Do o-line ratings matter this year???

[Agame]

Line play with ratings in Madden 2011. Played more than 20 games with Colts. Against Vikes..Manning got pressure and hurried throws and sacked twice(Williams, Allen). Game against Bills....NO sacks on Manning and all day to throw most plays. Mathis a Beast. Play Action this year animation seems to have a bug for line logic blocking. It's total hit or miss. There are times the QB fakes hand off and is sacked BEFORE he even turns to look upfield. Happens too often. Sometimes PA is ok. Running is a little too easy with sliders out of the box on all pro. Too many Broken tackles.
I Think the rating show in blocking based on playing Colts against several teams. Good Luck with your decision. Having a great time with game this year.........still working on sliders.

[Franchise408]

From my experiences, I do believe O-Line ratings matter.

What I've observed (nothing recorded, simply eye balling, and what "seems" to be happening)

-I use the 49ers. When calling run plays, I see to have more success on run calls towards the right side (behind Adam Snyder and Anthony Davis) with Mike Iupati pulling to that side, than I do running to the left side (behind Joe Staley and Mike Iupati) with Adam Snyder pulling to that side.

Anthony Davis, Adam Snyder, and Mike Iupati are all highly rated run blockers. So it seems that right side run with a pulling Iupati gets me better results.

When I get sacked, it's also typically from the inside or from the right (Iupati, Heitmann, Snyder, Davis), none of those guys really have impressive pass blocking stats.

-Typically, most of my testing has come as the 49ers, against the Colts (they are the first pre-season game on the 49ers' schedule). To test, I flipped it around, starting a Colts franchise and playing against the 49ers. With the Colts o-line going against the 49ers d-line, I seemed to have a lot more time in the pocket than I had with Alex Smith behind San Francisco's line. Running was more difficult running in the direction of Justin Smith and Aubrayo Franklin than against Isaac Sopoaga.

I think o-line stats matter this year, tho I haven't done extensive research on the matter.

As far as your 2nd question goes, I think that is by design, because there are some players that may simply put not want to sign with your team, therefore they have outrageous contract demands. I actually like that system, because then you can't just stock up on every player in the game. Maybe some players just don't want to play for your team, and that's very realistic.

[JalenTigh]

the O-Line basically should just sit on the sidelines with all the good they do on play action plays this year.

I just watched my lvl 92 LT, and Lvl 91 RT get eaten alive by sub 80 defensive ends on every single play action I ran in my last game.

[PGaither84]

Something else to think about when asking if line ratings matter, is DO NOT go by OVR ratings thinking "oh, my RG is a 90 something so this 70-80 OVR defender should be toast most of the time." Look at the depth chart and look at the player's individual ratings. Franchise408 was talking about how he uses the 49ers, like I do, and when he mentioned Isac Sopoaga. Isac is only a 71 OVR, he has 95 strength, 94 TAK, 94 Block Shedding, and 84 Play Recognition. his weakness is his lack of speed, acceleration or agility, along with his hit power rating of 51, his finesse moves are 50 and his power moves are only a 74. Simply put, he is in no way a pass rusher, and because Madden values defensive ends as pass rushers in their OVR rating, he only gets to be a 71. It's actually worrisome to see that you could run on his side all that well seeing how he should be a run stopping beast. He should see the run comming with his 84 play recognition and use his 95 strength and 94 block shedding to get right in your face. unless you avoid him ,his 94 tackle rating should put you on the turf. there is a reason why the 49ers had the 6th best run defense in the NFL last year.

Regarding the other two questions, teams play like themselves more than ever before, but still not quite right. The Game plans EA made for GameFlow has a lot to do with that though. The problem I still have with GameFlow right now tough is how shallow it's calls are. It appears to call certain plays over and over again, based on the star rating. The 49ers will use Crabtree on a WR sweep, but the game will call that play like 3 times on one dive.

Also, in franchise mode, for me, contracts appear to be a lot better. The thing I notice most is that you don't have to offer players a $700billion stimulus bailout with stock options to be on your team if he is an 82 OVR. I haven't seen one Super Star in my franchise so far in the free agency pool. The highest player so far has been an 89 LG or something like that who was like 36 years old. there were no Fat Albert Hanesworth players or what not. In fact, some of the higher rated players in the free agency were backups I didn't resign. I'd rather have it this way than how M10 was, but it still isn't "perfect."

I have really enjoyed my franchise so far, though I haven't really played it in nearly a week. I have been lost in online team play and what not. I have been simulating all my games, so it's not like I am winning the Superbowl every year or anything either. It's fun to build the team, watch it grow. it's fun to try and create a competitive team and try to keep them as competitive as possible for as long as possible.