Over at coachingsearch.com, they’ve taken the time to look at which offenses over the past three seasons have generated the best ratio of passes attempted per sack allowed. Now, while I think the question in my header, which is posed in the post, is a bit over broad in assessing the cause/reason, it’s still interesting to look at sack rates, particularly in Georgia’s case.
Will Friend didn’t make the list of top fifteen. Here’s a breakdown of the numbers from 2012-4:
- 2014: 17 sacks allowed; 322 passing attempts; 18.9 pps
- 2013: 22 sacks allowed; 459 passing attempts; 20.9 pps
- 2012: 27 sacks allowed; 399 passing attempts; 14.8 pps
A couple of things there worth noting. One, while so many of us have harped on Aaron Murray’s turnovers over his career, we seemed to have missed out on the insane level of improvement in sack avoidance he made in his last season. (And, remember, that was with right tackle play that was inconsistent, to say the least.) Two, while Mason was very good in the turnover department, there was a drop off in the pass per sack rate last season. And that was with a much bigger reliance on the running game and a far more stable offensive line that what Georgia had in Murray’s last season.
The overall three-year numbers? 66 sacks allowed in 1180 passing attempts, leading to a 17.9 pps ratio. Again, not that close to the numbers on the chart posted at the link. It’ll be interesting to see where that goes this season, with a new QB, offensive coordinator and line coach.
Get The Picture 
Maybe this is off point and a minor contributor to the sack totals, but here goes: While I understand the importance of the play action fake to our offense, I often think we do it as a reflex – regardless of the situation. I can’t help but think of obvious passing situations, with the clock ticking down, only to see our QB make a fake to the RB. I wonder how many times the defense is actually “faked” when we do the play action, and whether the extra time allows defenders to get closer for a sack.
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“It’ll be interesting to see where that goes this season, with a new QB, offensive coordinator and line coach.”
This has been my concern that I have not stated amongst all the happy talk. UglyDawg is great at pumping us up and I like that but something in the back of my worries keeps surfacing. We have had much positive talk about the OL…anytime we praise one area of the team with high expectations…it seems THAT is the very area that disappoints. Now we have a new OC and new line coach, not to mention the QB of the OL will be a new starter. That is a lot of ‘new’ to overcome. Sale is obviously a recruiter…can he coach technique? How much ‘getting-accustom-to’ will be involved btw the tree above mention will there be?
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Forgot to add the new QB in there…that’s 4 ‘news’ in the mix.
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I’m deathly afraid that Kolton Houston’s decision to apply for his 6th year will get a QB killed this year…that guy has been absolutely Man-Handled and his feel good story should have run it’s course after giving up 25 sacks against Clemson in 2013…
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Don’t know if I saw him being much different than others not mentioned in your post. I think we only have about one OL very far above average, but at least they have more experience going into 2015. Think I will allow th new coaches to determine who should play and leave out cheap shotting any of our players.
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I’d like to see if there is also a correlation to the length of the passes thrown. I don’t think this is all on the o-line. I’d bet that teams that throw the ball down field more don’t score as highly in this stat as teams that dink and dunk a lot.
Hard to get sacked alot when the top two or three routes in the progression are less than ten yards.
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+1 I’m with you. UGA seems to have a progression that is deepest first then regresses to the next read until when all else fails throw it to the closest sideline. All this takes time and put a lot of pressure on the Oline. The spread teams for the most part throw it short and let the receiver try to break it (see solo tackle stats earlier today). The secret this year will be to use Chubb as a decoy like Gurley was. Fake sweeps, screens anything that has an overreacting D going after Chubb. The opposite side TE should be used until the other team stops the backside stuff. With any luck the opposing DC will be as back as some of the UGA DC’s have been about stopping the TE. SCe has worked us over year after year with their TE’s.
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