Yakuza Rich: Dallas Defensive Sacks vs. League Average Over The Years

[Yakuza Rich]

Dallas Defensive Sacks vs. League Average Over the Years
by Yakuza Rich
http://yakuzarich.blogspot.com

With my passion (that could be called an obsession) for studying sack totals, I decided to look at the Cowboys defense over the years. Like my previous post, I wanted to study how the Cowboys defense did in comparison to the league average.

This is important because like I've mentioned before, the passing game has changed over the years. As we go back further in time, more teams utilized 7 step drop backs and threw the ball deeper than they do today (even though I'm using stats that go back to only 1990, this is still true for the most part). Thus, it was easier for defenses to sack the QB more often in say 1990 that it is today in 2007. And my research shows this to be true as well (http://yakuzarich.blogspot.com/2008/05/sacks-decreasing-in-nfl.html).

So I took a look at Dallas' pass attempts per sack on defense over the years and compared that to the league average that season. Here's what I came up with:


YEAR.....................% DIFFERENCE FROM LEAGUE AVG

1994..............................................+44.7%
2007..............................................+22.5%
1996..............................................+10.3%
1992..............................................+6.9%
1995..............................................+6.8%
2005.............................................+4.1%
1997..............................................+0.9%
2003.............................................-1.8%
1990.............................................-3.1%
2006............................................-6.2%
2004............................................-10.1%
1999............................................-13.8%
1993............................................-16.3%
1998............................................-21.1%
2000...........................................-27.7%
2001...........................................-33.6%
2002...........................................-38.5%
1991............................................-40.1%





YAKUZA

 

[THUMPER]

Good stuff YR, as usual. It shows the result of a lack of talent, both on the field and on the sidelines.

Zimrod had a reputation for being aggressive, and he might have been, but his blitz schemes were the worst designed and disguised I've ever seen.

Parcells also had a reputation for having aggressive defenses but that was when he was a lot younger. Once he got old he developed "old man's disease" where he was more afraid of making mistakes than of taking chances and he became overly conservative in his approach to the game.

We also had a lack of quality DEs during some of that time but not always. I believe it was mostly due to the combination of Zimmer/Campo/Parcells that was to blame for most of the downturn since 1995 (Campo's first year as DC).

Wade Phillips has a well deserved reputation for having defenses that put pressure on the QB and it showed in his first year here and I expect it to continue even more in the future.

What you said about it being more difficult to sack the QB now with more teams utilizing a shorter dropback and working on getting the ball out more quickly is true, which makes what Wade accomplished last season even more impressive.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Wade Phillips has a well deserved reputation for having defenses that put pressure on the QB and it showed in his first year here and I expect it to continue even more in the future.

What you said about it being more difficult to sack the QB now with more teams utilizing a shorter dropback and working on getting the ball out more quickly is true, which makes what Wade accomplished last season even more impressive.

The shorter dropbacks shouldn't effect these percentages. For instance, if say in 2006 the league average is 1 sack per 15 attempts. And let's say a good, top 10 pass rush is 1 sack per 13.9 attempts.

Now, let's say that in 1990 the league average is 1 sack per 14 pass attempts. Thus, a team that averages 1 sack per sack in 13.9 pass attempts in 1990 is not as good as the team that averages 1 sack per 13.9 pass attempts in 2006.

I really blame Zimmer here, even more than you do. It's funny how Greg Ellis never had more than 9.5 sacks in a season under Zimmer, and yet in one season with Wade he had 12.5 sacks and he really only played in 10 games. Ellis is also best suited at playing 4-3 DE which he did under Zimmer and managed a career high in sacks playing 3-4 OLB.

Plus, we had quite a jump in % vs. the league average from 2006 (-6.2%) to 2007 (+22.5%). We did add Ken Hamlin to the roster, but also lost Ferguson, Newman for 3 games, Henry for a few games, and Ellis for most of the first 5 games of the season.

I think it's really no coincidence that Dallas has been known for continually drafting defense in the first round up until this season, where we drafted Felix Jones with the first pick. Zimmer went to Atlanta where his team stunk rushing the passer in the defense he prefers (4-3, Cover 2). Rookie 7th overall pick Jammal Anderson failed to register a sack. I think Zimmer could make Reggie White look like Ebenezer Ekuban.





YAKUZA