Evaluating all 56 sacks the Cowboys allowed in 2018

[QuincyCarterEra]

oh boy, can't wait for the defense to come out in this one!

btw your boy has average about the same "time to throw" every year, so the OL didn't just magically drop off the face of the earth...for those who think it's flat lol

if anyone cares to post each and every sack I'm sure we can fairly assess what happened, but I'm sure an easy blame from my perspective is going to turn into gymnastics for why it wasn't the blame of the same guy, but someone else.

I can't wait for the day that people actually put in the work to understand the stats that they are presenting.

Yes the Oline has dropped off the face of the earth since mid 2017, compared to the first season and a half of dominance.

 

[QuincyCarterEra]

There's guys on this thread that havent watched a single second of tape, then here is Bob having watched every second in detail. You decide which side is right lmao. Just remember the ones on here pinning it on Dak, and it'll help in your future encounters with them. They aren't exactly knowledgeable in football.

 

[CowboyRoy]

For the record, I don't believe anyone on this board ever argued that ALL the sacks were Dak's fault.

LOL...……...100% no freaking way buddy. These trolls have actually changed sacks from "sacks given up" to "sacks taken by the QB" According to them its now a QB stat and ALL the QB's fault.

Laughably enough, Rogers got sacked at a higher rate then Dak. LOL

Haters like you make little sense.

 

[Western]

OL coaches matter.
In the 2nd half of the season last year, the line gradually improved.
Colombo brought some nasty back to the Oline.

Coach Paul Alexander:

Coach Marc Colombo:

 

[McKDaddy]

Give or take:

20% Dak
20% WR’s
30% O-Line
30% Scheme (Long developing type routes)

I would increase Dak's contribution & decrease the WR's but overall this rightly spreads the blame around.

 

[CowboyRoy]

There's guys on this thread that havent watched a single second of tape, then here is Bob having watched every second in detail. You decide which side is right lmao. Just remember the ones on here pinning it on Dak, and it'll help in your future encounters with them. They aren't exactly knowledgeable in football.

 

[CowboyRoy]

Isn't the average time to throw 2.5 seconds for an NFL QB?

Again, this stat is misused by trolls that don't understand it.

"time to throw" is also "time until he throws".

Most QB's that are more of the mobile nature are going to run around and try to make plays. If the QB is running for his life, buying time and extends the play often, that is going to increase his "time until he throws".

But I also don't think anyone on here has denied that Dak has held the ball too long at times. Heck if your receivers are Beasley, Hurns, Gallup as a rookie, and two practice squad TE's in an offense you don't like or is predictable, how many times are you going to drop back and see a guy open?

 

[CowboyRoy]

actually a few months ago I did, PFF ain't so far from wrong.
I saw 9 real silly ones (that's a lot) but then my criteria wasn't exactly strict
and another 8 he should have thrown away.

what bugged me watching it was knowing the situation on the field Dak didn't just get rid of the ball more.
he tries too hard sometimes, but that pays off more often than not

that still leaves at least 40 non QB issue sacks

the biggest cause of sacks wasn't so much bad OL play, as a matter of no longer having a great OL making up for silly play design
for example, why keep a mobile QB in the pocket when your OL is springing 3 leaks ?

The TE blocking was also as bad as it gets in both the pass and the run game.

 

[Whyjerry]

Someone on this forum posted a video of all the sacks a few month ago. It was a great post and interesting to watch. I looked at it a few times and while we are beating up Williams now if you watched that video you will see the main culprits were the tackles. "All-World" Smith was awful last year given the contract he has. Collins was just plain terrible. He was by far the worst player on the line last year. His feet are terrible. Bad balance and boy is he a lunger. He would try to jab a player, miss, find himself out of balance, and then fall out of position. His feet were way too slow to overcome the terrible technique. Find that video and watch it. Collins was absolutely terrible last season.

 

[conner01]

Lost in all the good feelings about Connor Williams adding weight and muscle this offseason is an analysis of just how poorly he played in his rookie year.

Bob Sturm is writing another 4-part series in The Athletic, this time a deep dive into all 56 sacks the Cowboys allowed in 2018 - second in the NFL.

For context, teams that are second in the league in sacks allowed do not usually make the playoffs. That’s a testament to just how good the defense played last year.

I have read too often here that these sacks were Dak’s fault because he holds the ball too long. It’s not true. According to Pro Football focus, only 15 of those 56 sacks were on Dak. And, in fact, Dak and the Cowboys were one of the best teams in the league at not allowing sacks in 2016 and 2017.

So, clearly 2018 was the problem.

In the articles, there is video of every sack and commentary. What’s clear is that Conner Williams had no business starting last year. He did much better in the final quarter of the season, and I have no doubt he’ll be better this year, but a great deal of 2018’s sacks were either errors from CWill or him being outright bull rushed into the quarterback.

In one instance against Seattle, Dak was sacked in 2.6 seconds! As Sturm wrote, “At some point, you feel like the player was let down here by the organization. 2.6 seconds from snap to sack is ridiculous from an inside player.”

Here is Sturm’s description of CWill’s first of many sacks to be given up in 2018:

“We may one day get to a point of Connor Williams’ career when NFL Films will do a feature on how he has progressed and all signs will go back to Week 1 of 2018 when he was asked to deal with Kawaan Short in his “Welcome to the NFL” moment. That game was when everyone quickly realized the growth and development for the college tackle-turned-NFL guard was going to be much longer than anyone let on in Oxnard. This is why we should all slow our roll when practice reports and camp reports tell us a kid is fitting right in and everything is great. You truly don’t know until they’re facing live ammunition. Here, Short destroys Williams for a sack that you would hope a guard would not allow all season. But this, unfortunately, was a sign of things to come for the rookie. He was pulled off balance, and any time you end up on your stomach watching your man blindside your quarterback, something went very wrong.”

Seems like a misrepresentation of the article to me. This article judge 4 games, not the the season. A rookie struggled in his first 4 games, that’s amazing
By the end of the season Williams was playing pretty solid.

 

[Whyjerry]

Why make a post on the negatives when the OL was short the most important piece, i.e. the center and had a rookie playing RG? Why? Are you ignorant?

Happy Thursday!!!

 

[McKDaddy]

I watched all his sacks on youtube awhile back. I put about 25 on Dak if I remember correctly.

That's about what i would have guessed. I probably would grade it with a few more on him just because I saw a lot of plays that were designed to get the ball out quickly & he wouldn't pull the trigger which then meant he was trying to read the other routes & holding the ball too long. The line may have given up the sack but the play should have been over well before then.

No matter your opinion of Dak, everyone should realize this is an area he HAS to improve upon.

 

[Whyjerry]

That's about what i would have guessed. I probably would grade it with a few more on him just because I saw a lot of plays that were designed to get the ball out quickly & he wouldn't pull the trigger which then meant he was trying to read the other routes & holding the ball too long. The line may have given up the sack but the play should have been over well before then.

No matter your opinion of Dak, everyone should realize this is an area he HAS to improve upon.

Agree, but not fully. The scheme didn't help at all. Dak pre Cooper and post Cooper was a different QB. Why? Cooper is good enough to overcome the terrible scheme. He just gets open. I have long said that only really good players can have success in Dallas because of the coaching. It takes a talent to overcome it. Dak does need to get rid of the ball a bit quicker but the scheme and the SLLLLLLOOOOWWWWWW tempo the offense plays with is a big contributor to the issue.

 

[McKDaddy]

Someone on this forum posted a video of all the sacks a few month ago. It was a great post and interesting to watch. I looked at it a few times and while we are beating up Williams now if you watched that video you will see the main culprits were the tackles. "All-World" Smith was awful last year given the contract he has. Collins was just plain terrible. He was by far the worst player on the line last year. His feet are terrible. Bad balance and boy is he a lunger. He would try to jab a player, miss, find himself out of balance, and then fall out of position. His feet were way too slow to overcome the terrible technique. Find that video and watch it. Collins was absolutely terrible last season.

No one wants to mention how bad Smith was especially the first half of the season. I mean there was a play he didn't even get out of his stance. Yet PFF & others assigned nary a sack to him.

Collins is too heavy. When he has been good he was slimmer. If he isn't slimmer this year, expect more of the same.

 

[CowboyRoy]

They were a middle of the pack pass blocking line and a high end run blocking line. Probably puts them somewhere around 10th to 12th overall. Maybe higher. And that’s with a reserve and a rookie in there and an All Pro on the sidelines. The day will come I’m sure when this team does have a bad OL and it will be a rude awakening for some.

See, that right there just shows how much you don't understand about the blocking. You probably look at the fact that Zeke led the league in rushing and think that means they had to be great at run blocking. The simply were NOT. They were middle of the pack.

The pass blocking was ranked 31st in the NFL so your metric there is also way off.

 

[Hennessy_King]

the offensive line wasn't horrendous last season. its the go to move by Dak lovers. the offensive line was good, not great., but given needs a strong supporting cast, everyone wants the 2016 offensive line. one of the greatest ever lines in NFL history....which is what dak needs....you want to tell me Brady? Rodgers? brees? Rivers? on and on and on all had great offensive lines!!! seriously.... I guess we have to give dak 5 first round OL men. 5 first round WRs. 3 first round RBs. and bilicheck...then watch out...here comes Dak!!!


oh sorry, I forgot 2 first round TEs....

They had one of the worst pressure %'s in the league fam. And they were responsible for 41 sacks. Dak took 15. But let's look at the flipside. How many did sacks did Dak not take due to his scrambling ability. Or how many more did he bail the o line out of. They o line was one of the worst in pass protection last year.

 

[Future]

Sturm is generous with his grading towards Dak, imo. Through weeks 1-4 (14 sacks), his scorecard has 5 on Dak, 1 on Zeke, 1 on scheme, and 7 on the OL.

The issue I have w/ Dak, and in part with Sturm's grading (even though it's the best there is) is that it doesn't account for the times where the QB should feel pressure and just get rid of the football quickly. Some of those sacks on the OL were pressures that didn't really need to turn into sacks. I think one of them had Dak getting sacked at 3.09 seconds. That's a long time in the NFL.

 

[blueblood70]

Give or take:

20% Dak
20% WR’s
30% O-Line
30% Scheme (Long developing type routes)

I can go with that although maybe Dak 25% with that terrible turning his back to spin out, you cant do that as a regular reactive part of your game as you cant see the rush, you cant see downfield to launch the ball, and you take sacks because of that..go left right or step up more times then not you simply throw it away or run for 0-3 yards ..just get it out quicker..

 

[Whyjerry]

No one wants to mention how bad Smith was especially the first half of the season. I mean there was a play he didn't even get out of his stance. Yet PFF & others assigned nary a sack to him.

Collins is too heavy. When he has been good he was slimmer. If he isn't slimmer this year, expect more of the same.

Collins is G. The move is to have Williams move to T and Collins to G. If Collins can't play G they have other options. If the long term plan is Williams at T make the move right now. Strength will not be as big an issue outside plus he has the athleticism to play T. It is obvious.

 

[McKDaddy]

See, that right there just shows how much you don't understand about the blocking. You probably look at the fact that Zeke led the league in rushing and think that means they had to be great at run blocking. The simply were NOT. They were middle of the pack.

The pass blocking was ranked 31st in the NFL so your metric there is also way off.

They were trying to block stacked boxes in both the run & pass game. Not sure how anyone grades that out fairly. They certainly weren't good at pass blocking for reasons being discussed. Run blocking was better but exactly where it should rank, who knows.