Bucs Doing A Decent Job Protecting Baker Mayfield
September 29th, 2023
Keeping his uniform clean.
This is going to anger two different groups.
Now yesterday Joe typed a story about how, despite getting dragged by Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson on Monday night, Joe Tryon-Shoyinka was tied for eighth-most quarterback pressures from all linebackers. In the story, Joe referenced how sacks are drive-killers.
Predictably, someone came at Joe claiming he was full of it. This, despite massive statistical data demonstrating how sacks kill offensive drives.
Well, here is some fresh data from noted handicapper turned stathead Warren Sharp about how important sacks are, and how much sacks doom offensive drives.
Per Sharp, so far this season through Week 3 games (not including the Lions-Packers game last night), of the 212 offensive drives that ended in a touchdown, only six percent came after a sack.
So yeah, sacks are drive-killers. It’s silly to suggest otherwise. However, buried in Sharp’s intel is that the Bucs are doing a damn good job keeping quarterback Baker Mayfield upright.
Only 10 percent of the Bucs’ offensive drives this year have seen Mayfield sacked. That’s fifth-best in the NFL.
Considering how the Bucs’ offensive line was overhauled and playing in a brand new offense, that stat to Joe is extraordinary.
So not only is Sharp’s information going to anger the folks who seem to think a quarterback pressure is more important than a sack, Sharp’s intel is bound to annoy the folks who habitually bellyache about the Bucs offensive line… just because.
there have been 212 TD drives this season
on only 13 of them (6.1%) did the offense allow a sack
the lowest rate of TD drives allowing a sack we've seen since 2016
sack avoidance is massive
% of drives an offense allows at least one sack in 2023:
37% – Washington Commanders…
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) September 27, 2023
September 29th, 2023 at 3:56 am
Bucs have two problems to solve
We have to develop a running game.
We have a beat up secondary
Everything else is holding up surprisingly well
Not bad. Not bad at all
September 29th, 2023 at 4:32 am
They’ve only played one real team so far. The Vikings and Bears skews pretty much all our stats and on paper make us look a lot better than we really are.
September 29th, 2023 at 6:22 am
The main protector of Maybefield is Joe.
September 29th, 2023 at 6:23 am
He may have only been sacked twice against Philly, but it seemed he was running for his life every other play
September 29th, 2023 at 6:45 am
What a joke, we all watch the games. No stats are going to refute the truth. The O line is horrible and Baker has to scramble for his life. Save Wirfs, the rest of line are backups at best. Cody shouldn’t even be in the NFL and Godeke is a disaster. No idea what Hainsey is doing at center, but the LB’s just blow past him and he can’t pick up stunts.
September 29th, 2023 at 7:01 am
Pass protection has been pretty decent this year (stats back this up, as do pass attempts). The run game is what has been atrocious.
@Joe is there any data you can find about run blocking similar to this article? The eye test tells me that it is some blocking and a lot of “twinkle toes” R White dancing around looking for the Grand Canyon to form.
September 29th, 2023 at 7:08 am
Of course sacks are drive killer. You can learn about it in Defense 101. As the great Bugs Bunny often says, “Don’t be a maroon!”
September 29th, 2023 at 7:25 am
Oline and White need to improve greatly against Aints or they may win 10-3-BET THE UNDER 40.5-MORTAL LOCK.
September 29th, 2023 at 7:28 am
Bucs need a stronger center to have a run game.
Either that or two powerful guards, unfortunately they have to play with what they have.
Hainsey is looking more like EDS or Hawley than Jenson. Until then our running backs have to get behind the tackles before the middle of the line is blown up.
September 29th, 2023 at 7:42 am
A 3 play drive improves the odds compared to a 12 play drive.
September 29th, 2023 at 7:43 am
Wasted up the gutts run plays improve odds of sack too.
September 29th, 2023 at 8:02 am
We protected Brady also…..but we simply can’t run block…..not good enough.
September 29th, 2023 at 9:13 am
True!
September 29th, 2023 at 9:33 am
This OL clearly seems to be an upgrade over last years patchwork replacement of three significant players in Jensen, Marpet, and Cappa. That last year’s OL sucked was pretty predictable given those challenges.
I think this OL has major potential for growth and they are already decent. But I don’t go crazy over this stat with major props for them.
In honesty (at the risk of hacking people off) do we believe those lack of sacks would be the same if TB12 had been QB. IOW Mayfield deserves an equal amount of credit for the low sack totals. We haven’t seen a QB like him since perhaps Garcia although Fameis was amazingly slippery and even though he was very slow, he was agile and athletic enough to escape rushers. I always considered that a strength of Fameis…sometimes it was uncanny like he had eyes in the back of his head.
September 29th, 2023 at 10:10 am
If the line is protecting Baker surprisingly well. Baker is producing surprisingly little. I didn’t think he would be Brady but I was hoping with a new OC he would play better than this.
September 29th, 2023 at 10:45 am
Well I just want to say that the line is doing a good job protecting Baker. And he has The uncanny ability to make defenders miss.
September 29th, 2023 at 10:55 am
How about penalties? Just for comparison…one would think any drive with any loss of yardage or going “backwards” would have similar stats…no?
September 29th, 2023 at 11:36 am
I do believe our Oline is good at pass protection and those stats prove it. Our Oline is 💩 at run blocking and RW1 also is t hitting the limited holes that are provided which is why our run game (what run game ) isn’t producing and just adding another back isn’t going to totally fix the equation. While it might improve with a guy like JT28 it would only improve marginally and most likely he would just end up spraining an ankle again like last year while constantly being hit behind the LOS. We need some road graders up front. I know canales owned the safety play but doesn’t make sense why a rookie WR was blocking in the back when we got ME13 n CG14 who are really good physical blockers
September 29th, 2023 at 12:02 pm
Hey Joe, why are these guys so terrible at run blocking? Do they not hit the dummy sled enough? They have no kind of push. Does the coaching staff not instill enough run blocking drills ? I also have always thought offensive linemen love to run block. It seems like this line doesn’t get enough practice at it.
September 29th, 2023 at 12:07 pm
Licht really had built us a great line. Really hurt to lose Marpet to retirement and Jenson to injury. If those guys are still playing the line would be fantastic. Hard to blame Licht for that
September 29th, 2023 at 2:34 pm
If Baker was less mobile and shifty, they would have given up double the sacks already, easily.
So Let’s not forget to give HIM some of the credit for wiggling and spinning his way out of sacks when the o-line failed.
September 29th, 2023 at 3:27 pm
Does Joe even watch the games? It wasn’t the OL that prevented sacks.
September 29th, 2023 at 8:14 pm
It’s easy for the coaches to protect Mayfield 95% of his passes are behind the line of scrimmage or within 5 yards of the line, down field he has a problem, over throws, under throws, or just flat out missing the receiver