Every week we analyze line play in a new Between The Lines feature.In watching line play around the league, it's obvious that there's more than one way to pressure the quarterback. The Jets and Eagles generate pressure with confusion. Teams don't know if they're sending three or eight and they don't know where they will be coming from. The Vikings send their front four most of the time, but with Jared Allen and Kevin Williams, they don't need to confuse people as much as just beat them off the line. It generally works and drives Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers insane (14 sacks in two games).
But the stat that jumps out from this chart is the newly aggressive Saints pass rush. Last year New Orleans' secondary was leaky enough that the Saints risked touchdowns whenever they sent an all-out blitz. But with a new defensive coordinator and an improved secondary, New Orleans has generated four sacks with a seven-man rush. The "leave-no QB untouched" Jets have only two seven-man sacks (although they have the only eight-man rush sack of the season).
The following is the breakdowns of what percentage of sacks for each team have come on three through seven-men rushes. Admittedly it would be useful to also know how man rushers each team sends on each pass rush, but that will have to wait for Football Outsiders' team of game charters to put together after the season.
| Team | 3-man Rush |
4-man Rush |
5-man Rush |
6-man Rush |
7-man Rush |
| 49ers | 0.0% | 43.8% | 56.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Bears | 0.0% | 46.7% | 26.7% | 26.7% | 0.0% |
| Bengals | 0.0% | 52.9% | 23.5% | 23.5% | 0.0% |
| Bills | 0.0% | 61.1% | 22.2% | 11.1% | 5.6% |
| Broncos | 4.3% | 56.5% | 26.1% | 13.0% | 0.0% |
| Browns | 0.0% | 31.3% | 50.0% | 12.5% | 6.3% |
| Buccaneers | 0.0% | 81.8% | 0.0% | 18.2% | 0.0% |
| Cardinals | 0.0% | 23.5% | 41.2% | 23.5% | 11.8% |
| Chargers | 0.0% | 37.5% | 56.3% | 6.3% | 0.0% |
| Chiefs | 11.1% | 55.6% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Colts | 5.0% | 80.0% | 15.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Cowboys | 0.0% | 50.0% | 12.5% | 31.3% | 6.3% |
| Dolphins | 10.5% | 52.6% | 26.3% | 10.5% | 0.0% |
| Eagles | 4.3% | 52.2% | 8.7% | 30.4% | 4.3% |
| Falcons | 14.3% | 50.0% | 21.4% | 7.1% | 7.1% |
| Giants | 0.0% | 36.8% | 36.8% | 21.1% | 5.3% |
| Jaguars | 0.0% | 40.0% | 40.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% |
| Jets | 7.1% | 35.7% | 21.4% | 14.3% | 14.3% |
| Lions | 0.0% | 53.3% | 20.0% | 6.7% | 20.0% |
| Packers | 8.3% | 25.0% | 50.0% | 8.3% | 8.3% |
| Panthers | 11.8% | 52.9% | 11.8% | 23.5% | 0.0% |
| Patriots | 0.0% | 53.8% | 46.2% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Raiders | 5.9% | 70.6% | 11.8% | 5.9% | 5.9% |
| Rams | 0.0% | 64.3% | 14.3% | 21.4% | 0.0% |
| Ravens | 6.3% | 43.8% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 0.0% |
| Redskins | 0.0% | 64.7% | 11.8% | 17.6% | 5.9% |
| Saints | 6.3% | 43.8% | 18.8% | 6.3% | 25.0% |
| Seahawks | 11.1% | 33.3% | 38.9% | 16.7% | 0.0% |
| Steelers | 0.0% | 45.0% | 55.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Texans | 0.0% | 40.0% | 30.0% | 30.0% | 0.0% |
| Titans | 0.0% | 66.7% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 13.3% |
| Vikings | 0.0% | 80.0% | 10.0% | 10.0% | 0.0% |
And here are the raw numbers:
| Sacking Team | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 49ers | 7 | 9 | ||||
| Bears | 7 | 4 | 4 | |||
| Bengals | 9 | 4 | 4 | |||
| Bills | 11 | 4 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Broncos | 1 | 13 | 6 | 3 | ||
| Browns | 5 | 8 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Buccaneers | 9 | 2 | ||||
| Cardinals | 4 | 7 | 4 | 2 | ||
| Chargers | 6 | 9 | 1 | |||
| Chiefs | 1 | 5 | 3 | |||
| Colts | 1 | 16 | 3 | |||
| Cowboys | 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 | ||
| Dolphins | 2 | 10 | 5 | 2 | ||
| Eagles | 1 | 12 | 2 | 7 | 1 | |
| Falcons | 2 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |
| Giants | 7 | 7 | 4 | 1 | ||
| Jaguars | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Jets | 1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Lions | 8 | 3 | 1 | 3 | ||
| Packers | 1 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 1 | |
| Panthers | 2 | 9 | 2 | 4 | ||
| Patriots | 7 | 6 | ||||
| Raiders | 1 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Rams | 9 | 2 | 3 | |||
| Ravens | 1 | 7 | 4 | 4 | ||
| Redskins | 11 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ||
| Saints | 1 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Seahawks | 2 | 6 | 7 | 3 | ||
| Steelers | 9 | 11 | ||||
| Texans | 4 | 3 | 3 | |||
| Titans | 10 | 3 | 2 | |||
| Vikings | 24 | 3 | 3 | |||
| Totals | 17 | 269 | 138 | 71 | 22 | 1 |
| Percentage | 3.3% | 51.9% | 26.6% | 13.7% | 4.2% | 0.2% |
Here are some other notes from around the league this week:
• Chris Long did finally get his first sack of the season, but he should thank defensive tackle Clifton Ryan. Ryan is the man who got free to hit Matt Stafford, but when he failed to wrap up the rookie quarterback, Long was able to pick up the trash for the sack. Long, who recorded four sacks last year, isn't exactly producing like you would expect a top five pick to produce, but that's been par for the course for the Rams this year.
• Seattle's Matt Hasselback is taking plenty of sacks, and watching the Seahawks injury-ravaged line its hard not to feel sorry for him. The Cowboys' three sacks against Hasselback all took two seconds or less--Bobby Carpenter managed to tackle Hasselback in his drop back, just 1.1 seconds after the snap which is the fastest sack recorded all season.
• The 49ers defense deserves a lot of credit for doing what few teams ever do--get Peyton Manning off his game. Manning came into the game having been sacked twice in six games, but the 49ers sacked him three times. All three sacks came up the middle--guard Mike Pollack was beaten for two of the sacks and center Jeff Saturday was beaten for the other. But the 49ers secondary deserves some credit too. Manning usually gets rid of the ball as quick as any quarterback in the league, but he held the ball for more than 3.2 seconds on two of the three sacks last Sunday.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-06-2009 @ 11:57PM
rainking13 said...
Hey... can you tell us the % of plays that end in a sack, sorted by number of rushers? You'd expect most teams to get a higher sack rate with more pass rushers, and not seeing that would be a sign of ineffective blitzing.
Reply