Sacking the quarterback is what Terrell Suggs is best known for, and that’s something Suggs hasn’t done much of lately: Suggs doesn’t have any sacks this season, and he only had one over the last eight games of last season.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh, however, says people who are only looking at Suggs’ sack totals aren’t looking at a complete picture of his impact on Baltimore’s defense.
“Anybody who knows anything about football who watches the tape will tell you he’s playing really, really well,” Harbaugh said, via ESPN. “He was very disruptive in his pass rush. Not just that, he’s playing great in the run game. I’d say all around his game is an A-plus.”
Harbaugh is right. We only have one commonly used statistic for pass rushers, and that statistic is sacks, and so people tend to focus only on how many sacks a defensive end or outside linebacker records, without bothering to look at how many times he pressures the passer, how he plays the run, and so on. In reality, Suggs has made plenty of plays that aren’t reflected in his sack total, including a hit on Ben Roethlisberger in Week Two and a tackle on Andy Dalton after a short scramble in Week One. Opposing quarterbacks have felt Suggs’ presence, even if he hasn’t sacked anyone. Yet.