
3. Save at TC
4. Run a few seasons with each and compare PR%s

5. See data completely borked because of familiars all over the place.


No, this is impossible to fully test. In many instances, the shotgun and the pistol are different "fits" to the system, so you wouldn't be comparing apples to oranges even if you ran the exact same plays in each. And then, of course, if you changed some of plays slightly to make them match "fits," then they're no longer the same plays...

[Ushikawa]

Good point on the familiars, although if you just used 113, 212 and 122 you could mitigate a lot of that. In one of my MO leagues that I don't custom gameplan for I created a playbook like this and haven't seen familiars.

To fully test of course is impossible and another good point on the fits but I think some useful data could result. Like most things FOF, there are many micro factors that seem to change outcomes by +/-10% and every GM has an opinion on which are most frequent/important.

Personally, I like to only use plays with Solid or better fit and that largely dictates my QB depth. I like it because it is how I like to play the game though- not because I have any sort of evidence, or even belief, that it is better.