Sack Up? Sack Down?
domer.mq
Bruce Davis
As we mentioned earlier, the Notre Dame Offensive Line got called out by UCLA’s “sack master,” Bruce Davis this week. To save you the risk of carpel-tunnel caused by scrolling, here’s the quote again…
“Jimmy Clausen is one of the better true freshman quarterbacks I’ve seen the whole time I’ve been here,” Davis said. “Unfortunately, his O-line is just falling apart. They can’t block a soul. That’s going to hurt your team. That’s going to hurt your offense. That’s going to get you to 0-5.”
And, of course, having given up an NCAA D1 worst 29 sacks though 5 games, it’s hard to argue with the guy that forced a fumble and tallied 2 sacks against a “good” ND squad last season.
But just how bad is the ND offensive line in pass protection?
To figure that out, we took a look at ND’s first 5 opponents’s sack statistics, figured out how good those stats would be if they hadn’t played ND, and then figured out the “ND Sack Value,” or how many sacks ND allows over or under their opponents’ non-ND averages.
| team | Nat’l Rank | Avg Sacks/Game | Total Sacks | Sacks v. ND | Sacks w/o ND | w/o ND Avg. | diff in avgs | ND Sack Value | Rank w/o ND |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GaTech | 3 | 4.3 | 21 | 9 | 12 | 3 | 1.3 | 6 | 20 |
| PSU | 5 | 3.8 | 19 | 6 | 13 | 3.25 | 0.55 | 2.75 | 15 |
| Michigan (sucks!) | 5 | 3.8 | 19 | 8 | 11 | 2.75 | 1.05 | 5.25 | 28 |
| MSU | 2 | 4.6 | 23 | 4 | 19 | 4.75 | -0.15 | -0.75 | 2 |
| Purdue | 61 | 1.8 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 1.75 | .05 | .25 | 73 |
| Average | 15.2 | 3.66 | 18.2 | 5.8 | 12.4 | 3.1 | 0.56 | 2.7 | 27.6 |
What is interesting is that, even without some really terrible protection performances by ND, 3 of ND’s opponents would be ranked in the top 25 in sacks. A 4th would be close to the top 25. And Purdue? Well, let’s just say we shouldn’t get too excited about ND’s protection performance against Purdue.
So overall, ND has faced some really excellent pass rushing teams, and… performed horribly, with the exception of the MSU game. Which makes sense considering the MSU game is the only game ND has managed to put together any sort of running game thus far in the season.
Wait, that leads to a question then, what sort of relationship might sacks have with pass plays being called by ND?
| Team | ND Called Pass Plays | % Resulting in a Sack |
|---|---|---|
| GaTech | 31 | 29% |
| PSU | 38 | 16% |
| Michigan (sucks!) | 30 | 27% |
| MSU | 28 | 15% |
| Purdue | 54 | 4% |
| Average | 36.2 | 18% |
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5 Comments
Did we really call 31 pass plays against Ga Tech? I’d have guessed 20 tops. Huh.
oh, and when I get there I’m telling Davis to ’sack this, tool’ and then running away and yelling “Po Po” as Blink-182 plays in the background. “Loveburger. Well done.”
It should be noted that Coach Weis was aware that Purdue had an extremely potent offense and in order to keep ND in the game, ND had to pass. Purdue also was known to be susceptible to the passing game.
ND could attempt to sustain a running game plan against other ND opponents since they didn’t have the same caliber of offense (on paper) that Purdue does.
BTW, Purdue’s still going to end up in the middle of the Big10 as their inevitable meltdown will start this weekend.
[...] Next, we investigated the “ND Sack Bonus,” or just how much the poor performance of ND’s O-Line QB Protection improves the day of opposing defenses [...]
[...] A look at Pass Protection: Sack Up? Sack Down? [...]
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