2010 NFL Sack Rate Data

[Blazedestin]

Or, "The Year that Baltimore Lynches Dan"

For first timers, a Q&A Session

Q: What the hell is a Sack Rate?
A: A Sack Rate is an adjusted measure of how many sacks a team accumulates over the course of a season modified by how often opposing offenses give them a chance to collect a sack.

Q: Why is this superior than just counting up the number of sacks?
A: A Sack Rate takes into account frequency and the ability of a defense to take advantage of opportunities to actually collect sacks. This penalizes defenses who are thrown on often (And thus have the chance to get a lot of sacks), and bolsters defenses who aren't thrown on often (And thus don't get as many shots to get a sack).

Imagine for instance, a defense that accumulates 1,000 sacks in the regular season. However, they're thrown on 1,000,000 times. Thus, on average, opposing quarterbacks will throw a thousand times before being sacked. On the other side of the coin, imagine a defense that only collects three sacks in the regular season, but is only thrown on nine times. On average, after every third pass, opposing QB's will be sacked. Doesn't that sound a whole lot more threatening?

Q: Why don't you take into account (Hurries/Knockdowns/Defensive Line Pass Deflections/Quarterbacks Played Against/Indoor and Outdoor Games/Etc.)?
A: There's three basic reasons.

First, advanced football sabermetrics are hard to find. Most of the sites that have that data force you to pay for it, and I am a cheap bastard. These stats are also very subjective, so while one site may credit a hurry to Shaun Ellis, a different site may credit a hurry on the same play instead to Calvin Pace. Thus, people will yell at me for not using the site that they prefer.

Second, it's hard to quantify anything that is NOT a sack in terms of a sack. How many hurries is a sack equal to? What kind of handicap should AFC South teams get because Peyton Manning has a wizard-like ability to feel the pass rush? What kind of handicap should AFC North teams get because Ben Roethlisberger will happily take a sack if it means he might be able to extend the play? We will never arrive at a consensus on this sort of information, and thus it makes really, no difference if I add that into the calculations or not.

Third, all of those above don't necessarily lead to negative outcomes. Is it different if a QB is hurried but still gets the 85 yard bomb off compared to if the pass is picked off? I think it is. Is there any way to tell how often each of those occurs? This is a similar point to #2.

Q: Can I use this information for (My website/Magazine/ Insert Enterprise Here)?
A: Sure, just ask me first.

And now, the NFL Sack Data

2010 NFL Sack Data

Passes Attempted: How many passes were thrown on this team's defense
Sacks Accumulated: The total number of sacks this team racked up during the regular season
Sack Rate: Passes Attempted divided by Sacks Accumulated. This can be read as "On average, a QB playing this defense would get sacked after X number of passing attempts", where X is the sack rate
DYPA: Defensive Yards Per Attempt. Included to show the correlation between the Sack Rate and overall Pass Defense.

1. Oakland Raiders
Passes Attempted: 470
Sacks Accumulated: 47
Sack Rate: 10.0
DYPA: 7.1

2. San Diego Chargers
Passes Attempted: 488
Sacks Accumulated: 47
Sack Rate: 10.38
DYPA: 6.4

3. Green Bay Packers
Passes Attempted: 527
Sacks Accumulated: 47
Sack Rate: 11.21
DYPA: 6.5

4. New York Giants
Passes Attempted: 539
Sacks Accumulated: 46
Sack Rate: 11.72
DYPA: 6.8

5. Detroit Lions
Passes Attempted: 518
Sacks Accumulated: 44
Sack Rate: 11.77
DYPA: 7.3

6. Pittsburgh Steelers
Passes Attempted: 593
Sacks Accumulated: 48
Sack Rate: 12.35
DYPA: 6.3

7. Miami Dolphins
Passes Attempted: 502
Sacks Accumulated: 39
Sack Rate: 12.87
DYPA: 7.1

8. St. Louis Rams
Passes Attempted: 570
Sacks Accumulated: 43
Sack Rate: 13.26
DYPA: 6.8

9. New York Jets
Passes Attempted: 531
Sacks Accumulated: 40
Sack Rate: 13.275
DYPA: 6.5

10. Philadelphia Eagles
Passes Attempted: 536
Sacks Accumulated: 39
Sack Rate: 13.74
DYPA: 7.0

11. Kansas City Chiefs
Passes Attempted: 581
Sacks Accumulated: 39
Sack Rate: 14.90
DYPA: 6.5

12. New Orleans Saints
Passes Attempted: 494
Sacks Accumulated: 33
Sack Rate: 14.97
DYPA: 6.8

13. Dallas Cowboys
Passes Attempted: 540
Sacks Accumulated: 36
Sack Rate: 15
DYPA: 7.7

14. Tennessee Titans
Passes Attempted: 625
Sacks Accumulated: 40
Sack Rate: 15.625
DYPA: 6.9

15. Seattle Seahawks
Passes Attempted: 585
Sacks Accumulated: 37
Sack Rate: 15.81
DYPA: 7.2

16. Arizona Cardinals
Passes Attempted: 533
Sacks Accumulated: 33
Sack Rate: 16.15
DYPA: 7.3

17. San Francisco 49'ers
Passes Attempted: 550
Sacks Accumulated: 34
Sack Rate: 16.18
DYPA: 7.2

18. Carolina Panthers
Passes Attempted: 526
Sacks Accumulated: 31
Sack Rate: 16.97
DYPA: 6.9

19. New England Patriots
Passes Attempted: 611
Sacks Accumulated: 36
Sack Rate: 16.97
DYPA: 7.1

20. Minnesota Vikings
Passes Attempted: 529
Sacks Accumulated: 31
Sack Rate: 17.06
DYPA: 6.7

21. Chicago Bears
Passes Attempted: 582
Sacks Accumulated: 34
Sack Rate: 17.12
DYPA: 6.6

22. Cleveland Browns
Passes Attempted: 507
Sacks Accumulated: 29
Sack Rate: 17.48
DYPA: 7.3

23. Buffalo Bills
Passes Attempted: 473
Sacks Accumulated: 27
Sack Rate: 17.52
DYPA: 6.9

24. Indianapolis Colts
Passes Attempted: 535
Sacks Accumulated: 30
Sack Rate: 17.83
DYPA: 6.8

25. Atlanta Falcons
Passes Attempted: 560
Sacks Accumulated: 31
Sack Rate: 18.06
DYPA: 6.9

26. Houston Texans
Passes Attempted: 547
Sacks Accumulated: 30
Sack Rate: 18.23
DYPA: 8.2

27. Cincinatti Bengals
Passes Attempted: 514
Sacks Accumulated: 27
Sack Rate: 19.04
DYPA: 7.1

28. Jacksonville Jaguars
Passes Attempted: 506
Sacks Accumulated: 26
Sack Rate: 19.46
DYPA: 8.3

29. Washington Redskins
Passes Attempted: 578
Sacks Accumulated: 29
Sack Rate: 19.93
DYPA: 7.5

30. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Passes Attempted: 521
Sacks Accumulated: 26
Sack Rate: 20.03
DYPA: 6.4

31. Denver Broncos
Passes Attempted: 502
Sacks Accumulated: 23
Sack Rate: 21.82
DYPA: 7.8

32. Baltimore Ravens
Passes Attempted: 596
Sacks Accumulated: 27
Sack Rate: 22.07
DYPA: 6.4

[Red-headed step-child]

Thank you I will now plagarize this.

[Blazedestin]

Thank you I will now plagarize this.

What's your website?

[PR]

Interesting; the Panthers are better than three playoff teams in sack rate.

[Death In Taxes]

Wait so according to this the Raven's are at the bottom?

Just goes to show how horrible the Steelers' O-line is.

[DraftKidWonder]

Love it. Gives a new perspective on pass rush. Will def factor into my team needs.

[Berto]

Fascinating, thanks for sharing.

[Blue]

I always love it when Blazedestin puts this out. It's a lot better than the pure sack numbers. A much better indicator of how good the pass rush for teams is, too.

IIRC, Raiders have been at or near the top for 2-3 years running now, correct?

[Blazedestin]

I always love it when Blazedestin puts this out. It's a lot better than the pure sack numbers. A much better indicator of how good the pass rush for teams is, too.

IIRC, Raiders have been at or near the top for 2-3 years running now, correct?

Yep, 11.83 or so last year. They're the scariest pass rush no one talks about. Also, a reason why I would rather have quality cornerbacks than quality pass rushers.

[whatdoyouwant711]

Yep, 11.83 or so last year. They're the scariest pass rush no one talks about. Also, a reason why I would rather have quality cornerbacks than quality pass rushers.

This. I think that Asomugha is the single player most important to that pass rush. Not Seymour, Houston, or whoever led that team in sacks.

[pantherfaninfl]

Interesting; the Panthers are better than three playoff teams in sack rate.

We are not the worst team in football despite what people say. The cardinals are definetly worse.

[Death In Taxes]

We are not the worst team in football despite what people say. The cardinals are definetly worse.

Being able to sack the quarterback is great until you give up 20 yards down the field.

If this list proves anything it is that.

[vikingsteve26]

Huh. The Vikings aren't that bad in that area...


... then again Favre got it off pretty quick

[whatdoyouwant711]

Huh. The Vikings aren't that bad in that area...


... then again Favre got it off pretty quick

This data is sacks produced. Not sacks allowed.

[vikingsteve26]

Well, I misunderstood that. then again, TLDR.



The Vikings aren't that good in this area. I'm not surprised.