Dak Prescott has been sacked 45 times, by far the most in the NFL

Posted by Michael David Smith on November 30, 2018, 10:58 AM EST
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The Cowboys are riding high after Thursday night’s win over the Saints. But there’s one area where they have to improve.

That area is pass protection, where quarterback Dak Prescott was sacked seven times last night and has been sacked a whopping 45 times this season, by far the most in the NFL.

So far this season, Prescott has thrown 364 passes. If you calculate “dropbacks per sack” as (attempts+sacks)/sacks, Prescott gets sacked about once for every nine times he drops back. That’s bad: The average NFL quarterback gets sacked about once for every 15 times he drops back.

Prescott has already been sacked far more this season than he was sacked in either his rookie year (25 sacks) or his second year (32 sacks) even though he threw far more passes in those two seasons than he’s thrown so far this season.

A part of the problem for the Cowboys is that All-Pro left tackle Tyron Smith has missed the last two games. But the problems go beyond just Smith; Prescott had already been sacked a career-high 34 times in the 10 games Smith started.

Prescott himself has to bear some of the blame for failing to see the pass rush coming and get rid of the ball in a hurry. For the Cowboys to keep winning, they’re going to need to take better care of Prescott, and for Prescott to take better care of himself.

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30 responses to “Dak Prescott has been sacked 45 times, by far the most in the NFL”

  2. A lot of the “sacks” are half a yard behind the line of scrimmage. I’m not saying it should all be written off, it shouldn’t, but he has done a good job of running forward and escaping some of the bigger losses.

  5. “Prescott himself has to bear some of the blame for failing to see the pass rush coming and get rid of the ball in a hurry.”

    QFT
    Not a Cowboys fan but like a good portion of the nation my area is force fed their games at a rate disproportionate to their success. As a result I have probably seen Prescott play more than I have any other NFC QB since he became a starter and several times a game I find myself saying “How could he not see (or feel) that coming?”

  6. When you are missing your starting left tackle (Tyron Smith), and your starting center (Travis Frederick) plus you have had 2 different players playing left guard then you can expect a lot of sacks, you bring all the starters back together again then you will see less sacks and more yards for Zeke.

  8. The Giants play Chicago on Sunday. So I’m sure Eli will have the “opportunity” to take the lead again soon. Cowboys O line is way better than the Giants, Prescott just has way worse awareness in the pocket.

  9. Dak has an issue with just throwing the ball away. I’ve seen him try to run so many times, struggling and taking hits just to make it 1 or 2 yards short of the line of scrimmage when he could just…throw it away!
    So, a good amount of those sacks are on him.

  10. A lot of it is on him. The maddening thing is that many of those plays could have been tuck and runs for big gains. I like that he isn’t relying on his legs but arguably his biggest play last night was an improvised run. He needs to do more of it.

  14. jman967 says:
    November 30, 2018 at 11:00 am
    But I thought that Oline was the best in the league, forever, in the history of everything.

    ———————————–

    Obviously you haven’t paid attention to the injury reports.

  16. The entire left side of the OL was replacements, and has been most the season. We’re talking:

    Cameron Flemming, Xavier Su’Filo, Joe Loney. That’s 60% of the line pretty much nobody’s. When they were the best, it was:

    Tyron Smith, La’El Collins at G and/or Ron Leary, and Travis Fredrick. All Pro Bowlers and All Pro’s.

    Tyron is depreciating, hopefully they get a sense to move Collins back to G where he belongs, and hopefully Fredrick can recover from his disease and be back for next year.

  18. stucats says:
    November 30, 2018 at 11:09 am
    When you are missing your starting left tackle (Tyron Smith), and your starting center (Travis Frederick) plus you have had 2 different players playing left guard then you can expect a lot of sacks, you bring all the starters back together again then you will see less sacks and more yards for Zeke.

    ——————————————–

    I agree to a point. There have definitely been times where there was nothing he could do to avoid the sack but there have been PLENTY of times where the sack is his fault because he’s too focused on looking downfield and doesn’t have pocket awareness or the internal clock to get rid of the ball. To me, that is the most maddening thing about his performance. That is the thing he must change if he truly wants to become a better QB. Whether or not he CAN change it remains to be seen.

  19. 7-5 and on a 4 game winning streak despite the sacks. Dak certainly needs to have better pocket awareness, but that tends to develop in young QB’s with experience. He is still a dual threat, but needs a good O-line to protect him, which they haven’t excelled at this year. Their current O-line is much better with opening things up for the run, but their pass protection is rough.

    Not surprisingly, however, with 3 starters out of the lineup to see the pass protection break down more often than not.

  20. They fired their offensive line coach midseason, but if anything Dak has taken even more sacks since then. My guess is the combination of injuries, weakness at LG, and the Cowboys trying to institute new blocking techniques this season (then reverting to their old ways midseason) have all contributed to the higher rate of sacks. I know Collins at RT in particular had trouble with the new technique, and he’s never been the best pass blocker anyways. Bottom line, it’s a good thing Dak is so big and burly, because he’s gonna continue to take a lot of hits.

  22. It’s strange how three of the best offensive lines for the last couple seasons were the Cowboys, Raiders, and Titans, but those three are terrible this year.

  23. That o-line is what makes Zeke the best running back in the NFL. He’s only great because of the o-line.

  24. blah, blah, Dak sucks. But, its SO WEIRD…usually the QB getting sacked the most also leads in INTs, has a low completion % and a losing record. Man, I guess Dak is super lucky, because according to all of you, he is an awful QB. Wish I could luck my way into 18 straight completions while under front pressure all day…..

  27. I’m a Dallas fan but Dak needs to make quicker decisions in the pocket. He also needs to lose that weird turning/spin thing he does to escape defenders (real or perceived) that just puts him back where he started

  28. When Travis Frederick is out this kills that line… missing his communication to identify where the rush is coming from to the rest of the line is definitely an issue right now. Joe Looney is a good center in the NFL but the communication is not the same. Also Dak holds the ball too long. He needs to do a better job of looking off DB’s and identifying where he needs to go.. his pre read snaps are almost non existent.

    I am a cowboy fan and while the fandom is going nuts right night after that win last night I still have concerns about Dak holding the ball

  30. At least a third of those snaps can be chalked up to crappy pocket awareness. He needs to work on it big time.

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