Eagles blitz production from LBs, DBs
What kind of production did the Eagles get from their linebackers and defensive backs in 2009? A look at the numbers, with the help of the 2010 Football Outsiders Almanac.
Eagles blitz production from LBs, DBs
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
At 9:11 p.m. Friday evening, I bought the PDF version of the 2010 Football Outsiders' Almanac.
About a half-hour later, I found myself looking up the Eagles' blitz trends over the past five years.
Do I need a life? Yes. Although my excuse here is that I had to be up at 5 a.m. to catch a flight to Denver.
But that's what happens with this thing. I definitely recommend checking it out even if you're not a huge stats guy. Pages worth of information to digest as we look ahead to the 2010 season. Do I agree with everything written in their chapter on the Eagles? No. But that's not really the point. Most of the content in there is extremely useful.
The one item that I wanted to touch on here is what they wrote about the Eagles' blitz in 2009. If you're a frequent MTC reader, you've heard me mention about 579 times that the Birds did not have enough success when they blitzed last year, and that led to defensive struggles.
Well, thanks to Football Outsiders, I now have some numbers to back this up. The Eagles sent six or more defenders after the quarterback 21.1 percent of the time - second-most in the NFL. They zone blitzed 13.7 percent of the time - also second-most in the NFL.
But just because they blitzed a lot doesn't mean they blitzed effectively, as is pointed out in the Football Outsiders research:
Once again, the Eagles were among the most likely teams to blitz and zone-blitz. However, unlike past years, the Eagles defense wasn’t actually any more efficient when it zone-blitzed or sent extra pass rushers.
4.5 (10.2 percent) of the Eagles' 44 sacks were by linebackers, the fifth-lowest percentage in the league.
1.5 (3.4 percent) of the Eagles' 44 sacks were by defensive backs, also the fifth-lowest percentage in the league.
Now, as I've mentioned several times, there's more to measuring pass pressure than just sacks. There is disrupting timing, forcing the quarterback to rush his throws, etc. But there's no doubt in my mind that the Eagles did not do a good enough job at any of these things last year when Sean McDermott sent extra defenders.
I decided to take a look at the numbers over the last five seasons. The first chart looks at linebacker sacks for the Eagles over the last five seasons.
| Year | LB sacks | Total sacks | Percentage |
| 2009 | 4.5 | 44 | 10.2% |
| 2008 | 5.5 | 48 | 11.4% |
| 2007 | 3.0 | 37 | 8.1% |
| 2006 | 3.5 | 40 | 8.75% |
| 2005 | 1.0 | 29 | 3.4% |
Not a lot of conclusions to be drawn here. The sacks by Eagles linebackers in 2009 pretty much fell in line with other years, and they even performed a little better than usual.
Here are the defensive backs.
| Year | DB sacks | Total sacks | Percentage |
| 2009 | 1.5 | 44 | 3.4% |
| 2008 | 8.0 | 48 | 16.7% |
| 2007 | 2.0 | 37 | 5.4% |
| 2006 | 5.5 | 40 | 13.8% |
| 2005 | 6.5 | 29 | 22.4% |
Quite a difference here though, huh? The Eagles' 1.5 sacks by DBs was the lowest total in the past five years; as was the 3.4%. If you take away 2007, the difference is pretty significant. The Eagles got one sack from reserve safety Sean Jones and a half-a-sack from nickel corner Joselio Hanson last season. If you remember, McDermott blitzed Hanson quite a bit from the slot.
Neither of the starting safeties had a sack all season. At cornerback, McDermott rarely (if ever) sent Sheldon Brown after he was injured. And I can't remember a single time that Asante Samuel blitzed.
Here's a chart with the total LB and DB sacks.
| Year | LB and DB sacks | Total sacks | Percentage |
| 2009 | 6.0 | 44 | 13.6% |
| 2008 | 13.5 | 48 | 28.1% |
| 2007 | 5.0 | 37 | 13.5% |
| 2006 | 9.0 | 40 | 22.5% |
| 2005 | 7.5 | 29 | 25.9% |
The Eagles had 7.5 fewer sacks from their linebackers and defensive backs in 2009 than in 2008. And during the five-year stretch, if you take away 2007, the percentage was significantly lower.
The team's offseason moves were interesting in that they focused on bolstering the defensive line. I have said constantly that this is still going to be a blitzing defense, but I'll admit there's a little part of me that wonders if McDermott would like to only send the four defensive linemen just a little bit more often, allowing the LBs and DBs to focus on coverage.
Maybe I can ask him about that at Lehigh, which is only 16 days away.
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Interesting notes, but we don't really need statistics to tell us the secondary has to play better and that Asante didn't (and won't) have any sacks. I am not too concerned about sacks from the secondary anyway, as you stated if everyone including the front four get better than the secondary can do their main job of coverage.— JohnFC- Can anybody say......"We missed Brian Dawkins?"— Unstable1
- Correction SK: This is Andy Reid's defense. Very small, quick(?). If they can't get off the field, they'll wear down, and you know what happens next. End of year, Sean McD gets canned. Chubby stays put.— mccloudmj
- 8 DB Sacks in 08..im willing to bet a good contigent of em were Dawk...notice the dropoff in 09 in DB sacks....miss ya Dawk!— StrugzTW
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- Again fans, this is not Sean McDermott's fault that the defense is not performing well. This is all on the coach and front office of the Eagles, which continue to get a pass from the Philly media. The starting back seven on defense can't blitz, tackle running backs within the line of scrimmage and give up too many big plays covering receivers. Is McDermott choosing the players? I think not. And, what does the Eagles do in the draft, they draft three defensive ends with their first four picks. That is totally incompetent. Are we going to play six defensive linemen at one time? When will the fans wise-up and realize this team needs a regime change from the front office to the head coach? The weakest links on this team are not being addressed. The back seven seven on defense, the center and guard positions and back-up running backs continue to be the weakest links that are repeated exploited year-after-year, but you couldn't tell by the reaction of the Eagles front office.— RunningTheBases
- For the record: Dawkins had 3 sacks in 2008. This was 6.25% of the total sacks.— brandelphia
- Actually RTB, the eagles lost Abrimiri, Clemons and Darren Howard so they needed to replace them. Its not like they were stacking up DLs.
- Running; I agree that this isn't completely McDermotts fault. He is in waaaaaay over his head and his boss, A.R., should know this but only hinders him by getting rid of his team leaders. The only thing bigger then A.R.'s waistline is his ego, he values yes men over talent and that's what frustrates me most about this team
- McDermott has a lot on his shoulders this year. Front Office backed him 1000% looking at the draft. I'd have preferred J.Peppers and a stellar safety or DB in the draft. But, 2010 will have its challenges. McD isn't Johnson and he will play a coverage defense with pressure from front four-adding Teo at DT to get some pressure there,too. IN 2009, defense was SOOOO Predictable even dumber than a box of rock: Keith Brookings "got it".— Smashmouth
- Would ya shut up about Dawkins...like a bunch of cry baby school girls. He's gone, gotta get it done without him.— Gray Areas
- Intelligent posts here today. No smack! MJMcCloud and RTB have it right. And SK, enjoy your remaining months of freedom. Goggle "SavetheMales" to read all about what modern women think, and why marriages fail.— ItalianSausage
- Shel, you got it backwards. The reason that the LB's and DB's blitz so often and ineffectively is because that's the only way the DL can get any pressure at all. Even Cole is a relatively ineffective pass rusher without the blitz, and Parker is essentially a waiver wire guy except when they bring 6. The LB's are designed to simply take on blockers in the blitz, as you can see from the tiny amount of payroll space they take up.— jimmyj
- the better the O the better the D. I see the Eagles having more of a ball control offense with Kolb, more efficient with more early scoring putting the D in a lot better positions. If the D is not a dominating one, which it ain't, it needs the O to keep them off the field.— notch44
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