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Did The Cowboys Get Too Many Sacks In 2008?
Posted by jellis at 6/9/2009 4:08 PM CDT on truebluefanclub.com
Last season the Cowboys defense led the NFL in sacks with 59. With all the pressure on the quarterback, then, it would stand to reason the team should've been near the top of the league in turnovers too, right?
Well, not so much. The Cowboys had only eight interceptions on the year, to go with 14 fumbles recovered. Conversely, the Cowboys threw 20 picks themselves, but were only sacked 31 times. How is that possible?
"When you get a lot of sacks you're not going to get a lot of turnovers," Terence Newman said. "Our D-Line was excellent last year, DeMarcus (Ware) had 20 sacks. That's going to take away from the interceptions."
For a lot of people the assumption is that more sacks would generally mean more pressure, which should equate to more rushed throws and thus, more interceptions. But apparently the correlation can actually be negative.
Last year the Ravens led the NFL in interceptions with 26, but had just 34 sacks. Cleveland was second with 23 picks, but had a measly 17 sacks. The key is to find a happy medium. The 2007 Cowboys had 46 sacks and 19 interceptions, and the Chargers that same year had 42 sacks and 30 picks.
"We need more than we got last year," Wade Phillips said. "You want to lead the league, obviously, in sacks. But you want to be up there in interceptions also."
That could mean more man coverage from the secondary. Last year when the Cowboys blitzed they were mostly playing zone, but Phillips thinks they have the personnel to play more man now.
"There's a line in there where if you've got enough good rushers you don't need to bring too many (blitzers)," Phillips said. "You can play man but double up some, so we're looking at things now about what we can do, but we are looking at more man-to-man."
-Josh Ellis
Posted by jellis at 6/9/2009 4:08 PM CDT on truebluefanclub.com
Last season the Cowboys defense led the NFL in sacks with 59. With all the pressure on the quarterback, then, it would stand to reason the team should've been near the top of the league in turnovers too, right?
Well, not so much. The Cowboys had only eight interceptions on the year, to go with 14 fumbles recovered. Conversely, the Cowboys threw 20 picks themselves, but were only sacked 31 times. How is that possible?
"When you get a lot of sacks you're not going to get a lot of turnovers," Terence Newman said. "Our D-Line was excellent last year, DeMarcus (Ware) had 20 sacks. That's going to take away from the interceptions."
For a lot of people the assumption is that more sacks would generally mean more pressure, which should equate to more rushed throws and thus, more interceptions. But apparently the correlation can actually be negative.
Last year the Ravens led the NFL in interceptions with 26, but had just 34 sacks. Cleveland was second with 23 picks, but had a measly 17 sacks. The key is to find a happy medium. The 2007 Cowboys had 46 sacks and 19 interceptions, and the Chargers that same year had 42 sacks and 30 picks.
"We need more than we got last year," Wade Phillips said. "You want to lead the league, obviously, in sacks. But you want to be up there in interceptions also."
That could mean more man coverage from the secondary. Last year when the Cowboys blitzed they were mostly playing zone, but Phillips thinks they have the personnel to play more man now.
"There's a line in there where if you've got enough good rushers you don't need to bring too many (blitzers)," Phillips said. "You can play man but double up some, so we're looking at things now about what we can do, but we are looking at more man-to-man."
-Josh Ellis
