QB Hits/Sacks Piled Up On Jets in 2007
Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders does some excellent number crunching on ESPN, and he ranks the teams with the best and worst Quarterback protection? Guess where the Jets landed?
According to Schatz, the Jets had 43 hits on QB and allowed 50 ‘real’ sacks on 582 total pass plays. This means that the QB was hit or sacked on 16.0% of the team’s passing plays, best for second worst in the league.
I’d like to see the breakdowns, but anecdotally I can say two things. First, we all know the line wasn’t getting it done and didn’t allow for a lot of time for Clemens or Pennington in the pocket. Second, Clemens struggled in finding a target (common for young QBs) and took a number of sacks rather than throw away the ball. A high price for a guy who started less than half the team’s games and took 27 total sacks over that time. While Pennington is better at getting the ball out of his hand, his success wasn’t exactly setting fans’ resolve in concrete either.
Ross Tucker’s wrote for SI the other day about his astonishment at the Jets shelling out some serious cash for their line. Clearly, he didn’t have to witness what we did on a weekly basis from this team. More than anything, this allows for a more balanced attack and not depending on the QB to win — whether a young pup or injured vet — so heavily.
15 Responses to QB Hits/Sacks Piled Up On Jets in 2007
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Addressing our weakest link was the only prudent thing to do this offseason. With these stats in mind, all the Chad and Clemens bashers really ought to lighten up on them. If T. Brady or P. Manning were the QB last season, how many more games would we have won? 1? 2? You can’t judge the efficiency of one position if another position that is critical to the success of the first is falling apart.
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Frank says:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3317177
Coles guaranteed last 11 Mil – no contract extension given
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RK says:
Yes protection is important for the QB but lack of time restricts the routes that a receiver can run which makes it so much easier on a defense to jump routes that they know must be coming. There really is no passing game without time from all perspectives not just QB. The one thing that KC has though is the mobility to roll out. I do remember CP using his feet from time to time but he is getting a bit older. Perhaps he can still do it but a QB competition is good for the team.
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Oh and yes Frank I saw that too on the Sports Spyder. That should make everyone happy on this site…I think.
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SackDance99 says:
I think some of you may be glossing over these comments by Schatz:
One of the things you will notice is that the quarterbacks who get hit a lot aren’t necessarily the quarterbacks who get sacked a lot. Many of these quarterbacks are known for standing tall in the pocket and delivering the ball with the pass rush bearing down on them. They often are quarterbacks who know to throw away the ball instead of taking a sack when there’s nothing open. Carson Palmer (38 hits, 14 sacks), Drew Brees (34 hits, nine sacks) and Peyton Manning (32 hits, 19 sacks) also fall into this category. Interestingly, so does Buffalo rookie Trent Edwards (30 hits, nine sacks).
and:
…the Texans’ offensive line looks a lot better now that they’ve gotten David Carr out of town.
Shatz was also saying that incompetent QB play can make an otherwise mediocre line look bad or a bad line look awful. Palmer was only hit 5 more times, but the Jets QBs were sacked twice as much. So, let’s not absolve Chad or KC completely for the hits and, especially, the sacks.
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JustAGreenGuy says:
Schaub still got hurt (twice?) last year. Maybe the line isn’t better, but that Schaub isn’t as beaten like Carr was and thus is more able to avoid sacks.
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DSmizzle says:
Tucker’s article for SI was horrible… basically saying that there is very little difference between the top-notch linemen and average ones.
I know the guy played (some) pro and I only did college, but based upon my experience and my observations of the pro game, that is a ridiculous statement by Mr. Tucker (perhaps he sought to validate himself as an average offensive lineman?).
Maybe its true that its easier to “GET BY” with average O-Linemen than it is with an average QB or RB or DB’s… but when you have dominant players on your offensive line, the whole tempo and dynamics of the game are changed. The QB feels more comfortable, there are consistently running lanes, etc. This adds up to a whole lot more than Mr. Tucker makes it out to be. Might I mention that Buffalo wasn’t exactly exuded excellence when Mr. Tucker had his 8 game experience?
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seanmac says:
It’s also important to remember the context. Where is the pressure coming from? Pressure off the edges is easier for teams to deal with than pressure that comes straight up the middle- that’s debilitating for any quarterback. Adrien Clarke had the worst numbers of any left guard in the league, and that’s going to kill you no matter who the quarterback is. You also want to consider that quarterbacks who do more downfield throwing are going to get hit more, but the Jets compiled up those sack and hit numbers with quarterbacks who were throwing short passes and averaging 5.0 yards per attempt. Which is to say that I think the line was probably even worse than these numbers suggest.
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seanmac, so, in your opinion, the hits and sacks were entirely the OL’s fault and Chad and KC bear no responsibility? Are you really saying that the pass rush was always right on top of Chad and KC so they couldn’t even throw the ball away? That was the situation some of the time, but the most vivid memory I have of such a situation, Seymour came right up the middle over Clarke and KC threw an INT for an easy TD. I know what I saw and I saw incompetent QB play that was only in part caused by a weak OL.
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No, I’m not saying that was the only factor. But in terms of apportioning blame, I would put the majority of it on the line, which was at the bottom of the league in sack rate before Clemens came in. Pennington, whatever else there is to say about him, didn’t suddenly get less mobile or start spending more time holding onto the ball and waiting for guys to come open. He was the same guy who played in 06, when the line was in the middle of the league in pass protection. But then they took out Kendall and replaced him with Clarke, and voila, you get disaster. So while Clemens may have exacerbated things, I don’t think for a minute that the quarterback play was the primary cause.
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Mike says:
Sackdance99: I remember that play and KC was in mid throw when he got hit. I agree the QBs could have gotten the ball out or away better but you have to take your shots or you are back on the bench!
I just can’t understand why we didn’t start running more screens and draws to combat the pass rush. Does any one here have a problem throwing a screen to Leon? A shuttle pass would have been a good idea.
In light of the bad protection we should take the time to give Baker his due because they kept him in so much to help block and he still made over 40 receptions. With a decent line what number do you think that would have been?
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Harvlis says:
Our Offense was totally out of sync last year. We had no fullback, didn’t use the tight ends properly, couldn’t block the cheerleaders, etc… As a result, the FO went to town this off-season, in an effort to get back to respectability. Now we have Faneca, Bubba Franks and Tony Richardson. We should, once again, have a full-functioning Offense. There is no QB in the league who could have made our Offense look good, last year. As far as KC is concerned, when Tangini saw that it was a lost season, it made sense to get him some game experience. It did not mean that they felt he was better than Chad. There was nothing that Chad could have done, that would have made us a winner, last year. It was smart to get KC some experience. If they end up starting Chad, it doesn’t mean that they don’t like KC — he is young and he is learning. Chad is the man and he will, once again, prove it, this year.
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seanmac, Chad was worse in 2007. There was something wrong with the pace that he put on his normal throws (especially the short out, which he just couldn’t get out there with any zip). Defensive coordinators started to sense this and started to play 8-men in the box and blitz more. So, while you will not say that QB play was the “primary” reason for the hits and sacks, I’d say it’s a lot closer to 50-50.
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I knew we were porous, but the stats make the OL look like Swiss cheese. You can’t help but wonder to what degree a young KC had his confidence and timing effected by knowing that every time he dropped back he was in danger.
Even 1 extra second back in the pocket can allow a primary receiver to get open or provide an opportunity o locate an alternative receiver.