Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Sacks - Game 9 - New York

If we all agree that the offensive line has been offensive at times this season, then we must look at certain tangible stats to help make our case. One would be this team's ability to run the football. Another would be sacks allowed. If you watch this team, you would say that they do not pass protect well. But, if you look at the stats, you would see the Cowboys are tied for 11th in the NFL in least sacks allowed with 17 this season. Indianapolis leads the NFL in this stat as Peyton Manning has been sacked just 12 times. He leads the NFL in least sacks every year because he gets rid of the football at an amazing speed. He is actually sharing the lead this year in the NFL with.....his brother. Eli has also been sacked only 12 times this season. I cannot believe it, but Eli is slowly morphing into his brother. He is really turning into a top QB despite my belief a few years ago that this would never happen.

Anyway, the Cowboys have only been sacked 17 times, which says either A) they aren't as bad as we think or B) they are scheming pretty well around this OL's poor performance. You probably know what I believe the research says - that they have done a pretty nice job making sure that they don't ask the OL to do too much. Lots of shotgun is frustrating, but it does give your OL a chance to hold off rushers and a chance to let your QB see a target and get the ball out quicker.

Here is the report on a very solid day of pass protection from the Cowboys:

SACKS
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Play #13 - 3/G/1 Sack for Umenyiora



What Happened: Most weeks I have something good for you to analyze in this department. This would not be one of those weeks. It goes into the record books as a sack, but I will argue that this is only a sack as a pure technicality. Regardless, I suppose we have to blame Kitna for having his feet in the wrong spot where Kyle Kosier could step on them, but there is really no way we can blame anyone for getting beat. But, wow, what a feeding frenzy for defensive linemen when they see a free sack laying on the ground.


Season To Date Sacks
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The Rankings for the season in Sacks Allowed among the OL: Davis 4, Coverage 3.5, Colombo 2, Costa 2, Free 2.5, Gurode 1, Jones 1, Kitna 1.

Sack #Down/DistPersonnelSackerBlame
1/12/10/D4512McIntoshGurode
4/13/10/D40S11JonesDavis
4/23/8/O28S11HopeCoverage
4/31/10/D2921BabinColombo
4/41/10/O34S12JonesDavis
4/52/32/D44S11BabinColombo
4/63/3/O18S11BrownCoverage/Witten
6/13/10/O40S11GrantDavis
6/23/10/O25S11BoleyFree
6/32/10/O45S11CofieldCosta
7/11/10/D21S11AlualuCosta
7/22/10/D13S11HartCoverage/Free
8/12/9/D3312MatthewsDavis
8/23/10/D11S11WoodsonKitna
8/32/10/50S11BishopJones
8/42/10/50S11WilsonFree
9/13/G/121UmenyioraKitna



Bob Sturm is host of BaD Radio on The Ticket 1310 AM Mondays through Fridays at 12-3 p.m. He also hosts The Ticket's Cowboys pregame show. Follow Bob on Twitter at
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1 comment:

  1. Unknown9:14 AM

    Sturms' I would have to disagree, that our success against sacks this year has to do with scheming, even with the shotgun. You take away Romo, this team would be absurdly high in sacks allowed.

    As far as the Giants game, it doesn't give a good snap-shot regarding the success or failure of our use of shotgun, the reason being, our game-plan of reducing shotgun allowed the OL to actually establish a tempo and work on the DL, so when shotgun was used, it upset the balance for the DL.

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