Passer rating ruminations (from a football-freaks.com post I've made)

I've played some more exhibition games using Redwolf's v. 10 sliders. I must say I am warming up to them after some initial gameplay-related "objections." With my edited custom team, I am playing much more competitive games versus the CPU in coach mode.

The reduction in overall QB passer rating as translated by these sliders is noticeable. It levels the playing field between offenses and defences more than any reasonable pre-Madden 2005 slider set I have ever used on the PC. The upshot of all this is that I've had to become more conservative in my playcalling approach to keep the chains moving and my team "on schedule."

That got me to thinking about the historical context of QB passer ratings...

If 70.5 is the average QB rating that his 50-game average sample came up with, then it's interesting to note those QBs with a career passer rating that would be comparable to that. I've taken all the QBs with 1500 or more career pass attempts listed at 72.21 or under from a Pro Football Hall of Fame list and posted them here (their individual rank on the overall list is indicated):


104 Sammy Baugh*
72.21
105 Billy Wade
72.19
106 Jay Schroeder
71.68
107 Billy Kilmer
71.56
108 Bill Munson
71.49
109 Lynn Dickey
70.94
110 Terry Bradshaw*
70.92
111 Kordell Stewart
70.69
112 Bill Nelsen
70.25
113 Trent Dilfer
70.18
114 Vince Ferragamo
70.08
115 Steve Grogan
69.61
116 Doug Williams
69.39
117 Joey Harrington
69.38
118 Charley Johnson
69.21
119 Mike Tomczak
68.91
120 Eric Hipple
68.68
121 Joe Ferguson
68.45
122 Charlie Conerly
68.25
123 Dave Brown
67.89
124 Billy Joe Tolliver
67.74
125 Marc Wilson
67.70
126 Tom Flores
67.58
127 Richard Todd
67.57
128 Jim Plunkett
67.45
129 John Hadl
67.41
130 Jim Zorn
67.28
131 Archie Manning
67.10
132 Jim Hart
66.56
133 Norm Snead
65.54
134 Joe Namath*
65.46
135 Rick Mirer
63.53
136 Bobby Layne*
63.38
137 Jack Trudeau
63.32
138 Mike Livingston
63.27
139 Mike Pagel
63.26
140 Ed Brown
62.77
141 Mark Malone
61.89
142 Bob Waterfield
61.58
143 Eddie LeBaron
61.43
144 George Blanda*
60.65
145 Babe Parilli
59.59
146 Dan Pastorini
59.06
147 Jack Kemp
57.35
148 Tobin Rote
56.79
149 Cotton Davidson
54.88
150 Mike Phipps
52.63
151 Frank Tripucka
52.18

* - Hall of Famer

Source: Elias Sports Bureau

http://www.profootballhof.com/history/story.aspx?story_id=3131

Baugh, Bradshaw, Namath, Layne, and Blanda fall at or under 72.21 as a career rating. I would like to christen this segment of the QB parade the "Trent Dilfer Memorial Game Manager List," but I digress. LOL

The dynamic I sense playing with this slider set is that you DO find yourself calling plays versus the CPU to "manage" the game quite a bit. Going bombs away does seem to be counter-productive against most opposition, all things considered.


Russ

IT'S BAAAAAAAAACK!

I have acquired a copy of Madden 2004. It's great to get back into that game, even after all these years since its initial release!

I played some games in coach mode using Redwolf's v.10 sliders. Although they are unquestionably superior re simming in franchise and in general keeping yardage totals down to NFL-like averages than any other slider set I've seen, I was almost in hair-ripping-out mode re the number of INTs happening in games against the CPU in coach mode. I've adjusted the QB Accuracy setting to 43 and Interceptions to 7 as an experiment, those ratings are a compromise between Redwolf's last two published slider sets (7a and 10).

My early take is that 90+ rated QBs do hit 60%+ in completion percentage in games I've played. Maybe it's the CFL-part of my football brain that likes more offense, but I think that it does mirror the increase in completion percentage league-wide in the NFL since 2002. Even so, the adjustments certainly do lead to more punting in games as compared to franchises I've had in previous iterations with Redwolf's v.7 sliders despite that uptick.

As readers of this blog know, I created a Hamilton Tiger-Cat all-time team in 2004 based on my online research and an all-time team project headed by user Zuger9 on www.ticats.ca. I juiced up the ratings to play all-time NFL teams. For franchise though, it became a case of Globetrotters vs. Washington Generals too often! LOL

I have edited that team's ratings using Madden Amp. Using the 1972 Dolphins as a roster template (only the best for a Raiders/Bills fan LOL), I substituted the subjective skill ratings where I had some rationale to do so. The result is that my team still keeps its multiple Canadian Football Hall-of-Famer production, but the overall depth of the team is more varied and in keeping with a team usable in franchise mode.

I will keep readers informed of how this experiment goes in subsequent posts.

Russ

More Madden magic -- old screen caps

Here are some old screen caps of my Ticat Madden 2004 team. Many of these were taken in previous versions of that team which I made before having access to Madden Amp. Since then I've been able to edit body shapes, uniform numbering, etc.

Here goes:


My custom Civic Stadium


Cats vs. Steelers


Cats vs. Broncos


Cats vs. Raiders (my two favourite football franchises)


A custom Tiger-Cat endzone.


My favourite player when I was a boy: Garney Henley

This gives you a taste of what can be done through Madden 2004 (PC) customizations. ;)

Russ

Madden 2005 (PS2) screenshot

This is a screenshot of my PS2 version of Madden captured via my TV card. I'm going to see how I can improve the resolution if possible for future posts.


Russ

Two-point conversion chart

For your reference, I've posted a two-point conversion chart like the ones coaches use to decide when to go for two. As a rule of thumb in my Madden games, I don't go for two until I absolutely need to in the fourth quarter.

Russ

New ratings for my Tiger-Cats custom team!

Coming back to the PC version of Madden 2004, I decided to make edits to the ratings of my custom team to try to bring more realism to the results in a Madden franchise cycle while maintaining a strong title contender status for seasons to come.

I was not going to delve into as much minutiae as others have done to calibrate each player based on exhaustive statistic analysis. I decided to base my team upon a historical team template that was already made and then adjust the individual player ratings based on a subjective assessment of factors like speed, agility, acceleration, etc.

I went "for the fences" on this: I chose to use the undefeated 1972 Dolphins as a basis for my team. LMAO ;) Not that I am a Dolphins fan, but I felt that the "no-name" kind of team strength that team exuded was a good start in building a framework for my custom team as I re-rated players.

I am pretty much done doing this via Madden Amp's player editor. The result is my overall team speed, awareness, etc. has been decreased for added realism and the overall depth chart of my Cats team is less "juiced" ratings-wise.

I am looking forward to testing these edits and finalizing them shortly.

Russ

My "RussDream" roster mod for Madden 2004

The roster file I plan to use is a blended one that I created using the Madden Amp roster editing software. First, I took all 85+ rated players from a 1976 franchise roster by Muscle_Mike and imported them as free agents into a 2006 roster. So I have Roger Staubach available at QB in the 21st century...LOL

I then did the same with USFL and WFL rosters -- taking the cream of the crop and importing them into the FA pool of that 2006 roster.

Subsequently, I took a Canton Bulldogs all-time all-pro custom team made by Muscle_Mike as I recall and imported those players as free agents.

After that, I added my all-time Hamilton Tiger-Cats custom team to that roster file, making it available for a franchise. With Madden Amp, I released all the Buffalo Bills players in the default roster file into the free agent pool.

The result? A loaded free agent pool exists that allows all the CPU-controlled NFL teams my Cats team competes with to significantly upgrade their rosters.

Ought to be fun to see how this roster file interacts with the new Redwolf sliders discussed below!

Russ

Competitive Balance Limits (a salary cap replacement)

A few years ago, I decided to write down some self-imposed controls that I would abide by in lieu of a salary cap in my Madden 2004. Specifically, I wanted to limit how many free agents I would acquire during a given season since I did not want to have a cap amount that would compromise my ability to keep my team intact in Years 5-7 and later of a franchise cycle.

Here is what I came up with (revised December 2010):

Competitive Balance Limits (non-cap rules for Madden 2004) 12.4.10

SECTION 1

A) The non-capped team must play with weighted slider settings to ensure a reasonable competitive level. Once these settings are concretized (by the first regular season game of the first season, those sliders will remain at those settings for at least the full first season including playoffs). These sliders will be revisited at the conclusion of every year.

SECTION 2

A) The non-capped team will be limited to a total of five (5) free agent signings from other teams during the off-season free agent period.

B) No free agent can be signed whose rating falls in the top five of all rated free agents or is the top-rated in a given position for that particular FA pool. If the non-capped team has the two highest-paid players in the league at that point of the off-season, this number of signees from other teams will be reduced to three (3). None of those free agents in the latter scenario can play the positions of either of the two highest-paid players.

SECTION 3

A) The CBL is in effect in consecutive five-year cycles. The rules in Section Two apply for the first four years of each CBL cycle. The fifth year of this cycle will be exempted from point two, allowing the non-capped team to sign up to ten (10) free agents at any position in that exempted year's off-season, regardless of salary considerations or rating. The subsequent year will restart another four years of a new CBL cycle where point two will be in force.

SECTION 4

A) FA signings during the season are limited to one (1) player other than replacements for players put on IR. Regarding the CBL cycle, these are in addition to the off-season signings dealt with in points 1-3. These in-season signees can be of any rating.

SECTION 5

A) The non-capped team will be able to maintain a payroll with no fixed limit to maintain its current roster. This includes the right to re-sign all of its free agents every year regardless of the stipulations of points one through three. Those free agents fall outside of the intended effects of the CBL.

SECTION 6

A) The following breakdown identifies the years in each CBL franchise cycle:

CBL CYCLE 1: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 – 2007 is exempted

CBL CYCLE 2: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 – 2012 is exempted

CBL CYCLE 3: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 – 2017 is exempted

CBL CYCLE 4: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 – 2022 is exempted

CBL CYCLE 5: 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026 – 2027 is exempted

CBL CYCLE 6: 2028, 2029, 2030, 2031 – 2032 is exempted


Try these rules out if you are using Madden 2004 or earlier for franchises in a non-capped enviroment. ;)

Russ

Sliders update (Redwolf ver. 10)

Skill Level: All Pro
Quarter Length: 12 minute(s)

Slider Human / CPU
QB Accuracy 36 / 36
Pass Blocking 3 / 3
Receiver Catching 48 / 48
Running Ability 66 / 66
Offensive line Run Blocking 42 / 42
Defensive Awareness 25 / 25
Defensive line Knockdowns 4 / 4
Interceptions 2 / 2
Defensive Break Blocks 3 / 3
Tackling 50 / 50
Fieldgoal Length 49 / 49
Fieldgoal Accuracy 25 / 25
Punt Length 78 / 78
Punt Accuracy 60 / 60
Kickoff Length 62 / 62

*12 minute accelerated clock, All-Pro
Sub-Out 88, Sub-In 95.
Penalties:
Holding 55, Clipping 70, Face Mask 60, everything else 99.

http://football-freaks.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=32582

This is a new set of Madden 2004 coach mode sliders from Redwolf at http://football-freaks.com . When I get my "new" used copy of Madden 2004, I will begin using these. He has sacrificed in the areas of completion % and QB rating to achieve realistic simulation totals re points scored per team per game, pass yard per team per game, and average rush yards per team per game. Since I'm using an "all-star" Tiger-Cats team in franchise, any slider set that "errs" on the low side of actual NFL point and yardage totals is not a big deal.

I look forward to trying these out. I will share my thoughts once I've ran them for a while!

Russ

Hiatus is ending....

C'est vrai!

I am back. I am in the process of getting a new old copy of Madden 2004 and getting back to gaming on my PC with the Madden series. I have been playing with Madden 2005 for PS2 in the interim.

More soon!

Russ