Daniel Jeremiah, former scout for the Ravens, Browns and Eagles and current analyst for NFL.com, just tweeted this:
“The last 10 Super Bowl winners have all posted positive sack differentials during their championship seasons (defense has garnered more sacks than offense has allowed). SF is currently minus 9.”
Is this an early season fluke or a serious issue for the 49ers? Do you think they’ll finish the season with a positive sack differential?
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I don’t put too much stock in it. A few years ago, everyone was saying how Indy couldn’t win a Super Bowl with how horrible their run D was, and that did matter (the 2006 season, when they beat the Bears). So now they’re a statistcal anomoly; who cares? The 49ers could win a Superbowl with more sacks taken than given.
I think sack differential is very telling because its a reflection of both your O line and your D line. fans and the media like to make a big deal about skill players but anyone who has ever coached the game knows games are won up front and yes i’m worried about our pass rush. i think our O line will come together and as long as alex smith is our QB we will always have a few extra sacks but our lack of sacks and more importantly lack of pressure on the QB worries me big time. i hopw we will start to see a change in that area tonight.
I’d like to know if our QB hits and hurries is down vs last year. After last year opposing QB’s are more aware of our pass rush and might possibly be throwing it away sooner rather then take the sack.
According to Pro Football Focus: 49ers defense had 128 hits and hurries through seven games last season. They have 78 hits and hurries this season.
Seems like given our #1 pass defense status and our record the lack of hits and sacks isn’t translating to more points for the offense necessarily. Our Int’s look pretty low I believe vs LY also so what other explanation is there; Are teams running more against us, are QB’s throwing more incompletions or throwing it away more often?
Gameplans to get rid of the football quickly against this defense are a contributing factor. Stats are for losers(: I look for the -9 to drop this evening.
@ Cfc:
The fact that the 49ers are giving up 60 fewer yards passing per game suggests that you may be right.
To quote Justin Smith (and other 49ers): “Stats are for losers.” All that matters is whether you win or lose. That being said, I’ll take the bait and throw out on statistic which is directly related to whether you win or loss: points per game. Yes, the sacks for the Niners D are down, but they are still dominant when it comes to points given up. Last year the D gave up 14.3 points per game. This year they are giving up 14.3 points per game. I think they are doing just fine.
I have t-shirts for sale nationally “Stats Are For Losers” in a variety of colors if anyone is interested.
stats may lie but the 49er pass rush does’nt pass the eye test either. wins and losses of course mean the most but when it gets to playoff time and most of the avg and poorer QB’s are gone the lack of pass rush might come back to haunt us
I’d agree that the pass rush hasn’t quite passed the eye test yet either, but I think the key word here is “yet”. This front seven definitely has the ability to be one of the best pass rushing teams in the league and I think by the end of the regular season the sack numbers will be pretty good. Let’s not forget that the offense needs to do a better job of jumping out to big, early leads so that the defense gets more opportunities to pin their ears back and rush the passer. That hasn’t happened in the last two games.
What was the 49ers sack differential last season?
@ Jack:
- 2
Thanks Claude. Hopefully they can pick those numbers up tonight.
One issue with that stat is that even though the offensive line has been given a lot of praise for their improvement, they are still near the bottom of the league in sacks given up.
@ Jack:
I think some of that has to do with Smith. Until I can get a crack at Football Outsiders’ numbers on sack rates by time, however, it’s all just subjective observation, which isn’t particularly reliable.
Plus, I think that the offensive line’s absolute dominance in the run game may have put a little shine on the view of their pass-blocking performance.
Claude why must you hate on J Smith? It’s all his fault the defensive line isn’t getting the sacks? Hater.
I put it on 3 Smiths. These two parts are a concern so far this season. Idk if J Smith is getting doubled a lot which should spring Aldon Smith more. And for more pressure. I hope J Smith is just starting slow. Gonna need him later in the season.
And on the other side of the ball. I don’t get Alex so far. He has taken a couple of sacks he shouldn’t have. I know he takes them once in awhile, but so far it seems to be happening at a faster pace.
Oh and the Claude joke was what I should have heard for bringing up this issue weeks ago, but Didnt get flack for that call. Only when talking about you know who do I get flack! Wheeew!
Two games vs ARI and STL still on the schedule, our sack differential will change