safeties

[JDB]

So I don't know what causes it whether it is the AI play calling, bad decision making by the QBs, or something being off within the engine that generates the game results itself. But the number of safeties that occur in this game is unrealistically high. Please make some sort of adjustment.

[AKH]

can more people chime in - is this something someone else is seeing as well?

[markprior22]

I haven't kept track but I have seen safties in quite a few games.

[BradS]

FWIW through week 9 in the College game there have been 40 safeties. On pace for ~71 season. Searched it there is a safety scored about once a week in the NFL.

[Cleasby]

Has not seemed out of line from my testing

[brooks_piggott]

May need a bit more info... are we seeing safeties because the QB is getting sacked (in which case we need to have the QB throw the ball away more as a possible fix) or are we seeing a lot of run plays or specific formations going for big losses, in which case we may need to adjust playcalling or reduce usage of deep drop formations/plays. I can try and look into it, but if the community has some data to help out let us know.

[zbguy]

I think safeties are within reason, though I've only simmed a few weeks so far. I think they were more prevalent in 2021 but not shockingly high, and less this time around

[JDB]

So I'm not sure what would be normal for the NFL, but I usually see at least 3 to 4 games per week that have safeties in this game. What is really unusual though is that I will frequently see games where multiple safeties will get scored against the same team. I got clued into this problem after seeing cases of teams scoring 4 points in one quarter. I looked into this and the safeties are almost always from QB sacks. I watched a few of these games on the 2d, and I don't feel it is because of the AI play calling. The teams do seem to run the ball more. I think it is because the QBs are not changing their mindset when standing in their own end zone. In real life, QBs will do all they can to avoid dropping back to pass in their own end zone. I almost never see it happen any more. It happens frequently in this game. And if they do, then avoiding the sack is much more important then picking up the first down. So I think what we need to see is slight uptick in cases where the QB "throws away the ball to avoid the sack" rather than them being "tackled for a safety." Thanks for looking into this.

[brooks_piggott]

I tweaked this for a future patch. It was definitely high. Basically put some tweaks into the logic so the QB makes better decisions.

[chargerrich]

I just simmed two seasons in my test league and the safeties are definitely OP.
Year 1 - 44 league wide!
Year 2 - 51 league wide!

I believe the NFL average hovers around 14-15 per season.

Nice catch and thank you for looking into this Brooks!