PFF Week 1, top 5 and bottom 5

[Whatever]

(09-15-2022, 10:51 AM)rfaulk34 Wrote: Well...it does. What they're saying is, running well doesn't mean your play action game is "better". There's nothing to support that. 

Overall, simply adding play action makes your passing game mo' betta, because there are certain things a defender does based on formation and keys and what a player has been taught over the years. 

This is just a case where, back in the day, someone came up with a cool catchphrase and it's just hard to get away from that mentality--even though hours and hours of reasearch and data show it not to be true. 

There's also a perception bias that plays into it.  Everyone can remember isolated instances of play action passes going for long gains against loaded boxes on 3rd/4th and short when the offense has been running all day.  That fools people into thinking it's more of a correlation than what there is.  We don't typically remember all the times the QB had to check it down to the TE in the flat for a 3 yard gain or the defense doesn't get fooled and the QB gets smacked or throws it away.  

I would also wager that play action in general is a case of diminishing returns.  The more you use it in a game, the less effective it becomes as the opposition comes to expect it.  

Another big thing is good playcallers will show tendencies in order to take advantage of the opposition cheating towards those tendencies.  Play calling is a chess match and good playcallers will sacrifice plays here and there to set up something big later.  That's one of the reasons the Bengals have been such a good 2nd half team the past year or so.