Revising Those Sack Stats

Clearly, it's Upon Further Review day around here. 

Back in early May, I put up this post that took a look at some of the Eagles' defensive stats and how they matched up historically.  My big takeaway, and lingering concern, was about interior pass rush, or rather the lack thereof.  We're still going to have to wait for the PFP game charting numbers to come out to resolve some of the debate around that issue, but thanks to some reporting by Bob Brookover today, we can refine the data a bit.

In a look at an under-the-radar Darren Howard -- and really, no one talks about him -- Brookover includes this bit:

The way he helped most was as a pass-rushing defensive tackle in the Eagles' nickel defense. He estimated that six of his 10 sacks came at defensive tackle rather than defensive end, the position the Eagles anticipated him playing when they signed him to a six-year, $32 million contract in 2006.

Assuming that's reasonably accurate, let's revisit that sack breakdown chart:

I left Howard '06 and '07 seasons unclassified.  I think most of those sacks came at end, but we don't know for sure and it doesn't really change things much either way.

Bottom line:  Even if you throw Howard's six DT sacks into the mix, you're still looking at interior pass rush numbers that are lower than what we saw the last time the defense was really good.  And what's unnerving is that we're not seeing much reason to believe the back seven can help pick up the slack.

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Now, I understand some people will think this isn't that important.  And it's true that for the Eagles to be a good team, they can just "limp along" with their current interior pass rush.  But let's say the Cardinals defy every recent trend and we see them in the playoffs again next year.  We already know covering everyone is out the window.  And you can't take the long way 'round to Warner because he gets rid of the ball too quickly.  In that case, some guys with the ability to come flying up the middle would come in awfully handy.