paul8210 wrote:If, for example, Richard Dent is a pass rush 10, what does that mean? Does that somehow involve rolling a 1-20 dice to see if he "makes the play?"
What you need to know about pass rush is the higher the rating, the better. In the board game there is a special die called the X die, it has three blank sides, 1 side with a D, and 2 sides with an X. Every time you roll to check a play, the X die is rolled with the other three dice. If an X comes up, there is a chance there is a penalty on the play. If a D comes up, and the offense either has a Short or Long pass play called, then a pass rush check is made.
The indicator die tells you which players are involved on either side of the ball, and the pass rush chart is then consulted that will give you a range on 2 six sided dice for the chance of a sack to occur. The Y axis of the chart has the O-line with ratings of 0, 2,3,4,5 or 7 and the X axis is the pass rushers with ranges from 0 to 17+. Your pass rusher that's rated 10 will face a corresponding O-line man ( or if it's a blitzing linebacker he could face the Full back or Blocking Back) with a pass block rating, lets say in this case, he has a 4 pass block rating.
With this match up the chart shows a result of:
2-7, 11, 12 SACK
8-10 NO SACK.
You roll the two dice again and use that result to determine if the block was made or if there is a sack. If the block is made re-roll the three play dice and follow the results. If a sack occurs, roll all 4 dice again. The two play dice indicate the loss in yards, if the X die comes up with an X, there is the chance the QB fumbled. The indicator die tells you if he fumbled based on the TEAM QB/WR fumble rating.
That's actually the simple version too. There are things that can be dome on both the defense and offense that can change the ratings. For example, if the offensive player is in shotgun, all pass block ratings improve by 1, but the O-line run block ratings are decreased by one too. On defense, blitzing linebackers increase and individual pass rush rating, the more blitzers, the higher the boost. It is possible, if your 10 rated pass rusher is a D-lineman, that if you sell out and blitz all the linebackers, he could be rated as high as 15. In the example I used above, a 15 rusher on a 4 O-lIne is a result of 2-12 SACK, so it's an automatic sack if that D comes up on a short or long pass.
Blitzing the linebackers leaves the flat and look-in zones wide open though so there is a trade off for the defense.
That's what makes the football game so much fun though. It's that constant chess match and back and forth between the two players, how much risk are you willing to take? And that's on a play to play, down to down basis. the online game can't capture that fully unfortunately. the best they can do is quarter to quarter.
Hope this helps