It’s important to start by defining what makes a football game exciting. There are moments that can truly make you jump out of your chair when watching a sport that is filled with 1-yard runs, punts every 10 minutes and penalty flags: touchdowns and sacks.
But let’s focus on the latter here. There is something so satisfying about watching a quarterback get crushed in half by a 300-pound lineman who would most likely be a truck driver if it weren’t for the NFL.
The anxious anticipation of watching a quarterback decide where to throw the ball only for the camera to never cut down the field and quickly zoom in on the QB getting powerbombed by a blitzing linebacker is the best part about a Sunday afternoon.
That’s what makes the Chicago Bears must-see TV.
Gene Deckerhoff calls Jason Pierre-Paul’s fourth down sack of Justin Fields #GoBucs pic.twitter.com/0V3b8CwwIz
— Bucs Rays Bolts (@BucsRaysBoltsYT) October 24, 2021
Justin Fields leads in the league in getting destroyed. He’s been sacked 22 times already this season which is amazing considering he ranks 30th with only 131 pass attempts. He’s being sacked 14.4% of the times he drops back. There is no quarterback in the NFL that has a sack rate above 10%.
Here are some more fun sack stats from PFF:
Highest percentage of pressured dropbacks that turn into sacks:
Justin Fields 33.3%
Baker Mayfield 30.0
Davis Mills 28.8
Russell Wilson 24.1
Aaron Rodgers 23.9
Ryan Tannehill 23.9
Zach Wilson 23.5
Joe Burrow 23.2
Kyler Murray 22.5This is very much a QB-driven stat
— Steve Palazzolo (@PFF_Steve) October 25, 2021
Most sacks charged directly to QB rather than blockers, @PFF:
Kyler Murray 8
Zach Wilson 7
Davis Mills 6
Russell Wilson 6
Patrick Mahomes 6
Justin Fields 5
Ben Roethlisberger 5
Teddy Bridgewater 5QBs are a factor in MOST of their sacks, but this is a list with no split blame
— Steve Palazzolo (@PFF_Steve) October 25, 2021
Essentially, all of this means that you have to watch the Bears because these sacks aren’t ending anytime soon. Their offensive line is getting stampeded by pass rushers and letting them kill Fields and Fields isn’t getting rid of the ball and he’s just getting devoured over and over and over and over and over.
It’s the perfect relationship between an offensive line that has no idea how to play football and a quarterback that thinks he can elude pash rushers instead of simply throwing the ball away and an offensive gameplan that isn’t creating easy quick targets for Fields to hit before he gets swallowed up.
But if you love sacks, there are more reasons to love the Chicago Bears.
Khalil Mack is a really, really good football player.
This doesn’t really have anything to do with that. It’s just a T/E stunt that GB could have pretty easily picked up. pic.twitter.com/sqStSntia2
— Ross Uglem (@RossUglem) October 18, 2021
The Chicago Bears defense leads the league in sacks. Khalil Mack has 6 and Robert Quinn has 5.5. When you turn to a Bears game, expect to see quarterbacks getting ragdolled left and right. Thank you, Jon Gruden, for being racist and getting pissed that Mack DARE demand more money and trading him to the Bears out of spite.
I need footage of their practices where I imagine they don’t even use an offensive line and they let these monsters bodyslam Justin Fields all day long.
Thank you, Matt Nagy. Never fire this hero.
