Kelly Bates
CFL.ca
Due to the intricacies of offensive line play, stat trackers have succumbed to generalizing and determining our success as a group in one of two ways. Performance is usually determined via the success of the running game or the amount of sacks surrendered. Today I am going to concentrate on educating everyone to the nuances of the sack stat and why this stat is, more often than not, a representation of the performance of the offense as a whole rather than a direct measurement of the offensive line’s performance.
Sacks given up can be broken down into the following categories:
• Sacks given up by the offensive line
• Sacks given up by secondary blockers
• Sacks due to add-ins
• Coverage sacks
• Boot-out sacks
Now let me explain the above categories. Sacks given up by the offensive line are sacks that occur when an offensive lineman fails to carry out his blocking assignment. For the sack to be credited to the offensive line it will have to occur before or around the four-second mark of the play itself.
Sacks given up by secondary blockers are those sacks that occur when a running back or receiver allow their blocking assignment to get to the quarterback. For the majority of games, most offenses choose to use six and sometimes seven blockers to protect the quarterback. Generally, since there are only five offensive lineman on the field, the protection assignment calls for a running back and sometimes even a receiver to come into the pocket to block.
Sacks due to add-ins tend to occur against a team that likes to pressure the quarterback into making a quick decision on where he wants to deliver the ball. What a defence will do is bring one more defender then there are blockers to attack the quarterback. This defender becomes a hot read for the quarterback and tells him he has to get rid of the ball now or take the hit and, possibly, the sack.
Coverage sacks occur when the defence’s coverage of the offense’s receivers do not allow the quarterback to deliver the ball. Eventually a quarterback will be forced to scramble or take a sack. Generally, any sack that occurs after four seconds of play within the play itself can be counted as a coverage sack as long as the quarterback was not pressured in any way before the sack.
This last stat is a new one that I have decided to add because when it occurs and is credited to the offensive line it really, really, really … upsets us. A lot of offenses employ a boot out option for the quarterback in any number of called run plays. The quarterback will make a read based on any number of defensive characteristics that will allow him to either hand the ball off to the running back or keep it himself and boot(run) out of the pocket and either run or throw the ball downfield. Meanwhile, the offensive line blocks the play as it was called in the huddle regardless of what the quarterback chooses to do. Sometimes a wrong read is made in keeping the ball and, as a result, after choosing to keep the ball the quarterback is sacked and the sack is ultimately credited to the offensive line.
There you have it; a breakdown of the art of declaring sack responsibility.
Now in stating the abovementioned and even though you may now understand a little more about this topic, in the end, if each blocker does not carry out their assignment a sack just may occur, thus further adding to that nasty sack number they show at the beginning of each telecast when discussing the offensive line.
Kelly Bates has been a regular starter along the BC Lions’ offensive line since 2003. He was a 2007 CFL All-Star and played his 100th career game in Week 3.
