We were tied for 7th in sacks last year

[Lake Shore Drive]

I was a little surprised when I caught this, because generally speaking, losing teams don't fare well in the sacks dept. To somewhat bolster this assumption, out of the top 10 teams in sacks last year, only two had losing records, and we had the worst record of the 10 (Washington at 7-9 was the other losing club). Obviously there are exceptions to just about any rule, but I would have guessed we ranked lower. And not just because of a losing record but it's how we lost with some horrific offensive output.

You can say that because our D spent so much time on the field in most games, they had more opportunities to nail the QB. Actually this kinda makes sense, altho conversely one could argue that opposing offenses would run the ball more, at least later in the games in which we were on the losing end, thereby reducing the opportunities. Plus we didn't have a single player in double digit sacks to bolster the final count After Hicks with 8.5, we didn't have even one other player with so much as 5 QB takedowns.

What does this all mean? Hell, I haven't a friggin clue. Philadelphia won the SB and they ranked 15th. Minny came within one bonehead play of going to the NFC Championship and they ranked 17th. I guess it's because there's no camp yet, no preseason, no OTAs, and I'm bored, so I decided to come up with this Capt Obvious post. I just thought it was interesting that we were in the upper quarter of the league in sacks, yet I suspect there would be few people who would call out our team's name when asked which clubs were in those top rankings. Go figure.

 

[richig07]

We have a talented front seven with guys who are capable of getting after the QB. Hopefully they stay healthy. The D has been solid the past two seasons despite being absolutely devastated with injuries. If we finally catch a break in that department, we could be off to the races.

 

[noonthirtyjoe]

7th I would have never guessed. I never seen us blitz so little as the last 2 years. Also It seemed we gave up more third and longs then I ever remembered before. 7th is shocking to hear.

 

[richig07]

7th I would have never guessed. I never seen us blitz so little as the last 2 years. Also It seemed we gave up more third and longs then I ever remembered before. 7th is shocking to hear.

Yeah, our 3rd and long was super frustrating.

I think the sack count has to do with being on the field a lot as well. However, we trailed a good deal and teams were running for a good chunk of that. So, maybe it somewhat evens out.

I am sure PFF or somebody has a metric for "sacks per dropback" or something like that.