QB Pressure / D Line - The Most Important Factor in Football

[timmat]

Every season, every game, it's nearly all about D line / O line play in my opinion.

We're seeing a lot of reaction to last night's game referring to mistakes that were made by both offenses - some calling it sloppy football. Interceptions, near interceptions, fumbles, defensive points from turnovers, etc. Many reports are approaching this as if they were straight up miscues and mistakes - by both teams.

However, sloppy offensive play in the case of last night was caused and created. When you play that style of D up front (both teams), all of a sudden the secondary looks tons better - getting interceptions, near interceptions, pass break-ups, etc. The fact is QBs making rushed decisions make mistakes.

Get in the QBs face enough, and all of a sudden they rush throws even when they are not pressured. We've even seen Russ with happy feet from time to time, given the amount of pounding he's taken. Jimmy was way off his game due to our pressure last night.

There are only a small group of QBs that can stay calm and beat pressure (luckily Russ is one of them, with his mobility). It looked like to me Jimmy G is not quite there yet - as most aren't.

Last night we saw some use of Flowers in pass rush situations. We saw Shaquem Griffin rushing the QB from the DE position. Clowney was all over - Reed was good - Ford was good. I'm hoping this emphasis remains - as all of a sudden, we'll see some of the back-end issues on D clear up.

Not a lot of us talking about Russ getting sacked 5 times last night.

Our O-line's ability to protect, and our D-line's ability to pressure, will be what determines how far this group goes. Because Russ will be amazing, and our D will produce turnovers - if both lines handle their business.

 

[DomeHawk]

Every season, every game, it's nearly all about D line / O line play in my opinion.

We're seeing a lot of reaction to last night's game referring to mistakes that were made by both offenses - some calling it sloppy football. Interceptions, near interceptions, fumbles, defensive points from turnovers, etc. Many reports are approaching this as if they were straight up miscues and mistakes - by both teams.

However, sloppy offensive play in the case of last night was caused and created. When you play that style of D up front (both teams), all of a sudden the secondary looks tons better - getting interceptions, near interceptions, pass break-ups, etc. The fact is QBs making rushed decisions make mistakes.

Get in the QBs face enough, and all of a sudden they rush throws even when they are not pressured. We've even seen Russ with happy feet from time to time, given the amount of pounding he's taken. Jimmy was way off his game due to our pressure last night.

There are only a small group of QBs that can stay calm and beat pressure (luckily Russ is one of them, with his mobility). It looked like to me Jimmy G is not quite there yet - as most aren't.

Last night we saw some use of Flowers in pass rush situations. We saw Shaquem Griffin rushing the QB from the DE position. Clowney was all over - Reed was good - Ford was good. I'm hoping this emphasis remains - as all of a sudden, we'll see some of the back-end issues on D clear up.

Not a lot of us talking about Russ getting sacked 5 times last night.

Our O-line's ability to protect, and our D-line's ability to pressure, will be what determines how far this group goes. Because Russ will be amazing, and our D will produce turnovers - if both lines handle their business.

I have been posting all season that our season will go as our d-line goes. They are coming together!

 

[HawkStrong]

Not a lot of us talking about Russ getting sacked 5 times last night.

I think that was to be expected, especially given the game went to OT. At least two of those sacks should have been penalized (facemask, horsecollar) as well. Another one was called in the grasp, when it clearly wasn't, Russ would have a 4 yard gain.

SF's dline is their strength and they came up big on third down over and over. Overall though, I though Seattle did a good job moving the pocket and getting Russ out in space. Wilson also had some magic in the pocket, and some timely scrambles, mitigating a lot of SF's pass rush.

Numbers don't really tell the whole story here.