Further proof that ovr means nothing in this game

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by Heracles

Technique without strength will still allow a player to be in relative position to block a stronger player because he'll keep his body between the defender and the ball carrier in a way that the STR rating alone doesn't quite cover.

Yes, but the two ratings work in tandem in the passing game.

If you have less PBS, you will whiff immediately more often. If you have a certain amount of that, especially at LT, then PBF means quite a bit less.

This isn't true for the RT position, which needs extra PBF because of the way the game favors the LDE.

BTW, awesome screen name. In the Madden forums Sisyphus is probably the best name if we're going mythological .

[seabs2]

Quote: Originally Posted by Heracles

Technique without strength will still allow a player to be in relative position to block a stronger player because he'll keep his body between the defender and the ball carrier in a way that the STR rating alone doesn't quite cover.

I agree with what everybody is saying about the importance of footwork, but this (besides pass block strength) was the only solid rating he had. What I'm saying is that EA needs to make other ratings matter when it comes to performance. It shouldn't come down to 1 or 2 ratings. This is an extreme example but an F potential player with 43 ovr shouldn't be able to play like an all pro simply because he's exceptional in 1 or 2 key areas. Things like strength and awareness should matter on the OL and it appears that they don't. BTW his pass block rating wasn't very good either, but footwork and strength seemed to trump that rating.

[RogueHominid]

Awareness matters big-time on the OL and in the backfield. I've edited this quite a bit and have found significant differences between ratings levels.

With the OL, awareness affects the OL's ability to recognize blitzes and to slide to pick up/help out beat lineman. So if you run an overload with high awareness guys, they always pick it up psychically. A RG will slide to pick up a blitzer near the RDE spot magically. Or a back will cut all the way across the formation to pick up a backer.

If you lower that attribute, zone blitzes work more realistically, sliding is much less of a problem, and the pass rush as a whole becomes more robust.

You just have to do very precise and fairly drastic edits to get this to show. At default levels you can't tell at all that these ratings matter.

[seabs2]

Quote: Originally Posted by Trojan Man

Awareness matters big-time on the OL and in the backfield. I've edited this quite a bit and have found significant differences between ratings levels. With the OL, awareness affects the OL's ability to recognize blitzes and to slide to pick up/help out beat lineman. So if you run an overload with high awareness guys, they always pick it up psychically. A RG will slide to pick up a blitzer near the RDE spot magically. Or a back will cut all the way across the formation to pick up a backer. If you lower that attribute, zone blitzes work more realistically, sliding is much less of a problem, and the pass rush as a whole becomes more robust. You just have to do very precise and fairly drastic edits to get this to show. At default levels you can't tell at all that these ratings matter.

Good to know. So far I haven't see this. That 43 ovr RG I picked up had awareness in the 20's and he blocked my pass DT the entire game.

[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by seabs2

This is an extreme example but an F potential player with 43 ovr shouldn't be able to play like an all pro simply because he's exceptional in 1 or 2 key areas. Things like strength and awareness should matter on the OL and it appears that they don't. BTW his pass block rating wasn't very good either, but footwork and strength seemed to trump that rating.

Pass block rating? You mean PBK? That doesn't apply to played-out games, correct? (only sim results?)

As far as that 43 OVR player...why not...as long as it's just those situations. A OL with 50 RBS/F and 95 PBS/F and 90 STR should still be decent in pass blocking, assuming he can identify who to block (his AWR is going to be bad in all likelihood to have a OVR that low). If he's decent (not great because of his mistakes at reading defensive movements and confused by blitz schemes) at pass blocking and crap at run blocking, mission accomplished, imo. If he's able to work as a run blocker for a 49ers-style ground-and-pound attack - that's a problem.

But OVR has always been meaningless to me. There's 80 OVR players who do better than 90s on the same team. There's 70 OVR players I've had better success with in certain situations (like KR) than a 90 OVR.

As long as players who are good at one or two things are good only in those situations, I think all is fine.

[Broncos86]

OVR is a general tool, not the end-all of ratings. I think this is a fairly common conclusion amongst OS people.