This article marks the start of a new statistical series on this site, giving light to some important statistics that don’t get a lot of, if any, publicity. This first one is passing attempts per sack allowed. It’s a simple concept. Some teams give up a lot of sacks because they have a lot of passing attempts. Some teams give up a lot of sacks because their line isn’t very good. This helps to differentiate between them. Team records are listed next to stats for reference.

1. IND 46.2 (14-2)

2.  NE 32.9 (10-6)

3. TEN 31.7 (8-8)

4. NO 27.2 (13-3)

5. HOU 23.7 (8-8)

6. ARI 22.8 (10-6)

7. ATL 21.1 (9-7)

8. SD 20.0 (13-3)

9. NYG 16.9 (8-8)

10. CIN 16.4 (10-6)

11. DEN 16.4 (8-8)

12. MIN 16.3 (12-4)

13. DAL 16.2 (11-5)

14. CHI 16.1 (7-9)

15. MIA 16.0 (7-9)

16. TB 15.9 (3-13)

17. SEA 14.9 (5-11)

18. CLE 14.8 (5-11)

19. PHI 14.6 (11-5)

20. BAL 14.2 (9-7)

21. CAR 14.1 (8-8)

22. DET 13.6 (2-14)

23. SF 13.2 (8-8)

24. NYJ 13.1 (9-7)

25. STL 12.3 (1-15)

26. KC 11.9 (4-12)

27. JAC 11.8 (7-9)

28. WAS 11.6 (4-12)

29. GB 10.8 (11-5)

30. PIT 10.7 (9-7)

31. OAK 9.9 (5-11)

32. BUF 9.6 (6-10)

Interestingly enough, the top 13 teams were .500 or better last year. Last year’s two Super Bowl teams were in the top 4. Also, 6 of the bottom 8 teams were 7-9 or worse last year, and the two who weren’t were the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have a quarterback that is not mentally phased at all by taking sacks, and the Green Bay Packers. The Packers did give up 51 sacks, but only 14 in their last 8 games, after they got left tackle Chad Clifton back from injury, and resigned right tackle Mark Tauscher out of retirement. In their first 8 games, they had 262 passing attempts. The 37 sacks they gave up in those 262 passing attempts gives them a ratio of 7.1 attempts per sack. They were 4-4 in those games. The 14 sacks they gave up in those 291 attempts after their first 8 games gives them a ratio of 20.8. They were 7-1 in those games with only one 1 point loss to Pittsburgh.

 If this doesn’t prove that having a good offensive line, or at least a quarterback like Peyton Manning who is amazingly adept at reading blitzes, is important to winning games. I don’t know what does. Also, of those bottom 11 teams, 4 of them didn’t draft any offensive linemen in the first 3 rounds. Those 4 teams, Buffalo, Kansas City, Detroit, and Jacksonville are ranked 30, 28, 25, and 23 in my Power Rankings respectively. I don’t make these things up randomly.