A LOOK AT EACH SACK ON TOM BRADY THIS SEASON

The Patriots' offensive line has come a long way since giving up 4 sacks to the Dolphins in week 1.

When it comes to quarterbacks in the 2014 regular season, Tom Brady ranked 3rd in percentage of times he was sacked with 4.1%.  While most fans recall that a majority of these sacks occurred early in the season when the Patriots' offensive line was a total mess, many are concerned that the line has begun to sputter again.  As a fan, I'm not part of that group.  Here is a breakdown of each time Brady was sacked this season.

Location:
Home: 6
Away: 15

Half of Season:
Games 1-8: 13
Games 9-16: 8

Month:
September: 9
October: 4
November: 2
December: 6

Which Teams Didn't Sack Brady and Their Ranking
Chicago: 16 (39 sacks)
@ Detroit: 8 (42 sacks)
@ Indianapolis: 9 (41 sacks)

Facts About Brady's Sacks in 1st Half of Season
He was sacked 13 times
4 were from the shotgun formation
4 were sack/fumbles
3 ended in a turnover
Was sacked at least one time in games 1-7
6 sacks occurred when the Patriots were losing
11 of 13 sacks occurred when Patriots were either trailing or up by 7 points or less

Facts About Brady's Sacks in the 2nd Half of the Season
He was sacked 8 times
6 were from the shotgun formation
none of them were fumbles
none of them resulted in a turnover
He wasn't sacked in three of the last eight games
He was only sacked multiple times against the Jets
4 sacks occurred when the Patriots were losing
All of the 8 sacks occurred when the Patriots were either trailing or tied

Game by Game Breakdown (statistics do not include Garoppolo)
Game 1 at Miami- 4 sacks allowed, 2 resulted in turnovers

• 2nd and 8 on NE 37- sack/fumble by C. Wake (NE 20 MIA 13)
• 2nd and 20 on NE 22- McCaine (NE 20 MIA 23)
• 3rd and 8 on NE 34- Vernon (NE 20 MIA 23)
• 4th and 10 on NE 18- Shotgun- sack/fumble by C. Wake (NE20 MIA 30)

Summary: Offensive line was a total mess.  Brady had no confidence in his receivers and seemed to have tunnel vision when Gronk was in the game. Rob Gronkowski wasn't playing very well or in many plays.  Piss poor play calling by Josh McDaniels, 56 passing plays to 20 running plays.  I mean, why would you want to run the ball when you are only getting 4.5 yards per carry? 

Game 2 at Minnesota- 1 sack allowed

• 1st and 10 on MIN 31- Johnson (NE 30 MIN 7)

Summary: While sacks happen, they happen a lot less when you run a balanced offense (21 pass attempts and 37 rushing attempts).

Game 3 against Oakland- 2 sacks allowed

• 3rd and 15 on NE 15- Shotgun- Tuck (NE 10 OAK 3)
• 2nd and 9 on NE 28- Wilson (NE 16 OAK 9)

Summary: Team couldn't get into the end zone and had 3 three and outs.  Vince Wilfork saved the day with an interception at the end of the game.

Game 4 at Kansas City- 2 sacks allowed

• 3rd and 6 on NE 24- Shotgun- sack/fumble recovered by Patriots- Houston (NE 0 KC 17)
• 2nd and 7 on NE 14 - sack/fumble- Hali (NE 0 KC 17)
  
  Summary: The Chiefs were 5th in the league with 46 total sacks.  At home they had 31 sacks.  Brady had a QBR or 11.6 and was replaced by Jimmy Garoppolo. 
  
  Game 5 against Cincinnati- 1 sack allowed
  
  
  • 1st and 10 on NE 33- Geathers (NE 14 CIN 0)
    
    Summary: The Patriots handled the undefeated Bengals easily and silenced the critics pretty quickly.  Gronk was now "back", the offense was well balanced and players were asked to do what they are good at.  220 yards on the ground and 285 in the air. 
    
    Game 6 at Buffalo- 2 sacks allowed
    
    
    • 1st and 10 on NE 32- Hughes(NE 7 BUF 0)
    • 1st and 7 on NE 45 - shotgun- Williams (NE 10 BUF 7)
  Summary: Yes, Tom Brady got sacked by the Bills twice in their house.  Considering they had the most sacks of any team in the NFL with 54, I'd say that is pretty acceptable.  Brady threw 4 touchdown passes (Brandon LaFell 2, Brian Tyms 1, and Tim Wright 1).  Stevan Ridley left the game in the 3rd quarter with his season ending knee injury.
  
  Game 7 against NY Jets- 1 sack allowed
  
  
  • 1st and 10 on NY 10- Harris (NE 7 NY 9)
    
    Summary: Giving up 1 sack to a Rex Ryan defense is nothing to sneeze at.  Considering that McDaniels called another crappy pass happy game, I'd say it was rather impressive.  37 passing plays and 15 rushing attempts (12 if you don't count the 3 plays to run out the clock in the 4th quarter).
    
    Game 8 against Chicago- no sacks allowed
    
    Summary: Final score 51-23.  Tom Brady threw 5 touchdown passes (Gronkowski 3, LaFell 1 and Wright 1).  With the help of Rob Ninkovich and the rest of the Patriots defense, the team scored 3 touchdowns after the two-minute warning before halftime. 

Game 9 against Denver- 1 sack allowed

• 1st and 10 on DEN 17- shotgun- Wade (NE 3 DEN 7)

Summary: While Brady was only sacked once, he was hit 8 times.  Of course he threw 4 touchdowns passes (Gronkowski 1, Julian Edelman 1, LaFell 1 and Vereen 1) and had plenty of energy to run onto the field to congratulate his boy Edelman on his punt return for a touchdown. 

Game 10 at Indianapolis- no sacks allowed

Summary: Two touchdown passes (Gronkowski 1, Wright 1) and a phenomenal day by Jonas Gray (201 yards and 4 touchdowns) made that interception before halftime fade away in everyone's memories pretty quickly. 

Game 11 against Detroit- no sacks allowed

Summary: 4 quarterback hits on 53 attempts, I'd say that's some pretty good protection.  LeGarrette Blount picked up where he left off with 2 touchdowns and 78 yards on 12 carries.  Danny Amendola had an 81 yard kickoff return to set up Blount's first score of the day.  Wright caught 2 more touchdown passes.

Game 12 at Green Bay- 1 sack allowed

• 3rd and 9 on GB 20- shotgun - Daniels/Neal (NE 21 GB 26)

Summary: The Patriots spotted the Packers a 13 point lead by starting the game with a 4 and out and a 3 and out.  They then proceeded to start the second half in almost the same fashion with a 3 and out followed by a 5 and out.  Too much passing on 1st and 10 and 2nd and 10 in my opinion, especially in Lambeau.

Game 13 at San Diego- 1 sack allowed

• 3rd and 1 on SD 1- shotgun- Ingram (NE 0 SD 0)

Summary: The business trip to California was successful in the end.  The Patriots lost the turnover battle in the second quarter as Brandon LaFell fumbled the ball leading to a recovery for a touchdown and Brady threw that awful interception to Manti T'eo at the end of the half.  Gronk and Edelman both had 8 receptions and a touchdown. 

Game 14 against Miami- no sacks allowed

Summary: Tom Brady had 3 carries for 18 yards.  One run was 17 yards.

Game 15 at NY Jets- 4 sacks allowed

• 3rd and 3 on NY 47- shotgun- Pace/Harris (NE 0 NY 0)
• 1st and 10 on NE 44- Wilkerson/Coples (NE 0 NY 0)
• 3rd and 14 on NE 40- shotgun- Allen/Davis (NE 0 NY 0)
• 1st and 10 on NE 17- shotgun- Richardson/Pace (NE 7 NY 10)

Summary: Another sloppy offensive game against Rex Ryan.  Not having offensive guard Dan Connolly and wide receiver Julian Edelman definitely didn't help.  All four sacks occurred in the first half.  Three were from the shotgun and one came at the end of the half when the Patriots were attempting to go the length of the field to get a score.  The first three possessions went like this:
Pass, Pass, Sack, Punt
Run, Run, Pass, Punt
Pass, Pass, Keeper, Pass, Pass, Sack, Pass, Sack, Punt

Game 16 against Buffalo- 1 sack allowed

• 2nd and 3 on Buffalo 19- Charles (NE 3 BUF 14)

This game was meaningless and was played without many key offensive players for the Patriots (Connolly, Gronk and Edelman).  Yes, Garoppolo came into the game and got sacked multiple times in the Bills' Superbowl.  Reminder, the Bills led the NFL in sacks this season. 

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