In-depth look at pressure not just sacks

Most pundits & fans equate pressure as being a team’s flamboyant like ability

to sack an opposing quarterback. But what we here at Bucs Central think of when we reference the word pressure is the entire entity of a team’s relentless ability to effectively rattle, force into, or cause a quarterback to either hold onto the football, with just indecisiveness, make a bad decision or break the timing an rhythm in the passing game between receivers and quarterbacks.

The false sense that many get when glancing at the sack totals from last year is that because a team has a high number of sack they must be better at applying pressure then a team with a limited number of sacks, but this is where the naiveness comes in. By just looking at sacks as the only barometer to judge a team’s ability to effectively harass opposing quarterbacks you are leaving out two very important stats that ultimately have the same effect or ability to apply just as much doubt or inept decision making from a quarterback.

They are not widely discussed or even main stream, they are QB HITS & QB PRESSURES after crunching the numbers from 2008 using sacks, QB hits & QB pressures to determine pressure percentage where all three of the stats are used to effectively calculate a teams ability to get after the quarterback. We get a much clearer look at how often a defense got pressure per passing attempt, not just sacks, but anything that caused the QB to escape the pocket, force a bad throw or cause the QB to take a hit right at the second he releases the football.

The following is the complete list.

Team	Sacks	QB Hits	QB Pres.	Total Pres.	Pass Att.	% Pres.	Pres. per Att.
Minnesota Vikings	45	79	192	316	530	60%	1.68
Dallas Cowboys	58	71	147	276	508	54%	1.84
Philadelphia Eagles	48	53	165	266	525	51%	1.97
Tennessee Titans	44	77	164	285	575	50%	2.02
Baltimore Ravens	33	66	153	252	528	48%	2.10
Carolina Panthers	37	49	178	264	557	47%	2.11
Oakland Raiders	32	34	154	220	471	47%	2.14
New England Patriots	30	49	137	216	474	46%	2.19
New York Giants	42	50	132	224	503	45%	2.25
Atlanta Falcons	33	54	155	242	549	44%	2.27
Arizona Cardinals	31	56	128	215	517	42%	2.40
Tampa Bay Buccaneers	29	55	113	197	475	41%	2.41
Pittsburgh Steelers	51	47	121	219	533	41%	2.43
Green Bay Packers	34	58	120	212	518	41%	2.44
Jacksonville Jaguars	29	43	118	190	465	41%	2.45
Houston Texans	25	45	121	191	471	41%	2.47
Seattle Seahawks	35	49	139	223	566	39%	2.54
Indianapolis Colts	30	37	122	189	481	39%	2.54
Detroit Lions	28	36	110	174	443	39%	2.55
New Orleans Saints	28	39	136	203	526	39%	2.59
New York Jets	40	31	145	216	572	38%	2.65
Washington Redskins	24	48	120	192	511	38%	2.66
San Francisco 49ers	30	41	124	195	545	36%	2.79
St. Louis Rams	30	31	96	157	444	35%	2.83
Chicago Bears	27	53	138	218	622	35%	2.85
Miami Dolphins	40	42	109	191	551	35%	2.88
Cleveland Browns	17	44	120	181	541	33%	2.99
Kansas City Chiefs	10	32	131	173	522	33%	3.02
San Diego Chargers	27	28	135	190	605	31%	3.18
Denver Broncos	25	29	94	148	495	30%	3.34
Buffalo Bills	23	32	90	145	492	29%	3.39
Cincinnati Bengals	17	35	96	148	506	29%	3.42
NFL Average	32	47	131	210	519	41%	2.54

Even, though the Dallas Cowboys had the most sacks last season with 58, they were not the best team when is comes to pressure percentage per pass attempt. That honor goes to the Minnesota Vikings who managed to pressure the QB once every 1.68 pass attempts.

Also it’s worth noting that even though the Kansas City Chiefs were dead last registering a meager 10 sacks through 16 games, they were not the worst at applying pressure, that dubious honor goes to the Cincinnati Bengals who managed to have the worst percentage of any team with a 3.42% meaning that they were able to apply pressure once every 3.42 pass attempts.

The NFL average for pressure per pass attempt in 2008 was 2.54.

Though the Bucs ranked 20th in sacks, they ranked 13th in pressures per pass attempt.

Four of the bottom five teams spent first round picks on prospects, that either play defensive end or outside rush linebacker positions, while one drafted a player that many had graded as a first round talent, but fell to the third round.

Tagged as: Buccaneers, Bucs, NFL, QB Hits, QB Pressure, Sacks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Bucs