Why Line Play Will Never Be Realistic in Football Games

Feature Article

Submitted on: 03/31/2011 by Jayson Young

With video game baseball season underway, it's the perfect time to make this analogy What realistic hitting would be to baseball games, realistic line play would be to football games -- unplayable for 95 percent of gamers.

To put things in perspective, a hitter at the MLB level has less than .25 seconds to judge a pitch's speed, location and decide whether or not to swing.

How Hard is it to Hit a Baseball?

Hitting major league pitching is so difficult, that succeeding 30 percent of the time is considered successful enough to earn a multi-million dollar contract.

NFL quarterbacks have more time to make decisions than MLB hitters, but with so much more data to take in, a NFL quarterback’s job is arguably the toughest in pro sports.

What Constitutes a "Realistic" Pass Rush?

The average NFL play lasts five seconds from snap to whistle.

A NFL quarterback is trained to get the ball out in less than three seconds -- 2.7 seconds, to be exact -- according to USA Today's study of the St. Louis Rams rookie quarterback, Sam Bradford.

Why three seconds? In a Sports Science test, Steelers outside linebacker LaMarr Woodley was able to break through two layers of pass protection in 2.6 seconds.

In another Sports Science video, Chargers defensive end Luis Castillo reached Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in 1.3 seconds when coming unblocked off the edge -- just a few hundredths of a second before Roethlishberger could complete a five-step drop and get the ball out of his hand.

Are these just lab numbers unrelated to what happens on a real football field?

An analysis of Dwight Freeney's 25 sacks from 2009 and 2010 suggests that Sports Science's pass rush numbers are spot-on. According to ESPN Stats & Information, 2.5 seconds was the average time from snap to Freeney making contact with the quarterback.

Removing one sack from the sample pool that took 5.8 seconds (on this play, the QB rolled out to the sideline opposite Freeney), the time it took for each of Dwight Freeney's remaining sacks was an astonishing 2.1 seconds.

A "Realistic" Pass Rush Would Frustrate Most Gamers

Could gamers handle having only one to three seconds to make their reads and get the ball out before getting crushed by a realistic pass rush?

I believe 95 percent of gamers would be begging for a patch within a week of the game's release to fix the game's "broken" pass protection.

A similar reaction occurred with a recent football game -- a game that, before the pass protection was "fixed," had the most realistic line play of any football game to date: Natural Motion's Backbreaker.

When a bad offensive line goes against a good defensive line in Backbreaker, the results are ugly. A team can run the ball 30 times and end up with negative yardage at the end of the game. Quarterbacks can end up taking double-digit sacks.

In Backbreaker, a mismatch at the line of scrimmage plays out much like the 2008 Sugar Bowl in which Georgia demolished Hawaii's weak offensive line:

With only a four-man pass rush, Georgia's defense pressured Hawaii quarterback, Colt Brennan, into eight sacks, two fumbles and four interceptions.

NFL teams like the 2009 New York Giants, whose defensive line harassed Tom Brady en route to a Super Bowl XLII Giants victory, proved that a four-man pass rush can cause havoc even at the highest level of football.

Video Game Pass Rush Is Neutered To Satisfy Gaming Majority

Attempting to play as the video game equivalent of great 4-3 defenses like the Giants, Lions, Titans or Rams is an exercise in frustration.

Defensive ends do not get upfield, defensive tackles do not push the pocket back, and neither position seems to explode off the ball with the sub-five second 40-yard dash speed that today's NFL defensive linemen display.

In Madden and NCAA Football, defensive linemen get sucked into vacuum blocks, fail to use line moves properly, and don’t use the sprint button when pursuing the QB -- core issues that have gone unfixed in EA's football games for years. Even in All Pro Football 2K8, feared defensive linemen like Reggie White can be easily handled by a generic offensive line that is set to “pass block.”

Why are video game developers keeping the four-man pass rush from being the game-changing entity that it can be in real life?

To put it simply, because the people buying football video games are not NFL quarterbacks.

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Member Comments

# 61 PSRusse83 @ 04/01/11 02:00 AM

Seriously OS ****** is an unacceptable word? When did this become a communist web site?

# 62 bcruise @ 04/01/11 02:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PSRusse83


	Seriously OS ***** is an unacceptable word? When did this become a communist web site?*

I would advise you to check the calendar before going off on a rant that may get you in trouble...

# 63 ryan36 @ 04/01/11 02:36 AM

Wow man I keep deleting posts, but if you're gonna come on here...you're gonna have to prove it

# 64 swaldo @ 04/01/11 07:04 AM

The way Backbreaker was set up it took something like 4 seconds to read the field. People weren't really complaining about the speed, instead it was more about the imbalance. An NFL QB can read the field in 2.5 seconds but you can't do that in BB. You really need the pass rush to average 4.5 seconds in that game to have a chance. Hopefully the next version will have a better system to scan the defense so they can make the DL rush more realistic.

# 65 unfriendlyghst @ 04/01/11 08:34 AM

Reads article. S***ches head. Goes back to playing 2k5. I miss you david ortiz!

# 66 spankdatazz22 @ 04/01/11 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidOrtizFootball


	The ProTak tech that M10 implemented was a half -finished product of something that we had been building toward for 3 years. You gotta realize that we were so rushed in the early years, we HAD to go arcade. They didn't give us any time for authenticity.

That is a seriously funny post - HI-larious

# 67 turftickler @ 04/01/11 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidOrtizFootball


	The ProTak tech that M10 implemented was a half -finished product of something that we had been building toward for 3 years. You gotta realize that we were so rushed in the early years, we HAD to go arcade. They didn't give us any time for authenticity.

I knew it. It's too bad you couldn't have stuck around. I saw good things happening when you were there, but the games felt like they were being restricted and taken out of the simulation room with the rest of the big kids.

# 68 Double C @ 04/01/11 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidOrtizFootball


	The ProTak tech that M10 implemented was a half -finished product of something that we had been building toward for 3 years. You gotta realize that we were so rushed in the early years, we HAD to go arcade. They didn't give us any time for authenticity.

Haha! So EA deliberately lied to us for all those years..? Right.
I wasn't sure whether your other thread was a j0ke but now I know.

# 69 PSRusse83 @ 04/01/11 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bcruise


	I would advise you to check the calendar before going off on a rant that may get you in trouble...

What does the calendar have to do with it?

# 70 Mos1ted @ 04/01/11 12:36 PM

When I play football games, I generally keep a 3 second internal clock in my head anyway. I don't think the problem people have with the game is the time in the pocket; I think the problem stems from the fact that the CPU QB and line blocking is always giving more time than the user. If they made line play equal (relative to player attributes of course) for both the CPU and the human, I doubt you have anyone (looking for a sim experience that is) upset that they only have 2 to 3 seconds to get the ball off. From my experiences, the CPU gets all day to throw, which is frustrating.

# 71 jyoung @ 04/01/11 02:49 PM

Despite its flaws (many of which have been mentioned in this thread), I really loved Backbreaker before the patch.

Unfortunately, if you want to play against someone online in Backbreaker, you have to have the patch downloaded.

The Backbreaker patch basically killed the 2 to 3 second pass rush and restored the normal 5-second pocket that video game football has always had.

That said, even though the games are the same high scoring pass-fests that we see in ****** and 2K football, I still prefer Backbreaker to all the other football games right now because of how good it feels to be on the field with the over-the-shoulder camera.

# 72 TimLawNYC @ 04/01/11 03:00 PM

Unfortunately, "realistic line play" isn't as simple as just forcing "3 second rule" to be in effect on pass rush. Even assuming that most gamers could accurately read a defense and take action in that time frame, a gamer will take longer to release the ball than any NFL QB, even if they make the read in the same amount of time, because the gamer requires an extra step. A real QB makes his read and then reacts by beginning his throwing motion; the timer ends when he releases the ball. A gamer makes the read, then reacts by pressing the appropriate receiver button, to which the game reacts by beginning the QB's throwing animation, and the timer ends when the ball is released. The extra "action step" required for the gamer will add at least another few tenths of a second to the process.

Also, I'd bet that the throwing animations in video games actually take longer to complete than a real QB's throwing motion does. Add to that the fact that receivers run and develop their routes much slower in video games than in real life, and it becomes clear that line play adhering to the time limits in this article would result in even the best gamers being unable to generate a decent passing game. I'm all for realism, but it doesn't make sense if it doesn't fit in with the balance and mechanics of the game.

# 73 AzureEffect @ 04/01/11 03:00 PM

2K has done it most effectively on this generation of consoles. It can be done; question is...will we ever see it again.

# 74 Afroholic315 @ 04/01/11 03:12 PM

APF 2k8 has there pass rush down pretty good, the average time i throw a ball in that game is about 2.5-3 seconds I would say, now in my league right now, i have 38 sacks thru 11 gms, Reggie white 15.5, Art Donovan 10, Jerome Brown 8.5, Jack Youngblood 3 and 1 sack for another player, Reggie White can easily get in there in 1.5 seconds, now that doesnt happen everytime but that line forces the QB to get rid of it in 3 seconds or your getting sacked if white doesnt explode thru the line. Steelers in 2010 posted 48 sacks, I have 38 with 5 games to go I will probably get about 10-15 or more sacks in those 5 games, That looks pretty real to me.

# 75 dxdude2004 @ 04/01/11 03:15 PM

People would complain because they want to be like Charlie Sheen: Winning

# 76 Afroholic315 @ 04/01/11 03:17 PM

I also didnt account for all the bad throws that where forced and balls that were throwin in the dirt form getting hit and hits on QB, there were quite a few probably in 15-20's

# 77 Palo20 @ 04/01/11 03:52 PM

WRs will need to get into their routes much faster if they increase the DLine pass rush. Right now, they take too long to get downfield.

# 78 elgreazy1 @ 04/01/11 05:29 PM

For those of you claiming White, Jones, and the other sack masters in APF can't get consistent sacks - or more importantly PRESSURE - hit me up for a game. I'm sure my DL will wreak havoc in your backfield.

# 79 tpaterniti @ 04/01/11 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LiquorLogic


	Did Reggie White go against generic lineman every game in the NFL ? No,he didn't, but he did, at times, go against average offensive lineman in the NFL. An average lineman in the NFL, and a generic lineman in APF are basically the same difference. Reggie White went up against average olineman, and he didn't average 15 sacks a game. There were some games where he had no sacks where he didn't go up against a future HOFer.

Part of the issue is the game setup. If we had more legends and if the generics were not so dramatically worse in most cases than legends, people could justify taking O-linemen, which would in turn allow them to make them more realistic.

# 80 aktransplant007 @ 04/01/11 11:54 PM

Not going to read all comments if this is in there, but while reading just the title I had a clue and thought of this. I couldn't get through the article if this was near the end due to the ridiculous nature. The WRs do not run as fast as in real life, so you can't drop back and throw immediately. I have always crossed my fingers that each year the speed of players would get closer to real life. I drop back and automatically know who I'm gonna throw to, but can't because the WR still hasn't made a break or anything close to have the appearance of beating the DB. With the speed of players (WRs/BD) and that interaction as it is, you couldn't have the realistic blocking, but increase the speed of the entire game and people will get it.

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