Sig Stats: Team Blitzing

2014-Sig-Stats-tm-blitz If you are someone who tries to keep your eye off the ball during a play, something that can be fun to watch is who all is going after the quarterback. Some teams rarely bring something other than their typical four-man rush. Others seem to mix up who is going after the quarterback on every other pass play. Last year I examined how often teams blitzed and how successful they were in doing so. This year I’ll update the information for the 2014 as well as compare it to last year.

There are many ways to define a blitz, but here we’re defining it as someone pass rushing that the offense wouldn’t expect. For example, in a goal-line situation if there are six defensive linemen and they all rush the passer, that wouldn’t count as a blitz. However, in a base 3-4 defense if an ILB rushes instead of an OLB, it would count, even though it is still potentially just a four-man rush.

Blitz Percentage

The first part of the equation is how often teams blitz. The more a team blitzes, the more the offense needs to be ready for anything. The less they blitz, the more likely it can take the offense by surprise.

Like last year, we find the Arizona Cardinals near the top of the leaderboard. In their dime defense Deone Buchannon typically lines up near the line of scrimmage and rushed the passer 103 times — 34 more times than any other defensive back — and slot cornerback Jerraud Powers rushed the passer 54 times — 23 more times than any other corner. Most interesting at the top is the Rams who went from Tim Walton to Gregg Williams at defensive coordinator. Their personnel didn’t change too much from 2013 to 2014, but how often each linebacker and defensive back rushed the passer saw a significant increase.

Near the bottom of the list we find mostly 4-3 teams or teams with two good edge rushers. Most notable is the Bills who also saw a defensive coordinator change. Kiko Alonso rushed the passer 85 times in 2013, while no linebacker rushed more than 50 in 2014. The defensive backs also saw a decrease in pass rushes.

Rank	2013 Rank	Team	Blitzes	Dropbacks	Blitz %
1	23	SL	274	602	45.5%
2	1	ARZ	288	678	42.5%
3	9	IND	302	730	41.4%
4	10	TEN	244	604	40.4%
5	15	PIT	238	631	37.7%
6	3	HST	253	678	37.3%
7	5	GB	259	696	37.2%
8	11	WAS	195	585	33.3%
9	18	NYJ	198	598	33.1%
10	6	MIA	193	601	32.1%
11	21	NO	194	605	32.1%
12	12	ATL	196	613	32.0%
13	17	CHI	194	607	32.0%
14	7	PHI	211	668	31.6%
15	14	NYG	176	593	29.7%
16	8	CLV	190	645	29.5%
17	13	SD	170	578	29.4%
18	27	MIN	171	597	28.6%
19	2	OAK	164	578	28.4%
20	20	KC	171	616	27.8%
21	16	BLT	213	771	27.6%
22	31	DET	171	688	24.9%
23	24	CAR	161	681	23.6%
24	28	SEA	161	691	23.3%
25	19	DEN	169	755	22.4%
26	30	SF	133	605	22.0%
27	26	CIN	146	695	21.0%
28	4	BUF	134	640	20.9%
29	25	NE	155	746	20.8%
30	22	TB	124	613	20.2%
31	29	DAL	129	684	18.9%
32	32	JAX	90	602	15.0%

Pass Rushing Productivity While Blitzing

Next are the teams that are best at blitzing as judged by our Pass Rushing Productivity Signature Stat. Like last year, we find a lot of the top teams are ones that don’t necessarily blitz often, but they just have a strong pass rush so occasionally adding another player only helps. A team like the Ravens move up to the Top 10 not so much because they have an inside linebacker or defensive back who is an impressive rusher, but more the front four they have are good, and adding a fifth helps.

A trio of teams who were in the Top 10 moved into the Bottom 10 in part due to decreased linebacker blitzing. For example, in 2013 the Buccaneers sent Lavonte David 105 times which led to eight sacks. In 2014 he only rushed the passer 56 times which led to one.

Rank	2013 Rank	Team	Dropbacks	Sacks	Hits	Hurries	PRP
1	6	MIA	193	22	20	55	40.5
2	1	SEA	161	15	24	43	40.5
3	5	SF	133	7	12	50	40.2
4	9	DEN	169	15	27	41	39.1
5	2	CAR	161	14	18	47	39.0
6	22	BLT	213	19	45	39	38.5
7	12	ARZ	288	14	32	90	36.6
8	14	BUF	134	13	17	31	36.6
9	26	NYG	176	19	29	31	36.4
10	27	PHI	211	17	29	50	36.1
11	13	NE	155	14	19	37	36.1
12	21	JAX	90	9	12	18	35.0
13	10	CIN	146	6	20	40	34.9
14	17	NO	194	12	20	53	34.4
15	30	PIT	238	16	37	50	34.1
16	7	DET	171	14	20	39	34.1
17	19	DAL	129	9	15	31	33.7
18	32	CLV	190	13	16	52	33.7
19	25	GB	259	20	30	59	33.5
20	23	SL	274	27	27	59	33.4
21	16	MIN	171	12	22	38	33.3
22	24	CHI	194	14	25	41	32.7
23	29	NYJ	198	19	20	41	32.7
24	3	WAS	195	17	27	35	32.6
25	15	IND	302	25	38	57	31.9
26	18	HST	253	6	42	55	31.1
27	4	TB	124	10	10	27	30.4
28	31	SD	170	9	15	42	30.4
29	11	TEN	244	21	22	46	29.5
30	8	KC	171	12	19	29	28.1
31	20	OAK	164	9	17	29	26.5
32	28	ATL	196	9	22	34	26.0

Pass Rushing Productivity Without the Blitz

Finally, we look at how good teams are when they don’t blitz. In general, teams are a lot better at getting pressure when blitzing. However, if a quarterback can recognize the blitz and get a pass off, in general their numbers are better than when they aren’t blitzed. At the top of the list of a normal rush is the Houston Texans thanks to J.J. Watt. Next year if Jadeveon Clowney can live up anywhere close to the hype, they might produce an even bigger lead on the rest of the league.

The Packers and Giants were able to move up from the Bottom 10 to the Top 10 in part due to strong free agent additions of Julius Peppers and Robert Ayers. On the flip side, the Bills fell from first to 14th. All four of their starting pass rushers played well in 2014, but none of them played as well as they did in 2013. In St. Louis, Robert Quinn nearly single-handedly moved the team to the second spot, but his play came down to Earth in 2014 which brought the team’s performance down as well.

Rank	2013 Rank	Team	Dropbacks	Sacks	Hits	Hurries	PRP
1	5	HST	425	31	48	79	29.7
2	7	DET	517	35	54	101	29.3
3	18	PHI	457	32	30	94	27.4
4	17	NYJ	400	24	35	76	26.8
5	25	GB	437	30	32	81	26.3
6	14	MIN	426	28	32	77	25.8
7	26	NYG	417	27	33	74	25.7
8	15	BLT	558	36	45	97	25.5
9	3	SEA	530	24	39	109	25.5
10	22	WAS	390	21	21	83	25.4
11	11	KC	445	34	18	87	25.3
12	23	NE	591	29	45	115	25.2
13	27	PIT	393	18	31	77	25.2
14	1	BUF	506	41	31	83	25.0
15	8	NO	411	22	20	86	24.7
16	6	SF	472	27	32	87	24.6
17	29	OAK	414	13	25	93	24.5
18	32	ATL	417	13	22	93	23.8
19	4	CAR	520	30	37	86	23.5
20	30	CHI	413	24	36	59	23.1
21	10	MIA	408	17	26	76	22.9
22	9	DEN	586	25	36	109	22.8
23	31	SD	408	17	27	74	22.7
24	28	DAL	555	22	42	96	22.6
25	13	ARZ	390	21	21	67	22.3
26	12	TEN	360	18	21	60	21.9
27	21	TB	489	25	37	72	21.8
28	2	SL	328	14	14	60	21.2
29	16	CIN	549	15	42	91	20.9
30	24	JAX	512	35	23	73	20.9
31	19	IND	428	20	22	59	18.9
32	20	CLV	455	18	19	70	18.6

* All data includes playoffs

* For Pass Rushing Productivity, if on a play one player had a pressure and another player had a sack, it was just treated as a sack. Therefore the data might not add up to what you see elsewhere on the site by individual totals. This was done so we could see — if you add up the sacks, hits and hurries — the number of plays on which a team created pressure.

Follow Nathan on Twitter: @PFF_NateJahnke

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