Rob Ninkovich was one of the best edge rushers in the league last week
Former Boston Globe columnist turned Sports Illustrated writer, Greg Bedard, has been running one of my favorite new columns over at MMQB.com.
In the column he tracks "pressure points" which are essentially the best way to date to judge pass rushers. Sacks aren't everything, and a lot of times the player getting the sack might just be cleaning up a play set up by his teammates. Pressure points looks at not only sacks, but assisted sacks, quarterback hurries and disruptions as a higher way of evaluating pass rushers.
Chandler Jones was top 10 in the league through the first two weeks, but has since slipped out of that spot. Overall, the Patriots as a team are only 27th in the league in pressure points. However, one fan favorite just earned the "Unsung edge rusher of Week 4" from MMQB for his performance against the Falcons.
MMQB:
The reason I love this column is because it really highlights the plays and players that are hard to pick up on when watching the game live. Football is a game where so many things are happening at once, there are any number of factors that contribute to the end result of each play. Of course, we always just see the end result.
Photo via MMQB
In the column he tracks "pressure points" which are essentially the best way to date to judge pass rushers. Sacks aren't everything, and a lot of times the player getting the sack might just be cleaning up a play set up by his teammates. Pressure points looks at not only sacks, but assisted sacks, quarterback hurries and disruptions as a higher way of evaluating pass rushers.
Chandler Jones was top 10 in the league through the first two weeks, but has since slipped out of that spot. Overall, the Patriots as a team are only 27th in the league in pressure points. However, one fan favorite just earned the "Unsung edge rusher of Week 4" from MMQB for his performance against the Falcons.
MMQB:
Didn’t take Ninkovich long to reinforce to the Patriots that he was worth his recent three-year contract extension, as his 4.0 pressure points against the Falcons were nearly as much as his first three games combined (5.6). Ninkovich didn’t have a sack against the Falcons, but his eight hurries were tied for a league high with Hali. None was bigger than the hurry he notched with 9:43 left in the game—not that you would have known it from the television broadcast. Ninkovich dipped inside right tackle Jeremy Trueblood and quickly got in the face of Matt Ryan. Ninkovich’s presence sped up the throw from Ryan to Roddy White and caused an underthrow that was intercepted by cornerback Aqib Talib. Not that viewers were told that. The only thing they heard about was Talib’s pick.
The reason I love this column is because it really highlights the plays and players that are hard to pick up on when watching the game live. Football is a game where so many things are happening at once, there are any number of factors that contribute to the end result of each play. Of course, we always just see the end result.
Photo via MMQB
