I play offline only, so against the CPU, I also get throttled when calling PA plays. But there are a couple of things that help
- Read through the "coaching sliders thread", especially the benefits of adjusting the defensive play aggressiveness portions. Logical, and beneficial when trying to run a typical college offense. I don't blitz a lot myself, and I suppose most college programs save blitzing for times when offensive timing disruption and a good chance of scoring a sack are in order. Adjusting the sliders has helped...
- Call a couple of PA plays early in the game when you're near midfield against an aggressive D. Audible the routes of at least 2 receivers to slants, just in case an OLB blitzes. You could get an easy catch that way. -edit- When you do this, just make sure you either bring a wideout in and change his route to block left or right, or use a back who's in a receiving route and change his route to block as well. Just pray the blitz is an outside blitz, as the backs are, unless a senior with a high AWR rating, rather sluggish in picking up blitzes (realistic).
- Call any play, audible into another play and formation (not just the play itself ie RS stuff), then use the RS to audible into the PA variant for that play/formation. The D adjusts into or out of their play, and for some reason, is less aggressive in this circumstance.
- Save PA plays for late in the game. It is true that you have to establish the run, sometimes calling run plays on 3rd and long, to set up the D.
And yes, it is true that your otherwise aware and athletic OL do become lobotomized when pass blocking on PA plays. I think this is a code glitch that would only be resolved with a patch. Until then, try to work around the problem.
BTW, you'd think draw plays would also follow suit, in that you need to set them up with calling a string of passes, but for some reason, draws work similarly regardless of the game situation. Go figure...