The Colts allowed the least amount of sacks this season? (1 Viewer)

[Madmarsha]

Is that right?

 

[DeuceMcAllisterFan]

That can't be accurate. He may be one of the least sacked QBs, but I'd be surprised if he was sacked less than Brees.

 

[ChaChingBaby]

Of QBs who started at least 14 games, Brees was the least sacked (17 times). Andrew Luck comes in second place (18 times).

Credit to the Colts organization for actually building an offensive line - something they should've prioritized back in 2012 after drafting Luck. Chris Ballard is just in his second year and has accomplished what Ryan Grigson could never do.

 

[Madmarsha]

They said it on GMFB when talking about Luck getting pressured 4 times and no sacks yesterday. I didn't think it sounded right.

 

[DeuceMcAllisterFan]

Ok, reading between the lines, if you account for both Hill and Bridgewater, that could be true. I now read it as "Colts allowed" which I can see.

 

[ChaChingBaby]

NOTE - QB sack percentage is an important and extremely overlooked stat. It's what separates QBs like Brees and Luck from the stat padders like Rodgers and Cousins who take a bunch of sacks, hits and fumbles.

Great o-line play is one thing, but it's on the QB to step up, move around in the pocket and avoid pressure, as well as getting rid of the ball fast and picking a defense apart when the pressure is coming. Brees has had decent pocket awareness over the years and this year too has been a highlight for him despite being 39 years old. Andrew Luck has been one of the best QBs all year at avoiding pressure and not taking big hits and sacks. This is likely what they are talking about from the playoffs, as he managed to avoid pressure and got rid of the ball fast.

One can make the excuse that Rodgers and Cousins' o-lines are bad, but that don't excuse them for having poor pocket awareness, holding onto the ball too long and taking big hits and sacks. I'd rather have a QB who can pick a defense apart and take chances throwing in tight coverage, opposed to one who would rather take sacks to protect his stats and lead the league in throwaways to avoid interceptions.

 

[bf2junky]

Colts have 2 1st rounders and a 2nd rounder on that o-line. New GM is really good and protected Luck, the franchise.

 

[jbourque]

The Colts offensive line is legit. They can run & pass protect. They shut Dallas down.

 

[ANKOMA33]

The way the Colts kept Dallas & Houston's Texans D line in check ... I can believe (least amount of sacks giving up) it. I was very impressed the way that Indy team has performed over the last 4 weeks. Quenton Nelson and the other lineman (name escapes me from Auburn) have been as good as advertised.

When Luck has time, he's been very good.

 

[Saint Kamara]

If you look deeper into the numbers, Luck only got sacked at a rate of 2.8%, such is astonishing low, the NFL record for an entire career is 3.13% by Manning and Marino,.

Brees got sacked at a rate of 3.5%, which is excellent as well.

In NFL history for QBs with at least 125 starts, there are only 3 QBs who's career sack rate % is under 4%.

Manning 3.13%
Marino 3.13%
Brees 3.88%

The next QB after that is Brady at 4.80%.

Other notables

Manning, Eli 4.85%
Favre 4.91%
Ryan 4.92%
Montana 5.49%
Rivers 5.55%
Big Ben 6.53%
Newton 6.82%
Rodgers 6.98%
Young 7.94%
Wilson 8.40%

Notice all the running QBs have terrible sack percentages. So for all they give you getting first downs with their legs, they more than give back in taking sacks.

 

[Doug B]

Ok, reading between the lines, if you account for both Hill and Bridgewater, that could be true. I now read it as "Colts allowed" which I can see.

This is exactly right -- for the season, the Colts allowed 18 sacks, all on Luck. The Saints allowed 20: 17 on Brees, 2 on Bridgewater, and 1 on Taysom Hill.

 

[Madmarsha]

If you look deeper into the numbers, Luck only got sacked at a rate of 2.8%, such is astonishing low, the NFL record for an entire career is 3.13% by Manning and Marino,.

Brees got sacked at a rate of 3.5%, which is excellent as well.
....

Ah, I see. One way to skew the stats, raw numbers versus percentages. So now I see where they were talking from. Thanks for your analysis!

 

[ChaChingBaby]

Colts have 2 1st rounders and a 2nd rounder on that o-line. New GM is really good and protected Luck, the franchise.

Ballard was a steal at GM. Kansas City's defense has become a joke since he left.

They should've prioritized o-line from day 1 after drafting Luck. It was bad o-lines that led to him nearly getting killed out there.

The Colts are in a position to really go far in the future. Luck has gotten better; they have an o-line now, the defense is the best it has been since the Manning years and they finally have a good coach and no more Pagano.

I look for them to be a team that starts running things in the AFC conference when the Pats finally go down. They have the chance to be dominant in the near future. The Pats won't last forever.

 

[ChaChingBaby]

If you look deeper into the numbers, Luck only got sacked at a rate of 2.8%, such is astonishing low, the NFL record for an entire career is 3.13% by Manning and Marino,.

Brees got sacked at a rate of 3.5%, which is excellent as well.

In NFL history for QBs with at least 125 starts, there are only 3 QBs who's career sack rate % is under 4%.

Manning 3.13%
Marino 3.13%
Brees 3.88%

The next QB after that is Brady at 4.80%.

Other notables

Manning, Eli 4.85%
Favre 4.91%
Ryan 4.92%
Montana 5.49%
Rivers 5.55%
Big Ben 6.53%
Newton 6.82%
Rodgers 6.98%
Young 7.94%
Wilson 8.40%

Notice all the running QBs have terrible sack percentages. So for all they give you getting first downs with their legs, they more than give back in taking sacks.

Great stuff here.

Marino has 2 full seasons seasons in the 80's where he was sacked 10 times total or less.

In 1988, he was sacked only 6 times total. He threw for 4,000+ yards but had a bad TD/INT ratio of 28/23 that raises speculation if he was forcing balls down field to avoid taking sacks. The Dolphins finished 6-10 and this was a year where their running game was atrocious. Lorenzo Hampton was their leading rusher whom only rushed for 414 yards for the year.

Then again in 1989, he managed to only take 10 sacks for the whole year, but his stats are down that year too. His completion percentage dropped a few points, he threw for over 3,000 yards and had a worse TD/INT ratio at 24/22. It looks like he may have been chucking the ball away to avoid pressure that year, but it's still impressive.

Avoiding sacks is a huge stat and it's great to see more people talking about it. In the past year, I've seen more people finally bring attention to Brees skill here.

True too about rushing QBs, add John Elway to that list. He was a mobile QB in his day and I just added up his percentage number with 130 starts. He comes out with 6.8% in sack rate with an average sacks of 32.8 on a year.

 

[Saint Kamara]

QB rating should incorporate sacks into its equation.

A few weeks ago I actually went back and used net yards per pass attempt (which figures in sacks) for Rodgers and his career QB rating went down nearly 4 points from 103.2 down to 99.4.

Additionally you could actually adjust completion % to passes completed based on how many times you dropped back to pass. For Rodgers that would really bring down his QB rating. I just ran those numbers, and his rating would plummet down to 95.5.