Just 1.5 second after the snap, Vick ran full speed into Jordan without ever seeing him, and the ball popped out for a fumble that rolled backwards. Vick tried to run away from Vilma, and he may have gotten away with it if not for defensive end Cameron Jordan coming off the edge. And at the snap, Jonathan Vilma came through the A-gap unblocked as center Dallas Reynolds picked up Curtis Lofton hitting the other A-gap. Vick is one who can at least consider it. There are very few quarterbacks who could think of getting away from an unblocked linebacker in the A-gap. Vick wasn’t going to have time to dump the ball off unless he could simply avoid the rush by himself. The Eagles knew there was the possibility of pressure through both A-gaps, but they left one of the linebackers unblocked.
#DONT GIVE UP UNBLOCKED FREE#
Instead of telling him to pick up one of the linebackers - as one of them was undoubtedly going to come free - he apparently told Brown to swing out for an outlet route. It was obvious that the Saints could pressure both A-gaps, and Vick did turn around pre-snap to say something to tailback Bryce Brown. With the Eagles in a two-tight end, two-wideout formation, the Saints had eight men at the line of scrimmage, with one safety in a deep Cover-1 look and both corners up for bump-and-run man coverage. Before the snap, a safety also walked up to the line, and the other linebacker was also up at the line. On second-and-13, the Saints lined up with a pair of linebackers standing in the A-gaps.
The third sack was just a complete breakdown. So there’s two sacks in two plays, one of which can be blamed partly on poor blocking and partly on Vick’s tendency to tuck and run. After dodging one potential tackler and running into one of his own linemen, Brodrick Bunkley wrapped him up before he he got back to the line of scrimmage, 4.0 seconds after the snap. Dunlap stayed with his man, and was able to ride Smith past Vick, but with Smith coming up the middle and a cornerback bringing pressure from the outside, Vick quickly (perhaps too quickly) tucked and took off. That became important when defensive end Will Smith beat tackle King Dunlap to the inside. While the cornerback was picked up, he did cut off any escape route to the inside. The Saints sent a cornerback off the edge. On the next play, Vick was sacked in a much more conventional Vick way. Wilson sidestepped Kelly leaving Vick with nowhere to go on a quick 2.2-second sack. On the first sack, guard Dennis Kelly almost completely missed his punch to engage Martez Wilson.
#DONT GIVE UP UNBLOCKED HOW TO#
Against the Saints, the Eagles couldn’t seem to figure out how to block rather straightforward blitzes.Īt their worst, the Eagles watched Vick get sacked three times in three plays - they actually got a first down on the first sack because of a roughing the quarterback penalty. But, just as importantly, the offensive line appears to be giving him more poorly blocked pass rushers to worry about. Nowadays, Vick isn’t outrunning those pass rushers as often as he did when he was younger. He appears to struggle to recognize where pressure is coming from, and his tendency to try to outrun pass rushers instead of getting rid of the ball leads to some big plays and some sacks. Throughout his career, Vick has been a quarterback who picks up plenty of sacks. Yes, Vick is terrible at recognizing blitzes, including some that seem quite obvious in the pre-snap phase, but he’s also playing behind a line that is doing a terrible job in pass protection. In watching all seven sacks, it’s apparent that both Vick and the Eagles' offensive line are to blame. It got even worse on Monday night, as Vick was sacked seven times.
Just last week, we mentioned that Michael Vick has been struggling to recognize blitzes. Unblocked Sack Leaders, 2012 (through Week 9)
In tabulating unblocked sacks, it’s also notable how rare they are: As the table below shows, only seven players have more than one unblocked sack this season. So all of them have come when he came through untouched. What’s equally amazing is that Dunbar only has three sacks this year. Dunbar is the only pass rusher in the league with three unblocked sacks this year. So who has gotten the most "freebie" sacks this year? Say hello to the Rams’ Jo-Lonn Dunbar. Of course, it can also be argued that a lot of times, the unblocked sack is more a result of a good defensive play call or a poor job of pass protection than any great skill on the past of the pass rusher. And when confusion means that a pass rusher is left unblocked, there is nothing better than the easy sack that usually results. There is nothing more enjoyable for a pass rusher than the play where everything gets screwed up.Ĭonfusion is a pass rusher's best friend.
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