IGN LiveStream of NCAA Football 12 - Video & Recap

[rhombic21]

I'll add in on the sacks comments as well because in the FSU vs FLA game there were only 14 plays and of those 14, I think it was 9 of them were pass plays. Just not enough to gauge whether there is or isn't an effective pass rush in my opinion.

You guys are focusing on the wrong statistic. Most defensive coordinators don't just care about sacks, they care about QB pressures and hurries. In watching the videos, there are basically 3 possible outcomes on passing plays. 1) Somebody beats their man immediately and gets virtually instant pressure, 2) The defense blitzes and somebody comes in untouched and gets immediate pressure, or 3) Nobody beats their man immediately and the QB has virtually all day to pass.

The issue is not the lack of sacks. That has NEVER been the issue. The issue is that it's completely all or nothing. On the non-sack plays, the QB has virtually all day to pass and is rarely even forced to reset in the pocket or evade pressure. He has nobody in his face and is not forced to make a quick decision (unless the defense blitzes, in which case there is a hole in the coverage that can be exploited easily so long as the blitz is properly identified).

The issue is that the front 4 on this game rarely does anything to disrupt the passing game. Aside from a handful of times when they get instant pressure due to rare "win" animations playing out, most of the sacks that you see on this game are coverage sacks, or are generated via blitzes that result in an unblocked rusher. In real life dominant defensive lines affect the game on EVERY snap, not just the ones where they actually sack the QB. They do so by forcing the offense to execute the passing game under pressure and without a lot of time for deeper routes to develop. What's really missing here is the ability of the DL to force the QB to get rid of the ball before he wants to. That is what the issue is, and that's what the issue has always been.

Stop focusing on sack statistics as the only metric to judge the pass rush.