Thread: Surrendering Pressure

Surrendering Pressure

June 6th, 2011 | Author: Khaled Elsayed
In the first part of our week long look at pass protection, we’re going to be breaking down which teams are giving up the most pressure. It will be the first of three key components we’ll inspect before our team pass protection rankings arrive on Thursday and Friday.

For this piece, it’s all about how much pressure is allowed and who is giving it up. We’re not just looking at the offensive line, but every offensive player – including the quarterbacks. That’s a point you’ll see me reiterate often this week as we sort out which offenses are the best when it comes to the many different elements of what constitutes pass protection.

What we’ve done for this piece is a very simple formula: the amount of pressure given up (sacks, hits, and hurries) divided by the total number of pass snaps. This gives us a Pressure Allowed Per Play Percentage, and forms the crux of this article.


Let’s begin with the team that gives up the least, the Seattle Seahawks. No team gave up less pressure per play than the NFC West champs, with their offensive line doing a particularly good job of not allowing oncoming rushers to get to their QB. The surprising star of the unit wasn’t solid rookie Russell Okung, but less-heralded Sean Locklear.

The Seahawks are in the good company, with Indianapolis hot on their heels. That’s no great reflection on the ability of Indy’s offensive line, but a big indictment of how impressive Peyton Manning is. No quarterback does as good a job of not letting pressure get to him, with only 0.88% of Colts pass plays resulting in pressure because Manning held onto the ball too long. The only player to better that number? The possibly soon-to-be retired Carson Palmer of the Bengals.

At the bottom, it won’t be a shock to see who had the biggest issues, and it gives even more reason to credit Ben Roethlisberger. Despite the Steelers surrendering pressure on over half of their pass plays (the only team to do so), they still reached the Super Bowl. Looking back on our Pressure Reveals article, a lot of this has to do with Big Ben’s ability to make plays when he’s forced to move around in the pocket (he finished with our fourth highest grade on the year in this area).

Right behind Pittsburgh was a 10-win team who also needs to thank their quarterback for making the most of some, at times, shoddy pass protection. The more you watch him, the more you think that picking up Josh Freeman in the 2009 draft may be one of the shrewdest moves Tampa Bay has made. The Buc QB finished fifth in our grading under pressure, behind a line that was among the worst in the league when it came to giving up pressure.

In any case, we’ll get into the reasons shortly, but for now here’s the list of teams that give up the most pressure on a per play basis:

Pressure Per Play Percentage, 2010

RankTeam
Passing SnapsPressures AllowedPressure Per Play Percentage (PPP%)
1SEA 714 202 28.29%
2NYJ 687 206 29.99%
3IND 746 226 30.29%
4NYG 597 190 31.83%
5ATL 706 225 31.87%
6DAL 668 214 32.04%
7DET 715 232 32.45%
8MIA 644 212 32.92%
9HST 646 215 33.28%
10CAR 573 198 34.55%
11CLV 555 192 34.59%
12GB 810 282 34.81%
13MIN 597 209 35.01%
14CIN 660 232 35.15%
15NO 780 278 35.64%
16TEN 544 198 36.40%
17NE 618 227 36.73%
18DEN 678 253 37.32%
19SD 615 240 39.02%
20BUF 605 237 39.17%
21SL 673 264 39.23%
22ARZ 642 252 39.25%
23BLT 656 260 39.63%
24PHI 754 313 41.51%
25JAX 565 241 42.65%
26KC 577 247 42.81%
27SF 590 255 43.22%
28WAS 699 305 43.63%
29OAK 609 276 45.32%
30CHI 665 308 46.32%
31TB 592 280 47.30%
32PIT 681 344 50.51%

Offensive Line
We now dig into which offensive lines give up the most pressure as a percentage of their total number of snaps. We’ll start with the impressive New York Jets line doing everything they can to keep Mark Sanchez trouble free in the pocket – with good reason, given how he finished 32nd out of 34 in our QB grades under pressure. You’d dare not wonder how much the Jets would struggle if they didn’t have excellent players like D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Nick Mangold, Brandon Moore and Damien Woody last year. But they did, and it’s a big reason they’ve made it to the last two AFC Championship games.

In a similar fashion, Chad Henne can’t really ask for much more from his offensive line. Led by a truly elite left tackle in Jake Long, only two offensive lines allowed a smaller percentage of pressure per pass play, and it’s scary to think how much worse he would appear behind a lesser line.

Things don’t look so positive for the Chicago Bears who finished with the highest percentage. “Helped” immensely by the rookie struggles of J’Marcus Webb, the Bears hope to have at least partially rectified this with the drafting Gabe Carimi. Time will tell.

They’re followed by two teams who we’ve already mentioned in the Steelers and Bucs. While Pittsburgh’s problems were there for all to see after losing both of their starting tackles for the year, the troubles in Tampa were a lit bit less publicized. In fact, they were completely ignored. The benching of Jeremy Trueblood didn’t improve things as much as some would have you believe, and if we’re being completely honest, the selection of Donald Penn to the Pro Bowl was about as bad a pick as there was. Again, they can thank Josh Freeman for making so much out of so little.

The table below shows how much pressure offensive lines gave up on a per pass play basis:

Pressure Per Play Percentage, Offensive Lines, 2010

RankTeam Cumulative O-Linemen Pass Protection Snaps OL Pressures AllowedOL PPP%
1NYJ 3482 143 4.11%
2SEA 3570 151 4.23%
3MIA 3231 137 4.24%
4HST 3230 137 4.24%
5CIN 3320 145 4.37%
6BLT 3294 148 4.49%
7CAR 2866 130 4.54%
8DAL 3340 152 4.55%
9tATL 3523 161 4.57%
9tCLV 2778 127 4.57%
11GB 4051 191 4.71%
12NO 3896 188 4.83%
13tNYG 3023 147 4.86%
13tDET 3578 174 4.86%
15MIN 2990 146 4.88%
16DEN 3396 169 4.98%
17SL 3359 170 5.06%
18IND 3730 190 5.09%
19NE 3096 159 5.14%
20BUF 3025 158 5.22%
21TEN 2720 148 5.44%
22PHI 3773 209 5.54%
23ARZ 3209 181 5.64%
24KC 2891 166 5.74%
25WAS 3485 203 5.82%
26SD 3077 184 5.98%
27SF 2955 178 6.02%
28OAK 3024 185 6.12%
29JAX 2833 177 6.25%
30PIT 3406 223 6.55%
31TB 2965 197 6.64%
32CHI 3327 223 6.70%

Skill Positions
It’s not just the offensive line that matters. We’ll look at quarterbacks separately below, but for now what of the running backs, receivers (yes they occasionally stay into pass block at times) and tight ends?

The Super Bowl champions led the way when it came to skill players being kept in to block and doing so effectively. None who stayed in on more than five occasions ended the year with a negative pass blocking grade. Maybe more teams will consider carrying three fullbacks on the roster if players like Quinn Johnson, John Kuhn, and Korey Hall can improve your pass protection this much.

They were quite a way ahead of the next-best New York Giants, who can thank the excellence of Ahmad Bradshaw, one of the best in the business at blitz pick up, for them finishing so high.

For as good as they were, the New Orleans Saints were bad in this department. You can put the blame on a few people with Dave Thomas giving up eight quarterback disruptions, and the quintet of backs (Julius Jones, Heath Evans, Reggie Bush, Ladell Betts and Pierre Thomas) allowing 24 between them. They were narrowly worse than the Baltimore Ravens who saw a real down year (in pass pro) for both Ray Rice (17 pressures allowed) and Le’Ron McClain (11).

Pressure Per Play Percentage, Skill Positions, 2010

RankTeam
Skill Player Pass Protection SnapsSkill Pressures AllowedSkill PPP%
1GB 539 17 3.15%
2NYG 406 17 4.19%
3KC 416 19 4.57%
4SEA 458 21 4.59%
5CIN 322 16 4.97%
6DEN 587 30 5.11%
7ATL 350 19 5.43%
8OAK 559 31 5.55%
9JAX 288 16 5.56%
10IND 293 18 6.14%
11DAL 401 25 6.23%
12NYJ 318 20 6.29%
13HST 300 19 6.33%
14SD 313 20 6.39%
15MIN 308 20 6.49%
16CLV 273 18 6.59%
17PIT 363 25 6.89%
18ARZ 360 26 7.22%
19MIA 536 39 7.28%
20CHI 498 37 7.43%
21BUF 343 27 7.87%
22CAR 330 27 8.18%
23TB 339 28 8.26%
24SF 262 22 8.40%
25SL 409 35 8.56%
26NE 303 26 8.58%
27DET 221 19 8.60%
28PHI 359 32 8.91%
29WAS 310 28 9.03%
30TEN 236 23 9.75%
31BLT 437 44 10.07%
32NO 404 41 10.15%


Of course some pressure isn’t just about a man up front getting beat. Sometimes it’s a case of the quarterback failing to get rid of the ball and inviting pressure onto himself. So, which teams are best at avoiding that? As previously mentioned, both Carson Palmer and Peyton Manning did an exceptional job when it came to not making matters worse and others weren’t far behind. The Washington combination of Rex Grossman and Donovan McNabb weren’t given much of an opportunity to add trouble with their line’s inability to delay the rush.

Things weren’t so great in Minnesota, where Brett Favre held onto the ball too long, struggling to cope without Sidney Rice. Joe Flacco also had some problems in Baltimore, always seeming to want more time. Those are some of the less excusable names at the bottom, as opposed to the more understandable feature of Philadelphia at No. 29. When you have a player like Michael Vick you can let plays develop and pressure come because he can get out of it and turn it into something.

QB-Invited Pressures, 2010

Rank
Team QB-Invited Pressures
QBP%
1CIN 2 0.86%
2IND 2 0.88%
3WAS 3 0.98%
4NYG 2 1.05%
5JAX 3 1.24%
6DAL 3 1.40%
7TEN 4 2.02%
8BUF 5 2.11%
9OAK 6 2.17%
10ARZ 6 2.38%
11GB 7 2.48%
12NO 7 2.52%
13SL 7 2.65%
14MIA 6 2.83%
15TB 8 2.86%
16SD 7 2.92%
17DET 7 3.02%
18CAR 6 3.03%
19ATL 7 3.11%
20PIT 11 3.20%
21SEA 7 3.47%
22CHI 11 3.57%
23HST 8 3.72%
24DEN 10 3.95%
25NE 9 3.96%
26KC 10 4.05%
27SF 11 4.31%
28NYJ 9 4.37%
29PHI 14 4.47%
30CLV 9 4.69%
31BLT 16 6.15%
32MIN 14 6.70%


So there you have our breakdown of who’s allowing the pressure. You’ll realize there’s a large percentage of pressure unaccounted for, and those are due to unblocked players that come free against roll outs or on overload blitzes, etc. Our goal here, though, is to show where the responsibility lies for all plays that can be attributed.

Ultimately, it’s a combination of things that make a team an efficient pass blocking unit. Tomorrow we’ll follow up by looking at the difference in how teams allow pressure to turn into to sacks. All of you pass-blocking aficionado’s stay tuned all week as we break down parts of pass protection before unveiling our team rankings.