Smarter Stats: The Hurry-Up Defense
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In the last 10 years, use of the shotgun formation in offensive plays has literally tripled in the NFL -- from 12.4 percent in 1999 to 37.2 percent last season. With more shotgun sets and shorter passes, sacks can be harder to come by. However, at Football Outsiders, we've been charting games for the last few years, which allows us to track other kinds of quarterback pressure.
The quarterback hurry is the more common example -- hurries are simply instances in which defenders are able to throw off a passer's timing and force a throw. Last year, NFL defenses combined for 1,101 sacks, but 3,268 hurries. And in 2009, quarterbacks averaged a DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, our primary efficiency metric) of -16.2% and 4.8 yards per pass play versus +13.9 DVOA and 6.2 yards per pass play overall.
Once we adjust our hurry totals for variance among our game charters, we come up with Adjusted Hurries for players and for teams per season. The top twenty individual defenders:
One thing you'll notice is that quite often, the top quarterback disruptors come in pairs. This makes sense -- when you have two great edge rushers, it's impossible to focus double-teams both ways, so opposing offenses have to pick their poisons. With duos like Ware and Spencer in Dallas, Allen and Edwards in Minnesota, and Freeney and Mathis in Indianapolis, protection schemes are often required to alternate double teams. Thus, pressure alternates.
The top 10 pressure defenses, as defined by percentage of Adjusted Hurries:
Minnesota was a nightmare for opposing offenses from a pass-rush perspective. New Eagles defensive coordinator Sean McDermott continued the pressure tactics of the late, great Jim Johnson with great success. The Jets, Browns, Packers, Steelers and 49ers all brought different types of 3-4 pressure-laden fronts. While the Packers and Browns had more stationary fronts with fewer odd schemes, you could see just about anything from the Jets and Steelers. And the 49ers ran some very effective hybrid fronts, especially in obvious passing downs, when they'd move to four-man lines.
Does that kind of pass pressure lead to other kinds of quarterback disruption? Next week, we'll take a closer look at how hurries and quarterback hits can often lead to breakout sack seasons.
By
Doug Farrar
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August 20, 2010; 2:22 AM ET
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Defense
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Doug Farrar
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