https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Phzb0hq99M
2:04 here, W. Anderson....it's a stunt and he gets the sack, but did he do anything any OLB who runs under a 4.8 forty couldn't do?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjfI_oVCgRs&t=118s
3:20 here, A.Hutchinson....it's a shit play-action and he's there, and gets the sack....but did he do anything special there?
These aren't examples of either player doing anything wrong or anything like that, but they made plays anyone decent would have made. On both plays, they were unblocked. Both plays ended in a sack.....as they should have. The Hutchinson play was designed not to block him. The Anderson play, the blocker was amusingly tardy and they simply handled the stunt poorly.
But these are good examples of what I've been talking about.
Hmmm. Interesting.
The first one, it ends up a 2-3 gap stunt. That's not easy, especially as fast as he did it. But you're correct, it's the product of good scheme.
The second one, I probably give Hutchinson a good deal of credit. He's almost never gonna crash there, but he gains ground really quickly while the QB is bootlegging. He does a good job keeping hands up and ensuring the passing lane is closed. The short WR is open on the whip, but Hutchinson's ability to play in control, read the situation and get where he's going quicker than most makes that a sack where a lot of D ends likely give up the pass to the flat. It's not a prefect two-play (taking away QB run and throw), but an above average one.
This opens a larger question. In this scenario, we're basically saying if you're a weapon on a blitz or stunt, those stats should be counted as lesser (especially a kind of stunt that's easy to eff up for the defense because it's almost never picked up). And if you cover ground well under control, it also should be lesser to a degree. So do we punish people for making the plays that are there? That seems overcomplicated, reductive and quite squishy.
You're better off measuring upside plays (or downside plays). Doubles and triples draws (assuming they don't drive you into the dirt), different degrees of pop plays, percent of blocks beaten. Or maybe finding rates (pressures per drop back or some such thing). It seemed oddly roundabout to start with the numbers and then try to factor out the average, especially when it's really just focused on TFLs and sacks. (It's also weird to create a situation where a free runner situation is counted against a defender, but I guess if you want to)
