Breaking down OL/DL ratings

[Sven Draconian]

Breaking down the OL/DL Ratings

I posted the question a few weeks ago asking what the OL/DL ratings meant. Since that went nowhere, I decided to just do the research myself.

I set it up as such:
All OL were set to 65 spd/agility and 80 accel. All blockings ratings (including Strength and Awareness) were set to 80.
All DL were given 75 for spd/agility and 80 for accel. All DL ratings (Including Str, Awr, Tackling, Hit power and PRC were set at 80).

I then edited each attribute 10 points each direction (Strength up to 90, then down to 70. Run Block at 90 and 70, Block Shed at 90 and 70...and so on).

I then ran 30 plays with each edited attribute. All from Ace, Y-trips against 4-3 Cov. 2 man. I ran 10 plays each of Stretch, Dive and Power-O. Then recorded the yardage and any notes from observation.

All plays were user-controlled, but I did not do any spins/jukes/trucks to attempt to break tackles. I also didn't bounce outside, reverse field or anything else. I simply ran to the designated hole, and made any appropriate cuts. All plays were all-american, default sliders, practice mode.

A 20 point swing in an individual ratings (Strength at 70 vs 90) should produce a noticeable difference, if that ratings really matters. Obviously with a fairly limited sample size (30 plays with each adjustment) this is not a definitive study. However, it should point us in the right direction.

[Sven Draconian]

Re: Breaking down OL/DL ratings

As a whole, Stretch averaged 5.3 yards and was the least effected by ratings adjustments.

Dive averaged 5.4 yards and was the most sensitive.

Power averaged 5.1.

All gains over 10 yards were scored as "10" for the averages. Once the ball-carrier breaks into the secondary, the OL ratings don't matter.

These are in order of most important to least important.

Ratings that had significant impact:
Run Block Strength
OL Strength

Ratings that had a moderate impact:
DL Athleticism (Acc/Agil/Spd) [these were tested as a group]
OL Athleticism (Acc/Agil/Spd) [tested as a group]
DL Strength
Tackle
Block Shedding
Poor Power/Finesse move (both ratings lowered to 70)
Power Move

Ratings that had minimal impact (Possibly placebo/chance)
Run Block
Play Recognition
Run Block Footwork
Finesse Move

Ratings that had no Observable impact:
Impact Blocking
OL Awareness

[Sven Draconian]

Re: Breaking down OL/DL ratings

General notes:

Strength, including the strength ratings and RBS, are far and away the most important. They even trigger a few new animations when there is a differential between the blocker and defender. Run Block strength created extra movement both vertical and lateral.

Overall athleticism mattered quite a bit, which surprised me. Lots of OL whiffs on LBs when they had the lowered athleticism. More athletic DL were able to disengage and tackle the ball carrier as he ran past them, which limited the big gains.

DL with poor block shedding resulted in several big plays, but increased block shedding did not result in more tackles for loss. A DL also needs a move (Power or Finesse). However, a higher move did not result in more shed blocks, it just let the DL disengage and make a tackle once the back gets even/past the blocker.

The tackle rating had a similar effect, it let DL disengage and make the tackle as a back is passing him, results in 3..4..5 yard tackles instead of 7 or 8 yarders.

Run block had a little boost, which I attribute to the OL getting to the LBs better (maybe coming off double teams faster?), it's biggest impact was on the stretch play.

Run Block footwork didn't look like it did anything, but the "Power" play with RBF set at 70 only averaged 3.3 yards. Could have been user-error or pure chance. Or it could be a slight effect. RBF at 70 scored higher on stretch than it did on 90, and it scored identical on Dive. My guess was that it didn't do anything.

[soonermagic88]

Re: Breaking down OL/DL ratings

This is very interesting, now i know what to look for when recruiting....hmm

[MrPolo7]

Re: Breaking down OL/DL ratings

This is awesome stuff thanks! Definitely will use this when recruiting....quick question though, do you know if the players size/weight makes any difference?!

[RogueHominid]

Re: Breaking down OL/DL ratings

This is phenomenal!

My biggest problem with this game is the way it overpowers the pass rush of the LDT. If you can figure out which ratings combinations for the OG have the most significant impact for keeping LDTs at bay, I'll do a happy dance.

[dymndheartkilla]

Run Block footwork didn't look like it did anything, but the "Power" play with RBF set at 70 only averaged 3.3 yards. Could have been user-error or pure chance. Or it could be a slight effect. RBF at 70 scored higher on stretch than it did on 90, and it scored identical on Dive. My guess was that it didn't do anything.

Power plays require a pulling guard on the weak side. Perhaps the footwork rating links to effective pulling? Maybe try experiment with screen plays?

I don't know why they wouldn't just tell us what all the ratings do

[wsumichigan]

Re: Breaking down OL/DL ratings

from what i remember reading gotmadskillz breakdown of ol vs dl attributes, impact blocking is very important and, both footwork attributes, espeically pass block footwork. He had stated that impact blocking helps the ol locate the right person to engage and deliver the proper block, and if you wanted your off. tackles to cover your backside, the higher the p. block footwork the better he is at arcing the defender around the qb which is what forms the pocket. Also, he said awarness is just as important as well. im not disagreeing with your findings, i'm just asking if what he had figured out for 2011 still applys to 2012. i would def. like to know if other attributes play a bigger role.

[Mtneer08]

Re: Breaking down OL/DL ratings

Yeah I think impact blocking is pretty important from what I've seen.

[Sven Draconian]

Re: Breaking down OL/DL ratings

from what i remember reading gotmadskillz breakdown of ol vs dl attributes, impact blocking is very important and, both footwork attributes, espeically pass block footwork. He had stated that impact blocking helps the ol locate the right person to engage and deliver the proper block, and if you wanted your off. tackles to cover your backside, the higher the p. block footwork the better he is at arcing the defender around the qb which is what forms the pocket. Also, he said awarness is just as important as well. im not disagreeing with your findings, i'm just asking if what he had figured out for 2011 still applys to 2012. i would def. like to know if other attributes play a bigger role.

I did not work the pass block attributes yet. I like to run the ball, so I started with those.

The idea that footwork effects the pulling guard would be logical, I'll set something up later and take a look at it. My hypothesis heading in was that RBS would effect strength, and RBF would effect how long you maintain the block, that did not play out.

When they re-did the blocking schemes, it eliminated most of the unblocked defender mishaps. Running my experiment, no ratings change affected the playart that was displayed, and the blockers go buy what is displayed. So IBL did not appear to change that.

Yeah I think impact blocking is pretty important from what I've seen.

I assure you that impact blocking had absolutely no measureable effect in my test. With IBL at 70, the blocking was better than it was at 90 (marginally better, just random).

The only thing I noticed with IBL at 90 was a guard knocking the MLB down in a huge block on the dive play, which happened once. It was an instant pancake, big collision tyep of hit...the only one I saw during the tests. But, it only triggered once in 30 plays....

[GGGswim]

Re: Breaking down OL/DL ratings

'11 was my 1st xbox game so I trawled through this site for any quick tips on how to play and how to recruit. Eventually I swayed from a passing team to a running team and became more interested in my OL. Ran across one thread and began reruiting based upon its breakdown of attributes.
When engaged (and this seemed to be an important factor):
RBS/PBS is the direct attribute against a bull rush (PMV)
RBF/PBF matched up against FMV

Now, if I'm recalling correctly (hope so, as I recruit based on this), IBL is what comes into play with the 2nd level of blocking. Therefore, this was a more important attribute for FBs and TEs. Running plays with pulling G/T would bring this back into play for an OL. I honestly can't recall why the general/basic run/pass block rating wasn't as important.

Does that seem to make sense with what you were feeling when you ran your tests?

A quick note, using the PocketScout program (produces ##s instead of letter grades) gives you an attribute called Mobility which is simply the average of SPD, AGI, ACC (IMO this is huge for HBs and QBs, and I recruit with this factor). I love high MOB in my OL, especially the Gs, but I've always wanted, more importantly, to see high ACC with good STR for my OL.
So many threads criticized the SPD/ACC numbers of mostly the skill players, but despite hating seeing mid-80s SPD WRs with low-70s ACC, it makes sense as SPD is a measure of the limit of your speed, while ACC takes into account how quickly you can get to that limit. So, I'd love to see a test with OL in the 60s for SPD (who I stay away from like the plague) but with high ACC. Might find out that SPD is irrelevant, and could change a lot of people's OL recruting strategies.
Another recent thread started by PocketScout worked out (I think he used a regression analysis) what attributes go into making a player's OVR and for OT and OG their RBS and STR were, I believe, the biggest factors. OTs added in a little more factoring of PBS/PBF, and Cs seemed to factor in RBS/RBF and STR most importantly.

[Hope PocketScout reads this thread to correct anything I may have misstated.]

[wsumichigan]

Re: Breaking down OL/DL ratings

great stuff by the way...what i read about how the ratings worked in 2011, (i don't know if it holds true to 2012, as you have stated that they modified it some)...was that Pass block strength and run block strength are directly correlated to the power moves, but also it determines how long the ol can sustain a block...

[jello1717]

Re: Breaking down OL/DL ratings

As per the EA devs, run blocking and pass blocking aren't use in games (but they at least used to be used in sims). RBF, PBF is used to see if a defensive guy's finesse move will succeed on runs/passes.

RBS and PBS are used against power moves for runs/passes.

[Tha_BlacKnight]

Re: Breaking down OL/DL ratings

Ratings that had no Observable impact:
Impact Blocking
OL Awareness

I would think that OL Awareness has more of an impact. Mainly pre-snap reads and knowing who they needed to block.

[Sven Draconian]

Re: Breaking down OL/DL ratings

As per the EA devs, run blocking and pass blocking aren't use in games (but they at least used to be used in sims). RBF, PBF is used to see if a defensive guy's finesse move will succeed on runs/passes.

RBS and PBS are used against power moves for runs/passes.

I can say with complete confidence that RBS definately effects movement. Manipulating RBS even produced a relatively unique animation.

The interplay between Power/Finnesse moves and footwork may be part of the equation somewhere, but it played minimal effect on the field. It may be a result of an AI that doesn't properly use it's "moves", and never fires the footwork ratings, or the moves aren't as sensitive to it's rating, or there's just a glitch.