Impossible to get CPU to throw downfield consistenty

[vgunn]

Here is game #3 for the Sooners.

Tennessee Volunteers at Oklahoma Sooners
Jan 1,	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Tennessee Volunteers (0-1)	7	7	13	0	27
#4 Oklahoma Sooners (1-0)	7	17	7	3	34

Team Stats Comparison
	TENN	OKLA
Total Offense	526	487
Rushing Yards	261	260
Passing Yards	265	227
First Downs	27	26
Punt Return Yards	31	32
Kick Return Yards	189	134
Total Yards	746	653
Turnovers	2	0
3rd Down Converstion	7-16	7-16
4th Down Conversion	0-3	0-0
2-Point Conversion	0-0	0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	5-3-0	5-4-1
Penalties	6-40	5-31
Posession Time	16:09	15:51

Tennessee Volunteers PASSING C/A YDS TD INT J. Worley (9.4 APC / Sacked 2) 28/48/58% 265 1 2 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD T. M. Lane 21 94 4.4 0 J. Worley 18 125 6.9 3 J. Hurd 6 44 7.3 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD E. Wolf 7 48 6.8 0 M. Lane 6 42 7.0 0 M. North 5 74 14.8 1 J. Smith 3 37 12.3 0 P. Howard 2 28 14.0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG A. Medley 0/1 3/4 3 0 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 M. Darr 4 160 40.0 0

Oklahoma Sooners PASSING C/A YDS TD INT T. Knight (9.8 APC / Sacked 2) 23/40/57% 227 3 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD T. Knight 17 117 6.8 1 K. Ford 13 95 7.3 0 A. Ross 8 36 4.5 0 A. Ripkowski 3 12 4.0 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD D. Neal 5 72 14.4 0 S. Shepard 4 51 12.7 1 K. Young 3 32 10.6 0 S. Perine 3 22 7.3 1 J. Smallwood 3 16 5.3 0 K. Ford 2 14 7.0 1 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG M. Hunnicutt 2/2 4/4 10 38 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 J. Barnett 7 279 39.8 1

A much closer game for Oklahoma.

One of the things I've noticed in testing is that I think the defense is under-rated and gives up too much yardage. This is not due to the sliders, but to the player ratings and perhaps the DC's settings. Something I need to look into.

There are a lot of glaring issues with the game. For example, the run/pass offense team sliders need to be adjusted for each team and playbook!

Again I switched the #1 and #3 WRs on the depth chart for each team and they had solid games.

I will finish the Oklahoma test with a game against West Virginia and then total the numbers.

[vgunn]

Game #4 for the Oklahoma Sooners

Oklahoma Sooners at West Virginia Mountaineers
Jan 1,	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
#4 Oklahoma Sooners (1-0)	7	6	7	14	34
West Virginia Mountaineers (0-1)	7	6	0	7	20

Team Stats Comparison
	OKLA	WVU
Total Offense	482	417
Rushing Yards	264	36
Passing Yards	218	381
First Downs	33	16
Punt Return Yards	31	26
Kick Return Yards	125	170
Total Yards	638	613
Turnovers	2 (1 fumble)	2
3rd Down Converstion	12-18	4-14
4th Down Conversion	0-0	0-1
2-Point Conversion	0-0	0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	7-4-2	2-0-1
Penalties	4-25	7-43
Posession Time	20:32	11:28

Oklahoma Sooners PASSING C/A YDS TD INT T. Knight (9.4 APC / Sacked 2) 28/38/73% 218 2 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD T. Knight 27 150 5.5 1 K. Ford 19 73 3.8 0 A. Ross 9 41 4.5 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD K. Ford 5 7 1.4 0 S. Shepard 4 58 14.5 1 D. Woods 4 26 6.5 0 D. Neal 3 34 8.0 0 B. Bell 3 42 14.0 0 J. Smallwood 2 21 10.5 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG M. Hunnicutt 2/3 4/4 10 31 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 J. Barnett 3 109 36.3 0

West Virginia Mountaineers PASSING C/A YDS TD INT C. Trickett (12.6 APC / Sacked 2) 30/52/57% 381 2 2 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD T. Trickett 8 30 3.7 0 W. Smallwood 4 3 0.7 0 R. Shell 3 3 1.0 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD D. Shorts 7 75 10.7 0 J. Thompson 6 58 9.6 0 M. Alford 4 101 25.2 1 K. White 4 77 19.2 1 W. Smallwood 3 19 6.3 0 R. Shell 2 25 12.5 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG M. Hunnicutt 2/3 2/2 8 48 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 N. O'Toole 4 156 39.0 0

Okay I, didn't want to, but had to dial down the running back ability to 25. This resulted in some 1st half sacks due to the QB running into the OL, so the pass block was was raised to 100. The RBA has a negative impact on the screen play, so it hurts YPC.

One good thing about dropping RBA down to 25 is that there were more fumbles (even if only one was recovered by the defense).

Also saw an offsides and holding penalty in the game!

So I will total the numbers and compare the results later with the RL stats.

[ehh]

The short answer is your defensive play calling and the CPU running game IMO.

The CPU passing game is conservative and will take what you give it. If you sit in a Cover 2 Man the entire game they will never throw the ball downfield. The problem is that on most sliders you can sit in a Cover 2 all day and still contain or completely stifle the CPU running game.

I think this is where the CPU running game is a huge factor. It needs a major, major boost because the CPU's ball carrier vision is awful - you need to make up for that in some unrealistic way, whether it's better blocking or better RBA (more broken tackles) to make up for their poor elusiveness.

Basically the CPU running game, at least against good teams, has to be a big enough of a threat that you have to come out of Cover 2 and put eight or nine guys in the box. Once you start blitzing (esp DBs) and playing Cover 1 and Cover 0 you will get them throwing the ball downfield. I was playing Northwestern last night and they were killing me on their first two drives on the ground - the very first time I called Cover 0 they threw a bomb down the field.

That whole strategy still doesn't help against great passing teams that air it out all game, if you rightfully sit in a Cover 2/3 then you'll prevent the big plays but that is pretty realistic at the same time.

Also, if you want a challenge, forcing yourself to "guess" pass or run left/right/center pre-snap using RS will cause your D to be extra aggressive. If you guess run and its a pass your guys will be a step slow and give the CPU WR's a break heading downfield.

It would also be nice if the CPU called more PA passes as well (and were better at it).

[zocrates]

Quote: Originally Posted by ehh

The short answer is your defensive play calling and the CPU running game IMO. The CPU passing game is conservative and will take what you give it. If you sit in a Cover 2 Man the entire game they will never throw the ball downfield. The problem is that on most sliders you can sit in a Cover 2 all day and still contain or completely stifle the CPU running game. I think this is where the CPU running game is a huge factor. It needs a major, major boost because the CPU's ball carrier vision is awful - you need to make up for that in some unrealistic way, whether it's better blocking or better RBA (more broken tackles) to make up for their poor elusiveness. Basically the CPU running game, at least against good teams, has to be a big enough of a threat that you have to come out of Cover 2 and put eight or nine guys in the box. Once you start blitzing (esp DBs) and playing Cover 1 and Cover 0 you will get them throwing the ball downfield. I was playing Northwestern last night and they were killing me on their first two drives on the ground - the very first time I called Cover 0 they threw a bomb down the field. That whole strategy still doesn't help against great passing teams that air it out all game, if you rightfully sit in a Cover 2/3 then you'll prevent the big plays but that is pretty realistic at the same time. Also, if you want a challenge, forcing yourself to "guess" pass or run left/right/center pre-snap using RS will cause your D to be extra aggressive. If you guess run and its a pass your guys will be a step slow and give the CPU WR's a break heading downfield. It would also be nice if the CPU called more PA passes as well (and were better at it).

Thanks for the input, and I definitely agree with the drastically improving the run game, which I usually do with the higher RBA.

But I just run CPU vs. CPU games, especially for testing, and the CPU just doesn't throw downfield as much as it should even against itself, much less against a human.

I've kind of accepted that it's just not going to happen at the rate that it's supposed to in real college football, so I'm compensating by getting QBs to throw for a higher completion percentage just to make sure they get the total yards and TDs that they should.