Halfway through season 37...

[Mitch-Oilers]

Let's do a mid-season assessment:

The AFC is highly competitive with 5 teams at or above .500. There are 3 teams within 2 games of the final playoff spot.

The NFC is being dominated by Washington and Chicago. Detroit is having a good season as well. The CPU teams are keeping things tight in the conference with 2 of the 3 in playoff contention.

Passing efficiency appears to be down. This concern keeps coming up during the offseason.

We've already had one team conduct a fire sale with tons of talent going to contending teams.

The biggest surprise team has to be Jacksonville. They are coming off a few mediocre seasons and currently boast a fantastic scoring defense. Hats off!

Let's see what the 2nd half of the season has in store....

[Steve-LA Chargers]

How in the hell did the KC Lions beat Minnesota?

[Dean-Atlanta]

Three turnovers.

[Rich-League Officer]

Maybe the Chiefs have turned a corner and are about to make a 2nd half run

[Charlie-49ers]

Let's do a mid-season assessment:

Passing efficiency appears to be down. This concern keeps coming up during the offseason.

I know that we have had some discussion on the Board regarding pass-efficiency before, but I believe that it is time to raise it again! I firmly believe that it is due to the abundance of 2-man pass defenses. To exacerbate the situation, we now have defenses being introduced where one or more of the two or three DLs are also dropping back into pass coverage! Innovation is great, and I do not want to independently or arbitrarily or unilaterally dismiss these plays out of hand, but clearly, our QBs are not going to fare well against 8-9-10 pass defenders.

As I have suggested in the past, my observation of NFL defenses clearly leads me to believe that 2-DL defenses are special situations, highly weighted to pass long situations in the NFL, but we have a boat-load in our Pass Medium and Pass Short categories. I ask you, where in the NFL does a team call a 2-DL defense against a 2nd or 3rd and one or two? In the NFL the QB would call an audible and just QB Sneak for the 1st down, correct? We, however, cannot do that in the PNFL. As such, I believe it is appropriate to eliminate the 2-DL Pass Short defenses going into next season.

The bigger issue is the Pass Medium Defenses! I would think that any of you would be hard-pressed to find an NFL team that consistently uses a 2-DL defense to defend against medium passes (5 to 15 yards). Even if there were one or two teams, that is not the norm in the NFL. Although my tendency is to eliminate the 2-DL defenses, except for the Pass Long and Pass Dazzle categories, I am willing to compromise and allow 2-DL Pass Medium defenses, but no more than two (2) in a game plan.

I would like to start some discussion on this issue now, giving us some time to read and digest the comments and consider alternatives.

[Rich-League Officer]

The issue is player attributes 100%
Not an easy fix, not a popular fix but it is the fix.

[Jerry-Redskins]

After reviewing a lot of data, I agree with Rich completely.

[Mitch-Oilers]

Rich,

What attributes are the issue?

[Dean-Atlanta]

Maybe 84 DI maxx is too low...

But it's not just that. We can solve this problem easily, restrict 2-DL defenses to PL and PRD categories only, and relax the overly restrictive "zone" passing rules like Steve did in XFBS to encourage innovation in new passing plays.

Both issues (zone rules and nerfing QB IN/DI) were over-reactions to then higher passing stats...

[Dean-Atlanta]

68-70 HA on QBS too low too, our QBs fumble extensively