Why are the passing stats all so bad? I've heard a lot of complaints about the "new engine" or update or whatever, but these numbers are just ridiculous.

If that’s not an honest assessment I don’t know what is.

Short answer, the last update tried to fix some glitches that made some unrealistic broken plays, but now man to man defense and pass rushing are overpowered to the point of neutering almost all “big” play passes.

the developer should fix it then. People are complaining about this a LOT

You're preaching to the choir here. Unfortunately, this has been an issue for some time (mostly MIA developer who pops in occasionally).

Well, its a problem that resulted from an attempt at correcting previous play advantages (Flanker Hitch, for example) and limited play selection in 4.5. The problem is that the game has a lone developer, who has done an outstanding job by himself while also holding down a full time job and family duties. So, progress is very slow at this time, and Ive recommended to him to consider partnering or some other arrangement with an existing online game company. Its still a great game, but any changes and improvements are extremely difficult to program, even for an expert coder like JDB. You change one line of code and it affects another and so on. There's also the possibility of burn out, where the income from the game is not enough to motivate a lot of time and effort. That's a best guess on my part. In the meantime, the best passing game in the current game version is a combination of personnel and play selection. If you need any tips or advice, feel free to pm me anytime. cheers, GdB

This isn't true. The passing game could be fixed by three simple things:

1) remove the pass catch nerf for passes over 10 yards

2) adjust the ol to hold blocks longer on medium and long passes

3) convert speed to fixed physical points like 99 speed = 4.2 40 yard dash and run a conversion for all players so that dl don't outrun wrs

I hope it would be that easy, the coding, and if so, that JDB would be willing to make those changes, have you submitted it to him and gotten a response?

I have submitted it multiple times with data to back it up, and he's been silent since 4.6 was released. I'm sure he's busy, but the current code is bordering on unplayable.

I dont know about bordering on unplayable, but I know a lot of MFN players are not happy with it. And my concern is with losing more players. The game is still about limited play selection and use, same as before, just with an alternate set and substantially increased running. If you like pass offence, this is not the version you would like. If you like defense, then its right up your alley. As before, the same players in my leagues are in the PO's and winning consistently, so that has not changed either. Would love to see the game become more of a simulation, where offense and defense play selection is more affected by player attributes and ability, where the coaches are more involved and play selection/use is more affected by the coaches preferences, where zone coverage is more like RL, and a lot of game play where the simulation is more accurate, but..... that is the hope for where this game might go, and to do that will take more than JDB doing the programming by himself.

My passing stats are just fine. Is it broken? Yeah. Seems silly to have to find a workaround to get the passing game up. But it is out there.