Watch this vid at around the 40 second mark. The slot wr goes on a crossing route and absolutely torches his defender. Speed is an attribute.
http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/9...ry3_32310.html
As for ratings, it appears there are 4 general attributes every player has. These include Speed,Focus,Agility, and Strength. Then they added position specific attributes like arm strength and accuracy for qbs, etc.
I'm not sure what scale is being used. The skills have been displayed in a gold,silver, bronze star format. I've heard this is the system, and I have heard this is a quick reference for players to see and that you can actually go into more detail and see a 1-100 type scale for the ratings as well, so idk.
The only other place I've gotten ratings info is off this vid:
http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/9...deo_42810.html
If you go the the 1:20 mark, you can see when he is cycling through teams that a team's offense, defense and overall ratings are based on 1-100 point scales.
Edit: The Rating system was put to a vote of the BB forum a long time ago. Here is a link to that thread.:
http://forum.backbreakergame.com/sho...ratings+system
(The blend system won)