(The 2017 Panthers were also at 36%, but a few decimal points behind Green Bay.) Those two teams were replaced by Tampa Bay, who were much more aggressive in their first season under Bowles, and the Jets, who were much more aggressive in their first season under Gregg Williams after firing Bowles.The Detroit Lions were last in five-man rushes, and just the third team to use them less than 10% of the time along with the 2011 Eagles and 2017 Jaguars. There's a big gap between them and everyone else, but four other teams used fewer than four pass-rushers more than 15% of the time, and there's a pretty clear connection between the head coaches of most of those teams. They both had better DVOAs than any defense since 2017, when those Jaguars hit -54.5%. )As it turns out, most teams that like to blitz with five also like to blitz with six or more -- the correlation between the two stats is 0.326, and that is skewed low by a pair of extreme outliers in the Pennsylvania teams.
Teams are listed by frequency of rushing three or fewer.Matt Patricia's Detroit Lions used three or fewer pass-rushers on 27% of opponent's dropbacks, the highest rate in this category since at least 2011. 2 comments, Last at 13 Aug 2020, 11:15am Today we're going to look at defenses by the number of pass-rushers they sent after opposing quarterbacks -- who blitzed, who didn't, and who got the best results. Denver dropped out with Vic Fangio replacing Vance Joseph as head coach; so did Carolina, though their decline was not dramatic. The Steelers were second in five-man blitzes but second-to-last in rushing six or more; the Eagles were in the top five in six-man rushes but 30th in sending exactly five. Or view stats by league, season and stat category: NFL CFL AAF AFL AAFC NFLE WLAF XFL 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 …

Going down the table here, we find the 49ers (ninth in edge rusher sack rate, led by Arik Armstead and Nick Bosa), the Eagles (14th, Brandon Graham and Derek Barnett), and the Cowboys (10th, Robert Quinn and DeMarcus Lawrence). SOS: 2.81 (39th of 130) .

You've got Patricia and Miami's Brian Flores, who are Bill Belichick's former defensive assistants; you've got Tennessee's Mike Vrabel, who is Bill Belichick's former defensive player; and you've got New England's Bill Belichick, who is, in fact, Bill Belichick.
The Miami Dolphins had the worst DVOA with four-man rushes (I told you they were dirt-terrible). The Chargers, Cowboys, Eagles, and 49ers were all in the top five in each of the last two seasons. Or is this just an interesting coincidence?Again we see a lot of teams repeating from year to year at the top of the tables; Arizona, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh were all in the top five in 2018 as well. Take those two teams out and the correlation between the two stats soars to 0.545.Besides Philadelphia, the other team that ranked high in six-man blitzes but low in five-man blitzes was Cleveland.

Teams that like to blitz in general are typically the same teams that blitz DBs; the correlation between blitz rate of five or more pass-rushers and blitzing with DBs is 0.687. Is there something about Bowles' schemes that his employers are looking for even after he's gone? They were the only team to use four-man rushes less than half the time, and the first to do that since the New York Jets in 2016.

Baltimore led the NFL with a blitz rate of 48%, the highest since the Jeff Fisher Rams hit 49% in 2014.It's not how often the Ravens blitzed that really set them apart, however. The Jets were the only other team in triple digits, and they just got there with 101. Their spot was taken by the Raiders, who got a major talent injection at edge rusher after relying on Bruce Irvin and Arden Key in 2018.The Patriots led the league in DVOA with four-man rushes, the best in that category since the 2016 Denver Broncos (-43.3%). Before 2019, the lowest rate on record was the 14% of the 2017 Jaguars, but L.A. and Detroit both fell below that threshold. Record: 11-2 (10th of 130) (Schedule & Results) Rank: 8th in the Final AP poll Conference: SEC (West Division) Conference Record: 6-2 Coach: Nick Saban (11-2) Points For: 614 Points/G: 47.2 (2nd of 130) Points Against: 242 Opp Pts/G: 18.6 (13th of 130) SRS: 21.11 (3rd of 130) . Defensive blitz data comes from ESPN Stats & Information.We're nearly 2,000 words into this story and we've kind of buried the lede, but Baltimore absolutely destroyed the record for DB blitz rate at 28.4%. )There is more to emulating Bill Belichick, however, then simply rushing three over and over again and calling it a day. We're back with another look at the 2019 NFL season as seen through the charting data of our friends at Sports Info Solutions. Obviously, these plays will overlap with the numbers we have already discussed. Only San Francisco had a better DVOA, and they only blitzed about a The Ravens won a league-high 14 games in 2019, and they did it by asking players on both sides of the ball to perform outside the typical confines of their position. As it turns out, they were not alone -- the five-man blitz was a staple of football in the AFC North, where the Steelers ranked second, the Browns sixth, and the Bengals seventh.After the Ravens and Steelers, the top five is finished by the Cardinals, the Buccaneers, and the Jets -- also known as the last three teams to employ Todd Bowles, who went from defensive coordinator in Arizona to head coach in New York to his current role as DC in Tampa Bay. For example, Team A Def is 15th ranked def DVOA for the season, yet has a -8 vs 12 personnel and +9 vs 11 personnel split, and goes up against Team B who’s offense leads the league in 12 personnel usage.