Let's step back a second... With the "gravitate" towards 50 morale that was added to the game, the O/D balance during the game has changed.
For Passing teams, more first/early drives of the game are leading to punts. WRs/TEs dont have enough morale built up to make catches. Running teams are punting more too, but on the margin slightly less. If you can get a Power HB to the outside early, you have a good chance of breaking tackles against 50 Morale CBs/Secondary.
But then there is the issue of mid- and late-game Morale.
Running teams are back to where they were a few seasons ago. They are able to "sustain" a morale advantage more easily than the Passing teams. PT causes "burst" morale change. In the past, that "burst" lead to enough morale degradation that it snowballed into a "sustained" morale advantage. That happens less now. PT fire chances are less and PT activations are less (PT fires but then you have to make the catch). Not hugely less, but enough. My Passing team has done well this season much more to the "sustained" effect of high Heart than the "burst" effect of PT. Passing teams without significant Heart investment are getting screwed. My LZ Boys aren't and it's because of Heart (plus RW-HTH on my QB). Oh and an incomplete understanding of route structures, which I talk about all the time but no one seems to really pick up on, is screwing most Passing OCs.
Now in the next few seasons, as the Blocking change adjustment is fully implemented at the Vet level, pure Run teams will have a harder time. But for the moment, the Blocking change adjustment hasn't hurt them more than the change to the Passing teams. And even at full effect, maybe not more than Passing teams. We don't know yet. Has it hurt their O this season/now? Yes. But too often people think an absolute change means that there has been a relative change. And that's not always the case.
On an Absolute basis, Running O and Passing O is weaker - for most teams.
On an Relative basis, Running O is down less than Passing and as a result is stronger relative to Passing - for most teams. (Running dropped more in S8 and Passing didn't. Each season is different; sometimes a lot, sometimes not much.)
On Wall Street, I dealt with this all the time. Very smart people find it very difficult to analyze lots of moving parts correctly.
That's what's going on here. There were a lot of changes.
"Burst" effects have been dampened.
"Sustained" effects have been increased.
Gal would have to answer, but my guess is AR has relied more on "Burst" morale effects than "Sustained" in the past and it's really hurting them now. (I think this is true, but I'm guessing here. Perhaps he didn't even realize he was until this season. I dunno.)
